This story was published in The Weekly, a supplement to The Daily Northwestern

On a sunny Friday morning, Will Nowak walks into Norris University Center in white spandex shorts and a red, green, white and blue jersey. He picks up his red-and-white Trek Madone 5.2 road bike and plops down on the plush armchair. It is 10:30 a.m., and Nowak has already taken a 40-mile ride.

Nowak is the president of the Northwestern Cycling Club and on May 7 raced in the USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships as a Category 1 rider, the most advanced level of competition in cycling. The Weinberg senior also races on the Verizon U-25 Cycling Team as a semi-professional.

“Cycling in general is just fun. You can go ride with other people, and its good comradery,” Nowak says. “The thing I like most about it is rides by myself. It’s nice as a Northwestern student to just get away and not have to think about anything.”

Nowak loves both the individual and team aspects of cycling. He’s proud of the team for placing fourth overall in the MidWest Collegiate Cycling Conference.

“We want to be a combination of the crew and sailing team,” Nowak says. “It’s a sport where you can get to a high level of competition, but at the same time riding your bike is also fun. We want to make it a big, fun social club.”

Nowak admits cycling is not exactly something many Americans associate with fun. There are no high scores, there are often many winners and bicycles are not exactly the layman’s sports equipment, with new road bikes costing upward of $1,000. Cycling follows soccer in the long and grand tradition of Americans disliking things Europeans love.

“Spandex just doesn’t fly with a lot of the United States,” Nowak says.

The oddball-sport status of the cycling community could explain why it is so close-knit. Nowak says he used to be involved in more activities before he took up two-wheels. He dropped his fraternity and got less involved in volunteer organizations, something he hopes to take up again post-graduation.

“It’s because it’s so different, people have to band together in their uniqueness,” Nowak says. “They like following the European racing, and they like their white spandex.”

Nevertheless, Nowak wants to attract leisurely riders to the cycling club, the ones with Schwinns instead of Cervélos, who are not necessarily interested in racing competitively. Anyone can join the team, even those with no experience. You just need a bike and a helmet, Nowak says.

Now that collegiate racing is behind him, Nowak is off to become a high school math teacher but hopes to continue racing semi-professionally and staying involved to the bike community.

“I want to give back,” Nowak says. “It’s fun to help people pick up the sport and fall in love with it.”