When he shuffles into Scholar’s Inn Bakehouse at ten past eleven on a Sunday morning, Ren-Jay Shei’s eyes are admittedly a little red around the edges. He’s shrouded from the rainy weather outside by oversized camo pants and a well-worn hooded sweatshirt with a graphic print. He quietly asks for a moment to go get some coffee.
Then he comes back, and he starts talking. That almost-sullen attitude of the quiet athlete vanishes and an enthusiastic and good-natured competitor comes out to play.
Shei, a Bloomington native and a graduate of Bloomington North High School, is in his final semester at Indiana University, and unlike most of his Little 500 peers, he’s moved up from his amateur status (now he’s been a category two cyclist, or semi-pro, for two years, barring him from participating in the race) as a rider and now serves as a coach for his team, Black Key Bulls (BKB), and a women’s team, Alpha Xi Delta (AXiD).
When Shei was in middle school, his older brother Chun-Yu started cycling. Constantly in the pursuit of being busy, Shei tried it out, too, and discovered he liked it. He rode in cross-country tours and in 2004, Shei began racing at the local level, often participating in Bloomington’s “Wednesday Worlds,” group rides that are informal competitions.
Racing is an innately competitive activity and “ a good way to tell where you stand,” Shei says, “I never really thought I was that good at it.” But then, when he was still in high school, Shei found himself routinely in the lead group of five to ten riders. At the same time, he was bumping elbows (literally and figuratively) with several Little 500 riders.
The college guys seemed incredibly cool, and they paid attention to him. Craig Lukens, in particular, was a skilled cyclist who spent time with Shei. “He didn’t have to give me the time of day but he did,” Shei says. At that point, Little 500 racing was almost a given.
Right after starting college, he started shopping for a Little 500 team. When he and the members of BKB agreed he would be a good fit for the team, he made the commitment to upwards of 15 hours a week to train with the team. In the 2009 and 2010 races, Shei was BKB’s not-so-secret weapon, one of the most-watched riders on the track and the bullet that was so helpful in holding the team’s place in the top ten.
He didn’t ride in this year’s Little 500 since he’s a category two racer. “We all knew going in I’d probably only be able to ride three years,” Shei says. “But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Scott Mueller, a 2009 graduate of Indiana University, who raced with Shei on BKB and now partners with him to coach BKB and AXiD, explains that the team missed Shei. “He’s so strong, so explosive— everybody had to be watching out when he was on the bike. He was that guy [who] at any moment could make a gap… that guy who all the teams are watching.”
Shei will graduate this spring with two bachelor of science degrees in biology and exercise science and two minors in chemistry and, most importantly for this phase of his life, coaching. This is Mueller’s second season as a coach, and he praises the workouts Shei drew up for each team each Sunday night. “He researches different workouts,” Mueller says. “He knows how workouts can increase speed or endurance. He knows how to mix it up but still focus on the race.” This includes making sure the riders were prepped with the fitness required to win and the ability to ride fast sprints with quick recovery.
Throughout the week, Shei and Mueller supervise workouts, which sometimes involves riding with the team. Whether or not he’s actually riding with the team, he puts a large portion of his time into the coaching— so much time he’s hesitant to put a number on it. He enjoys the relationship between the coach and the team. “You can’t rely on your athletes being super talented and they can’t rely on you having all the answers.”
It might be his minor, but this is Shei’s first experience actually serving as a coach and it’s something he takes seriously. When BKB took a training trip to Florida in January, Shei drew up the plan for the entire week. The goal was to train his athletes to be self-sufficient riders, so they aren’t only valuable teammates, but they have the skills to be riders for life. He led the group in yoga, core workouts and circuit training for fitness but also covered techniques like riding rollers (devises for training, which allow cyclists to ride their racing bikes in place— if you look along the sidelines at Little 500, the tracks are lined with them) and indoor training. Additionally, Shei showed race tapes, discussed basic race tactics, talked about nutrition and even talked about diagnosing problems with the bike. “I’ve had so many good mentors that it seemed natural to give back,” Shei says.
He’s faced his own difficulties as a rider. A bike wreck caused by a rogue fist-sized wedge of asphalt left him with a broken collarbone. It was a hurdle for him, both physically and mentally. His elbows are minefields of scars from bicycle-related injuries. These experiences combined with his research and classes shape his philosophy. Since he watched Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture,” he’s been intrigued by the importance of a personal philosophy for any kind of mentor. “What I respond well to is what I try to pass on,” he says. He’s concluded that for his coaching to be most effective, that philosophy will ultimately have to come from within.
Shei had to make some difficult decisions about his riders. There were eight eligible riders training with the Black Key Bulls, but only four were allowed to race in the Little 500. He didn’t take the responsibility of selecting the racing team lightly. He’s familiar with the feeling of not being chosen since his freshman year he wasn’t chosen for the racing team.
While Shei considers himself to be a competitive person, sportsmanship seems to be a greater priority for him. Shei has nothing, but nice things to say about Cutters’ star Eric Young, who has helped the Cutters win Little 500 for the past three years. While they’re not close, Shei considers him a friend. “He’s a really nice guy,” he says, adding that he doesn’t agree with people who resent Young for his skill on the track. “Just being around the track, you make friends.”
It’s not just the track. Since 2007, Shei has worked at Bicycle Garage, Inc. on Kirkwood, interacting with what he calls a “comprehensive” group of cyclists. These are cyclists who commute, race, tour and just exercise. No matter people’s motivation for cycling, Shei calls it a close-knit community. All of this interaction has led to a greater conclusion: “Cycling has become more of a lifestyle change for me in the past few years.”
His participation in the cycling community isn’t something Shei will say goodbye to any time soon. He plans to go to graduate school for exercise physiology in the fall at IU and continue to keep coaching his teams for as long as he can make time.