After a win over Louisiana State University at an event last month, the Nicholls cycling team has a newfound burst of popularity.
Jonathan Comeaux, a chemistry major from Napoleonville, is the captain and founder of the cycling team at Nicholls. His vision was to start a team where anyone that had an interest in bicycling could join and ride competitively.
“I used to be really involved in competitive cycling and I wanted to get back into it, so I found Dr. Scott Banville to sponsor and started the Nicholls Cycling Team,” Comeaux said.
Over the past three years, the club sport has grown from one to 10 members and the team is always looking to add more people. According to Comeaux, any Nicholls student can join the cycling team and can participate in races and events.
Comeaux says that this has been a big year for the cycling team. They have gained six new members since last year along with two women on the team.
They have competed at three different schools so far but, according to Comeaux, the race at LSU was one for the books.
“We beat LSU in an overall score as a team,” Comeaux said. “It’s always a great feeling to win, but beating this school was a milestone for the team.”
Cycling competitively is relatively new on college campuses and Nicholls is one of the newer teams in the state.
“LSU’s team consisted of people that were more experienced than us, so it felt amazing to win,” Comeaux said.
Comeaux will be graduating in December, and he hopes that he can see the club sport grow bigger and bigger in the near future.
“I started this club just for fun three years ago, and to see it grow into something that Nicholls students talk about and want to join would be rewarding within itself,” Comeaux said.
Seven of the 10 team members are going to the conference races at Midwestern State University in Texas in two weeks, so Comeaux is hoping for the team to do well.
The team will be competing in three events at conference including road race and time trial and criteria which range from timed events to actual races against other teams at once. Conference adds up the team members scores overall for a final score and the members get awards if they do well individually.
“I hope we can do well not only in individual scores, but as a team as well,” Comeaux said.
The team will know their regional ranking after the conference races, and the goal for Comeaux is to get in better place than last year.
“Progression is the motive,” Comeaux said. “Any improvement will be a victory for me.”
Comeaux hopes that he can pass the torch on to the cycling team and see it progress further than it already has.
“Cycling is a great sport, and I really do not want to see it die out,“Comeaux said.