At one time I had two middle school kids but they did not stay with it, they might be back. Overall the team consists of 10^th – 12^th graders. This year I have 3 girls, 9 boys, and of these three are seniors. I have two students who graduated last year and continue to ride in college. I solicit through the school announcements and from advertisements placed around the school. I solicit throughout the school year. Some of the riders will be very motivated at the beginning but this will wane quickly. Expect this, kids are fickle, this sport is not for everyone and exposure is the name of the game here. During my second year I had 22 kids sign-up, 50% did not follow through.

I arranged with a local bike store to rent bikes to any riders that were interested in cycling on my team. The rental deal was 100 dollars down and 20 dollars per month with this entire amount going to the purchase of the bike if they wanted to buy it at the end of the first season. In addition the store and I put together a package with for the rider which consisted of the following: stocked saddle bag, pump, and gloves. They did not have to buy the bike at the end of the first year. This was not what I wanted but was the best I could do for the kids. The contract also mentioned that if they did not attend 80 % of the published rides then they would have to return the bike to the store. We rented Specialized Allez triples. Entry-level racers at best. Six riders took me up on this deal.

I sent out e-mails through the local cycling lists asking for donated clothing, parts, trainers, shoes, etc. From this I got plenty of shoes and other goods. I appealed to the master racers to give up some of their old stuff, some of them willingly donated it while some wanted money for the items, and some would not give anything up.

I got approval from the district by showing them I could get USA Cycling Club insurance to cover the school, the district, and me.

I got discounts of 15 % off of all items the kids bought at the bike store; names were kept at the bike store and were updated by me.

I sent a letter home to the parents telling them about cycling and that their could be some danger involve, but I also sent some statistics about injuries and high school sports and this alleviated some of their fears. I also called each parent so that they knew what their kids were doing. I also had him or her sign a waiver form, travel consent form and I collected insurance information, contact information on each rider in case an emergency occurred while at a race.

All bikes were kept at my house and all rides originate from my house, this made it feel like a practice. (This is now modified and will be discussed later)

I created a notebook with the above information on each rider along with 20 signed and partially filled out rider release waivers so that I did not have to worry about their parent’s signature for registration.

We held fundraisers at the school and made 1000.00 dollars to help our team.

I have results read on the school announcements and I call in results to the local newspaper, you can get a rider to do this.

We raced about 12 times this year.

Took a simple team picture and had it put in the yearbook under clubs.

Training

Called the local newspapers, and TV stations and got them interested enough to do a story on the team.

Basic mechanics course for maintenance and repairs. Riders were expected to keep their bikes clean and in good running order.

There are probably more things I can think of but this gets us started

After a successful first year in which 6 of the riders stayed with the program, I went after the bike store and asked them to give us six Cannondale R700 bikes (basically a 21 – 22 lb race bike) with the idea that we would ride them for the year, be responsible for upkeep and damage. After the year we would sell them and purchase more. This did not happen, Mostly because the store just thought what I was doing was good for his store. In addition to the Cannondales, the store gave me three of the Allez rentals to use. All of these bikes have become the bikes for new kids to learn on. Five of the kids rode these bikes for about ½ of the 2^nd year and then bought better bikes. This opened up the R700‘s for new riders of which I had no trouble finding. Presently we have nine road bikes and four TT bikes. The TT bikes were all put together with used equipment.

We got clothing this year. Before this we used donated clothing I also had some help from an old friend, Jeff Corbett, he is the Director Sportif of Health Net Maxiss Pro Cycling team. Before this he managed the old 7-UP pro cycling team. He had some old clothing and donated it to the team. So we rode with 7-UP jerseys/shorts for year one and part of year two. We got the clothing by soliciting for sponsors this year. Many people were willing to give us 100 or 200 dollars and couple of people put up Five hundred dollars. One person in particular (who has the same mindset as I do) Rob Ransom, who is a lawyer with Lenventis and Ransom Law firm) Sponsored the team by basically paying for all of the clothing to be made. This helped out a lot.

