UCLACycling Profiles — Evan Christenson

For our fundraising campaign this year I decided to write profiles about some of our more prominent riders. Each profile was posted to UCLACycling’s Instagram page if you’d like to see more photos. They all involved a short ride/interview and some headshots. I had to keep every piece under 2200 characters, which was easily the biggest challenge in each one. Here is the progression from the first to last one. Cheers!

Thomas Lai has an infectious smile. It spreads rapidly through the peloton as he fires off a small joke- his wittiness always quick to the trigger. But it’s not his humour that pulls people in, making them keen to learn more. It’s his genuity. His eyes soften as he speaks about his family. “My grandmother raised me, but she doesn’t speak any English, and I don’t speak any Cantonese!” He’s giddy laughing at the absurdity of it all- “So we really just had to improv most of it!” His grandparents are immigrants from Hong Kong, and bought a house in Highland Park before the gentrification started. “Sure the riding in West LA is great, but it’s the east side that I love. It has culture”

The grittiness instilled in him from a young life in East LA transferred well to the bike. He started racing to have something different to put on his Ivy League college essays. “I was gutted to not get into Harvard, I still cringe whenever I see something with the name”. But after following his father to UCLA, Thomas began to love it. “I know I started for the wrong reasons, but I really love racing bikes now [...], I love the structure of training and getting better at it”. I warn him how bike racing isn’t all butterflies and blue skies, but today- riding down San Vicente with a tailwind and short sleeves- it just may be.

Thomas Lai somewhere halfway down Tuna Canyon Rd.

Thomas’ season this year has outrun any of his wildest dreams. He’d never won a race before February, and worked hard to finish mid-pack in high school mountain bike races. But so far this year he’s already won the Santa Barbara County Road Race and the UCLA Road Race, and is now aiming his sights towards his first trip to Collegiate Nationals. “This is my only year to really focus on bike racing. Next year I have to start the rat race for Med School.” After bike racing Thomas wants to be like his dad, a Neuro-Oncologist. ‘Do you think you’ll be the one to find the cure to brain cancer?’ I jokingly ask. “I’m 95% sure it’s out there. I just hope to be the one to find it”.

Bruce is a powerful character. His presence exudes energy and his intensiveness commands the spotlight. Our interview is a rapidly twisting maze of seemingly disconnected lives. A childhood in Singapore, a career in the Army, a distinguished researcher, Formula3, bike racing...the list goes on. Bruce served as an electronic warfare specialist in a combat heavy region, but after a rappelling accident left him with a broken spine, he turned to academia. “I hate how people go to STEM just to be a cog and make money, but I like what I do. I really think I can make a difference with it.” His research focuses on Immigration Economics and his fervent passion for it is obvious. Through the entire ride he comments on politics adding a refreshingly academic interpretation amidst a modern slew of subjectivity. He's concerned and informed. His intelligence astounds me.

But back to bike racing.

I ask him what he wants out of cycling. His aspirations, goals, dreams, wildest imagination. He won his first ever race last weekend in Davis- The pride beams from his face when he recounts sprinting out of the final corner. Winning is a hell of a drug and he doubts he’ll upgrade the rest of the season. “I really just do it for the fun, as soon as it stops being fun I’m done.”

Bruce is far too busy working towards three degrees in Statistics, Political Science and Geography to train consistently but still manages to make it to most race trips. We all lean on bike racing to let the steam off but some, taking six classes a quarter, just have a little more to let off on the weekends.

Ben and I sat huddled in my car desperate to warm up before an 8am start at his first ever road race. It was about 40 degrees in Pearblossom, and his pre-race McGriddle and our garish singing clouded my windows. What lies ahead is blurred- Bike racing is new, and bike racing is enigmatic. “So like...what do I do? Just ride my bike really really fast? Then what?” I chuckle. Where do I start? "Uhh...sure. Something like that"

Ben won’t win that race, nor the other three he’s entered this season, but his spirit is what I love about both Ben and the greater collegiate cycling community. His short time in the sport is marked by an undeterred, ineffable pursuit of joy. A spontaneous gravel bike purchase, bike-packing trips, night rides to the brewery in cut-offs, taco-spins, and mid-ride surfing breaks in Venice litter his strava. Last weekend, after the Sea Otter Classic road race he’s beaming. With a powerful smile he starts laughing “Everyone was singing Sweet Caroline on the climb! It was hillllarious! That was SO fun!” And almost every photo I have of him is characterized by that same smile while riding- A thorough shit eating grin caked with dust and framed by his iconic beard. Take it all in Ben, this is as good as it gets.

