Cheers and Beers Through the Years:

Alumni Reflect on Beer Bike

The crowd is loud. The pavement is hot. And for the riders gripping their handlebars at the starting line, everything narrows to one thing: the race ahead.

Across decades, students and alumni have taken to the track not just to uphold a tradition, but to celebrate community and the singular thrill of flying down the track for their college.

While Beer Bike has evolved over the years, the heart of the day remains the same: riders chasing victory, colleges cheering them on and memories forged at full speed.

We spoke with alumni to hear their stories from the saddle.

Pretta VanDible Stallworth ’83, ’85 | Joy Roth ’99 | Frank ’95 and Raymond ’17 Cano | Colin Noe ’21

Pretta VanDible Stallworth ’83, ’85

Pretta VanDible Stallworth signed up for Beer Bike her junior year without fully understanding what she was getting into. A member of Will Rice College, she had never even attended the race before. “I thought, ‘I can ride a bike,’” she admitted.

She soon found herself training with a group known as the “wolf pack” — cyclists who rode up to 20 miles a day. The preparation quickly revealed how serious the commitment would be. “They had an entire program for the cyclists,” she said. “Before we even got on the bikes, we had to run the Sid Rich stairwell in formation.”

On race day, Pretta didn’t make the starting lineup. She stood in the lane as an alternate, watching the cyclists take off until she heard the sound of a crash. “Our cyclist had gone down,” she recalled. “The bike was in shambles, and they grabbed me and said, ‘Go, go, go!’”

Thrown into the race late and already far behind the other riders, Pretta struggled to lock her foot into the stirrup before putting her head down and summoning her will to catch up. “I told myself, ‘They will not outdo me,’” she said. “I caught up with all of them. Will Rice people were losing their minds in the stands. I will never forget that ride as long as I live.”

She rode again the following year, helping Will Rice earn back-to-back sweeps. “No place like Rice; no college like Will Rice,” she said.

Beyond competition, Beer Bike became a source of connection and belonging for Pretta. “I really appreciated the camaraderie,” she said. “Living off campus until my senior year, I felt like an outsider at times, but Beer Bike changed everything for me. I felt the belonging.”

Joy Roth ’99

Joy Roth’s Beer Bike story began in the 1990s when she was a graduate student. When the Graduate Student Association (GSA) needed riders for its women’s team, she felt compelled to step in. “I answered the call,” she said.

She remembers when the GSA purchased its first bike in 1997. “It was bought leading up to Beer Bike but was available for graduate student use,” she said. “I used the bike that first summer to get to work and to train for my first triathlon.”

Training was informal, Joy said, with only a few times on the track for bikers and, of course, Friday practices at Valhalla for the chuggers. She recalls the GSA alumni team embracing humor over competition. “They knew they would never win, so they leaned into it,” she said. “Someone would bring out a crazy bike contraption. Like a pogo cycle or a bike with a keg in the front instead of a wheel.”

One of her favorite memories came when GSA was invited to the president’s house after the race. Pool chicken fights broke out, and the moment lives on in a photo of Joy perched on President Malcolm Gillis’ shoulders as they faced off against teammates.

Joy raced for the GSA team throughout her graduate years and has returned many times as an alumna, participating on both the biking and chug teams.

What Joy values most about Beer Bike is the way it draws the community together. “Not everybody has to be an athlete,” she said. “Beyond the bikers, there’s the chug team, the pushers, the catchers, plus the orchestrator, and they all play a key role. It brings together students from different graduate programs and pulls in people who might not normally do intramural sports.”

The night before Beer Bike, Joy still attends the traditional chugging practice at Valhalla and the new manager coronation. For her, the weekend has become something of a reunion. “It’s great seeing people I haven’t seen in a year or more,” she said. “Some of them aren’t from my department or even my time at Rice. They’ve become my Beer Bike friends. It’s like a family reunion every year.”