All paperwork and basic training from year one was done again.

Held bike cleaning sessions every two months. Totally cleaned the bikes.

Lifted weights in between year one and two. I would only let them practice technique and they were always able to do all three sets completely, at the end of the first year of lifting they did some high reps and burnouts. Basically I wanted them to get used to lifting.

We raced about 20 times this year.

Got included in the yearbook as a Team this year, we were part of the athletics’ pages.

Most of the funds raised went to buy hard goods, such as trainers; we started using the trainers to do our intervals on. This was great as I could walk around and monitor their progress, such as pedaling technique and cadence, after each interval we got our heart rate the old fashioned way, I timed fifteen seconds and they counted. We waited until everyone was recovered then went with the next interval.

I bought as many 45 tooth chain rings as possible, this coupled with a 12 in the back is the exact gear for junior racing. No need to block out the rear derailleur anymore.

Did some longer rides this year, but only with the veteran riders, scheduled a different ride with the new riders.

Paperwork same as year two.

Not much has changed

Lifted weights in the winter again. This year I have the older riders (17 and up) lifting to gain strength. Put together an entire program to help these older riders build up power. This was voluntary only, if an older rider did not want to do this they stuck with the basics of lifting.

I started letting the reliable riders take their bike home with them, they were responsible for it as they and their parents signed a waiver and statement stating this. One bike was stolen out of the back of a SUV and the parents promptly replaced it. Letting them take the bikes home has been very good, they are starting to call each other and set up rides on their own. Still all of the hard training is done under my watch but I like that they are going out and riding without me. I do have a rule that they must ride with someone. This goes with the territory of being associated with a high school. You need to be aware of liability. We begin racing in 3 weeks, I am looking forward to it, and I expect to pick up about 3 more riders before late spring of 06’.

Be patient, even if you get 3 kids involved that is more than zero kids.

Be patient, they are not going to ride like you imagine, some are very slow, you are becoming a coach now, and you are not there to show how strong you are by dropping the kids. Ride with them. Teach them how to shift to get over a hill. Be prepared to push some of them up a hill no matter how slow you are going.

Be patient; keep the miles low for the first couple of months. Let the kids enjoy it.

Get the kids in clip less ASAP, they can figure this out quickly.

Make if fun - we have spinning classes, where we ride the trainers and listen to music.

Keep it clean, create an atmosphere where all feel welcome. Some of my friends I ride with are doctors, lawyers, etc. I have to ask them to keep the language clean if they are on a ride with the team. I know this may sound prudish, but I teach in a high school, believe me I know what they hear; I don’t think they should hear it from professionals that are basically role models. If I can instill in them the need for respect of others in one part of their life I feel better. You will too. You don’t have to cuss to get a point across, although under the right situation, (such as when no kids are around) it sometimes helps.

Each year you will go through the same process again, riding with the slow riders. Etc. Each year you will be there coach, you will have to teach about shifting, sprinting, drafting, cornering, mental attitudes, and a host of other skills, take the time to learn the correct way to do the above. Don’t be afraid to ask for some help. Don’t get to upset if you find that all the local riders become an expert in cycling when riding with your riders. Local riders are like cowboys sitting on the fence watching a horse being broke. They all have advice but when it comes time to put up time they would rather shut-up. Accept their advice, thank them for their input and go about your business. Some of them have good things to say, most don’t. The advice is worthless mostly because if you have spent time with the kids you know the kids and you know their weaknesses and strengths.

Establish known routes and stick to them. This way you can divide the group up for training purposes.

Keep all contact numbers with you on all rides, I do this easily on my cell phone, I put in the name and number of all the riders’ parents. Try to bring as many cell phones with you on a ride as possible. Many kids nowadays have phones; have them bring them along, they really help.

Finally, this is for your sanity Keep it Simple, if you feel like it is getting too much, back off some, keep it simple to run and you will enjoy it more, let it take time to get going.