But Ben doesn’t see a future in racing. He graduates with a degree in Mechanical Engineering after this quarter and is taking a gap year to explore. As of right now that includes a bike-packing trip around Iceland, a through hike of the John Muir trail, and rebuilding his dad’s old Porsche 964. Maybe he continues racing when he returns to UCLA for his masters in Mech E following his time as a vagabond. But I'm willing to bet it'll be more proactive goofing off.

Duncan Clark under the bridge (haha S/O Kiedis)

Duncan Clark's ethos is one of those that is difficult to not love. It’s an endearing ethos which at the surface is light and jovial, but as you dig further it surprised with a dense ball of genuine goodness. His ethos is one of affection and one of positivity. His ethos is kind.

From growing up in the UK, an instilled dry British humor is part of his charm. We rode together last winter. His accent filtered through the pounding of the rain as we rolled into Alpine Dam. I was cold by then, and probably whinging. “What are you on about, it’s lovely!” Of course he was accustomed to the art of riding in the rain. Duncan got into cycling from commuting to and from Rugby practice, rain or shine. Eventually he’d start extending his commute, and after a leg injury left him sidelined he transitioned to cycling. “I’d already been wanting to start bike racing and I dunno, the injury was a good time to try it.”

His bike racing began when he studied abroad at the University of Washington. He won a couple crits early on at UW but returned to London to work in Finance. Now, a PhD student here at UCLA studying Statistics, Duncan’s turned something on. “I don’t know what happened, maybe I lost some weight or maybe I did get stronger, but yeah I’ve gone on quite well this season.”

Quite well is a hilarious understatement. Duncan’s been on a tear winning the Collegiate Men’s A omnium. On the way he’s won the Reno road race, the Tour de Murrieta Cat 2 GC, and placed second at our home road race. He’s downplaying his chances for Nationals though. The son of a bomber pilot, he surely knows the art of keeping a cool head, but I think he’s got what it takes. A svelte climber, punchy and fluid in the finish, motivated. If I were a betting man, I’d have money on him.

An angelic Frank Wyer descending from the heavens

Frank Wyer is an imposing figure. He sits wide on the bike, attacking the bars. We speculate of his past. “Maybe he wrestled?” “Judo?” He carries the scars on his bike and on his body. Tears cover his kit and shoes and his bike is a mess of replaced parts. Wrestling must not’ve transferred well to bike racing. But when we finally asked, he just laughed. “I did debate in high school!” Frank came from an athletic family, and a big one too, but the focus he shows today was honed debating. He speaks of it with fervently- the unease, the challenge. He followed his passion for it to Vermont and studied International Politics at Middlebury College. As captain of the debate team, he competed against the bastions. Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge. India, South Africa, Israel. “I loved it. Where else could I have competed against the worlds best?” And he followed that part of his life here. Now at UCLA, Frank is in his second year as a PhD candidate in Political Science with a specialty in civil war. He wants to be a professor, especially in his home state of California. But when I ask where he sees himself in twenty years the conversation drifts away. “Decent swell this weekend?”

‘Wait so how’d you start riding bikes?’ This interview hasn’t gone how I expected it- Frank’s past is surprising, but it’s fun too. “I started riding Triathlons. I ran a little in High School, and I could swim, so I figured I should try it.” Frank eventually completed a half Ironman, but he slowly phased out the running and swimming. “I hated the pool, it was so boring and repetitive.” We turn off Mandeville towards Westridge. I catch a cyclist turning around at the bottom doing repeats and chuckle a bit. ‘Huh.’

