The Best of Bicycling by Peter Flax & The Editors of Bicycling

Author:Peter Flax & The Editors of Bicycling
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale
Published: 2011-11-03T16:00:00+00:00

Oelkers had noticed Leroy on his first visit to the school a few weeks before that initial awkward outing. Like most of the kids that he tried to recruit, Leroy had avoided him, taking elaborate detours through the hallways to bypass the table where the coach had set up shop. It was hard enough to run a basketball league in this neighborhood, and here was this white man talking about bicycles.

But Oelkers was determined. At age 35, he couldn’t afford to fail. His 10-year professional cycling career had yielded adventure and satisfaction, but scant fame and less fortune. Over the previous few years, employed at the Cadence Cyclery shop, he’d established himself as a successful coach and personal trainer, but he dreamed of something bigger. He wanted to build a bridge that ordinary American kids could cross to the sport; ultimately, he wanted to make competitive cycling as accessible as soccer. On a personal level, Oelkers was prodded by the fact that he and his wife, Erin, a schoolteacher, had two little kids at home and a third on the way. If that weren’t enough, the foundation’s patrons, some of the most powerful people in Philadelphia, were peeking over his shoulder. But along with necessity and low-grade panic, Oelkers was motivated by faith—in himself and in the power of his sport. He knew that cycling could change kids’ lives, because it had changed his own.

Before he could change anything, however, Oelkers had to find some leaders, a few older kids who would buy into the Cadence program and make it acceptable to others. He identified two candidates, both 10th-graders: a boy named Sam Cowans, and Leroy. Popular, a good student, and a talented athlete, Sam was an obvious choice. Leroy wasn’t so obvious. Except for being a good student, Leroy was the opposite of Sam in almost every regard. Most notably he was obese, carrying 280 pounds on a 5-foot-6 frame, and showed the sad, fat-kid tropes. He was shy, withdrawn, and avoided eye contact. He had few friends and, outside of academics, had little connection to the school. Oelkers started working on Leroy, telling him how much he’d love cycling—the speed, the freedom, the way the world looked different from a bicycle seat.

Oelkers could tell that Leroy understood but didn’t quite believe him; that is, Leroy just couldn’t understand how these pleasures could fall within the ken of a fat ghetto kid. Oelkers kept working at him. Despite their gaping differences in age and background, Oelkers saw himself reflected in the boy. He sensed that Leroy would take to cycling expressly because it was so alien to him.

In the summer of 1985, Oelkers’s uncle, Jack Simes, had brought 11-year-old Ryan down from his home in North Jersey to see the first U.S. professional road race championship race, in Philadelphia. Uncle Jack—a three-time Olympic cyclist, the man who convinced Bob Rodale to build a velodrome in the nearby Lehigh Valley—was Ryan’s mother’s brother. Despite the family connection, Oelkers knew nothing about the sport.

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