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RIDING INTO HISTORY UC HASTINGS’ CYCLING CLUB TAKES OFF
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eginning this spring, UC Hastings will field its first intercollegiate sports team of the modern era, a cycling club that doubles as both a social and recreational club for law students, and a competitive squad facing off against traditional sports powerhouse schools. 3L Kim Fong started the club as a first-year student, organizing informal biking outings with fellow students. UC Hastings’ general counsel approved the club in spring 2013. Now in its first year as an official student organization, the club has attracted around 40 members. Of those, about a dozen plan to compete in races governed by the Western Collegiate Cycling Conference, the intercollegiate cycling association for schools across California, Nevada, and Hawaii. Vice President Ashley Dymond, a second-year student who has competed in Europe as part of the USA Cycling national team, calls it “a great outlet—a way to have a goal and do target training. From left: 3L Rob Saka, 2L Nancy Schneider, 2L Clifton Smoot, 3L Adam WiIson, 2L Ashley Dymond, and 2L Mario Lopez.
72 SPRING 2014
“For me, my equilibrium with work, sports, and exercise is essential and potentially fruitful in the long run,” she says. The spring 2014 schedule includes competitions throughout California, where club members will have the opportunity to race against students from UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, Stanford, UC Davis, and Humboldt State. The club participated in its first competition on Feb. 1, in San Diego. Members train by riding throughout the city and across the Golden Gate Bridge, and through Marin County. The most
committed train about 15 hours a week, in addition to all their classwork. “Cycling’s an endurance sport, and to compete, you’re really putting in a varsity-level effort,” says 2L Clifton Smoot, co-president of the club. “But it’s a nice counterbalance to the stress of law school. There are parallels to law school: You have to put the work in to get anything out.” Apart from the thrill of competition, members say the club serves another purpose: Bringing students together through cycling and other activities that are “alternatives to the typical ‘drinkand-mingle’ events,” Smoot says. The team plans to raise funds to participate in a Tour de Cure ride, benefiting the American Diabetes Association. For more information or to order a cycling jersey, visit http://hastingscycling. wordpress.com.