The Maverick magazine is a great way to stay in touch with current events at your alma mater, old classmates and the bright future of Colorado Mesa University.
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COMMUNITY CYCLISTS RIDE GJ VELO wants to raise $20,000 per year BY DEBORAH DAWES When is a bike ride through Colorado’s Grand Valley more than just an invigorating, awe-inspiring, challenging, healthy, fun way to spend a day? When it also supports your favorite collegiate sport. Seem like a tall order for a ride in the park? Not for GJ VELO, a community-based cycling group started in 2016 by Ed Chamberlin along with 25 founding members. Cycling groups offer recreational and social opportunities, but GJ VELO founders wanted to serve an additional purpose. Chamberlin had long volunteered with CMU’s cycling team and knew the program would benefit from additional financial support. Funds from GJ VELO membership fees and business sponsorships go directly into a CMU Cycling Team Endowment at the CMU Foundation. In addition to year-round group rides and logistical support for out-of-town and social events, GJ VELO membership provides a great connection to CMU, the collegiate team and on-campus resources, Chamberlin said. CMU offers winter training programs to the public in the Chamberlin Cycling Center, a training and maintenance facility in the Maverick Pavilion recreational center. GJ VELO’s goal is to generate $20,000 per year for the Cycling Team Endowment. The group’s goal is 100 members in five years. Almost three years in, GJ VELO boasts 88 members and 14 sponsors. Another benefit of GJ VELO, Chamberlin said, is the opportunity to get to know the collegiate cyclists at team honor dinners, volunteering at events and riding beside the student-athletes in the community. “They’re ambitious, smart, really cool people,” Chamberlin said, adding, “The CMU team is doing really well.” CMU’s cycling team was started in 1999. Ryan Cranston, a member from 2000 to 2002 and now owner of Ruby Canyon Cycles in Grand Junction, remembers those early years. “Cycling was a club sport then. We ran everything ourselves,” he said. Athletes were responsible for all logistics and funding for out-of-town competitions. Sometimes camping was the only overnight option, he remembers.