Buffalo Bicycle Classic

Cycling tradition meets biomechanics at CU

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 18:47:46 +0000

Cycling tradition meets biomechanics at CU Rachel Sauer Thu, 07/31/2025 - 12:47

Cody DeBos

In time for Buffalo Bicycle Classic, ��ϳԹ� researchers challenge cycling norms that stiff cycling-shoe soles are essential for efficient riding

Years ago, Rodger Kram, a biomechanics researcher and now ��ϳԹ� associate professor emeritus of integrative physiology, offered a student in his lab a challenge.

Asher Straw, a sophomore at the time and an avid cyclist, was convinced that stiff, carbon fiber soles were essential for serious riders because they made for more efficient pedaling. Kram, with a twinkle in his eye, disagreed.

“I provocatively said that I didn’t think they made any difference,” Kram recalls. “I figured even very flexible running shoes would be just as efficient as carbon fiber cycling shoes when riding at a steady pace and moderate intensity.”

Rodger Kram is a biomechanics researcher and ��ϳԹ� associate professor emeritus aof integrative physiology.

Straw was determined to prove his professor wrong. So, the two set out on a small but illuminating study and found that ultra-stiff shoes didn’t offer improved efficiency during moderate cycling.

But that was just the beginning.

Kram and his students have since spent nearly a decade exploring a deceptively simple question: How stiff does a cycling shoe really need to be?

The answer, it turns out, may surprise even the most gear-obsessed riders.

The stiffness myth

Carbon fiber shoes have been marketed as the gold standard for years, and riders have adopted the message. These shoes are sleek and featherlight, and their unyielding soles allegedly transfer more power from leg to pedal.

Kram’s research team, including then-graduate student Tripp Hurt, conducted a study to test the limits of this belief. They equipped trained cyclists with a set of three identical shoes, each fitted with a unique sole material of varying stiffness. The cyclists were then asked to sprint as hard as possible up a 50-meter stretch of road in each pair.

After multiple experiments, the researchers had their answer.

“There was a breakpoint,” Kram says. “Below a certain stiffness, sprint performance does trail off.”

But not by much. Going from nylon soles (a very stiff reference) to a medium-stiff TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) sole caused only a 3.1% drop in maximal one-second power output. The more flexible, soft TPU sole yielded a further power-output decrease of just 2.4%. At those levels, most cyclists wouldn’t notice the difference.

“The $150 shoes were just as good as the $450 shoes,” Kram says.

Comfort over carbon

“For most of us, like riders in the Buffalo Bicycle Classic, there are far more important qualities in a shoe beyond sprint performance. Are they comfortable would be number one. Do they fit your foot?” Kram asks, adding that when picking out new shoes, “sole stiffness should be way down your list.”

“For most of us, like riders in the Buffalo Bicycle Classic, there are far more important qualities in a shoe beyond sprint performance. Are they comfortable would be number one. Do they fit your foot?” asks researcher Rodger Kram. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

It’s a refreshing perspective in a world where the latest (and often most expensive) iterations are always advertised the loudest. Stiff soles may seem impressive in an ad, but they aren’t always practical, Kram says. They can even be a hazard.

“Social riders often stop for a snack or coffee, and it’s easy to fall when trying to walk in carbon fiber soles on the tile floor of a café,” Kram says.

There’s also a growing awareness of carbon fiber’s environmental toll. Making carbon fiber is energy intensive and expensive, and the end product is nearly impossible to recycle. Though the sole of a cycling shoe isn’t world-ending, the cumulative effect of our consumption habits adds up.

If riders are sacrificing comfort, affordability and sustainability for just a few watts of power they may never use, Kram wonders, what’s the point?

Lab to innovation

That question stuck with Tripp Hurt, the aforementioned ��ϳԹ� graduate. Inspired by the science, he found Brevay, a shoe startup based in Seattle.

“I had my ‘lightbulb’ moment after a night out with friends,” Hurt says. “I started to think about my biomechanics research and how it was relevant to the overall cycling market. We see these results, but nothing has changed about the way cycling companies were building their product.”

So, Hurt decided to build a new kind of shoe. Brevay’s first model, the Road One, will be a high-performance road cycling shoe made from sustainable materials.

“Sustainability and performance are the north star for Brevay. We’re the first brand developing a sustainable cycling shoe, so the market is unproven if this is a category that cyclists are interested in. But we’re building it anyway,” Hurt says.

