In a few short months, junior Ethan Stone has climbed to the upper echelon of U.S. youth cycling

Ethan Stone (right) in downtown Peoria en route to a third-place overall finish in the Proctor Criterium. (photos on this page courtesy Ethan Stone) (click to enlarge)

By Michael Belmont
Gargoyle sports editor
Posted Thursday, Nov. 23, 2006, The OG, sports

EVERY HIGH SCHOOL athlete dreams of dominating state competition in his or her sport, but only a select few ever truly do so. Even fewer manage it within their first year of official competition. Yet Uni junior Ethan Stone, an avid bicycle racer, has done just that, and is looking to do so much more.

Since joining local racing club C-U Racing in April, Stone has been ranked as high as 24th in the nation among riders under 18 (juniors) in road racing, a group race in a rural setting that typically covers 20 to 30 miles. Stone has been as high as No. 1 in Illinois in road racing, but currently holds a No. 2 state ranking and a No. 30 national ranking.

Stone has also done very well in criterium racing, in which cyclists do laps around a city path that is usually about a mile long. They race until an official whistle is blown, after which the lead pack must battle for two more laps to determine the winner. In this category, Stone is ranked fourth in the state and 89th in the country, although he placed second at this year's state championships.

Ethan Stone (right) at the Proctor Cycling
Classic Criterium in July. (click to enlarge)

At this September's American Bicycle Racing world championship team time trial in Utica, Ill., which featured amateur competition from all over the world, Stone's team finished sixth out of around 20 teams in the open category. Team time trial events consist of four riders on each team working together to cover a fixed distance.

Originally, Stone biked for purely pragmatic purposes. Because he lives just over four and a half miles north of Champaign-Urbana, riding was simply the fastest way to get around when his parents couldn't drive him.

“I was commuting a lot into town because I had friends in town, and my parents were both gone in the summer, so I'd ride in every day, and I started to like that,” he said.

In 2004 Stone purchased his own road bike, which intensified his interest. During the summer of 2005, Ethan took his new passion to another level by completing a 500-mile Habitat for Humanity ride in Minnesota with classmates Micah Berman and Hannah Lake-Rayburn.

Since joining C-U Racing last spring, Stone has competed in about 10 or 11 races, mostly concentrated in Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois. His ambitions extend far beyond the scope of what he's seen so far, however. Next year Stone will compete with the Vision Quest team based in Chicago, and will be coached by Robbie Ventura, who also coaches 2006 Tour de France champion Floyd Landis.

Stone's biggest goal right now is to compete in Le Tour de l'Abitibi, a seven-day race in Canada that is essentially the junior version of the Tour de France. In order to do so, he will have to attend the U.S. Cycling Federation's Midwest Development Camp and qualify for a select eight-person team that will be invited to the event. According to Stone, this goal is well within his reach.

“I could make it right now,” he said casually.

Surprisingly, Stone doesn't follow a heavily structured training regimen, nor has he received any sort of coaching up to this point.

“My training's been really crappy this year,” he said. “I've basically just gone out randomly and ridden really hard.”

Although Stone does participate in biweekly rides with C-U Racing, one of which is a practice race that spans anywhere from 40 to 80 miles, he does most of his work by himself on the country roads around Champaign-Urbana.

Ethan Stone after the Proctor
Criterium. (click to enlarge)

This year, according to Stone, he has trained solo anywhere from two or three hours per week up to 10. When he joins the Vision Quest team next year, he hopes to consistently get seven to eight hours of solid riding in every week during the school year, and 12 to 15 hours during the summer, while driving up to Chicago about once every three weeks to be evaluated by Ventura.

Instead of extensive preparation, Stone attributes his extraordinary success to a combination of psychological and physical characteristics.

“I've not gotten in a big enough crash that I realize how much it hurts, so I'm more willing to do stupid things often,” he said.

Nevertheless, Stone has suffered several crashes in training and one in a race at 20 to 25 miles per hour, although he was never seriously injured.

The biggest factor in his success, however, seems to simply be natural talent.

“My body seems to be pretty well designed for riding,” he said. “Most people train 12 hours a week, and they're still not as strong as I am.”

Should Stone make it to l'Abitibi, a jump to the professional level is plausible, as many of the riders who do well in Canada go on to race professionally. In any case, Stone will have plenty of opportunities to race in college since competitive clubs exist on campuses all over the country, including here at the University of Illinois. These clubs, he said, are a good fit for his abilities.

Stone himself hasn't dismissed the idea of riding at the highest level, but he doesn't intend on scrapping his plans for a day job anytime soon.

“It's a dream, and I wouldn't say it's an impossibility,” he said. “But in all likelihood, I'll probably be going into psychology.”

HIGHLIGHTS OF A YOUNG CAREER

— Hillsboro Roubaix, April 8: 6th overall among juniors (under 18), 2nd in age group

— Proctor Cycling Classic Road Race (state championship), Peoria, July 1: 3rd overall, 2nd in state (juniors)

— Proctor Cycling Classic Criterium (state championship), Peoria, July 2: 3rd overall, 2nd in state

— Illinois State Time Trial Championship (juniors), July 15: 1st overall

— Downer's Grove Criterium, Aug. 19: 6th overall; 2nd in age group

— American Bicycle Racing 4-Man 60K Team Time Trial World Championships, Utica, Ill., Sept. 10: 6th overall (including adults)