We’ve all heard how sports such as cycling can be more mental than physically challenging. Virginia Commonwealth University embraced the UCI Road World Championships in 2015 in Richmond, VA with a cross-disciplinary campus-wide effort to engage faculty and students in experiential learning. Their work became “part of the university’s intellectual and cultural heritage”. Studying cycling helps you realize it transcends any fixed categories such as transportation, identity, or even sport. It is an integral part of the fabric of our lives.
VCU English Professor Gardner Campbell explained: “The project was not just the experience of a sporting event. It represented something more, having to do with the possibilities of human accomplishment and the commitment it takes to get to your goals. Our students saw around them, as they were pushing themselves in the context of their own intensive courses, world-class athletes who were committing their hearts and minds and bodies to excellence.”
The Great VCU Bike Race Book project gave students an opportunity to learn by doing and a chance to become “authors,” producing content curated into a virtual “book.” –photo from the article linked below
Read the full article here: How a Bike Race Led to Experiential, Personalized Learning ,or,
This video of the final 5 kilometers of the UCI Road World Championships in Richmond, VA shows an exhausted peloton. The echo chamber of fans lining the cobbled streets, cheering in global tongues. The winding course highlights city features, the 50 mile pedestrian trail to Williamsburg, Libby Hill, Governor Street, world culture shining in America, and Sagan’s all around cycling skills. He only had a couple bike length’s lead over the last cobbled climb, but opened the gap zipping through the twisty turns, and extended it further with unrelenting commitment across the flats. And the way his competitors great him after the race!
An incredible ride by Sagan, steadfastness, control and skill in the midst of seeming chaos. The discipline of saving energy, then unleashing his heart’s desires at just the right moment. Cycling is a global sport and a spiritual journey. Sagan used the microphone after the race to call attention to the plight of refugees, and articulate a vision for shared prosperity for all humanity. He won the road world championships again in 2016 to continue his reign. We keep learning!
Virginia Commonwealth University is our Bike Org of the Month for November, 2016.
Detail on the course in Richmond here: https://www.usacycling.org/richmond-2015-unveils-courses-for-2015-uci-road-world-championships.htm
A previous blog post on Sagan’s Richmond victory: Achieve World Peace Through Bicycling
Bike Yogi 