Peralta cyclists ready to ride

May is National Bike Month, providing as good excuse as any to join the Peralta Cycling Club. Chartered through Berkeley City College, the club is open to all Peralta students, faculty and staff. It's open to commuters, racers and recreational cyclists. It's open to mountain bikers, roadies, track riders and cyclocross.

Besides, the jerseys and shorts look really cool. "When people see the uniforms, they want one," said Hanan Alves-Hyde, the club's president. She said she recruited five new members "just from seeing the jerseys."

The first-edition uniforms arrived in mid-May, after the club waited months for the order. It's just in time for Alves-Hyde, who will transfer to UC Berkeley in the fall--good for her, perhaps not so good for the club.

"She created it. She organized it. She got the uniforms. She's definitely the head honcho," said Mike Alden, club treasurer. But then he takes that back. "No, I wouldn't say 'head honcho'…."

While the phrase might not fit the petite, upbeat cyclist, it's obvious that the club drafts off her lead. Alves-Hyde started the club in 2005, hoping to make cycling more accessible. She felt it had a bad reputation as an "exclusive" sport. Within two years, the club grew to approximately 90 members, representing each of the four Peralta colleges.

Alves-Hyde attached fliers to bikes at the bike racks at each campus, and promoted the club at club rush days. She admits she paid out-of-pocket for miscellaneous expenses, to keep the club alive. She also paid the registration and licensing required for members to race at the collegiate level.

"I race, but I don't want people to be intimidated by that," she said. She's "pretty shy" about it--"sensitive to being a showoff." Understandably so. On April 29, Level A competitor Alves-Hyde won the criterium race at the Western Collegiate Conference Championship in Davis. Then, May 12-13, she represented Peralta in the Collegiate National Road Championship in Kansas.

Only a handful of Peralta Cycling Club members race. Others just like to bike. BCC English teacher Tomas Moniz, current member and former faculty advisor to the club, said he doesn't even own a car. "I ride to work every day," he said. Likewise, student Leighton Ford commutes from Berkeley to the College of Alameda on his bike. He said he rides his bike everywhere.

Treasurer Alden shares the passion. With five bikes, he claims to have a "disease" he dubbed Bike Acquisition Syndrome. Like Alves-Hyde, he races with the club, and he will also be transferring in the fall. "We need people to take over the reins," he said. "It would be a shame to let this die."

Determined to keep her sport inclusive, Alves-Hyde attempted to outfit the club for free. She wrote a proposal for funding to the Associated Students of Berkeley City College, which was denied. "I had to beg and grovel. I had to re-write it," she said. Finally, the student government granted the money for 20 uniforms.

She handed them out at the May 10 club meeting. "This is exciting!" she said, as members tried on jerseys and snapped photos.

The word "Peralta" stretches across the front of the jersey, with the Peralta logo on back. It's amazing how that jagged, circular Peralta Community College District logo resembles a bike cog--like it was designed to be worn by a cycling club.

For more information, go to www.peraltacycling.org or email peraltacycling@yahoo.com.