Finding a Cycling Team: Location, Location, Location

Rode with my cycling coach Mike Manning yesterday at lunch from downtown Portland. At one point, he asked if I'd gone to any of the Meet the Team rides through OBRA. Being unattached or without a team in cycling is fine if you're Lance. I'm clearly not, so Mike's been gently pushing to get me with some people.

The "Meet the Team" rides start mostly downtown. But none of the regular team rides start remotely near our house in deep SE. And with just one car, I can't monopolize it on the weekends to drive to Hillsboro or Beavertron or whereever. And unless I want to add 20 miles to every group ride I go on (I don't), I'm out of luck.

A while back, I shot an email to the OBRA list. I got one semi-legit reply, which was for a vegan, organic triathlon team. Which is somewhat ironic because I've been considering getting back into the pool and focusing on triathlon to help strip off some upper-body weight.

Finding a team in cycling has been one of the most frustrating aspects of the sport. In swimming, which is my native sport, teams fall all over themselves to make new swimmers welcome. They encourage them to come out, try to be social, organize car pools, the whole shebang.

In cycling, the indifference to new members is shocking to me. You ask, and you get shrugs. You volunteer, and you get blown-off.

I had one outstanding experience when I first started with Veloshop, in that the Calver brothers (now with GSC United way the hell out in Beaverton) were some of the most welcoming, nice, encouraging people I'd ever met. They have a passion for the sport that completely infects new riders. But then, a few months later, the damn team kicked them off. I couldn't even tell you why, because it was so bizarre.

Anyway, Mike off-handedly mentioned that he might put together a CycleOne kit to promote his cycling coach biz around the Portland area. I told him I'd wear it. And though it might not be a "team" in the strictest sense, I would certainly use it as an excuse to organize rides out here in SE.