College Cycling on the Rise!

The popularity of cycling in America can be seen on campus.  The Sticky Bottle Team has noticed the rise of cycling as a club sport at many college and universities throughout the U.S.  Most of these colleges compete in cyclocross, mountain, and road racing in a season that stretches the school year.  ESPN documents a 20% growth in cycling throughout the United States since 1999 (the year of Armstrong's first Tour de France win, hmmm...) and cycling has arrived on college campuses in a variety of forms.  

At most universities the cycling club is more about camaraderie and bike rides.  Michigan State University, for example has the club level MSU Cycle Club offering races, rides, indoor training and fellowship.  The thought of major and large universities adding cycling as a scholarship sport is not likely.  Football and basketball are the sports that make money.  A “fringe” sport like cycling would only be a drain on athletic department dollars.  The growing dependence on football and basketball dollars is leading to a greater investment in those sports much to the detriment of other sports like swimming, track and field, and wresting. 

The lack of funding from athletic departments leads to “club teams” and forces the student participants to do their own fundraising, schedule-making and administration.  There is however, a growing list of colleges that sponsor and fund varsity cycling teams but at schools most people have never heard of: Mars Hill College, Ripon College, Marian University and others (a total of 14 to date). USA Cycling requires the teams to have a coach certified by USAC and that the college award up to $10,000 in scholarships to the team annually. 

USA Cycling has a collegiate cycling database and a ranking system for club teams.  The site has information on starting a club team and how to enter USA Cycling sponsored events.  Each year USAC sponsors the Collegiate Road Cycling National Championships.  In 2012, 49 colleges entered as Division I schools and another 44 competed as Division II.  The Division I championship was captured by Marion University.  Division II was won by MIT.  Some very familiar schools took part such as Stanford, Texas A&M, UCLA and others.  The 2013 National Championship will once again be held this May in Ogden, Utah.  This year’s event mirrors past events with a 32km team time trial held on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake.  That is followed the next day with an eight corner, 1.6 km criterium trough the Ogden city center.  The championships wraps up on Sunday with a 123 km road race including serious climbs through Ogden Canyon (one such climb will take riders from 4,600 to 6,200 feet in just over 6 kilometers).  

Visit the www.USACycling.org  website for more information on collegiate cycling and as always, please visit our website at www.stickybottleteam.net.