Racing into Bicycling

Shifting Gears in Sports
Every time the seasons change, there is a high school student wondering which sport to play. I played fall and winter sports but wanted to play a spring sport in order to stay in shape and maintain the habits I had established during the school year.

I believed that my choices were limited to the sports my high school offered: lacrosse, baseball, track, or tennis. It was a foolish mistake. Perhaps if I had thought in a broader scope, I could be touring France right now or maybe just biking through New England along lakes and through colonial towns.

Although high schools generally don't maintain cycling teams, bicycling is a sport that almost anyone can do. Most children can ride by age 10, and many are on two wheels before that. And while there is a huge buffer between high school basketball players and the professionals, it isn't difficult for an amateur biker to ride alongside some of the best cyclists in the country. I know from experience.


Entering a New World
Unknowingly, I, a soccer player and a wrestler who knew my bicycle only as a mode of transportation, found myself one Saturday morning surrounded by spandex-wearing professionals from around the country — some from around the world. And I was going to ride with them.

Friday night, my mother had told me about a ride that would take place the next day, the Nicole Reinhart Memorial Ride. It was to honor Reinhart, who, a year before in my hometown of Arlington, Massachusetts, had been one of the few fatalities in cycling.

I initially dismissed the idea but woke the next morning an hour before the ride began and changed my mind. We went to the gas station to fill the tires of my mountain bike and drove to the starting point. When I got there, the first thing I saw was a bright yellow car with about 10 bikes on the roof. It was one of Team Saturn's many escorts.

The next thing I saw was a crowd in brilliant colors, the tight-fitting clothes that cyclists wear, covered by their sponsors' logos. I looked down at my own outfit: a gray Nike T-shirt and black shorts that had been stained the day before when I leaned against a freshly painted wall.

I felt severely intimidated. I was wearing worn-out sneakers. All the other riders had shoes that clipped onto their bike pedals. I had a mountain bike with thick, 3-inch tires. They had sleek racing bikes with tires less than an inch thick.

If anyone had asked me who I was sponsored by, I was prepared to point to the Swoosh on my chest and lie: "Nike sponsored me." But I paid the same $25 dollars for registration that they did, and I never felt like I wasn't welcome. Some cyclists seemed excited to see a younger rider there, as seasoned athletes do when they see a young person starting their sport.



Going the Distance
When we started the ride, I felt a rush of excitement. I was surrounded by graceful athletes who seemed to be one with their bicycles. When we came to a turn, it was like we all moved as one body, instead of many different bikers. It was incredible, and I was a part of it.

For about eight miles, I rode right along with them. But then I moved towards the back of the pack. When I coasted and they coasted, they would simply move faster because their bikes were made for rides like this. Also, they had a world more of endurance than me.

Halfway through the ride I was alone, but I got to the end of the 22-mile course only about 10 minutes after the rest.

It was a great experience. At the memorial service for Nicole Reinhart after the ride, I took a seat in the section for the riders. When a police officer asked me to move, saying that those seats were reserved, I told him proudly that I was one of the cyclists. And it was the truth!

Even though I wasn't a bicyclist in the same sense as the athletes around me, I had entered their world in one day, and it was relatively easy. (Not totally easy, 22 miles is quite a distance.)

The next day, I heard Nicole's father, Mike Reinhart, talk about his 18-year-old son, who had broken into the world of biking a few years before. He was touring Europe.

As a soccer player, as a wrestler, as a tennis player, I had never toured Europe! Cycling, I learned, was a sport with infinite possibilities. But even better than traveling internationally, I learned cycling is a fun sport that offers amazing cardiovascular exercise.

Remember that there are other choices than what your school offers. And just like cycling, many of the sports provide unlimited opportunities. I recommend to teenagers my age, even if you don't plan to go pro, take out your bikes and ride them now and then. Ride a few miles. Enter a race. It's a great experience, and it may open your eyes to something fantastic.

 

This article was written by Paul Kremsky, a Junior in Arlington High School, Massachusetts. He is a member of the soccer, wrestling, and tennis teams and studies to become a writer.



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