Plenty of universities boast academics and partnerships, Joy said, but Beer Bike makes Rice stand apart. “It’s not just the race,” she said. “It’s that kind of event; something that’s grown over decades and become a tradition that might not fly at many other universities. That’s what makes Rice special: you’ll find people who push themselves academically and still know how to relax, laugh and enjoy the community.”

Frank ’95 and Raymond ’17 Cano

For Frank Cano, Beer Bike reshaped not only his relationship with Rice but also gave him an opportunity to share his passion of cycling with his son.

Frank earned a professional master’s degree while working full time at Texas Instruments and never felt fully connected to campus. “I didn’t consider myself a real student,” he said. “I never got the Rice experience.”

That changed nearly two decades later, when his son enrolled at Rice and joined the Beer Bike team. A lifelong rider himself, Frank saw an opportunity to connect with his son through training and competition. “He realized he could do what Dad was doing, but with his own beer-infused college twist on it,” he said. “It became his thing, and also something we could share.”

Frank began helping his son and his Weiss teammates train, drawing on his own rediscovery of cycling years earlier. “I could take everything I’d learned about training and cycling and bring it to Rice,” he said.

In his son’s final year, Frank discovered he could join the Graduate Student Association alumni team and soon became a racer, coach and cheerleader. He also assists the GSA student teams, helping with training sessions and cheering them on during practice as they gear up for the big race. “We’ve always had a fun, enthusiastic team,” he said. “It’s been so much fun for me.”

Training begins each January with track sessions, bike fitting and injury prevention, ramping up toward intense workouts as race day approaches. “It’s about safety, confidence and performance,” he said. “And showing people what they’re capable of.”

What matters most, he said, is watching others discover cycling. “I watch people realize they can do more with their bodies than they ever imagined,” he said. “That’s the reward. Beer Bike is the perfect place to catch the cycling bug. Win or lose, if you come out of Beer Bike with a love for cycling, you’re a winner.”

Race day has become a ritual. Frank arrives early with tools and spare bikes, helps set up tents and kegs, coordinates with riders and pumps up the alumni section. “My goal is that when a GSA rider comes around that corner, the sound wave hits them,” he said. “Goose bumps. That’s what I want.”

Some of his favorite memories are with his son. One year, Raymond raced all 16 laps solo as the only Weiss representative, beers tucked into his pockets. Afterward, father and son staged a chug-off, GSA versus Weiss. “I lost miserably, but it was fun,” Frank said. “Last year, Beer Bike was on his birthday, and he bugged out of his normal New York birthday party and came to race Beer Bike with me. He beat me. I got an incredible gift from Beer Bike in my life, and I'm grateful."

Raymond admits he wasn’t always a cyclist. He preferred basketball and soccer until he was recruited for Beer Bike his freshman year. “My dad gave me some training exercises, and I did pretty well,” Raymond said. “I raced year after year and eventually bought my own bike.”

Since graduation, Raymond continues to come to Houston each spring for not just a Rice tradition, but what has become a father-and-son tradition. “It's a moment I get to share with my dad,” he said. “It's a unique father-and-son experience. It's special, and we'll keep doing it as long as we're able to.”

Colin Noe ’21

An avid cyclist, Colin Noe first encountered Beer Bike when he arrived at Rice as a graduate student. A friend from his undergraduate cycling days at Texas A&M, who was already racing with Rice graduate students, encouraged him to join. “The idea of racing bikes in the morning and then drinking beer in the afternoon sounded perfect.”

Colin embraced the tradition, racing each year during graduate school while also competing seriously in road races and triathlons. “At my peak, I trained five to seven days a week, usually at least an hour a day — about 10 to 15 hours a week,” he said. “A few years later, I became the bike team captain.”

Since earning his doctorate in neurosciences in 2021, Colin has remained in Houston, where he founded PhD Design Build, a construction company he started while at Rice. He continues to return to campus each year to race as an alumnus.

“It’s a fun experience to be part of,” he said. “Beer Bike is a great way to meet people across different graduate programs, and it was a big part of getting to know people outside my field.”