EDWARDSVILLE - Lane Kaburick, a former player on the football team at Edwardsville High School, has taken up bicycle racing and had a good showing in the BuseyBank Edwardsville Rotary Criterium Festival Saturday afternoon in Downtown Edwardsville, finishing third in the juniors 17-18 race.
The Glen Carbon resident felt he raced well in the juniors race, but was saving himself for another race he compete in later in the afternoon.
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"I did the juniors race earlier," Kaburick said during an interview where he was getting his bike ready for his next race. "I got second. I wanted to save myself a little bit, because I've got a race coming up. It was a good race, there was just this kid, he got into a small break by himself and I just couldn't stay with him. Other than that, it was a good race."
Kaburick got involved in bike racing through a ride his father is involved with every Saturday
"My dad was a big cyclist," Kaburick said, "and he just told me about the Saturday morning group ride The Cyclery puts on. So I started going to that, started riding with those guys and learning a lot of pack riding skills and just overall, getting faster and stronger."
Kaburick is enjoying racing and sees some differences between that and football.
"Oh, I love it," Kaburick said. "It's definitely no contact, like football, so that's nice. I don't have to worry about CT or anything," he said with a smile. "It's super competitive and it's awesome."
To go along with no contact, as in football, Kaburick saw some similarities between bike racing and football.
"You have to put out a great individual effort, you have to apply yourself," Kaburick said. "Basically, your individual effort has to be what works together for all the team effort. So that's where it's similar to football. But I think that cycling's a super-aerobic sport. Endurance sports are crazy, especially cycling. I think, in that regard, doesn't compare to football at all, but it's just so much difficult. You have to be willing to push yourself if you want to push your limits and see the results you deserve and that you're working for."
As far as goals in bike racing, Kaburick has some simple goals he hopes to attain.
Right now, just getting faster, getting stronger," Kaburick said. "I go out on the Wednesday night rides a lot. I get dropped all the time, but every time, I go a little bit further. So those are my goals right now. Keep riding with the guys that I do now and getting faster and getting stronger."
"Yeah, I'm having a lot of fun right now," Kaburick said. "Cycling's a sport you can do your whole life. Obviously, we've seen the masters out here, these guys are way faster than me and they're 60, 65 years old. So it's definitely a sport you can do your whole life."
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