Frank’s cycling career hasn’t taken off just yet. He’s strong, confident, intelligent, but his taste for salt water and adventure get in the way of training some days. But I admire that. Balance is difficult in college, and even more so in graduate school. “Haha no I don’t party or any of that.” But for now it’s eyes on Nationals. We fly out next week, and the excitement is building. “I’m not really expecting anything. It sounds hard.”

Yes Frank, yes it is. And that’s why we’re going.

Rupert Cox stepped gracefully into leadership this year. He leads this team with poise and speaks with passion, but his road to Presidency, and a self proclaimed burnout is long and full of twists. Rupert was a strong junior racer. He showed early promise and has dedicated his life to racing bikes since his first road rides at twelve years old. He’d dive deep into the sport and only recently has come up for air.

His first coach Dmitriy would make him go to the gym to ride rollers. 2 hours a day, 3 days a week. His alternative Belorussian coaching style meant his training was demanding, and probably inefficient. Rupert laughs as he talks about how he used to be chubby. “Dmitriy would make me use a hula hoop with rubber balls in it to ‘loosen up the belly fat.” Rupert would eventually hire a regular coach and begin winning races. “My first year on Limitless, (his junior team) was the best. We were like the Bad News Bears of junior racing. No sponsors- just plain kits, and we’d throw down.” Winning Hill Climb state champs, Copperopolis, Little City Stage Race, 2nd in the 15-16 Nationals crit, 3rd at the Mt Hamilton Road Race...the list goes on. But after a snub from the US National team and some long months training to stand on the sidelines, the candle has flamed out. We sat in the motel last weekend talking endlessly of the things we’ve both given up to race. Parties, prom, money, time, family. There are regrets, and the question looms all weekend, “Have we wasted our lives?”

But that dying flame is why I respect him as a leader so much more. Rupert is the first to congratulate the new riders, to offer advice, and the last to quip at them for not having all the intricacies of cycling dialed yet. And his lack of seriousness serves to remind that we do this for fun still. Rupert shotgunned a Red Bull just before the start of our road race last year and rode to second place. And this year we laughed at the back before he turned it on and rode off. And as he enters his last year here our President once more, his future in the sport is uncertain. But his past is defined by it.

He answered the question late one night in the motel. “I’d do it again. Absolutely.”

Bryan fucking Kevan (pronounced Kuh-van) — Bryan *fucking* Kevan (pronounced Kuh-van)

Bryan Kevan is deceptively complex. I remember meeting him at winter camp this year- He rode a homemade carbon bike and sat in the corner watching our hectic melodramatics. The look in his eyes said something I wasn’t ready to listen to. But through the telling of his stories, it’s one I’ve grown increasingly comfortable with.

Bryan had extensive touring experience prior to his arrival to UCLA. He got the bug touring in Patagonia and followed it to Southeast Asia, then Morocco and Iceland. And then he left a job at the Fed to chase five months of bike-touring alone through Central Asia. The stories are daunting to even try to comprehend, and he’s quick to run from idealizing it. “What I did wasn’t safe. I was the guy Chinese spies arrested for camping in the middle of Xinjiang... My beacon went out along the border of Afghanistan...I got food poisoning at 14,000 feet in the Pamirs.” That look in his eye was one forged splitting a cultural void deep in Tajikistan, Mongolia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia…

And then he returned to start grad school at UCLA. Now working on a Masters in Biostatistics, his days are filled with early morning gravel rides, class, and making his own carbon tubes. He joined the team not to compete, but because he loves both the challenge and the camaraderie found on a collegiate cycling team. “I just like to feel strong, but I don’t ever feel the need to prove it other than to myself.”

We camped in Death Valley this weekend. It’s isolating, demanding nature made it the perfect backdrop for more stories, but they felt detached. Like the man telling them and the man that lived them aren’t the same person. They couldn’t be. But the signs are there- Bryan is ‘durable’ as he puts it. He ate goldfish, candy and peanut butter all weekend and dropped Ben and I while wearing ankle socks and a tank top. He doesn’t adhere to the standard rules of what cycling needs to be. He’s instead gone and defiantly established his own by making his own bikes and riding them his own way wherever he wants. His style is unique, and though he’s quick to not idealize it, we all have our own pipe dreams of living a life like Bryan’s

Rose pictured with flowers that are not roses because it’s funnier that way — Rose pictured with flowers that are *not* roses because it’s funnier that way

Jingyou “Rose” Rao is strong. She’s tenacious and resilient and her path to UCLA is a daunting one. She left her family and her home in Shanghai to come to the US for the first time, alone, at 17 just to take the SAT. And she returned to begin school here at UCLA soon afterwards. She knew no one in America. No family, no friends. So she returned to her love in high school- running.

