Ric Damm

Ripon College has announced it will offer cycling as a team sport for men and women beginning with competition in mountain biking next fall. The Red Hawk cycling team will compete as a member of the Midwest Collegiate Cycling Conference against colleges and universities from Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio.

Ripon is the first college in Wisconsin to offer cycling as an officially sanctioned part of its athletic program and is only one of several throughout the country.

Ripon has named Ric Damm as its first cycling coach. A competitive amateur cyclist, Damm brings more than 10 years of racing experience to the position. Since 1997, he regularly has competed in the Wisconsin Off Road Series (WORS), the largest statewide mountain bike race series in the United States. He continues to compete at the second tier level of WORS, finishing as high as seventh overall at Iola Winter Sports Park in September.

Damm also competes as a Category 4 road cyclist in Wisconsin Cycling Association (WCA) events and at the Category 3 level in WCA cyclocross races. He is a member of USA Cycling, the International Mountain Bicycling Association, the Wisconsin Off Road Bicycling Association and the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin.

“Hopefully, I can transfer my experiences training and racing into support for our student-athletes who want to push themselves to new levels of competition in a sport that they love,” said Damm, who is also Ripon College’s director of publications and institutional image. “Cycling is a passion for me, and I plan to build this program with young men and women who share that passion.”