Ex-St. Aloysius soccer standout winning races in first cycling campaign

The first time she completed a 30-mile bike trek, Lauren Edwards passed out.

After her first 50-miler, she became nauseous.

And following her first victory, when team members urged her to lift her arms in exultation, she couldn’t lift them over her shoulders.

So why the physical and mental anguish?

“I love it. I love to compete,” said Edwards, the former Lauren Hall, a St. Aloysius graduate, former Mississippi State soccer standout and now a budding cyclist pedaling for Pro Bike USA of Pearl. “I ride with a bunch of guys and it gets really competitive out there. When I started, someone said, ‘you need to race’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, OK.’ The first race I did I went out just to have a good time doing the time trial and I ended up finishing first.”

In the 16 races since winning the time trials in Monroe, La., in February, she has registered 11 first places and has finished no lower than seventh in her category. Cyclists are placed in categories ranging from Cat 1 (the highest) to Cat 4-5 (the lowest). Edwards is racing in the lowest classification, but is hoping to climb as high as Cat 2 by the end of the year.

Online www.probikeusa.comwww.usacycling.org”There is a racer on our team named Debbie Milne from Tupelo and she is a Cat 1 and she can smoke me. She is good,” Edwards said. “I hope to get to that level someday.”

Edwards, who is the daughter of Tully and Martha (Klineman) Hall and married to Pelahatchie High School baseball coach Brian Edwards, just completed a race in Colorado against some of the top competition in the world. She finished first in two events and second in a third event.

As good as she rode, though, she was still in awe seeing some of the Cat 1 riders, including Jeannie Ciprelli-Longo of France, one of the top cyclists anywhere.

“I saw her and was like, ‘wow!'” Edwards said.

The allure of bike riding came quickly to the Vicksburg native now living in Morton. At the urging of some friends, she rode a 30-mile trek on the Natchez Trace Parkway leading her to go home and pass out. Despite her first tiring experience, it caught on fast and soon she was riding competitively for the Pearl-based team. She bought her bike there – a $1,500 model that she said is near the bottom of the bicycle spectrum as far as price goes – and her blue and gold jersey is emblazoned with Pro Bike USA and several other smaller sponsors. The higher up the category ladder riders move, the more national sponsorships they receive.

Riding professionally would be a dream, Edwards said, but until then she is working for the Rankin County Public School system.

“I don’t have a clue if I will ever ride professionally. I know that right now, it is a whole lot of fun,” Edwards said.

The road has taken her as far west as Colorado, into Tennessee and even Cuba – Alabama that is, a small town located across the state line from Meridian.

The schedule will die down slightly through the summer months because of the oppressive heat, but the former Lady Bulldogs soccer player said cycling is in her blood now and her competitiveness will drive her even further.

“I’m competitive. It goes all the way back to the soccer days,” Edwards said. “Maybe I’m crazy.”