KINGSTON, R.I. – July 25, 2024 — Lots of University of Rhode Island students remember riding their bikes to middle school. For most, it was a convenient way to get to school, and was faster than walking. Few rode for the joy of it. 

Maybe some would race each other to school, just for bragging rights. But by the time high school came around, most kids were catching rides with friends who could drive. Bikes were stored in a garage or passed onto younger kids. 

Not so for URI senior in mechanical engineering Betty Hasse. Born in Providence, Hasse’s cycling career began modestly. She rode her bike throughout middle and high school. “I would always commute to school on my steel road bike with my big bags. That was fun.” 

At one point, Providence City Parks Department came up with a group called PVD Bikes, and it wasn’t long before the team captured her interest. “They were like, ‘You want to race bikes? We have bikes! Come hang out and do a race or two.’ So I joined them in the beginning of high school.” 

Her bicycling continued throughout high school, later moving on to winning multiple gold medals in the USA Cycling’s U23 (under 23 years old) Professional Time Trial National Championship. 

So how does she manage to win elite races, maintain a rigorous training schedule that has her riding 15 or more hours a week, and keep up with a demanding major? Hasse said it comes down to staying focused. “I’ve had a bit of practice because I’ve been doing it since high school. Basically, I ride my bike and I do school. And those are the only two things I do for the entire semester. I stay in my own business. That’s how I get things done.” 

As if being a gold medalist weren’t exciting enough, so far Hasse has raced in the Portugal Volta Feminina this summer and has an upcoming race in Belgium. “The Portugal race course is right through the streets of a small village,” she said. “It’s great. There are these old guys at the pubs who move out to the sidewalk cafes to watch the racers. It feels like a community event.” This season she raced in places like California and Vermont. Couple that with entering her senior year of mechanical engineering and it’s no surprise that she said, “It’s been a pretty nice year for me.”

The course Hasse rides most frequently totals 20 miles, with a single person on the track at a time. The racing association releases profiles of all the courses for national events months in advance so cyclists can either visit the course or study the details of the terrain, such as where the hills are, their grade, and their length. “You know what you need to focus on to get better,” Hasse said. 

To train for the time trial championship, Hasse practiced along Route 1 near Charlestown. It’s a long, flat road like the one she’d face in her race. “It wasn’t particularly fun” because of traffic, she said. “I’d go out, pedal for five miles, then turn around; it’s kind of like, imagine a paper clip.” A couple of days before the race, the team flew out to the race location to preview the course, Hasse said. “Three people on my team were doing a time trial. So we all rode the course a few times together. We pretty much chewed over every aspect of the course that you can think of.” 

Hasse and the other riders are completely focused. “Not much goes through my mind during the time trials. You’re racing so hard that you can’t really think that much.” However, cyclists use small radios that pick up information on their progress from their director. “It’s a regular thing for time trial racers. The director is in the follow-car several meters behind.” She’s been using the radio contact for the past couple of years, and knows what the director’s going to talk about, warning her about turns so she can just focus on pedaling. “He knows my time, so he knows when to push me.” 

Cyclists also have access to a new device that provides racers with a highly accurate measurement of their power expenditure while racing. Hasse has one on her bike, but rarely uses it because there’s a temptation to put too much value on the device, reducing the focus on the race. “It’s just one more thing to look at that I don’t need to see.” 

Training while taking courses in engineering “can be kind of rough,” she said. “It’s definitely a challenge. I usually like to do my rides in the morning, then go to class. I try to make an academic schedule that skews towards normal people time, then I can do my ride at a crazy-person time in the morning. If you get out the door for a ride around 6 or 7 o’clock, that’s crazy person time,” she said, with a laugh.  

Last year, Hasse said, she “hope(d) to gain traction and make a foundation for myself and be noticed by other people in the cycling world.” Today, she said she’s making progress. 

“I think that’s still an applicable statement. There’s a lot of networking, talking to people and making yourself known both through race results and in the cycling community. 

“I mean, of course, there’s still work to do. It’s always a project.”

This story was written by Hugh Markey.