With a year of European racing under his belt, Bobby had confidence going into the 1996 season. In one of the races at the Olympic Trials, Bobby’s heart rate accelerated way past normal levels. This forced him to drop out of the Olympic trials, and at the time he did not know what was causing the problem. Bobby thought he may have to retire from racing altogether. With the help of doctors at Duke University, who performed surgery on Bobby’s heart to fix an “electrical problem” called Re-entrant Supraventricular Tachycardia (RSVT). Bobby was back on his bike for the Tour of Spain.

  

Bobby had a break through ride in Spain, holding the mountain climbers jersey for ten stages, and finishing 9th overall, the highest placing ever by an American in the Vuelta. While battling for the mountain climbers jersey, Bobby was litterally body-checked by Russia’s Dimitri Konyshev, and went sprawling into a group of spectators. Bobby got up, dusted himself off, and won the next mountain sprint to hold the jersey for another day. “That could have ended my Vuelta right there. But I got back on the bike and didn’t try to fight with Konyshev or make a big deal. I could tell right away the riders respected me more,” Bobby said in an interview with Outside Magazine. He went on to finish 11th in the 1996 World Road Race Championship later in the year.