Carleton Cycling Club

The Carleton Cycling Club has existed in more or less formal incarnations since the early 1980s, and has a proud tradition; the team won the NCC and qualified for nationals in 1991. That season, then freshman Josh Meltzer won the conference road race, and a woman on the team finished 19th in the criterium at nationals, beating current mountain bike superstar Juli Furtado in the process.The Carleton Cycling Club was founded as a club dedicated to all facets of cycling - touring, road riding, mountain biking, etc. We organized the "Ironperson Triathlon" in the spring (although we were not the founders of that event) and the "Halloween Biathlon" in the fall (which we did invent.) We ran regular "Bike Repair Day" clinics in front of Sayles. These clinics allowed anyone to bring their bike in to be looked over and, if necessary, repaired for the cost of parts. We led tours around the nearby state park when the fall colors were out. And, of course, we supported the road racing team.

The founders of CCC were Mike Record, Chris Payne, Chris Zegal, Tom Bell, Neal Baker, Jonah Murdock, and Matt Stone. Most of the founders met in training for the Triathlon. Chris Zegal was the first president of the club. Chris Payne became the director of the North Central Collegiate Cycling Conference, the regional body of the National Collegiate Cycling Association. NCCA sanctioned all of our races and sponsored the national championships.

Carleton attended the national collegiate cycling championships as the NCCCC representative in 1990 and 1991. (In 1990, St. Johns also represented NCCCC.) Kim Griffith was the student who took 19th in the 1990 championship criterium (held at Stanford), beating Juli Furtado. Also on the 1990 nationals team were Mike Record, Neal Baker, Chris Zegal, Kevin Sebert... and another man and another woman, both of whom escape me right now. In 1991, the nationals were held at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, WA. Members of that team included Chris Zegal, Chris Payne, Tom Bell, Kevin Sebert, and Krista Van Vorst.

Our primary opponents in the NCCCC were St. Johns and Gustavus. Both hosted at least one race each year. There was also a race down at Iowa State every year. In fact, it was the ISU race that was the first the team ever entered, in 1989.

St. Johns hosted the conference championship (individual time trial, road race, and criterium) in 1990; Carleton hosted in 1991 (with a team time trial replacing the individual.) Carleton hosted at least two other conference events from 1989-1991.

Apple Computers was the major sponsor of the cycling team, giving about $5,000 in 1990. Domino's Pizza in Northfield also helped with race sponsorship.

The CSA was quite generous to the club over the three years I was involved, providing us with money for race trips, tools and miscellaneous parts, and some racing gear. Much of their generousity was due to the popularity of the club - we regularly had a membership of over 100 students, which was HUGE for that time. As a recall, the next nearest club sport had something around 20 students participating. The other factor was our "community service" with the bike repair days. Both of those elements made the CSA feel that investment in our club was worthwhile.

In 2000 Carleton sent four riders to nationals. Stefan Milkowski ('01), Evan Carver ('03), Will Myers ('02) and Max Oidtmann ('01) attended nationals in Colorado and finished mid-pack.

In 2004, the NCCCC was more organized then ever before. Perhaps encouraged by Lance Armstrong's Tour de France dominance, participation in college cycling is at an all time high for the region. The Carleton men's and women's teams were NCCCC Division II champions. The club fielded a very strong women's field who qualified for nationals, easily beating the other mid-west women's team. Maria Coryell-Martin ('04) and Pam Miller ('06) consistently finished in the top 3 of races. Due to injuries and the hectic Carleton workload, the women's team was unfortunately unable to attend nationals which were held in Madison Wisconsin. In 2004 Loren McWethy ('04) and Maria Coryell-Martin designed new cycling jerseys, replacing the out of place mountain motif that previously adorned our jerseys. The team also bought a new work stand, which was cause for much excitement.

In 1996 graduate Peter Everett ('97) had a successful season with the Saturn/Penn Cycles sponsered Flat City Cycling Club in Minnesota finishing in the top 10 in three races that summer.

In 2002 Dana Olson ('00), a successful category 2 racer, competed in the Race Across America (RAAM) with former nordic skiing coach Ben Popp. Olson and Popp impressively won the men's two person category by riding across the country in 8 days and 16 minutes, beating the next team by over 27 hours!

Stefan Milkowski's ('01)

If you are an alum and have more information about the history of Cycling at Carleton, please contact the club captains so that we can make our history more complete!