KPLU Local News
(2010-07-16)
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15 year old Max Mullen and 16 year old Adrian Escobedo
Photo by: Jennifer Wing
The trick is to get them hooked while they are young, kids like 16 year-old Adrian Escobedo. It's a perfect summer day. You can't count the clouds, because there aren't any, and Escobedo is doing his favorite thing: he's on a bike.
"Fast, man that's what I like about it - going fast, man! The thing that I get most tired of is going up the hills, man. We're going up a hill now, ready? Huuh! Agh!"
This is the day Escobedo and half a dozen other kids from Tyee High School in SeaTac do their last training ride before this weekend's Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic, or STP. They're part of the Major Taylor Project, which is run by the Cascade Bicycle Club in Seattle. Major Taylor was a champion cyclist back in the late 1800's. He was the first African-American to break records in the sport. Still today, if you look at any cycling races, most of the riders are white. Some say the reason is money. These bikes are expensive and pricey to maintain.
Adrian Escobedo has tried football and swimming, but it wasn't until he got on a road bike that things started to click.
"It takes my stress out. It gets me pumped up to get things done. If I was able to do the STP thing or get from place to place, then I can do this. Get my homework done finally, clean my room. Actually I need to clean it. But yeah, things like that," Escobedo says.
The teenagers who are cycling the 200 miles to Portland are about as diverse as you can get. They are from Mexico, Haiti, and Iraq. When you ask them what they like about the sport, they all have the same answer; they enjoy seeing new places without having to get in a car or go on a bus.
The Cascade Bicycle Club
Seattle's Major Taylor Project
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