British biker finds a new home in Bloomington

Charlie Deacon finds himself at home on the track. His months of training have paid off.

He feels the rush as he hops on his bike and starts pedaling. The wind screams in his ears. His nose runs. His goggles protect his eyes from watering.

This is it. His release.

He is able to shut out external disturbances. Nothing else matters but this ride.

He is careful not to touch tires with the rider in front of him, as he doesn’t want to crash and cause a massive pileup. His tunnel vision lets him see his tire, handlebars and the bikes in front of him.

He can smell the sweat from the other riders and hear the people in the bleachers cheering — but does not see them as he makes his turn on the track.

Cycling for Deacon isn’t just a hobby. It’s his passion.

When the white Star of America shuttle bus pulled in the circle drive at the Eigenmann Residence Center, the hot August sun beat down on the British exchange student as he stepped onto Indiana soil for the first time.

He carried no bags and hadn’t showered or charged his phone or laptop for a day.
A delay at the airport in Chicago caused his luggage to be put on another flight to Indianapolis, and with the help of a map, he found his way to Wright Quad.

This was to be his home for the next ten months, and the Wright Cycling team would soon give him his own special place on campus.

“It was scary,” Deacon said. “I was astounded at the size of this place. My campus (University of Kent) at home is only 200 acres.”

He discovered IU through his friend Ben Richardson, whom he met last year when Richardson was an exchange student at the University of Kent. Richardson spoke highly of IU, and it was enough to convince Deacon to put IU on the list of his top three American schools at which to study.

The two of them cycled together on the University of Kent cycling team, where their friendship blossomed.

After meeting through club social events, Deacon and Richardson participated in the Land’s End challenge in the U.K., an event in which team of cyclists ride from the northernmost point of Scotland to the southern point of England in two weeks.

The two wanted to continue cycling this year, and got their chance when they learned of the Wright Cycling team for the Little 500.

“I’ve been cycling for years,” Deacon said. “I knew they did some cycling here, but I had no idea how big it was.”

He got his first road bike from his older sister when he was 15. During year 12 in school, he got a job at Waitrose supermarket and received a bonus of 900 pounds, which he used to pay for his own new bike.

After participating in the fall races, Deacon and Richardson were noticed by the Wright Cycling team who sent out an email to Richardson asking if they were interested in joining the team.

“I remember getting the first email from my coach with our schedule and I was like, ‘Dang, that’s a lot,’” Deacon said. “I was used to doing maybe one or two rides a week.”

The team’s coach, Chris Wojtowich, a member of Cutters from 1997-2000 and two-time Little 500 champion, is in his first year coaching the Wright Cycling team.
He has been the coach of the Teter women’s team for 10 years, and was asked to coach the Wright team by junior RJ Thomas, whose sister is on the Teter team.

“Charlie is more laid back than a lot of us, he likes to still have fun,” Wojtowich said. “I like his emails because I can understand his English better. When I talk to him on the phone it’s like, ‘What was that?’ He is super British.”

Deacon uses what his teammates call Britishisms, or slang that is only used in England, and has caught several people off guard with sayings he considers to be normal.

“It’s a little bit of cultural exchange,” team member and senior Elliot Layden said. “We get a lot of Britishisms, and we get some vocabulary that we don’t know. We make fun of him at times and jest, but it’s great having him.”

The most common Britishism is “bloody knackered,” meaning very tired.

“I’ll just say things that people just don’t understand,” Deacon said. “I’ll say I’m bloody knackered, and people just crack up.”

When he got to the United States, Deacon decided to buy another bike instead of paying all the fees to ship his bike over from his home in a town near Brighton, England.

“I don’t like to live an expensive lifestyle,” Deacon said. “But buying that bike put me in the hole big time, right in the beginning of the year.”

To help, he got a job in Wright Food Court, which consumes a lot of his time but enables him to travel and get items for cycling.

The past two years, the Wright Cycling team has qualified in the 30s and finished 10th and 11th.

They are hoping to move up and finish in the top five this year after qualifying 18th. Their top team finished 8th in team pursuit.

“We really have the potential to do well,” Deacon said. “I think we can definitely get top five, if not win it. The plan is to peak on race day.”

Deacon finished third on the team of seven riders in time trials, and has caught the attention of his teammates and his coach.

“Just the last three weeks, he’s taken it up another level,” Wojtowich said. “He did really well in both individual time trials and in Miss-N-Out. Real impressive spring for him.”