LEWISTON – Tom Gosselin was 15 when he stopped eating.

A mountain bike racer, he wanted to be leaner, stronger, faster. Body fat was the enemy, he thought, and so food became a rarity between long training sessions and intense races.

“I thought if I got thinner, I’d get better,” he said. “That didn’t happen.”

Now, three years later, Gosselin has battled his eating disorder and is winning. This weekend, he will compete at L/A Wellness Weekend. In July, he’ll face the biggest race of his career.

With work and perseverance, Gosselin is on track to become a cycling professional. But the Lewiston High School senior credits much of his success to something else: help from family and friends.

Growing up, Gosselin often played team sports. But it was cycling, a uniquely individual sport that tests a rider’s drive and endurance, that caught his attention.

“It’s just pushing your body. I’ve always been a competitive person,” he said. “And winning’s nice, too.”

He was in middle school when his mother took him to Rainbow Bicycle & Fitness in Auburn to buy his first mountain bike. Soon, he was riding 10 miles a day and competing in races.

Within a year, Gosselin decided to try road racing. Mountain biking is done in rural areas, while road racing is held on paved streets, often with packs of riders racing close together.

Gosselin was good, but he wanted to be better. At 5 feet, 7 inches and 125 pounds, he thought he weighed too much to be a true racer.

Then 15, Gosselin began to go hungry. On only a bagel for breakfast, yogurt for lunch and part of a salad for dinner, he continued to train, running cross-country for his school and working out two to three hours a day.

He quickly lost both weight and muscle. When John Grenier, owner of Rainbow Bicycle & Fitness, saw Gosselin at a 100-mile bike race that spring, he knew something was wrong.

“What I noticed was he was really dragging on that ride. He wasn’t eating anything,” Grenier said. “He was white as a sheet.”

Soon after the race, Gosselin was hospitalized. He weighed only 109 pounds and was close to death. Without food, his body couldn’t keep up the grueling pace he’d set.

He was diagnosed with anorexia athletica, an eating disorder that includes compulsive exercising. With therapy, Gosselin began to eat again. And he still wanted to race.

Grenier, a father of three boys and a passionate cyclist, agreed to train Gosselin if he gained weight.

“I just sort of felt a bond with him when I saw him struggling,” Grenier said. “He’s done a phenomenal job turning it around.”

With support from family and training from Grenier, Gosselin has gone from amateur to professional racing.

He trains five days a week, biking 40 to 60 miles in all weather. On Saturdays and Sundays, he competes in 20- to 100-mile races. The rides are difficult and often test Gosselin’s endurance.

“But when you cross that finish line, I think about what I just did. It’s euphoric,” he said. “It’s like a drug.”

On July 4, he’ll travel to Massachusetts for the biggest race of his career: a four-day contest that pits 150 of the country’s top cyclists against one another.

“For him, that’s going to be like his first at-bat in the major leagues,” Grenier said.

But more important than racing, Gosselin said, is that Grenier has taught him how to eat and train responsibly.

“I owe everything to that guy,” he said. “He’s like a second father to me.”

For the past few years, Gosselin has tried to return the favor by helping others. He has spoken to high school health classes about eating disorders and has served as a mentor to younger cyclists.

“John helped me and maybe I can help one person,” Gosselin said. “And if I can help one person, it’s worth it.”

Gosselin will graduate Friday from Lewiston High School. He plans to attend the University of Southern Maine next fall to major in computer science.

He knows that few cyclists become like Lance Armstrong, wealthy racers with celebrity status. But Gosselin hopes to turn pro someday.

“Hopefully, (I will) get to the level where I can just ride,” Gosselin said. “Not live extravagantly, but just ride.”

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