A wave of emotions struck Jeff Knox as he sat on a curb, waiting
to be picked up by his cousin. A few minutes earlier, Knox had been
too preoccupied to ponder emotions; instead, he was busy lying in
the middle of the Pacific Coast Highway, bleeding, bruised and
shaken, with cars bearing down on him at 50 mph. Knox, a member of
the UCLA cycling team, had embarked on a 108-mile bike ride earlier
in the day and was caught off guard with no light when the sun set.
Nearly blinded by darkness as he traveled down PCH, Knox was forced
to make a sharp turn to avoid a pile of sandbags. He managed to
miss the sandbags, but his tires lost traction when he ran over a
slippery patch of wet mud. His bike flew out from under him and he
landed in the middle of the highway. Knox was able to grab his bike
and sprint to the guardrail just in time. “I should be
dead,” he said. And with the amount of high-speed traffic on
PCH, he is probably right.
DANGEROUS TERRITORY: Such are the pitfalls of competing for the
cycling team; disaster can lurk around every turn, bump or pothole.
The team consists of approximately 23 competing players and has
multiple rides throughout the week and races on the weekends. And
one of those prominent members is Knox. He took up cycling during
his senior year of high school, when he borrowed his dad’s
road bike and rode around his native town of San Francisco. His
interest in cycling grew after he enrolled at UCLA and joined the
cycling team. Now a second-year business economics student, cycling
is a major part of Knox’s life. “I enjoy riding bikes
because it gives me a sense of freedom,” Knox said.
“You feel like you’re flying.” Painful crashes,
whether just spinouts or full-speed collisions, are another risk
that riders willingly endure. Marcus George, a team veteran of five
years and currently an aerospace engineering graduate student, has
had his fair share of serious bike accidents, including being run
over by an SUV. George’s $4,000 dollar bike was totaled in
the accident, but he just recently received $10,000, plus the cost
of his bike, from the driver’s insurance company. George,
like many cyclists on the Bruin team, loves cycling immensely.
“If I crash like that every two or three years, it’s
worth it,” he said.
TEAM UNITY: UCLA cycling is a club sport that any student can
partake in, regardless of cycling experience. The team races from
February to May; its first race of the season was two weeks ago in
San Diego. For rookie rider Darius Filsuf, a second-year biology
student, the San Diego race was his first experience racing
competitively. Although the race was fraught with problems,
including two UCLA riders crashing, and another rider having his
bike backed over and totaled by a car, Filsuf still managed to have
a good time with the team. The cyclists form a tightly knit
community of friends and teammates. Past riders, such as former
team president David Bruno, who has already graduated and can no
longer ride because of an injury, still hang on to the team long
after their time as racers is over. To many of them, in fact,
cycling is their top priority, even over academics and their social
lives. Knox downplays what he has had to give up in order to race
but admits that time is a major factor, as riding anywhere from 20
to 100 miles in one day will inevitably cut into anyone’s
schedule. “It hurts,” admits Knox, referring to the
constant training. “You have to enjoy the pain.” One of
Knox’s favorite rides is to pull an all-nighter and then go
for a long ride at sunrise. He loves the feeling of coming back to
his room exhausted and crashing on his bed. “It’s
fun,” Knox said.
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES: The nature of the accidents and crashes
that riders experience is just another obstacle to overcome for the
UCLA cyclists. Filsuf, for example, crashed at the very end of his
first race after another rider collided with him and brought him
down. Filsuf was fortunate to only break the wheel of his bike and
sustain some road-rash after hitting the pavement at more than 20
mph. David Weiner, a graduate student in the UCLA Anderson School
of Management and rookie team member who also crashed in the race,
had a much more serious collision. Weiner was separated from the
pack earlier on in the race. He tried to make up time during the
downhill portion of the course, but somehow a car got between him
and the other riders. As Weiner tried to pass, he saw another car
coming the opposite direction. “I ended up colliding with an
oncoming car,” said Weiner, who was going over thirty mph at
the time. He considers himself extremely lucky to have only broken
his ankle and totaled his bike. And just a week after this freak
accident, Weiner is still enthusiastic about cycling. “I
can’t wait to get a new bike and get back and do it
again,” said Weiner. “Just not the crashing
part.” Financial pain is also a constant for UCLA cyclists,
who have to pay for the large majority of their equipment out of
their own pocket. Bikes can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $4,000,
sans other necessary expensive equipment such as shoes, helmets and
spandex shorts.
EYEING THE FUTURE: Although UCLA cycling is a club sport, you
wouldn’t think that if you looked at the focus and
determination these riders exhibit. Forget about crashing for a
second and think of the 200 leg-numbing miles that these riders put
in every week. To many of them, cycling is a passion, something
they make sacrifices for despite the costs. Team members are
enthusiastic about this season. There are a lot of new riders who
are hoping to move up in their divisions and turn UCLA into a
cycling powerhouse. The team’s races are often held
off-campus in isolated areas, making fan support almost impossible.
But next time you’re walking home at 5 a.m. after a long
night out, stop on the side of the road and keep an eye out for the
cyclers.