CYCLING TEAM: Learn about a new club at Westside

Freshman Jonas Turman had a problem.

He was 100 yards from the finish line when he flipped his bike on a tree root sticking out of the ground. His first place lead was gone.

His shoulder was dislocated.

“I was stupid,” Turman said. “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was. I was looking back to see where the guy behind me was, and that’s when I flipped.”

Turman wasn’t going to let a dislocated shoul- der stop him from reaching the finish line, so he popped his shoulder back into place and got back on his bike.

“It has happened before,” Turman said. “If that were the first time that had happened, I don’t know how I would have been able to get up and make an effort to finish the race.”

As fast as Turman could, he got on his bike and pedaled toward the finish line. By this point, Millard West sophomore Gerrit Groenendyk, the second place competitor, had gained ground on him.

Their pedals, tires and bodies scraped against each other all the way to the finish line.

Although Groenendyk edged out Turman to take the win, Turman wasn’t disappointed.

“I don’t think I did too bad for my first race ever,” Turman said. “Plus, he was a year older than me.”

As he trains to compete with the other bikers in the state, Turman cycles the Omaha trail. He loves the fact that you can bike on the trails for what “seems like forever.”

“[Biking] lets me get away from everything,” Turman said.

Turman tries to bike around 10 miles three or four times a week, especially in cycling season.

“To race at a high level, you have to have trained and have experience, Turman said. “I was unsure how I was going to do in my first race ever, con- sidering I had no experience racing. All I had was my experience on the Omaha trail, but this race was on grass.”

Turman was helped a great deal by his experience with biking the Omaha trail and the coaching from his father, who created the cycling club 25 years ago at Westside to help people get involved.

Turman was expected to excel at his first meet. As predicted, Turman raced very well in his first meet with a time of 37 minutes and 39 seconds in a 14-mile race.

“It was good to see my hard work pay off,” Turman said. “Hopefully finishing within the first few people to cross the finish line will become a normal thing for me.”

More on the cycling team:

• The cycling team has only one race remaining now. Its final race is Saturday, Nov. 23.
• Turman since injured his tailbone, and has missed the last few cycling races.
• Junior Grace Porter has placed first in all four of the cycling meets so far. She will be the individual champion for girls at the end of the season.

This story was originally published in Issue Two of the Lance (Friday, Oct. 10). Lance Issue Three comes out Friday, Nov. 7. Check back Friday for more Lance coverage.