As the University of Arizona Cycling Club sets out on their daily ride, the clicking and squeaking of bikes fills the streets of Tucson.
For more than 40 years, the club has raised the standard of cycling in Southern Arizona, competing in national events, earning awards and becoming one of the UA’s most prestigious clubs, with 59 members.
Joey Iuliano has been the club’s faculty advisor since 2022, after previously serving as the team’s president while he was a UA student.
“The best part is watching new riders fall in love with the sport,” he said. “Seeing someone who is just coming out on the Monday or Thursday ride, testing the waters, and they get more into it and start showing up for our more challenging rides.”
And he’s been a great leader, said Emmi Gilbert, a member of the cycling club.
“He creates a really inviting place to learn and improve with the sport of cycling,” she said.
“Joey has been incredible for the club,” added club member Avery Paris. “He came in and there was barely anybody on the team at that point, so going from that to then having over 50 people on the roster (and) sponsors that help us cover some of the prices that we need in order to keep racing.”
Iuliano attended Purdue University from 2006 to 2011, where he raced for the cycling club there and participated in nationals three separate years there. Then, he attended the UA to complete his masters, serving as the team president before graduating in 2022 and becoming the faculty advisor.
The club has rides every day of the week, with each day focusing on a different attribute to help riders improve. The group is split into racers and casual riders.
Easy rides take place on Monday and Thursday, when riders keep their ride to 20 miles for the racing team and 10 miles for the casual riders. Tuesday and Wednesday rides are more challenging, with distances up to 30 miles. And weekend rides are the longest, ranging from 50-80 miles.
Club members are divided by skill levels on a one to five scale, and each level has a different ride leader.
Along with standard road cycling, the club also offers a men’s and women’s team for mountain biking and cyclocross, racing that takes place on a short course with pavement, grass and hills throughout the course.
Iuliano said it usually takes riders a year or two to build up the skills and endurance needed to compete at the higher level. As they improve, racers can move up the ranks, and once they are in the elite category, they can qualify for nationals.
The club has won the USA Cycling Club of the Year from USA Cycling seven times, including in 2022, their most recent win.
The team has also been the Women’s road champions three times, most recently 2022, in addition to being the Women’s Team Time Trial (TTT) and Cyclocross Relay champions twice, in 2022 and 2018 respectively.
Now, the club is working to reach the 2025 USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships, which takes place from May 2-4 in Madison, Wis.
The team is hosting a Crowd Change page to raise $8,000 to send their best four men and women in the elite category to the championship.
The club has gone to nationals more than five times, including the last two years in Albuquerque, N.M.
Last year, the club sent 12 riders, who finished third in team omnium, a multi-race event that takes place on different types of tracks and is based on a point system. The club also finished in second in the women’s team time trial and fifth in the women’s road race.
Iuliano said watching the men’s and women’s teams “really start to gel together and perform well at races,” has been his favorite nationals memory as the faculty advisor.
To contact the UA Cycling Club, email the team at [email protected].
Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.
