The fifth Tour de Sem cycling event at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, will take place on Saturday, May 16. Participants, including faculty, staff, students, spouses and friends from the Seminary community, will bicycle 95 miles from St. Paul LutheranChurch, Columbia, Ill., to the original site of Concordia Seminary at Trinity Lutheran Church, Altenburg, Mo.

The cyclists meet at the Seminary, then shuttle to Columbia, Ill., for a 7:30 a.m. start. The ride ends with dinner and tours of the original Seminary site and other historical sites of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, provided by the Perry County Lutheran Historical Society.

Dr. Jeffrey Kloha, associate professor of exegetical theology at the Seminary and avid cyclist, and students organize the ride. “Since we’ve started the Tour de Sem, the response among students, staff and faculty has been great. Many have taken up cycling as a regular form of exercise, and I’ll often see guys riding together in Forest Park,” Kloha commented.

The varsity cycling team currently has 31 team points, placing them 8th out of 15 Division II schools behind Notre Dame and ahead of Ohio State University and Michigan State University.

The racing highlight of the season was the team time trial on March 7 at DePauw University. A four-man event, this race requires cooperation and skill in forming an efficient paceline. It was a very windy day, which slowed the times down and made teamwork even more important. The men posted a time of 14:35 for a 5.5 mile course, placing them only 11 seconds after the University of Chicago (but well ahead of Purdue University and Michigan State).

A smaller Concordia Seminary squad went up to the race weekend at Purdue University on April 4-5, but they scored some huge results. Matthew Behrens, Matthew Peeples and Ryan Winningham scored the first ever CSL collegiate cycling victory with a 1st in the Men’s D Team Trial. On Sunday, April 5, Behrens won the Men’s D criterium, with Peeples in 7th and Winningham in 12th. Behrens finished 4th in the Saturday road race. They scored 70 points that weekend (the total from the first two weekends was 31). So CSL stands 8th of 17 teams in Division 2, even though they missed two of the five race weekends.

For regular updates on group rides, visit www.cslcycling.blogspot.com. For more information, contact Prof. Jeffrey Kloha at 314-505-7566; klohaj@csl.edu, or visit the cycling page on the Seminary Web site at www.csl.edu.