Cycling, in addition to being an environmentally-friendly mode of transportation, is, for many, a sport and a passion. The sport redefines the focus on the individual through lessons of personal accountability and self-motivation and serves as an opportunity to showcase competitiveness. 

Upper school science teacher Chris Spenner, who replaced driving a car with biking 12 years ago as a means of traveling to and from his job, recalls the reasons behind his choice that significantly impacted his daily life.

“[When] I started teaching in Houston, I think I was at that point in my life [where I was] becoming more aware of environmental issues, and just making conscious choices about that,” Spenner said. “So I went to biking to commute to and from school.”

Along with the physical aspect of biking, Spenner highlights the effect of biking on his mentality and general physical fitness. He notes how it disconnects him from his surroundings for the span of his journey. 

“When I’m commuting to and from school, it’s a different kind of mental break or a transition period from home life to work life and back,” Spenner said. “I get to look up at the sky — I get to connect to my body again and get out of my head.”

Similarly, upper school English teacher Charles Shuttleworth started out biking as a means of getting around in college but started to find more meaning within the activity as it became more prominent in his everyday life. This soon developed into a lifelong love for cycling. 

“I was a poor graduate student living in New York City, and I went through one summer where I never got out of the city,” Shuttleworth said. “So I bought a bicycle and that became my mode of transportation. I started to ride out of the city and then started to go further and further.”

Shuttleworth has traversed the nation multiple times by bike, with one of his most memorable trips being a loop of the West coast, starting from Eugene, Oregon, down to Lake Tahoe and across to Colorado, followed by a route to Jasper, Alberta, and then back down to Eugene. Additionally, he has participated in several group cycling rides, such as one cross-country from Virginia to San Francisco. Between the two, he cherishes his solo rides more, as he appreciates the sense of control that he holds during the journey. 

“The advantage of going alone and having your own gear is that you make all your own decisions,” Shuttleworth said. “Even if you’re with a small group of friends, you [all] have to make decisions [together]. On one hand, it’s good because the decisions are made for you, but on the other hand, you wake up and you’ve got to do it because that’s the plan, so you have no choice. I don’t like that feeling — I really like waking up and just going.”

Competitive biker Nolan Dagum (10) shares a similar view on the individuality aspect of cycling, despite being a part of the Black Mountain Composite cycling team, a tight-knit community of active cyclers, since seventh grade. He participates in regional and state competitions, which act as a series of qualifying events before competing in Nationals over the summer. 

“If I don’t want to do a ride today, there’s no one stopping me,” Nolan said. “It’s not like [other sports] practice[s] where the coach expects you to show up — you are on a team but your performance depends pretty much entirely on yourself [as] you practice by yourself a lot. You’re very motivated by how well you want to do and not necessarily motivated by your coach [or] anyone else.”

Nolan notes how although any sport, cycling included, places a strong emphasis on physical ability and fitness, he believes that the underlying factor of success comes from within — it is his true passion for competitive cycling that keeps him committed. 

“There’s the fact that I love the sport, and I think if you don’t [love your sport], you won’t be successful,” Nolan said. “How I do training is basically dependent on how hard [I] want to train, so people who do better are people who love the sport.”