Case cycling club ready to hit the road this spring
* This story was featured in the campus newspaper, The Observer, on March 25, 2005. The original Observer article can be viewed on their website. The text is reproduced below.
Case cycling club ready to hit the road this spring
Rick Balazs
Lance Armstrong has generated a great amount of interest for the sport of cycling with his yearly domination of the Tour de France. While the Case cycling club isn't expecting to generate national interest like Armstrong has, the members hope to garner some attention on campus this spring.
The club consists of 35 members and participates in the Mid-West Collegiate Cycling Conference, which is the regarded as the Big 10 of cycling. The fall portion of the schedule features mostly mountain bike and cyclo-cross (a discipline featuring obstacles, such as stairs and barriers, forcing the rider to dismount and run with the bike) races. The spring is the season for road races, which typically run 20 to 60 miles, depending upon the course, riders' skill levels, and the amount of available daylight.
The team's most recent event was The Ohio State University road race, where two club members, Mike Griffith and Don Yungher, raced in the men's C race. Griffith finished fifth overall in the race, garnering 12 points. Miriam Israelowitz also participated in the women's B race.
In most of the collegiate road races, cyclists are grouped into three categories, A, B, and C. Category A includes the most advanced racers, and cyclists advance to higher categories by accumulating points in their races.
Everyone can anticipate that cycling is a grueling sport, but cyclists often deal with problems that one might not normally expect. For example, member Bret Marts recalled a mountain bike race during which his bike lost a pedal and his chain broke. Undaunted, he still managed to carry his bike to the finish and beat another cyclist.
Besides the demanding physical aspects of the sport, there is a mental side of the game that a cyclist must master to be successful.
"It's a really strategic sport," said club president Yungher. "You need to negotiate where you should be in relation to everyone else. It's kind of like a chess match, except you have very little oxygen left."
Obviously, the most important piece of equipment for a cyclist is the bike. When looking for a bike, a cyclist judges its price, weight, and strength. The lighter and stronger the bike is, the better. There are also different bikes used for mountain biking and road races. For mountain bik-ing, wider tires with suspension are preferred, whereas road race bikes have thinner tires and are lighter and more aerodynamic.
The club is going to be very busy from now until early May, starting with the Mid-Ohio Grand Prix road race tomorrow. The collegiate road race at Miami of Ohio (April 16) and the Vulture's Knob Maple Syrup Race (April 17) highlight the upcoming April schedule.
Beyond races, the members will also be very busy hosting their own events. On Saturday, April 9, the club will conduct its Bike Tune-Up Fundraiser in front of Kelvin Smith Library from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. During Springfest, the club will have a booth that will feature a low-speed bike race, where the idea of the race ironically will be to navigate as many obstacles as possible to accumulate the longest time. Both events represent excellent oppor-tunities for prospective members to learn more about the club.
No experience is necessary to join the club. The only prerequisite is owning a bike. Anyone who is interested in learning more about the club should visit the club's website, http://home.cwru.edu/cycling.
