These Cyclists Race for Respect, Not Fortune : Huntington Beach Club Members Don’t Mind Being Poor if They Can Compete

Next week, Graham Melstrand, Darrin Kavenagh and Billy Drysdale, three members of the Huntington Cycle Club, will travel to Redmond, Wash., to compete in the U.S. National Track Cycling championships.

If their family and friends lend them enough money to make the trip, that is.

Successful track cyclist racers earn lots of respect from their peers, but unless they can get a sponsor, they don’t earn lots of money. Lawn bowling may be more lucrative.

It’s common to hear of track cyclists bumming rides to competitions, sharing motel rooms with 10 others and bringing toaster ovens along so they can subsist on a diet of grilled cheese sandwiches. They economize any way they can.

But Melstrand, Kavenagh and Drysdale don’t mind this life of austerity.

These guys race for the sheer love of the sport. They know it may be hard for outsiders to understand why they practice almost everyday, why they don’t have much of a social life or why they spend most of their small incomes on new bikes and equipment.

“We race for the same reason people run marathons,” said Huntington Beach’s John Waite, 21, the only team member who isn’t borrowing money for the trip to the nationals. “It’s a compulsion.”

“Why do we do this?” asked Melstrand, a 20-year-old Cal State Long Beach student from Fountain Valley. “That’s a good question. I sometimes ask it myself. I guess (track cycling) is just very bad habit. You really do go poor.

“And it’s not much fun, especially the training, which is all work. For me, what is important, very important, is going out, giving a good performance and winning. That makes it all worth it.”

Waite manufactures custom racing bike frames that sell well enough to keep his bank account in the black.

Melstrand puts in about 20 hours per week as a house painter. Kavenagh, a 17-year-old student at El Toro High School, works part time in a bike shop. Drysdale, 18, of Huntington Beach, has a flexible job as a shipping and receiving clerk. One week not too far back, he put in one hour.

The rest of the time, you are more likely to find them at the velodromes at Cal State Dominguez Hills or Encino, or training on roads at various locations in Orange County.

Talk about dedication. During the summer, the Huntington Cycle Club practices every day, save the days the members race in velodrome competitions or occasional road events.

“You just have to put aside the time to train,” said Melstrand. “Or your times don’t get better.”

All that practice has paid off. The cyclists have combined to win about 85% of the races they have entered since January, when the club was co-founded by Melstrand and Waite.

“That percentage is abnormally high,” Melstrand said.

The club has dominated the sprint (match races) and kilo (distance) events at the local velodromes in 1986, and swept several events at the District Championships last month at San Diego.

Each racer has a unique style. Waite, a powerfully built cyclist with huge, muscular legs, pedals so hard around the track he makes a buzzing sound as he cuts through the air.

“I can tell when he’s going around the track without even looking,” Drysdale said. “You hear that noise and you know it’s him.”

Melstrand has a lithe build and is known for his smooth, fluid pedaling motion. Melstrand’s motion is so consistent, his pace around the track is almost hypnotic.

Kavenagh, who maintains a 4.0 grade-point average, is a thinking man’s cyclist. He carefully plans his strategy before each race, right down to what angle he will pass another rider.

And then there is the intense Drysdale. During a race, Drysdale never smiles. Instead, he maintains a hard-nosed stare that he calls his “psycho-killer” look.

The sacrifices cyclists make are not just financial. Sometimes, they sacrifice their bodies.

Injuries--serious ones--are not uncommon among cyclists.

Kavenagh recently was involved in a spill and suffered a severe bruise and abrasions on his right hip.

But that seems like nothing to Waite, whose greatest strength as a cyclist may be his persistence and ability to endure pain.

In 1983, his second year in cycling, he fell off his bike and broke his collarbone. Later that year, he fell again and broke his right hip. Then, in a road race in 1984, he was hit by a car.

Waite suffered a ruptured spleen, a broken wrist, several broken ribs and a punctured lung. He spend 15 days in the hospital.

In 1985, he injured a tendon in the same wrist and had to undergo surgery to repair it.

But through it all, Waite says he never thought about quitting.

“I’m the kind of person who quits only when he gets ahead, and I never was ahead in this sport,” he said. “Because of the injuries, I’ve never had a chance to reach my potential. Now I am.

“I love this sport. Twenty years from now, if I’m still not competing, I’ll still come out to the velodrome to ride for fun.”