Cycling brings peace to the rider, it improves coordination and is beneficial for the body. Dedication and discipline are necessary in order to ride the amount required to increase body and mind performance. Gregorio Correa and Jeremy Gleason are just some of the “gears” of TCS. They frequently ride their bikes to school and even compete in races and other tournaments here in Medellin.

More and more people are getting into biking, and they all say the same thing. By being consistent in your training you’ll get a better and healthier body. Here in Medellin a lot of people are into biking but it isn’t that common at school. Gleason has changed this.  He started to ride bikes to school and for transportation but it slowly turned into a trend. Now lots of teachers such as Emily Butterworth, Andrew Ambron, Kurt Garbe, Trentino Parcells, Brett Roeper, Ariana Sophiea, Andrea Gil and even students such as Correa, Santiago Muñoz, Martin Rico and more are joining the biking community. Now there’s even a group of cyclers called the Bici Bros.

Benefits of Riding Bikes:

Riding bicycles is very healthy and good for the body and mind. By riding bikes on a healthy and normal amount can actually increase cardiovascular fitness, improve joint mobility, decrease stress levels and improve posture and coordination, explains betterhealth.vic.gov.

“I actually enjoy the experience of biking because not only is it beneficial for my body but also it brings peace of mind,” Gregorio Correa, TCS student, said.

Being out in nature, riding a bike on your own tends to be relaxing. You have time to be with yourself and think about anything thats bothering you. This leads to a decrease in stress and ultimately relaxes you more.

“I believe that it depends on where I’m at but normally its very calming and very relaxing,” Gleason said.

Insider Tips:

Gregorio correa trains every week and does specialized techniques for each session in order to maintain the physique he is in. But it can be just about riding bikes, not to ride professionally just like Sophiea and Gleason. Sopheia says that she has rode since she was in high school in order to transport from her house to school, college and even today to come to school to teach. She is not alone, as many of the teachers use it as a way to get from here to there.

“I use it for transportation, so I use it in the city but I try to use it on oriente “East” as long as the weather is nice,” Mr Gleason, said.

But for those enthusiasts training each week can bring a lot of learning to your life, but do have in mind that this is no easy task. Training for tournaments and races consists of daily workout that can go for up to 6 hours a day.

“I train approximately 6 days a week and I ride more or less 350 kilometers a week and it’s not like everyday I ride the same amount, one day it can be one hour, some days I will ride 3 hours, some days it can even be be 6 hours,” Correa said.  

What to Expect:

Biking can be either about training hard or riding for fun, but its always about giving it your all and having dedication. Sophiea says that even though she is the slowest out of the teachers to ride up Palmas it’s still fun and southing for her. This is a sport both of hard work and fun.

“At the end thats the big goal, everything is a process I cannot expect from today to become a professional in some time,”Correa said.  

Most people aren’t ready for a commitment this big, and lots of cyclist have ended their career because it was just too much. But the one thing you can learn from biking even if you ride once a week or everyday it’s that discipline to keep riding and following your goals. Both Correa and Gleason  mentioned that riding bikes teaches you something, it teaches you authority over yourself.

“You have to have a kind of discipline to pursue it,”  Gleason said.

“I’m going to be okay with it because as long as I know I gave it my best I’m going to be okay,” Correa said.