Behind the mask: Bicyclist has long, uphill ride to get back to the top

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David Clinger's wife was fed up. She had been married to the champion cyclist for only a few months, and already the couple was on the verge of divorce. She called one day 2005 and asked if they could meet to try to work things out.

"You're not going to like what you see," Clinger said.

He was right and the marriage was soon over.

What she saw was a face full of ink — a tattooed mask hiding a complex set of emotions, feelings and a raging desire to reclaim control of a world that seemed to have been controlling him.

Now Clinger, a professional cyclist who has won multiple national championships, raced as Lance Armstrong's teammate in Europe and competed in many of the biggest races in the world, looks back on that decision as one of many he regrets. Today, the 31-year-old lives in Sandy with a family friend, where he is trying to piece together a career nearly lost to drug abuse and other self-destructive behaviors.

The journey from national champion cyclist to a drug treatment center in Sandy was not a quick one in many regards.

Growing up in Southern California in an active Mormon family, Clinger was taught from a young age to avoid using cocaine and other illegal drugs. But while a dominating junior cyclist in the mid-90s he saw friends and competitors using marijuana and seemingly not suffering adverse affects.

"They didn't die. They didn't get totally messed up," he said. "So I tried it, too."

A decade later, the once-promising athlete is trying to make sense of the world he created for himself while figuring out how to get back to the top.

"The whole idea is to not give in and not give up on the things that are good for me," he said. "I was living the Word of Wisdom and I was beating guys twice my age."

Now sober and working hard to stay that way, Clinger reflects daily on the steps he took preceding his fall and those he is taking to once again compete at the levels he did during the '90s and the early part of this decade.

Clinger said when he didn't see immediate negative effects from his drug use, it became easier to rationalize taking more and harder drugs — especially to help offset the physical punishment his body took as he trained and raced at his limits.

He is not alone in the sport when it comes to drugs.