A article about Worlds from back home. So cool!

Biking the back 40 pays off for farm boy

Rider headed for BMX world championship

8:05 PM, Jul. 7, 2011  |  

Written by Jill Cecil Wiersma

Since he was about 5, Geoff Fryer has been tearing around on his bicycle on the 270-acre farm behind the General Motors manufacturing plant.

Now, he’s headed to Copenhagen to compete with some of the best BMX riders in the 2011 UCI BMX World Championship on July 28.

Fryer said he’s eager to size up the competition. He has been mountain biking competitively for five years but only competing in BMX for two. The next Olympics is in 2012, so he’s giving himself time to prepare in hopes of making the U.S. team by 2016.

“I’ve got a long way to go,” he said. “The people I’ll be racing against have been doing this a lot longer than I have, so I’m playing catch-up.”

After the competition, Fryer will begin work on a master’s degree in exercise science and sport performance at East Tennessee State University. He chose the school after graduating from Battle Ground Academy because it had a cycling team.

He was on that team for four years, earned a bachelor’s in exercise science in December and had an internship in Colorado Springs, Colo., with Carmichael Training System — the same group that has worked with Lance Armstrong.

“It put me in what I want to do, which is coach. It’s the coolest thing in the world,” he said.

Fryer’s past wins include the collegiate nationals and fourth place in the National Bicycle League Grand Nationals last fall. He finished the BMX season third in the nation in his division. In April, he competed in the U.S. National Championships in California.

Ramps fill backyard

His parents, Bill and Sue Fryer, said they’re not surprised by his hobby-turned-career interest. Bill Fryer said Geoff spent more time riding around on their farm than on their rural road.

Sue Fryer said they encouraged his interest, though it was frustrating at times. “He would build ramps, and he would move dirt from one place to another and pile it up,” she said, adding that they lived with a giant hole in their backyard for a while.

“My husband would get after him, ‘You’ve got to fill these holes,’ ” she said.

Sue Fryer said she can see Geoff making a career in the BMX/biking world. He learned to take care of bikes and eventually learned how to build them himself. She said she’s proud of his discipline; he’d earned a black belt by fifth grade. She said he’s always has been able to balance his interests with school and regularly made the honor roll at BGA and deans lists at ETSU.

“It was like a release for him if he could just be outside and ride his bike,” she said. “You can’t tell him he can’t do something. He will prove you wrong. He’s a go-getter.”

For more information about Fryer’s training, visit his blog atwww.flyerfryer.blogspot.com.