Rose ran a lot her first summer in LA. She’d regularly run to Santa Monica and to the beach, but a knee injury would leave her stagnant and hunting for a new fix. “It was either cycling or swimming, and cycling sounded cooler...so I went to Santa Monica and bought a bike.” Her first real ride was from campus to Piuma, a 50 mile ride with tons of elevation. She was shattered and fell in love. Her first race, UCSB’s, went poorly. “I didn’t know what a race was. I got dropped on the first climb and then just rode like it was a regular ride.”

Rose, pictured with roses (for continuity)

But I knew what was coming. I press on for the next race. “At our race I got dropped again but found some girls to ride with.” And then she raced Davis. “I got dropped but worked with some girls and rode back to the pack.” At USC’s race she finished with the pack.

And then she raced Santa Cruz. “I crashed halfway into the race, but I got back up and yeah. I won.” And she helped our Women's TTT team win in Davis too. She was happy, but the elation wasn’t there. She returned to how she doesn’t love racing. “I went to all the races because I knew I could get points for UCLA. Even just for finishing.” The thrill of riding isn’t found competing or even winning for Rose. It’s the simple joy and camaraderie of the sport. “I did my first ever road trip to get to Davis. I’d never been in a car for 6 hours!” We’ve all watched as she’s blossomed into a strong climber and avid rider while balancing an incredulous class schedule. Rose is currently taking 6 classes and some of the hardest on campus too. She’s double majoring in Computer Science and bioinformatics with a minor in math and is known for her relentless pursuit of her education. She’s often found programming during race weekends when the numbers aren’t pinned on. But when they are? You better watch out

Dr. David Arnold. What a cutie — Dr. David Arnold. *What a cutie*

Dr. David Arnold is my favorite member of the team. His joy is infectious, both inside the classroom and out on the road. I took his class on Mathematical Modeling last quarter, and was keen to see how David’s humor and energy translated to academia.

David’s thesis was on modeling free surface flows in helical channels. It’s gruesomely technical, but he revels in it. On the last day of class he showed his thesis to us. He scrolled to the Navier-Stokes equations and shouted “yeahhhh!” as they came into view. His pace lifted- He was ecstatic. His passion for fluid mechanics was shown repeatedly- He gave us problems and lessons on it and in his office is a white board full of it. Where did this passion for fluids come from? we all wondered.

David was born and raised in Adelaide. His parents were sailors. “I spent my first night on a boat at a week old. I was in my first sailing race at two weeks old!” David would spend his childhood sailing. He raced frequently, and despite winning a state championship, he downplays his abilities. But the time spent in the water would manifest itself into his academic life. A young and bright mind, David would fall in love with Mathematics. And his career would bring him from Australia here, as an adjunct professor in the top Applied Math department in the country. “When I got here I didn’t have a car, so for a couple months I didn’t do too much. So I bought a bike!” He laughs about how his first rides around UCLA involved a lot of walking. But the walking would turn to pedalling, and now into climbing. Through his and Duncan’s iconic 6am Mandeville workouts David has developed into a talented rider. He won San Luis Rey this year after riding off the front and winning solo. But despite his strength David has remained one of the most approachable riders on the team. Throughout all these interviews, every rider has mentioned David and his impact on their experience here. I was skeptical of the dynamics of having a professor on the team. But after his impactful two years, we’re all sad to see him leave to teach in Australia next year. Thank you David for all you’ve done for the team…(and for giving me a C)

David and Ben ripping down Westridge. The last ride I’ll probably ever do with David.Are my eyes sweating? — David and Ben ripping down Westridge. The last ride I’ll probably ever do with David.
*Are my eyes sweating?*