This year, Rodger Kram will work at the Buffalo Bicycle Classic aid station near his home in Ward, handing out water and snacks to the riders. Though he’s retired from teaching, he nevertheless considers it important to help make CU Bulder affordable for the next generation of curious students.

That means sourcing bio-based materials, investing in an alternative supply chain and pricing the shoes competitively with the high-end carbon-fiber models they aim to replace.

Challenging assumptions

For Kram, the research is about more than shoes.

“We love challenging conventional wisdom,” he says, “and cycling is a sport fraught with tradition.”

That spirit of inquiry is part of what makes ��ϳԹ�’s research culture special, he adds. The study, and its illuminating results, started with a student’s curiosity and a professor’s willingness to be proven wrong.

“It represented a major shift in my career trajectory,” Hurt says of his time in Kram’s lab. “I felt more at home working on running and cycling biomechanics.”

As elite athletes continue to chase fractions of a second, Kram and Hurt hope their work encourages others to rethink what performance really means.

For many, like riders tackling Boulder Canyon to fundraise for scholarships in the Buffalo Bicycle Classic, choosing the right shoe shouldn’t be about speed, Kram says, but about enjoying the ride, staying comfortable and being mindful of the environment.

In the end, as Kram puts it, “there are far more important qualities in a cycling shoe than sprint performance.”

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In time for Buffalo Bicycle Classic, ��ϳԹ� researchers challenge cycling norms that stiff cycling-shoe soles are essential for efficient riding.

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Four Buffalo Bicycle Classic scholars earn Latin honors

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 07 May 2025 19:09:21 +0000

Four Buffalo Bicycle Classic scholars earn Latin honors Rachel Sauer Wed, 05/07/2025 - 13:09

Beneficiaries of the annual scholarship ride win high praise from faculty, set their sights on next academic ventures

The Buffalo Bicycle Classic boasts that it helps promising young scholars, which it identifies as “some of Colorado’s brightest.” Four of its beneficiaries have emphatically underscored that point, winning top honors while conducting novel research on Alzheimer’s, breast cancer and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Four recipients of the ��ϳԹ� Buff Bike Classic scholarships are graduating this month with Latin honors, and one of those four has earned two summa cum laude distinctions.

Danya Al Nazal is graduating in neuroscience summa cum laude.

The Buffalo Bicycle Classic, which refers to itself the BBC and is not to be confused with the British broadcaster, is a multi-distance bicycle fundraiser for scholarships in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Paul Beale, ��ϳԹ� physics professor and the BBC’s faculty director, said the BBC’s team is “ecstatic that four of our graduating seniors earned Latin honors this year, including a rare double summa cum laude by Danya Al Nazal.”

He noted that the BBC partners with the Arts and Sciences Honors Program to select incoming first-year scholars. “That fact that nearly half of our graduating scholars completed honors research projects and successfully wrote and defended honors theses demonstrates the dedication and academic excellence of the students supported by the Buffalo Bicycle Classic Scholarship Fund,” Beale said.

The four BBC scholars earning Latin honors are:

Danya Al Nazal, who is graduating in neuroscience summa cum laude and whose honors thesis is titled “The Effect of Sleep Disruption on Subclinical Alzheimer’s Disease.” Al Nazal also earned summa cum laude honors for a second thesis, titled “Sheltered but Still at Risk: Addressing Tuberculosis Prevention, Mitigation, and Treatment in a Homeless Shelter.”
Kate Timothy, who is graduating with a degree in neuroscience summa cum laude and whose honors thesis is titled “Effects of Time-of-Day and Circadian Misalignment on Blood-based Alzheimer’s Biomarkers.”
Maria Smolyar, who is graduating with a degree in international affairs summa cum laude and whose honors thesis is titled “The Geopolitical Chessboard: The Russia-Ukraine War and the Logic and Consequences of Carrots and Sticks.”
Stephanie Araiza Acuna, who is graduating with a degree in integrative physiology magna cum laude and whose thesis is titled “The Effects of Zinc Availability on the Cell Cycle and Proliferation in MCF-7 and T-47D Breast Cancer Cells.”

Acuna explained that her research finds evidence that zinc deficiency reduces the proliferation of two lines of breast-cancer cells. Her findings provide the foundation for using zinc as a means of enhancing the efficacy of standard cancer treatments.

Kate Timothy is graduating with a degree in neuroscience summa cum laude.

