Saris' CycleOps Fluid 2 Trainers, which allow riders to train indoors on their own bikes, deliver road-like feel and progressive resistance.

Saris Cycling Group, headquartered in Madison, Wis., has partnered with the Ripon College cycling team by offering 12 CycleOps Fluid 2 trainers to the program.

"This is a huge boost to our young program from a world-class company," said Ric Damm, head coach of cycling at Ripon. "Saris' commitment to Red Hawks cycling is an excellent validation of our efforts, and their trainers will allow our team to get a jump on training this winter."

Ripon College announced in November that it will field a team for mountain bike competition in USA Cycling's Midwest Collegiate Cycling Conference in Fall 2008.

Damm said he and Patrick Walters, director of new business ventures at Saris Cycling Group, have discussed various scenarios in which Red Hawk cyclists may be able to incorporate their academic disciplines with their passion for cycling. "We're hopeful that this new partnership — in addition to offering a quality indoor training option — will offer students engrossing research opportunities in their fields of study that will mutually benefit their educations and Saris. This is an exciting proposition as these are precisely the type of real world laboratory situations that Ripon College promotes," said Damm.

Saris Cycling Group was founded in 1992, three years after Chris and Sara Fortune purchased the Graber bicycle rack company. The company continued to produce bike racks under the Saris brand and added the CycleOps line of trainers in 1999. Saris introduced the first PowerTap-equipped indoor cycle in 2004.