After Meyers’ Kick Start He Gears for Olympics : Bicycling: His leisurely activity has turned into a goal of greatness.

When Dean Meyers first bought a bicycle, it was to be used for those leisurely afternoon rides.

Meyers was working in a grocery store in Monterey at the time. A fellow employee was training for triathlons and invited Meyers to ride with him. Before Meyers knew it, his lesiurely rides had turned into intense training sessions.

“He’d come back to work and say, ‘I’m kicking Dean’s butt everyday,’ ” Meyers said. “So I start training, mostly just to beat him. We joke about it, but he’d get me up at 7 o’clock every morning and just go out and kill me. I’d come home so tired, but I got really strong because of that and because I rode with someone so much better than me.”

Before long, Meyers was the one bragging at the grocery store.

“After a while I was beating him, and then from there I started setting my scopes bigger and bigger,” Meyers said.

That was four years ago. Now a senior at San Diego State and a member of the school’s cycling club, Meyers will be one of the top competitors in SDSU’s Cycling Classic today and Sunday. Meyers is the favorite in today’s Men’s A 46.5 mile road race in Jamul. But he will not race in Sunday’s criterium on the SDSU campus due to previous commitments.

Last year at the collegiate nationals, Meyers placed 15th in the criterium, which is approximately 40 miles. This year Meyers’ goal is to win the nationals.

Collegiate cycling, however, is not Meyers’ main focus. He’s setting his sights first on the Olympics, then on riding for a professional racing team. Meyers now rides for both SDSU’s club and the San Diego Bicycle Club, both of which are sanctioned by the U.S. Cycling Federation. Riding for the San Diego club, he can keep his prize money and still retain his amateur status, which is vital to his Olympic goals.

“Collegiate racing is fun and it’s prestigious for what it is but if you want to make it to the top you got to get out there with the U.S. Cycling Federation,” Meyers said.

In addition to collegiate and USCF racing, Meyers was asked to be on a team to race mountain bikes. The team is sponsored by Nishiki through a shop in Monterey called Les Joselyns Bike Shop.

“With NORBA (Northern Off Road Biking Assn.) I’ll do a lot of traveling all over the country, and the races won’t conflict with USCF,” Meyers said. “They wouldn’t do that because it would be detrimental to both businesses.”

Meyers said many cyclists do both road and off-road racing. Off-road, Meyers said has a lot more bike handling.

Meyers said one of the best ways for him to improve as a cyclist is to ride with a better cyclist. And fortunately for Meyers, he has two right under his roof. Roommates Steve and Trent Klasna provide Meyers with tough competition. Steve, a member of Team Reebok, is “one of the top riders in the country,” Meyers said. And Steve’s brother, Trent, who rides with the San Diego Bicycle Club also “pushes” Meyers when training.

Meyers and Trent Klasna recently returned from Colorado Springs where they attended a three-week camp in which 55 of the top amateur cyclists in the country trained under the national coaches. They were selected for the camp based on their cycling accomplishments over the last year.

“It’s an opportunity for them to get a look at us and for us to see what the system is at that level,” Meyers said. “It’s kind of preparatory for the Olympics.”

Each day of the strenuous camp began at 7 a.m. with training on stationary bikes for an hour. After breakfast they would go on a 70-mile bike ride, which Meyers said was often difficult because the temperatures would drop to five or 10 degrees, and often below zero. Later, the cyclists would go out to the soccer field for running, then to the pool, then more riding.

“It’s a very good base for the rest of the season,” Meyers said. “You come out of there really tired because they work you so hard. Right now I’m starting to feel what I went through there and feel myself getting stronger.”

The camp gave Meyers the opportunity to meet the coaches, so it put him one step closer to his Olympic goal.

“They told us to keep in contact,” Meyers said. “They want to know what we’re doing. If I keep in touch and have a successful season, they might invite me back to a camp next year which is just another step.”

Meyers said the team is usually chosen about two weeks before the Olympics because “they want a team riding strong at that time.”

“They’re going to keep monitoring all the people they’re in contact with up until the last minute,” Meyers said. “I have all of this year and next year so I have as good of a chance as any.

“I want to shoot for the top but it’s too early to say I want to win the Tour de France. I can say it and its true, but I need a couple more seasons to say it with validity.”