by DAVID SENTENDREY
Intern Sports Reporter

The Blue Ridge Parkway serves as a routine “go-to loop” for the Appalachian State University club cycling team.

Vehicles may sometimes honk their horns in frustration with the cyclists, but it seldom bothers the athletes who train year-round.

“We usually just wave at them,” team president and senior finance and banking major Daniel J. Wendover said. “It makes it that much better when they’re honking and cursing at you and you just have a big smile and wave. It’s funny."

Members of the Appalachian State University club cycling team train on Rivers Street Monday evening. The team will race again this weekend. Photo by Tommy Penick.

Daniel has been cycling since the seventh grade.

He said it was a drastic change in conditioning coming from a flat-landed community like Charlotte, where he grew up, to the mountains of Boone.

“I met up with the team as soon as I got here and got killed,” he said. “Moving from Charlotte was a big change, but it really got me fit riding up here. The hills are definitely good for getting your fitness up and there’s a lot less traffic up here than in Charlotte.”

Mountaineer cyclists generally practice every day of the week. Winter months can have an affect on conditioning, but as long as temperatures are 30 degrees or higher, the team is prepared for training.

“We have all kinds of high-tech windproof gear to keep us warm out there,” Wendover said.

The team also has the benefit of equipment that makes their bike stationary when it’s too cold to ride outside. 

Freshman undecided major Rachel A. Vandenende had plenty of endurance training before joining the cycling team this season.

Rachel was a triathlete in high school, but did not have her first cycling experience until arriving at ASU.

Vandenende found the cycling team by accident at the club sports expo.

“I thought there was a triathlon club,” Vandenende said. “But there wasn’t, so I was like, well, I guess I’ll have to do cycling.”

Jokingly, Vandenende said tri-athletes are just confused athletes compared with cyclists.

“They transformed me,” she said. “They convinced me that tri-athletes were really dorky. We really are kind of dorky.”

Appalachian is competing for the No. 1 ranking in their conference with Pfeiffer University.

Pfeiffer is the only varsity team in the conference.

“They’ve got some really strong riders that are giving us a run at conference,” Wendover said. “They have a coach and give out scholarships, so it makes it tough.”

The Mountaineers are set in second place, but can win the conference title if they win their three remaining races.

A strong finish could also go a long way toward the club’s goal of becoming a varsity program.

The first race will take place this weekend at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University for the Collegiate Cycling Race Weekend.

ASU will then return home to host the App State Cycling Collegiate Race Weekend, April 11 and 12.

It will be the last meet before conference championships at Wake Forest University.

To close out the season, the Mountaineers plan on sending vice president and senior recreation management major Jacob A. Florence and sophomore marketing major Nicholas C. Inabinet to Collegiate Road National Championships in Fort Collins, Colo.

ASU cycling is open to new members, regardless of experience.

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