Competitive cycling is alive and well in Cleveland with a team by the name of Cleveland Clinic Sports Health -- RGF presented by Felt Bicycles that draws talented cyclists of all ages.
View full sizeJeremy Grimm, front, says the cycling team he is a member of offers welcome balance between his competitive drive and his desire to spend time with family.Adam Leibovitz's dream is to one day compete in the Tour de France.
Both are trying to achieve their seemingly disparate aspirations in the untraditional cycling hotbed of Cleveland while competing with a mouthful of a team named Cleveland Clinic Sports Health -- RGF presented by Felt Bicycles.
The elite team has been operating in Cleveland since 2006 as an evolving ambition of team owner Robert "Polo" Fernandez to create one of the elite cycling teams in the country.
"My goal is to have a team based in Cleveland that is invited to participate in the Tour de France someday," Fernandez said.
It's a lofty goal for an area that is a bit low on mountains to prepare for the trials of the Alps, but the idea is that the team aims high. So far this racing season, Cleveland Clinic Sports Health has won 20 of about 45 races; Fernandez's goal before the season began was 40 in the season.
"If you can win one-third of the races we enter, that's pretty impressive," Fernandez said. "I'm extremely happy with that."
The team is broken into segments that compete at different levels and races in a season that begins in April and lasts until September. The Elite Team is made up of six cyclists of various ages -- including Grimm and Leibovitz.
The U-23 team is five members strong, all under the age of 23. Regional and Masters Teams round out the 19-person team that operates under Jeff Braumberger, the team director who is a former pro who cycled at the highest levels.
The team was selected from about 60 applications, and has brought together cyclists like 19-year-old college student Leibovitz and 35-year-old Grimm.
Leibovitz, who is from Indianapolis, has raced for the USA junior national team and hopes to become a pro cyclist. While he's on summer break from Marian University, Leibovitz decided to join the Cleveland Clinic Sports Health team with hopes it could help him improve his skills.
"It looked like a good program and had a bunch of good guys and fully supported," Leibovitz said. "It was just ideal for what I wanted to try to accomplish."
Grimm, meanwhile, was a competitive cyclist from ages 6-12. He discovered baseball and focused on that as a teenager -- until Lyme disease derailed his athletic dreams in his late teens. He recovered and returned to cycling in 2001, finding Fernandez's team a welcome balance between his competitive drive and his desire to spend as much time with his family as possible.
"[Fernandez] had the sponsorship to help me and he knows my values," Grimm said. "He knows with my family that it's hard to travel all the time. With the money he has provided me through sponsorship and the hard work he's done, it's perfect."
Grimm still travels most weekends during the summer, as he did when he placed ninth in the July 10 Meijer Grand Cycling Classic in Grand Rapids, Mich. But the 30-35 sponsors for the team help offset the costs of equipment and travel, and help make Cleveland Clinic Sports Health one of the top teams in the Midwest.
"I treat this like a business," said Fernandez, who also races with the team. "Ultimately the goal is that our sponsors are super happy and our athletes travel together, look professional, act professional, and are committed to a pretty rigorous cycling schedule."
And maybe that schedule might one day include trips to overseas races.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jvalade@plaind.com, 216-999-4654