Cycling Team Rides On
Emily Cobb | November 3, 2022
The cycling team here at Warren Wilson College (WWC) is fairly well-known when it comes to sports around campus. This summer, the college hired Harris Wagner as the head cycling coach. Wagner is a WWC alumnus who graduated in 2018 with a degree in biology, concentrating in genetics.
Wagner was part of the cycling team for all four years of his time at WWC. He said the team gave him purpose, and though he started out with a mere interest in mountain biking, he immediately was hooked. Wagner was part of the 2016 mountain bike (MTB) team that won the national championship title.
“It was incredibly rewarding because it was a ton of really hard work and dedication on part of the entire team,” said Wagner.
Wagner has coached the team before, he worked for the cycling team as the assistant coach for a semester after he graduated. Though Wagner had stepped away from WWC and its cycling team for a few years, Wagner was eager to return. He currently is being assisted by two assistant coaches, Morgan Holland and Lenny Ansanelli, he works at the shop sponsor, Liberty.
“People had sent me the job posting, and I figured now was a good time to do a career change,” Wagner said. “I love the team, and I want to see it thrive and be a part of it again.”
Callie Aerni
There are between 25 and 30 people total who are on the team currently. But due to the cycling team having three seasons, not everybody participates in all three seasons so the number varies. Now that the first season, MTB, has wrapped up, Wagner feels that coaching again has been an expected challenge.
“It has been a balancing act of trying to kind of lift up the team and creating a team culture that I want to see as a coach,” Wagner said.
Wagner wants to create a cycling team that has positive culture within it. He wants people to be excited, to feel included, to feel seen and for the team to be a safe space for people.
The team practices every weekday — except Wednesdays — and tries to do off-campus events throughout the weekend. The first season just wrapped up and many folks competed well throughout the season such as Eliza Deshon who won nationals. The cyclo-cross season is starting up now.
“It is really fun and rewarding for me to see them [the team] go out and race and improve and I can see them improve week to week even run to run in their races,” Wagner said.
Carlyle Grundon is a senior at Warren Wilson College (WWC) and is majoring in Creative Writing with a minor in Science Communication. She is the crew leader for the Campus Conservation Corps (CCC) Crew and has been on the cycling team all three years it was available to her, with COVID-19 preventing her from joining her sophomore year.
Grundon loves the bonding aspect of cycling, and one of her fondest memories of being on the team was the training camp the cycling team had before her freshman year. Welcoming her to WWC and getting her accustomed to both the environment and the team. Grundon said that the trickiest part of the transition with a new coach and a new year has been getting the team motivated and excited to compete. Many of the members had their time interrupted by COVID-19, stunting their excitement and ability to compete as well as leading to burnout in Grundon’s case.
“I feel like the biggest skill that I learned this year is just learning how to have fun, you know, racing again and really just enjoying that aspect of it,” Grundon said.
Wagner was adamant that there is no physical skill required to join the cycling team, even saying one did not even need to know how to ride a bike. Mentally, is where he sees the sport as demanding. Skills such as commitment, time management, and consistency are necessary for being a member of the team.
“You have to be sincerely passionate about racing bikes, sincerely passionate about being a part of the team, to really flourish,” Wagner said.
There is also a Cycling Crew people can join. The crew works alongside crews like the Forestry Crew and works on projects such as expanding cycling skill courses and building new bike trails on campus. They also learn skills such as bike mechanics, and how to run a bike shop. The crew was recently given access to the Schafer B bike shop which used to be its own separate crew and is working on restarting the shop. They hope to turn it into a place that both the cycling team and WWC individuals have access to, where people can learn about bikes and get them fixed.
Despite the transition of leadership between the last academic year and this one, the team is doing well. Wagner seems set on creating a positive cycling environment, and the team prides itself on not winning but instead learning skills and connections.
“I think one of the things that we [WWC] do really well, compared to maybe other collegiate cycling teams, is that we are really based in community,” said Grundon. “It [the cycling team] feels like a community, a family, a team rather than just like competing against each other. That has been a really amazing and really awesome dynamic that I have not seen before.”