Names like Philip Rivers, Mario Williams and Julius Hodge are common when discussing professional athletes from N.C. State.
But those aren’t the only student athletes to have dreams of professional sports. David Duncan, Hannah Whitaker and Joey D’Antoni also have ties to professional sports, but because it isn’t a varsity sport, the name recognition is non-existent.
Duncan, a senior in political science; Whitaker, a senior in art and design; and D’Antoni, a graduate student in business administration, are cyclists. Duncan and Whitaker are officers for the Wolfpack cycling and mountain biking club, and D’Antoni is the coach.
Whitaker is a member of the elite women’s team, BMW/Bianchi. Duncan has signed on with a developmental team geared toward cranking out professionals, and D’Antoni was a member of the Endurance Track National team in 2003-2004.
Duncan said he’s been racing road bikes for four years, and now he’s actively pursuing his professional license — a designation only available to riders who have worked their way through the amateur rankings to sign with a professional team.
Whitaker is quick to point out women do not receive professional licenses.
“There is no such thing as a professional license for women,” she said. “Women are under-represented and under-valued. There are domestic teams that call themselves professional. And they are at a different level than other teams, but it’s all sort of arbitrary.”
The pro leap
Duncan is presently concentrating on working his way up through the amateur ranks.
“A goal of mine for the near future is to do the national championships,” Duncan said. “You have to be a professional rider to do that.”
According to Duncan, before joining a team, a rider must work through the amateur rankings. The rankings start with category 5 and go through category 1. Only category 1 riders can be added to professional teams.
“Everybody starts out at cat 5,” he said. “You have to win races and gather points to advance.”
Duncan said it’s not hard at all to advance out of category 5 because the point of the category is to give new riders the experience of riding together.
“You have to finish 10 cat 5 races to advance,” he said. “To get from cat 4 to cat 3 you have to get 25 points. A win is worth seven points, and it decreases from there. You have to get a few more points to get to cat 2, and to get to cat 1. It’s kind of tricky.”
Duncan said he’s a category 2 rider currently, and in most regional races, cat 2 riders race against cat 1 riders.
“In the lower categories you’re racing against other people in the same category,” he said. “You just have to be a good rider in your category to advance. Now not only do I have to be the best cat 2, but I have to beat cat 1 riders and sometimes professionals in order to get the points.”
Duncan achieved his category 2 upgrade at the beginning of last year, and since then, it’s been a big learning experience, he said.
“All of a sudden I was racing against people who were faster than I’d seen before, and they were getting paid to ride their bikes,” Duncan said. “You’re doing longer distances and harder races there.”
Striking a balance between training and school work is always an issue, Duncan said. Varsity sports are given excused time off to attend their events. Club sports are not, which makes the balancing act even harder.
D’Antoni said racing at a higher level was easier with a 40-hour-per-week job than with an undergraduate course load.
“Work demands are generally more consistent, and you see them coming,” he said. “Additionally, it tends to be a lot easier to get into a set training schedule. David has done a really good job of balancing what he is trying to do, both with school and cycling. Life would be a bit easier if we were a varsity sport and could take time off as needed for races.”
Duncan admitted he hasn’t always successfully balanced cycling and studying, but this year he’s trying “to take a better approach to it.”
“During the season when I’m not gone every weekend racing, I try to get ahead on my work and make sure I know when I have stuff due and if I have a race around then,” he said. “With me actually trying to do well in school and race well, it’s pretty much school, race, sleep — that sort of thing.”
Different for women
D’Antoni said trying to make a living as a female cyclist is very different.
“Unless you are willing to live a life of poverty, it’s nearly impossible to do it exclusively full time,” he said. “A good portion of the top U.S. female riders have other careers, and I know that none of the top men do. The top women are starting to get paid a little better, but it’s still extremely rare.”
Whitaker said there are a lot of reasons for the disparity, including a lack of sponsorships and a lack of interest from female cyclists, which can lead to huge talent disparities in some of the top races.
She said the talent difference can be positive because it gives a lot of women a chance to get some valuable experience.
“If you have some talent and work at it, as a woman, you can advance higher in this sport than a man could,” Whitaker said. “But it’s also more competitive because you’re racing people at a higher level before you have the experience and training.”
The support for women isn’t as comprehensive as it is for men’s teams,Whitaker said.
“The payout is smaller; you have to pay entry fees for yourself; you’re paying your own gas, lodging and food,” she said. “It’s just not there for women.”
Duncan said it’s a much different experience for men.
“We have a van and a trailer,” he said. “Our team actually bought a house for us in Winston-Salem. If I wasn’t in school, I could actually live rent-free at the house. We have a coach, a secretary that handles race entries and I think we’re getting a massage therapist to take with us to the stage races. And this is still the elite amateur level — not even pro.”
Whitaker said she competed in the elite nationals race this year in the under-23 category.
“Elite is the top amateurs, but some of the top women in the world were in this race,” she said. “The professional designation goes out the window.”
Worth the sacrifice?
D’Antoni said he was an elite level cyclist, which can be regarded as “semi-professional,” for five years.
“All of my races were with professionals, but I was still technically an amateur,” he said. “At the professional level in the U.S., it’s really difficult to make a solid living. I wasn’t willing to trade my ‘real’ job to make $20,000 racing my bicycle. And $20,000 is a pretty generous estimate.”
Duncan said turning professional doesn’t translate into million-dollar signing bonuses for cyclists.
“If I turn professional, I might get a small salary,” Duncan said. “It requires the extra motivation because the pay-off isn’t a big as other professional sports. It’s more than minimum wage — maybe about $20,000 if I’m a decent domestic rider. If you get to the top levels of domestic riding, you can make about $50,000. You really need to be a successful professional in Europe to be making a real comfortable living.”
Duncan said it’s too early to tell how far he’ll advance in cycling, but he knows now he’s no Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France champion.
“I don’t really know where my fitness levels will top off, but I can pretty much tell I won’t be successful in Europe,” he said. “Genetically, I’m just not Lance.”
Duncan said he can reach his professional goals in the next year with some hard work, but he’s not sure how long he’ll stay in the pro ranks.
“There’s so much sacrificing to get there, and there’s not a big payout,” he said. “I can make enough money to support myself while I’m younger, but eventually I’m going to have to get a job. I can’t really see myself racing professionally much past 30.”
Whitaker said her goals have changed since she saw the realities of being a professional cyclist as a woman. She’s decided to graduate and focus on a career.
“[Going pro as a woman] is completely unreasonable,” Whitaker said. “I love cycling, and going to these national races. I saw that I could do it. It’s really attractive to me. But you’d have to be crazy to do it. I don’t know how these women afford it. A lot of them don’t have houses. They live in their cars and crash on people’s couches. They go to the local races, and they have to win to buy groceries. And these are women from the top teams in the country.”
