Chris Esposito has put college on the back burner. The senior at Gorham High School, instead of attending university in the fall, will be pursuing his first love: cycling. But, instead of dreaming of the lush life of professional athletes, Esposito finds himself longing for a much different element of the lifestyle – an element that many people in the area find captivating.
“Cycling is the ultimate suffering sport, the ultimate endurance sport. I love seeing how far I can push myself.”
Esposito explained that “suffering” is an important part of cycling at the elite level. It becomes a matter of endurance. A rider needs to be, in a sense, too stubborn to submit to the pain and slow down.
“It’s not like other sports,” said Esposito, who played soccer and ran track at the high school level, “cycling has no limits”
Esposito sees the only barrier for a cyclist as his or her own psyche. Cycling is a sport that demands constant growth in order to compete. Everyday the goal is to perform better than the day before.
Esposito trains in a number of different ways throughout the week. Three days a week he weight trains, two days he rides and every weekend he spends racing.
When he rides, he either trains in intervals or endurance. Intervals consist of workouts comparable to a track and field sprinter, while his endurance training is incomporable. Esposito goes on day-long rides up to 200 miles in his endurance training.
But the road to success for Esposito demands that he travel. There just isn’t enough of a cycling culture in the northeast. Esposito hopes to travel to Colorado to participate in a scouting camp this summer. After he qualifies as Cat 4, the first step towards professional riding, he will be looking to join a team.
When asked about the competitive conditions in Maine, Esposito expressed some concern.
“Cycling has been pretty big in the past, but there are less juniors riding now than ever,” he says.
The juniors division is made up of 16-18 year olds who want to compete.
In addition to competitive riding, Esposito participates in the sport as a member of the Narragansett Wheelmen, a cycling “team” based out of Gorham. John Strout, an adult and parent in the community, rides with Esposito and the Wheelmen.
“We’re cardiovascular junkies,” said Strout.
The Wheelmen is a social riding group made up of 30 guys who enjoy the sport, the workout and the competition.
Strout explains that for most of the Wheelmen “cycling has served as a transition from high impact sports” and allowed them to remain active and competitive.
Many young athletes who participate in sports like football, baseball, basketball, soccer, track etc, reach a point where the wear and tear on their bodies catches up with them and they have to hang up the cleats for good.
Cycling is low impact; there is little or no impact strain or weight bearing on the rider’s knees, lower back and hips.
The Wheelmen recently returned from a 60-mile ride on the Kancamaugus Highway.
“Chris is quite a phenom,” said Strout.
Sixty miles sounds like a lot, but not when compared to Espositos’s 200-mile training days. This seems like a pretty big window for participation, but it’s even bigger than this.
Cycle Mania (Esposito’s sponsor located in Portland) explains that “cycling is for all ages.”
Cycling is also a sport with no requirements. Anyone can ride.
Eddie Quinn, owner of Cycle Mania, says “there is nothing better for fitness.” And while the initial costs of getting a bike and right equipment may seem prohibitive, Quinn assures novices that after the initial round of expenses, you can “just roll down your driveway and go.”
There are all sorts of levels for cycling, everything from casual, social rides (like Cycle Mania’s Saturday morning 30 mile ride), to Juniors teams, to advanced rides, to hill rides to Cycle Mania’s Elite semi pro rides. Quinn also shared that there are also all different levels of bikes; many people shy away from road bikes because they are uncomfortable in a racing position. Hybrid bikes have been developed in recent years and allow the rider to enjoy a low impact workout on the roads and remain sitting upright. With cycling there are no minimum requirements and no limits.