Our mission is to tell the stories of people pursuing hard sh!t against all odds, and to encourage others to stop making excuses, get out, and find their limits.
Our values
These things drive the decisions we make, how we carry ourselves on Team DTE, and these cornerstones help everyone involved with DTE work toward common goals, the most basic of which is to spread the stoke.
Help others succeed
Be generous with your time, knowledge, encouragement, praise, and whatever resources you might have to share. Uplift others and ask for nothing in return. You can change a life.
Think big and start small
We reach long-term goals by taking small steps in the right direction. Focus on real, fundamental challenges, and approach them with simplicity. Achieve that goal, then build on it.
Build trust
We can build trust by communicating frequently, honestly, and directly, and doing our best to exceed others’ expectations in what we deliver. It feels good to be able to trust each other.
Cultivate resilience
Doing hard sh!t is hard. It hurts, and you fight your mind. But, most often the reward is worth the effort. Fall seven times and stand up eight.
Who we are
We’re Starla Teddergreen and Gino Zahnd, and after a series of life-threatening health scares, we founded Distance to Empty to give back to a community that has given us so much.
Starla is a professional cyclist originally from the far northeastern corner of Washington, not far from Canada or Idaho. After fifteen years of racing professionally on the road, she made the full switch to gravel and mountain bike racing in 2021, and now races under the Distance to Empty banner as a privateer.
Originally from the Dirty South HQ (ATL), Gino is Starla’s number-one fan. He’s a kinda-retired entrepreneur who loves bikes, and despite a kidney transplant and double bypass due to a rare genetic thing called Fabry Disease, still rides often, albeit slowly.
We’re fighters, and we like being around other fighters. We’re married, live with two Australian Shepherds (Abi and Angus), and live at the edge of where town and mountains meet in Boulder County, Colorado. We weren’t sure whether to write this in first person or third person, so we chose a little of each. 🤷🏻♂️