The local bike craze in Laramie is getting bigger with a new racing team and race hitting the scene.

According to the Associated Press, Rolland Cycling is the new racing team created by professional cyclist Eric Wright where they enter their first full season of competition this summer. On June 1st, they will race in the Big Hollow Roubaix which the team originally created.

The Associated Press goes onto say that Wright came up with the race on his own and wanted to support the local competitive cyclists who are interesting in competing in races, train together, and travel in regional races. Rolland Cycling has 12 members on the team and Eric Wright says "every member does a little of everything in mountain biking, road biking, and even cyclocross." Wright added,  “We want to use racing as a springboard for self-improvement, we’re just folks who enjoy competing and we enjoy challenging ourselves, and it just so happens that one of the ways we choose to do that is by racing other people.”

The Associated Press says Rolland Cycling was named after Wright's grandfather and that the team is working with sponsors on creating specialized helmets, racing tires, along with sorts of bike racing equipment.

Wright says the Big Hollow Roubaix comes from a city in Northern France and says " it's a more traditional spring classic road race, where some of it’s on gravel roads and some of it’s on pavement, and the weather might be somewhat spring-like around here."

The Associated Press says riders will start in Albany while racing through a 40-mile loops that takes them around Sheep Mountain and through the Big Hollow. In the end, they'll arrive back in Albany. The Press adds that the addition of the Big Hollow Roubaix is increasing the local biking season in Laramie along with the Laramie Short Track Series which continues on May 21st, the Gowdy Grinder on May 19th, and the Laramie Mountain Bike Series which starts on June 18th.

The Big Hollow Roubaix will be on June 1st and for more information on the team and event you can visit Rolland Cycling's exclusive website.

 

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