By day, they are government workers, computer analysts and lawyers. After 7 p.m., this league of men and women morph into quasi-superheroes. At Primal Fitness’s Parkour Boot Camp in Washington D.C., gym short-clad participants cat-leap on to 8-foot boxes with the ease of lemurs.
Love was in the air this summer. No one planned it. No one was looking for it. Blame it on chemistry—or perhaps the gas prices.
From the age of 12, Nick
Bax was bitten by the competitive cycling bug. Two years later, the Bethesda
native was crowned the Juniors National Road Race Champion in his category.
In 2006, he repeated the feat and added a national championship in the individual time trial. Last year, Bax took to the world stage and finished 14th in the Junior Men’s Road World Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico, Aug. 12. As a member of the USA Cycling Junior National Team, Bax took on Europe’s best young talent this spring and walked away with the King of the Mountains jersey at the Trofeo Karlsburg stage race in Germany. This fall, Bax will head to Princeton University, where he will pursue his other passion – rowing – and consider what to do with his cycling talent down the road.
MS: What made you pursue competitive cycling at such a young
age?
Bax: I started by riding my mom’s old bike on the Capital
Crescent Trail. At the Bethesda Gran Prix they did a juniors race for 12 year
olds. It was a 1-lap race and I won that by about a quarter of a lap. Then I
did a stage race in Pennsylvania. My dad didn’t expect me to do well, but I won
the time trial and finished second in the [general classification]. That’s when
I decided to stick with it.
MS: How did training locally prepare you to compete against
the best in the world?
Bax: Fortunately there are a lot of fast cyclists in the
D.C. area. We have training rides almost every weekend and weekday. If I do
enough of those, they are like race simulations. Beyond that, it’s just a
matter of learning pack riding skills.
MS: You’re known for your hill climbing skills. How did you
develop those on the local rolling terrain?
Bax: We have junior gearing [which is smaller than senior
gearing] and that limits how fast you can go on the flats. So if I want to get
away, I have to do it on the hills. We don’t have a lot of hills here, but when
we do, we sprint to the top of them. I’ve learned all the tricks to beat
someone up a hill. The short climbs around here are just as good for you as
long climbs – maybe even more challenging because guys that normally couldn’t
stick with you on a 10k climb could stick with you for a few minutes on a short
climb and force you to work hard.
MS: How does competing in Europe compare to the U.S. race
scene?
Bax: My first time in Europe was spring 2007 and it was a
shock to see how fast those guys were. I thought there would be as many fast
guys as we have in the U.S., but the whole pack is as fast as the fastest
juniors in the U.S. There’s a culture of cycling there. They are willing to
risk a lot more to beat somebody. For many of them, it’s a choice of becoming a
pro or ending up with a minimum wage job. There’s a lot at stake.
MS: You’ve developed a promising resume as a junior. Will
competitive cycling remain in your future?
Bax: It’s hard to say. I want to keep cycling, but it may be
more of a summer activity. I’m obliged to row during the school year at
Princeton. I’ll do a lot of riding as cross-training during crew season, just
not as much racing. Ideally, I’d like to ride for a pro team in the summers.
The big question is putting school first or risking it all on cycling. If you
don’t make it big, then you’re in serious trouble if you haven’t gone to
college. No matter what, I’ll never stop riding.
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