Pedal to the Medal

Breathing hard, you finally come to a stop at the end of a long gravel trail. Your legs ache, your heart is racing and you are overwhelmed with the feeling of accomplishment as others arrive behind you. You just competed in a gravel race and brought Seabury to the podium once again.

This year Seabury has seen the rise of several new clubs, but the most recent addition to the list is the Cycling Club. You may remember the few announcements about it made earlier in the year, but if you are still confused about exactly what it is, have no fear.

The Cycling Club is a club for individual gravel bike racing. An example of which might include the Dirty Kanza, which faculty member Eric Nelson has competed in and now plans to bring more students to it.

The new club will be open to both middle school and high school and plans to send club members to race as individuals at a few of the big biking races in Kansas that offer high school divisions. A few of them even allow middle schoolers too. However, though they may compete as individuals, the club is truly a unified team.

The club will start meeting in the spring on Saturdays to come together for group rides. These rides will help condition club members and help them work up to and prepare for competition. However, that is not the only purpose those rides will serve. It will also serve as a sort of mentoring time as students learn new routes they can ride on their own and learn tips from more experienced bikers.

Though the club is small, faculty member Kara Schrader thinks it will grow in the coming years: “Hopefully the starting group will have some success they can share with others and people will feel like it's something they want to be apart of too.” Schrader is most excited about getting the cycling community at Seabury to grow, but especially for the young girls. She hopes that seeing the success of female classmates, and even just those of upperclassmen, will inspire them to get into it as well. “Maybe the success of the first group will help push the club over the initial hump,”says Schrader. She also plans to accompany the team on their Saturday rides and to their competitions to cheer them on.

You may ask, why a Cycling Club? Nelson has been a gravel cyclist for 15 to 20 years, and he feels that it will be very fulfilling for students. He says he felt that the students “would really enjoy the opportunity to ride bikes competitively.” Though it will be up to the student whether they compete in each race or not, Nelson says he will strongly encourage students to do it, so they can get the most benefit out of the experience.

As Seabury grows larger and larger, more sport and club opportunities will continue to open up as more and more people begin to talk about and bond over their favorite school activities. The Cycling Club may start out small this year, but Nelson and Schrader both hope, as people realize what it is and how fun it can be, it will grow and inspire more people to explore what they love. So do not be afraid, join the cycling club, and put the pedal to the metal.