Cycling is at once a team and individual sport, but Ryan Parnes set himself apart from the pack in recent races.
Parnes, in his senior year at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Ca., stepped up on the podium during the 2008 USA Cycling Collegiate Road Nationals competition at Fort Collins, Colo., May 9-11.
A member of last year's national championship team, Parnes posted his best individual result at Nationals.
He finished third in the 60-mile road race in two hours and 32 minutes. In a field of 119 Division I riders, Parnes was just 17.4 seconds off the winning pace.
Parnes was pleased with his third-place finish, given that his large frame, 6-3 and 196 pounds, doesn't make him physically suited for a hilly course like the one in Colorado.
He said, "I definitely had one of those moments when it hurts so badly you ask yourself why the hell you do it, and you just want to stop and get off. But part of why I ride is to work through moments like that.
"I didn't stop, but I also didn't have the legs to go with the attack on the final climb. It's really a tough moment to watch the national championship ride away from you, but the lungs are on fire and your legs are screaming and you simply cannot go any harder."
Parnes went on to place 16th in the 100-rider criterium, which he said "featured one of the scariest turns I've ever seen."
He said, "It was a downhill off-camber left with a two-inch seam that swallowed wheels and belched little pebbles. At one point they had to stop the whole race to take people out on stretchers."
Parnes finished sixth overall in the individual omnium, and Stanford was fifth in the team omnium with 290 points, behind winner Lees-McRae College (473), Fort Lewis College (424), Colorado State University (362) and University of Cal-Davis (342).
In all, 37 teams qualified for the omnium, which counted six men's and women's races for an overall team score.
The week prior to the national finals, Parnes, who also suits up for Metromint Cycling in San Francisco, was the bronze medalist in the Pro Category 1/2 division at the Sugar CRM Hill Classic in Los Gatos, Ca. The race is legendary among cyclists for its murderously steep 23 percent climb up Nicholson Avenue.
"The race was an hour and a half, so we slammed into that sucker maybe 45 times," Parnes said.
The event, whose past champions include Greg LeMond, will not only stick in Parnes' memory as the race in which he earned his Category 1 upgrade, it was the first time his girlfriend got to see him in compete in the saddle.
"So I had to pull out a special ride," he joshed.
A graduate of Vermont's Putney School, Parnes also attended Wood River High School and Silver Creek Alternative School, both in Hailey. He went to grade school at Ketchum's Hemingway Elementary and also to The Community School and Wood River Middle School in Hailey.
"Geez, I almost hit 'em all," said Parnes about his diverse schooling background. "I love Ketchum to death—it'll always be my home."
Parnes is an athlete who participated in many sports growing up, including lacrosse, baseball and cross-country skiing. He is the eldest of three children of Kate and Andy Parnes. His siblings are Dan and Devyn. Ryan picked up his father's road bike four years ago and immediately connected to the sport.
"I found my dad's old Miyata road bike. It was older than I was, but still resplendent in white splashed with neon geometric accents," Parnes recalled. "I took it out for a spin and it blew my mind. Who knew skinny tires would let you go so fast!"
Just like white rice, Parnes was instantly converted, and began participating in the Wednesday Night bike rides put on by The Elephant's Perch and joined the Stanford cycling team as a freshman.
Nappy Neaman, who organizes the Perch's rides, remembers when Parnes showed up four years ago.
"He was scary at first. You had no idea how good he was going to be," Neaman said. "He needed a place to put all that strength and ability, not to mention to find a place in his helmet for all that hair. Next thing you know he's winning a national championship and a Cat 1. Amazing."
After graduating this spring with a degree in International Relations with a focus on Russia, Parnes will travel to Europe with Metromint teammate Mitch Trux to compete in some of cycling's toughest competitions in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, as well as travel some of the sport's most hallowed roads.
"It's going to be incredible to get a chance to live, train and race in country where cycling is actually respected, instead of being that fringe-sport weirdo in spandex who's always dodging cars," Parnes said.
Dreams don't come cheap; thus the "Race to Belgium" is a fund-raising effort to support the cyclists in their dream of racing professionally in Europe. The pair would like to generate $6,000 to help defray the cost of competing and traveling.
"Race to Belgium funds will only be used for the expenses of life as a bike racer and not for the sampling of Belgium ales or souvenir purchases of the yellow flag of Flanders," the Web site, www.racetobelgium, states.
While competing in Europe, Parnes and Trux will donate any prize money they earn to Trips for Kids, a non-profit organization based in Marin County, Calif., that "provides opportunities for inner-city and underprivileged youth to experience the wonders of the natural world from the seat of a bike."
Any funds raised above the original sum will be donated to the same organization.
While he has yet to discover if his dreams will pan out, Parnes knows that after four years seriously dedicated to academia, it's time to give racing a sincere shot.
"I'm going to try to spend next year racing my bike. It's really hard to do professionally, but I figure if I don't at least give it a go I'd kick myself forever," Parnes said.
Ryan Parnes and his sister, Devyn, celebrate after his third-place finish at the 2008 USA Cycling Collegiate Road Nationals at Fort Collins, Colo., earlier this month. "I'm blessed to have such a supportive family," Parnes said Photo by
