For middle schoolers who like to go fast, jump over obstacles and attack hills, cycling has become a natural choice.

“I always wanted a motorcycle … but dad said no,” eighth-grader Kris Schlee said. “So I got a bike.”

Schlee is one of a handful of kids who have joined Ledyard’s cycling program at Ledyard Middle School, set into motion by the Connecticut Cycling Advancement Program. The team is focused on mountain biking and competes in several events across Connecticut each spring. Competitions include courses a couple miles long with obstacles like hilly terrain and narrow bridges to test stamina and technical cycling skills.

CCAP offers guidance to anyone who will step up and coach a team, as well as offer training sessions for some of the trickier skills the kids need to learn. Middle school Principal Christopher Pomroy approached the faculty last year with the opportunity to create a team.

Though she hadn’t coached cycling before, middle school special education teacher Kristen Gallagher had coached cross-country and stepped forward to take on a team. She said she liked the idea of bringing a team together and coaching one of the only middle school cycling programs in the region.

While the middle school program is new, Ledyard High School has had a cycling program for about five years and now numbers about a dozen strong, said advisor Kurt Jannke.

Because of the individual competition and the timing of the spring season, students in both teams often drift in and out of the cycling team between other sports as a chance to keep up their endurance.

But the aspiration for the middle school team is to build a dedicated team.

One day in May, a group of five students, parents and their siblings, along with Gallagher, met at Bluff Point for the final ride of the year.

Schlee demonstrated how to pop the front tire of the bike off the ground to get over logs and other obstacles: not quite a wheelie, but close. The team defers to him to demonstrate skills, he said, because he has “no fear.”

They’ve learned how to go into “attack position” down a slope, where you lean down and get as aerodynamic as possible, or braking on a sharp turn, where you need to lean into the curve slightly. It’s difficult but not impossible, he said.

Riley Vaudrey, an eighth-grader, said the speed was one of the highlights of competition

“Going down the hill … it gets the adrenaline going,” he said. “It’s like being on the edge.”

Earlier in the year, students would have had a bigger challenge with Bluff Point’s long winding trails.

“At the beginning of the season (after) 2 laps they were dying, they’d have to stop get water,” Gallagher said of Ledyard’s half mile loop. But at their most recent practice, after some hill drills the kids were more optimistic.

“One of the kids said, ‘I could do 10 laps and don’t even have to stop,” she said.

The trail competitions that the middle school team usually participates in is around 20 minutes of cycling, a couple of miles through often-rugged terrain.

Beyond support from the CCAP, which included several new mountain bikes, jerseys and cycling lessons, the team has also found support from Cycle Shed Stores in Gales Ferry, which has offered to do free safety checks on all the bikes the students compete with. The team has relied on parents transporting kids to competitions in New Haven and beyond.

“It’s been a great core group of parents willing to help out the folks who can’t get away from their jobs,” Gallagher said. She hopes to continue the success and build on the team over the summer through informal rides.

Students interested in cycling can reach out to her directly at k.gallagher@ledyard.net

n.lynch@theday.com