Sam Shaffer
“It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees”
Hometown: Los Altos Hills, CA
Category: Cat 1 MTB
Hobbies: Mountain biking, snowboarding, having a good time
Sam is a 4th year mechanical engineering student at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo concentrating in design and analysis of mechanical systems and advanced materials. Sam has made Dean’s list and President’s list several times while at Cal Poly, is a member of the Tau Beta Pi national engineering
honors society and the Pi Tau Sigma national mechanical engineering honors society, and is a LEED
Accredited Professional for Building Design and Construction.
Sam began mountain biking at age 12, and began racing competitively at age 17. Since then, he
has raced at different levels in endurance and gravity events in collegiate and other mountain races
throughout the year. In addition to competing for NRL, Sam was the mountain bike coordinator for the
Cal Poly Wheelmen cycling club and competes for them yearly earning the title “Most Improved Racer”
for the 2011 collegiate season.
Sam has begun focusing on extreme endurance races and the developing racing scene in super d
and endure racing. Living in San Luis Obispo, he has been able to hone his skills on his trail bike and has
become a force to reckon with on the long, incredibly technical trails famous in the area on both the
climbs and descents.
Sam is a northern California native, currently living in San Luis Obispo.
