Dede Demet Barry was not the first Marquette student who enjoyed cycling and she will not be the last. There are a number of current students hooked on biking. One in particular is Pablo Zuleta.

Zuleta, a sophomore in the College of Engineering, started cycling as a sophomore in high school as a means of transportation.

"Originally I started biking because you can get around places faster than walking," Zuleta said.

This spiked his interest in cycling and led him to participate in mountain bike racing.

Once he became seriously involved, cycling took excessive amounts of Zuleta's time and energy.

"I used to be going between three and four hundred miles a day," Zuleta said. "Last year I was doing a lot of riding in the morning. I'd get up at 5:30 … I'd wake up early and ride for two hours."

Though Marquette is situated in the middle of the city, this does not negatively impact a cyclists' riding routes.

Milwaukee's "definitely a cycling city. … I'd ride north from the dorms and usually go about 70 miles," Zuleta said.

The city may have excellent qualities for cyclists, but Zuleta believes few students take advantage of that fact.

"It's not a very popular sport in the U.S.," he said.

If you are interested in changing that fact, you can contact the president of the Marquette University Cycling Club, Matt Kaminecki, at 414-933-1246.

This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on September 15, 2005.