Friday, November 12, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section B · Page 5
5
Right: Members of the University of Kansas cycling club ride on a training ride. Bottom: Jed Schneider, Sandia Park, N.M., graduate student, rides more than 6,000 miles a year. Photos by Lucas Krump/KANSAN
KU Mountain men bike Mt. Oread
Cyclists will race at national finals this weekend
By Jim O'Malley Special to the Kansan
Mountain biking? In Kansas?
"Yeah, I get a lot of that," said Jed Schneider, Sandia Park, N.M., graduate student and professional mountain bike racer.
He said, however, that the lack of mountains doesn't hurt his ability to train. Schneider said he actually preferred to train at low altitude, because at high altitude he can't push his leg muscles to exhaustion.
Schneider said he did most of his training on the road and relied on racing to keep up his mountain bike handling skills.
He said in September that he had ridden a mountain bike only 20 times in 1999, and that 15 of those rides were races. But he trains up to 20 hours a week on the road. He said he puts in 6,000 to 7,000 miles on the road in the first five months of the year to prepare for the racing season.
"You can't train effectively on a mountain bike," he said. "It beats you up. You can go for the six to eight
hour rides you need."
But riders who want to train on mountain bikes can find places to ride around Lawrence. Bryce Lawrence. Lenexa senior, races regularly on weekends. He said there were trails by the river, and at Clinton and Perry lakes, and endless gravel roads to train on.
There are risks to both training and racing. Schneider's racing career was almost ended after he was hit by a car on a road training ride in 1995. He shattered his kneccap, underwent two surgeries and lost five months of training.
He gave up racing and moved to Montana to attend school and pursue a snow-boarding career but started racing again at Montana State University.
This fall, Schneider hit a tree at 25 mph while at a race in Missouri and had to withdraw, although he wasn't hurt.
"I was being impatient and passing people in the trees and miscalculated the grade." he said.
Schneider learned his mountain-biking skills as a kid growing up in New Mexico. He was raised in the Albuquerque area where there were more than 100 miles of single track and Jeep trails within a 20 minute ride.
"It was a great place to ride a mountain bike," he said. "The first ride I ever did on a mountain bike was a race."
Schneider was 13 years old when he started racing. He said that as a junior
racer (ages 15 to 18), he regularly placed in the top five in races on the national circuit.
He turned pro in 1997. Schneider races for BCD, a small manufacturer of carbon fiber bike frames, and is on their cross-country team. The company also sponsors three downhill racers.
Schneider made the U.S. National Mountain Bike under 23 team and raced in the 1998 World Championships in Quebec, where he finished 64th out of 210 starters. He was 15th in the 1998 National Collegiate Cycling Association road cycling championship, and 11th out of 180 riders at the 1997 collegiate mountain bike championship.
This year's national collegiate championship is scheduled for this weekend in Helen, Ga., on the 1996 Olympic mountain-bike course.
Schneider, Lawrence and six other Kansas cyclists are entered in the championship races in Georgia. Schneider said he gave himself a 50 percent chance of winning this year.
The riders also are members of the University of Kansas cycling club, which supports both recreational cycling and racing, and has regular road and mountain-bike training rides
Leonard Kristishalka, director of the Natural History Museum, is the club's faculty advisor. He said that with a little more support from the University,
Sunflower Outdoor Bike Shop, 802 Massachusetts St., and Cycle Works, Inc., 1601 W. 23rd St., provide some financial support.
Schneider, a graduate student and teaching assistant in the geography department, said that it was difficult juggling training and school, but that the department was supportive.
Kansas could have a top-level intercollegiate cycling program.
"I told the geography department mountain biking was a major part of my life," he said. "They liket it that I was a professional athlete and a good student."
The geography department seems to attract strong racers. Bryce Lawrence is a geography major. He won the 1998 NCCA North Central regional championship.
Another geography major who races is Justin Hawkins, Springfield, Mo. senior. He won the state category four road racing championship this summer. Hawkins said that the geography department
Hawkins said that the geography department had a pretty laid back program.
Robert McColl, professor of geography, had a different explanation. He said the department didn't recruit cyclists, but thought the number of strong racers might be explained by the outdoors nature of geography.
But Lawrence joked that he learned his bike handling skills indoors, playing the Gran Turismo video game.
— Edited by Mike Loader
Soccer midfielder returns to top form after ankle sprains
By Chris Wristen
sports@kansan.com
Kansas sportswriter
What a ride it's been for Colleen Colvin.
After a stellar high school career, in which she was one of Minnesota's top goal scorers and
Colvin, a junior midfielder for the Kansas soccer team, has experienced a roller-coaster career that brought her to Kansas and then dragged her down. But she reached the top of the hill again this season.
named an All-American, the phones weren't ringing. Few colleges showed interest in her because she didn't play in the Olympic Development Program. Colvin wanted to play in college, though, so she did her own recruiting.
"I really wasn't into the whole recruiting thing," Colvin said. "It came down to literally the last minute, and I thought maybe I wanted to go somewhere and play."
Colvin: ranked fourth on team in scoring this year
So Colvin recruited Kansas. Many of her friends,were
Many of the friends were coming to Kansas so it seemed like the logical choice. She called Kansas, but the Jayhawks were in the middle of a coaching change and took a month to get back to her. Once they did, a quick campus visit made it official.
"I didn't expect to start coming in freshman year," Colvin said. "It was a lot of fun and totally unexpected. I didn't expect to do that well."
When her sophomore year began, Colvin's career headed downhill. Kansas struggled and injuries wiped out Colvin's season. Multiple ankle sprains slowed her and kept her off the field. She didn't talk a single goal or assist. In addition, a case of dehydration sent her to the hospital.
"It was very frustrating." Colvin said. "I sprained my ankle in the preseason, and when I returned, I resprained it five minutes into the game."
When the spring season arrived, Colvin made her return. Colvin had a solid spring under new coach Mark Francis and punctuated her reemergence when she blasted home six goals in the final two games.
"I was really excited." Colvin said. "Our team was playing really well. We were playing together as a team for the first time since I've been here. It was a good feeling."
She remained in top form this season, scoring two goals and four assists while moving to outside-midfielder. These marks ranked her fourth on the team in scoring this season and she also climbed to No. 3 all-time at Kansas in total points.
"Colleen is doing very well." Francis said. "She had to learn a new position, but once she got the hang of it she done real well. Her confidence definitely improved over the course of the season."
With improved confidence and an improved team, Colvin is having fun playing soccer again and she said she thinks her team is on the move.
"Things can only go up from here." Colvin said. "I can't wait to see what's going to happen in the next years — we may be beating Nebraska."
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