Remembering Pia
The lady was happiest on a bike
When I first met Pia Carla Samson in Washington D.C. during 2016 some of our first conversations outside work were about cycling. While I was a more traditional long-distance cyclist used to rural riding, Pia was the complete opposite. She was a hardcore street rider whose style was both terrifying and exhilarating. She was a queen of the single-speed, treating stop lights with distain as she hurtled through the city. When we started dating we would meet with our bikes and hop from bar to bar long into the warm fall evenings, as she taught me the short-cuts and how to engage (safely?) with drivers through eye-to-eye contact. Horrified at first, I learned her method while ignoring the madness. Pia adored the sense of freedom and speed, and while diminutive in stature she was a giant on a bicycle.
Pia would make sure we did the monthly DC Bike Party rides, while for my part I signed us up for longer organized rides in Virginia, West VA and Maryland. She gradually became more accustomed to greater distances, culminating in the Six Pillars Century in Cambridge, Maryland when she rode 100.58 miles in 5h 48m on her State single speed. I was truly amazed how quickly she adapted to distance riding.
Moving out of the city to leafy Alexandria, VA in late 2017 we ventured further west for our rides, heading to communities like Middleburg, Purcellville, and Shepherdstown, and further afield to Monterey in the wilds of West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest. One of our favorite loops was from Alexandria over to Georgetown, thence through Potomac and Poolesville, MD, across the river at White’s Ferry (pictured above) to Leesburg, and home on the famed W&OD bike trail – usually on our trusty State Bicycle Company Black Label single speeds. Pia’s smile says it all; she was in heaven when outdoors on her bike.
In late 2019 we headed west to the San Francisco Bay Area, specifically to the foot of Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County, where mountain biking was born. While climbing was not Pia’s favorite pastime, there was much to be enjoyed both on the flats between Sausalito and San Rafael, and in the backroads of West Marin and Sonoma. Pia was welcome support on my longer solo rides, driving our Jeep ahead and providing much-needed rest stops along the steep Sierra Nevada passes around Tahoe. She was always giving gentle encouragement when I needed it most. We made an additional home in rural Kent in my home country of England, and buying bikes was the first order of business. It was my turn to show her the green-lane routes that I love in the deepest English countryside, and the myriad coastal paths that skirt the ocean between Faversham, Whitstable, Margate, Sandwich and Deal.
When she became sick with lymphoma in April 2020 cycling had to take a back seat for a while. Finishing her first course of chemotherapy, she was straight back in the saddle – her relentless energy and passion for pedaling could not be stifled. After four years together, we married in August that year. Our last ride together was in late September 2020, just before her grueling month-long ‘consolidation’ round of chemo. That treatment really knocked her sideways and after that she did not have the sense of balance or strength to ride again; she needed a cane to get around. Despite a rally before our honeymoon in Mexico over Christmas, she went into a steep decline and died peacefully in the care of UCSF Medical Center on April 17, 2021. I gave her precious State single-speed to her step-niece, and donated her other bicycles to the Re-cyclery in San Rafael that funds Bay Area youth programs.
Cycling brought Pia and I together; it was how we loved to spend our free time – exploring and discovering on two wheels. I hope that I am able to honor Pia’s memory by continuing our joint passion. Despite her physical absence from me, I feel her with me every moment of every day, and cycling gives me the time and space to remember her.
Pia Carla Villanueva Samson (1974-2021)