Acuna began working in the lab of Amy Palmer, professor of biochemistry, last summer. There, she said she became interested in looking at the quiescence-proliferation decision in the cell cycle via fluorescent reporters in cells.

“After years of studying mitosis in textbooks, I found the images I took of MCF-7 (breast cancer cells) to be both scientifically fascinating and visually beautiful, with each phase of the cell cycle vividly displayed frame by frame,” Acuna said.

She added that she appreciates the faculty who supported her during her undergraduate work. “You made me see science not only as a discipline, but as beautifully intricate art,” she said, adding: “A huge thank you to the Buffalo Bike Classic. Your generosity to students makes research like mine possible. Your support fuels learning, exploration and meaningful scientific progress.”

Acuna plans to take a gap year after graduation to prepare for the medical school application cycle and hopes to earn a medical degree. She wants to become a cardiologist.

Smolyar noted that the Russia-Ukraine war is complicated. “I spent months researching, talking to my professors and my dad (who is from Ukraine), and I still barely scratched the surface of what there is to learn and know about the war.”

Smolyar said the war has undergone a “nuanced evolution” to get to the point it is today. “Currently, there needs to be changes in diplomatic dialogue at the government level if we want to see it end. And the rise of China and the alliance between Russia and China is scary for America.”

Smolyar’s parents are from Ukraine, and she has family in both Russia and Ukraine. Additionally, she noted, her interest in Russia began in high school when she wrote an essay on Lenin. That interest grew as she took Russian studies and Russian history classes in college.

Maria Smolyar is graduating with a degree in international affairs summa cum laude.

After graduation, Smolyar hopes to attend law school and/or pursue a PhD in political science, although she hasn’t decided yet.

Al Nazal said attending ��ϳԹ� has allowed her to conduct research that directly pertained to her interests: Alzheimer’s disease and tuberculosis among unhoused people.

Al Nazal said the BBC scholarship gave her the ability to “take time off of work so I can focus on research, which ultimately lead to me being able to pursue two honors theses.”

She plans to take two gap years, during which she will focus on research and then apply to MD/PhD programs.

Timothy noted that her honors thesis found that potential blood biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease are affected by circadian misalignment and time-of-day. “This means that the protein is changing depending on if an individual is circadian misaligned (their behaviors such as eating and sleeping are out of alignment with their circadian rhythm) versus in circadian alignment and time-of-day at which the protein is assessed (drawn from the blood),” she said.

The overall implication is that future studies identifying a more robust blood biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease should account for time-of-day and circadian timing, she added.

After graduation, Timothy said she plans to attend graduate school to study clinical psychology with a focus on sleep. “This project allowed me to bridge my two interests while developing skills that are going to support me throughout my entire career. Additionally, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases are becoming an increasing concern for the aging population,” she said, adding:

“I am honored to have worked on a project that addresses the concern that we will all face one day.”

Stephanie Araiza Acuna is graduating with a degree in integrative physiology magna cum laude.

Timothy offered advice for current students: seize every opportunity. “This is your moment to make your mark and set yourself up for success in the long-term.” She also thanked the supporters of the Buffalo Bicycle Classic and all those who supported her at ��ϳԹ�:

“I wish I could eloquently describe how significant that support has been for me. The journey to graduate as a first-generation college student is difficult, but my success here is made possible by the generosity of this community.”

The Elevations Credit Union Buffalo Bicycle Classic was founded in 2003 and, with contributions from volunteers, riders, sponsors and endowed funds, the event offers one-year scholarships of $4,000 to 30 students, renewable each year if they maintain full-time status and at least a 3.0 grade point average.

Additionally, endowed funds provide $10,000 annually to three junior or senior students in Arts & Sciences, also renewable under the same conditions. The BBC’s newest corporate sponsor, Zorbent, funds two additional $10,000 scholarships to top continuing BBC scholars.

The students served by the BBC are some of Colorado’s brightest, with each entering CU with over a 4.0 high school GPA.

“Our student scholars also demonstrate strong financial need, which makes this scholarship particularly important,” the BBC states. “Our scholarships for these promising students makes higher education attainable.”

Since 2003, the event has raised more than $3.9 million, funding more than 450 scholarships for high-achieving, financially needy Colorado high school graduates.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about the Buffalo Bicycle Classic? Show your support.

Beneficiaries of the annual scholarship ride win high praise from faculty, set their sights on next academic ventures.