Stanislaus County bicycling club energized by pedal power

You can see them most any Sunday afternoon coasting into the parking lot at east Modesto’s Village One Shopping Center, clad in bright colors, smiling and reveling in their camaraderie.

They’re also likely reveling in their accomplishment.

Members of the Stanislaus Bicycle Club gather weekly at the center for their Sunday Afternoon Ride, usually a 15- to 30-mile trek. It’s just one of several cycling options offered across the region by and for this merry band of long-distance pedaling enthusiasts. Organized rides offer something for beginners to pros, ranging from strenuous to leisurely, long to short.

Club members also gather for other weekly rides, monthly rides and special events. On Friday mornings, they meet at Karen Shoup’s home in Riverbank for their weekly jaunt from there to an Oakdale restaurant, where they stop for a meal before heading onward to Woodward Reservoir, then back to Riverbank. Shoup and her husband have been leading the breakfast ride for 11 years.

For members, the club is social, informational, active – and for some, competitive.

“As people are in a club, you get more competitive,” said Jim Pyatt, who just recently took over the reins as president. “We all have, I believe, some competitive edge to us.”

Pyatt is an ultracyclist, so his competitive edge perhaps drives him even further than others. He is training for a 928-mile ride in June from Oceanside to Durango, Colo., with a goal of completing it in 52 hours. But he enjoys some of the less intense perks of the club, too, he said – country roads, fresh air, nature and the health benefits cycling provides.

May is National Bike Month and several events are planned in Modesto this week for enthusiasts to celebrate, including an expo, Bike to Work Day and the Family Cycling Festival & Criterium.

The Stanislaus Bicycle Club began in 1982 and today has about 80 members. In addition to the group rides, members meet the second Tuesday most months from October to April to hear speakers share information and tips. At last week’s meeting, for instance, Pyatt spoke about hydration and nutrition.

From May to September, however, the meetings go al fresco, with organized family rides that usually culminate in a barbecue at a park.

Those summer meetings feed into the group’s motto, “ride to eat,” according to Susan Dion, president of the group for 10 years before Pyatt took over.

“It’s very social,” Dion said. “Riding to eat brings us together in that camaraderie.”

In addition to the joy of eating, many are pedaling their way to better health, Pyatt believes.

“When I started cycling in the ’80s in Santa Rosa, it was a means of physical activity, something I could do that was sports-related, and then I found it to be a great health benefit,” Pyatt said, adding that he rarely hears fellow cyclists complain about health issues.

Riding in large groups also is a safer way to trek, Dion said. Bicycle safety is improving in Modesto, some of which can attributed to the bike club’s advocacy, she said.

Club member John Gerling has been chairman of the Modesto Bicycle Advisory Committee since 2012, when it was set up by then-Mayor Garrad Marsh. The committee was charged with learning how bicycling “could benefit the community economically, socially, in health and fitness,” he said.

“I have to say, the city staff has done a nice job in taking our suggestions and in finding their own,” Gerling said.

Among the improvements are the green-striped bike lanes that have been added to many city streets, buffer lanes between cars and cyclists that are part of the College Avenue Road Diet project, share-the-road-signs and the Ninth Street bicycle trail that now connects the east and west campuses of Modesto Junior College.

The Ninth Street trail came directly from the committee – a problem that needed a solution, Gerling said. “There’s a lot of traffic between the two campuses and a lot is by bike. But there was no real safe way to get across the freeway. The choices were very limited and none were very good or safe.”

The city’s staff came up with the connecting lanes solution, he said, “a good example of the community working with city staff and getting something done.”

While there have been many improvements over the past few years, Gerling said, “Modesto still has a long way to go.” The committee hasn’t met since Mayor Ted Brandvold took office, and Gerling isn’t sure whether it will be one of the new mayor’s priorities.

“Budgeting now is a big issue,” he said. “I’m not surprised that he has not given much attention to bicycling, as far as we’re aware of. Who knows, maybe it will be an important part of the budget.”

While the city’s plans are unclear, Pyatt has his own goals for the group he now leads, including updating the bike club’s demographics.

“I want to see younger life in the club,” Pyatt said, noting right now the average age “might be around 50.”

Today, he said, too many children are playing video games rather than getting outside to bike and enjoy the fresh air. “I believe we really need to get cycling into the youth, more younger kids ... and create a culture among 20-year-olds, 30-year-olds.”

He would also like to get more people from the county’s other communities involved.

“One of the unique things is the Stanislaus Bicycle Club covers a lot of communities rather than one town. That puts some complexity into it,” he said, adding about 80 percent of the current membership is from Modesto.

The group also is adding “new life,” Pyatt said, to its annual Golden Hills Century event, a 100-mile ride beginning and ending in Knights Ferry that has been expanded and redubbed the Golden Hills Gran Fondo. Gran fondo is an Italian term that loosely translates to “big ride.”

“Gran fondos are mass-participation cycling events that have enjoyed incredible popularity in Europe for decades and have become popular in North America, Asia, Australia and increasingly, worldwide,” according to www.granfondoguide.com.

Along with the 100-mile route, the local grand fondo will offer two shorter ride routes. The Oct. 8 event expects to attract more than 500 cyclists from all over Northern California in a fundraiser for Second Harvest Food Bank’s Food 4 Thought program, as well as other projects such as bicycle safety and advocacy, helmets for kids, ride-leader training and share-the-road signs.

Large or small, advanced or for beginners, organized rides carry many benefits, the members agree. Gerling, for instance, is in it for “the fitness, the joy of going fast, riding in a group and getting outside.”

While he has lived in Modesto for 32 years, Gerling has been in the club only since about 2004 and wishes he had started cycling earlier – “at least the kind (of cycling) we do in the club.” He realizes that some who see the large groups pedaling through city streets and along country roads might not quite understand the allure.

“It’s a little bit like any extreme sport,” he said. “The general public looks and says, ‘I would never do it.’ ”

But for these enthusiasts, the allure is clear.

“You’re just going out with a group of people and getting a lot of exercise,” Gerling said. “I ride for both fitness and the enjoyment of riding in a group, and I think that’s pretty much it for everyone – fitness, social, camaraderie.”

This story was originally published May 14, 2016 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Stanislaus County bicycling club energized by pedal power."