The revamped cycling club begins its official season this weekend with two days of racing in Allentown.

The 48-member club, which for the past five years lacked much in the way of organized racing, has come to life this year with a full slate of cycling events. The schedule includes a host of criteriums (a 40-mile road race of one-mile laps), road races, team time trials, a veledrome kilometer and a mountain bike fun race over the next six weekends.

The club's organizational overhaul largely can be attributed to the efforts of Club President Bill Heydt and Vice President Ron Glowczynski. Heydt came to University Park from the Allentown campus his junior year and spent a year and-a-half "fighting the system" to establish a serious club.

"My goal when I came up here was to get a good racing team together," Heydt said. "We're still working toward the future, but we want people to know that the cycling club is here to stay."

Heydt got the new program underway by obtaining The Ski Station as a club sponsor. Through sponsorship, the club offers members jerseys, race transportation, paid entree-fees and hotel stays. Members contribute $75 to join the club.

Heydt, who individually qualified for the California National Championships last year, said this year's goal is to have a complete team of five men and three women qualify for a trip to the NCAAs in Colorado.

"What's nice about collegiate cycling is that it's for everybody," Heydt said.

Club racing is designed with an A, B, C and women's class, depending on an individual's cycling ability. Top riders race 35- to 66-mile road races, while less experienced members race 15- or 25-mile class C races. All the classes gain team points.

"We're a club that promotes racing," Heydt said. "We won't turn people away who want to race, but we'll help them to compete."

"(Penn State) has the outing club and the racing team, for whatever kind of riding someone wants," Glowczynski explained.

Nationwide, collegiate bike racing is organized through school-affiliated clubs like Penn State's. It does exist yet on a varsity level.

Besides weekend racing, the club zips through the State College area on weekday training rides, holds Thursday discussion meetings and gets together outside of biking for occasional pizza parties.

While the club is short on women riders, women's leader Jessica Minard looks promising.

"She rides with the guys like it's no problem," Glowczynski said, "She's just gonna powerhouse right through all these women's races."

This weekend's competition will be Penn State-Allentown, a leader in track racing. The two campuses will battle for Penn State pride in road and kilometer track races. The club then travels to race Tufts and Army on April 8-9.

Because State College officials are unwilling to close off any roads for a race lasting several hours, the club is unable to host any races. Heydt and Glowczynski attempted to schedule a 40-mile criterium of one-mile laps through campus, to no avail.

"(A criterium race) would be a great Sunday event during the spring," Glowcyzinski said. "They're fast and fun for spectators to watch, because we keep coming around. I don't see how the University could suffer anything from having it."

"It would be nice to have the school support us, to have the students understand what we're out there doing everyday," Heydt said.

For the two cycling entrepreneurs, refining the club has meant sacrifices. Both have put money and time into resurrecting the program they love, and joke that the commitment could adversely affect their grades.

"It's all worth it to me when I go out there on a club ride with 30 other people," Heydt said, "rather then when I first came up here and rode all by myself."