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SOUTH STATE CYCLING Ashland High School cycling squad ready to roll, with help from South State Cycling nonprofit group Nonprofit group looks to youth for local expansion, hosts kick-off party Tuesday Comment By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Apr. 12, 2015 at 4:31 PM Updated Apr 12, 2015 at 4:33 PM By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Apr. 12, 2015 at 4:31 PM Updated Apr 12, 2015 at 4:33 PM » Social News Three years ago Clara Honsinger was just another casual rider who happened to be a good athlete but wasn’t sure if bike racing was for her. One Thursday, she decided to see if her interest could become something more, so Honsinger, a friend and the friend’s dad drove out to the outskirts of Medford, where bike-racers from across the Rogue Valley oil their chains once a week at the Jackson County Sports Park and race around the 1/3-mile oval. It was intense, fast and, to Honsinger, a bit of a revelation. She bested five other riders to win her race, but that was beside the point. “You put that racing and cycling together,” she said, “and it really hooked me. So I’ve been racing ever since.” Now, Honsinger is one of a small band of riders — she's by far the most experienced — on Ashland High School’s first bike-racing team, a group that’s been taken under the wing of a local sponsor whose ambitious mission statement includes trying to introduce the sport to the next generation. South State Cycling, a nonprofit club “dedicated to promoting the sport of cycling as a lifelong activity by supporting competitive racing, developing a youth cycling program, encouraging new racers of all ages, and sponsoring organized rides and community events in Southern Oregon and Northern California,” has helped Ashland High’s new team get off the ground by donating equipment, including frames, and gear, which the Grizzlies have already used for their first two team rides. South State Cycling is hosting a “Kick-Off Party” for the club at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Frau Kemmling’s Schoolhaus Brewhaus in Jacksonville. The family-friendly event, which will feature a talk by 2013 U.S. National Road Racing Champion Jade Wilcoxson, is free and open to the public. SSC will then offer an introduction to racing clinic at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Jackson County Sports Park champion raceway (7520 Table Rock Rd., Central Point). Coaches and former professionals at the clinic will provide tips on safe group riding, race tactics and drafting. A few riders from Ashland High have already been practicing the basics. Honsinger missed the first but was at the second of those team rides Wednesday and was impressed with how quickly the cycling community — South State Cycling in particular — has come forward with donations ranging from the bikes themselves to clothing. Three students, including Honsinger, showed up for the ride and were led by coach Rob Bingham, an English and humanities teacher at AHS and SSC member. Honsinger knows how crucial community support is. Two years ago she sought to start a bike-racing team at Ashland High School but was thwarted by costs: her current bike retails for $4,000. “There were so many barriers in the form of insurance and liability, and also finding students that wanted to ride and I didn’t really have the patience for that,” she said. “But since they started South State Cycling, through that they’re able to get insurance and I guess get people motivated this year.” Coaching cycling is nothing new for Bingham, who’s also a speech and debate coach at AHS. Bingham previously coached a bike-racing team at Willamette High School in Eugene before moving to Ashland three years ago and would like to see his new team eventually grow to 25 cyclists. His passion for the sport started early, when as a youngster he met Tour de France champion Greg LeMond. “It got in my blood when I was a little kid,” he said. And his love for the sport only deepened when his surgically-repaired knees screamed every time he tried to jog. Unlike other, more popular competitive sports such as basketball and football, Bingham points out, cycling is something most can handle decades past their athletic prime. “I have reconstructed knees so it’s hard for me to run,” he said. “But cycling is one sport I can still do and to me that’s powerful. And, I thought, we have tons of sports for kids in high school … that they’re not really going to be able to do after high school and it seemed strange to me that we didn’t have a sport like cycling at the high school that kids could do for their entire lives. And if we’re really serious about wanting healthy kids for their entire lives then cycling seems like a no-brainer at high school.” That’s why Bingham helped Dave Reitz, 46, raise his brainchild into South State Cycling about a year ago, when Reitz thought that it was about time to organize the Rogue Valley’s giant bike-riding community. Ashland High is only the start, Reitz says. The club has one prep Medford racer signed up, too, and the plan is for all southern Oregon riders to race under the same SSC banner. The logo, an Oregon state outline overlaid by seven color bars representing Rogue Valley high schools, illustrates that philosophy. “We have a great cycling community here with some fantastic riding,” Reitz said. “And there’s just a fantastic cycle cross series down here as well on Thursday nights at the drag strip. So one of the reasons I wanted to start the club is to kind of make sure that all of these things stay in place, that we have venues to race in and make sure it’s easy, to make people feel comfortable to come out and race.” Reitz knows that building SSC into what he wants it to become will probably take time, but eventually he’s confident that eventually, once it gains enough traction in the valley, the sport will sell itself. “My theory is,” he said, “if it’s fun when you were a kid, why stop doing it?”  Joe Zavala can be reached at 541-821-0829 or [email protected]. By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Apr. 12, 2015 at 4:31 PM Updated Apr 12, 2015 at 4:33 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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