Cal State Dominguez Hills has added cycling to its athletics program, launching what university officials said Thursday is the only varsity collegiate cycling team in California.
The university officially added the sport Sept. 2 with the signing of its first student-cyclist, Alejandro Che. The new program joins 20 other varsity collegiate cycling programs nationwide.
The program is being supported in partnership with USA Cycling and AEG, which operates the VELO Sports Center at the Dignity Health Sports Park complex on the CSUDH campus, according to the school.
VELO is the largest of three active indoor velodromes in the United States and serves as the home track for USA Cycling’s national track cycling program.
“Olympic track cycling will return to this campus in 2028, and we see tremendous potential for this new program to complement and benefit from that global event,” CSUDH Interim President Mary Ann Villarreal said.
Villarreal said cyclists such as Che often have to choose between pursuing higher education and continuing to compete because of the lack of college teams and facilities.
Adam Duvendeck, general manager of Dignity Health Sports Park and a two-time Olympian and five-time U.S. Track Cycling National Champion, said establishing a Toro cycling team had been a vision 15 years in the making.
“No other campus in the entire nation can say that they have an international, world-class, Olympic Velodrome,” Duvendeck said. “This is a unique opportunity to take one of our flagship properties and build a program around it that benefits the university.”
Travis Smith, manager of the VELO Sports Center and a 30-time Canadian national cycling champion, will coach the team during its inaugural season.
Smith said his goal as coach is “to come away with at least one national championship.”
Che, a third-year CSUDH student majoring in kinesiology and minoring in philosophy, is an elite competitive cyclist. He recently won the United States Under-23 Criterium National Championship in West Virginia and the California Bicycle Racing Criterium No. 3 at VELO in March.
“I’m excited to be at the start of this wonderful program, and to put this jersey on my back for Nationals next week!” Che said.
He will make his debut as a Toro cyclist Sept. 9-11 at the 2026 USA Cycling Collegiate Track National Championships in Indianapolis.
Che is scheduled to compete in the endurance-style points race, the four-kilometer individual pursuit and the kilo, a three-lap, 1,000-meter time trial.