Many in the St. Cloud Area know Tech High School graduate and Olympian Alise Post for her international fame in BMX racing. Rising quickly at a young age in her shadow, however, are two brothers, Lucas and Jacob Theisen from Oak Hill Community School. They’ve been hitting the BMX circuit by storm, nationally and now internationally.
Their journey started just riding bikes in the woods across the street with their dad, Steve, for fun. A neighbor, Ross Gehling, (a Tech High School student and BMX rider) also rode in the woods. Gehling approached Steve after watching the boys ride for a summer because he believed the boys were talented and urged Steve to get them to the local Pineview Park BMX race track. The boys visited the track one night, and the rest is history.
“The boys absolutely loved it and when Lucas asked me to sign them up,” says Steve, “it was more of a demand. ‘I love this! I want to do this!’ he said.”
The boys have been racing for two years; Lucas started at the age of six and Jacob age five.
Lucas remembers the first time he took a bike around the track.
“It was just really fun – jumping and manualing [wheelie without pedaling]!” exclaims Lucas. Jacob agrees.
The boys practiced for three weeks before they signed up for their first race. Coincidently, both brothers won their first race.
“Hook, line and sinker [from the first win],” says Steve. “That’s when we started doing the state races, too.”
The pair started at novice level and won 10 races to advance to intermediate level. They’ve both completed another 20 wins and now are at the expert level in their short two years of racing. At times, the boys have had to race an age level up due to lack of racers which means the brothers sometimes have to race against each other. There is a little competition between the two, and Jacob is quick to share that he’s beat his older brother before.
There is also some competition between the brothers and their dad as well. Bets and deals are their “thing.” It started small with “if you trophy, you can throw me in the pool with my clothes on.” The deals have been expanding since then.
Jacob has a black colored frame for his bike, but he’s counting on a new orange frame due to a bet with his dad.
“I have to stop making stupid bets with them,” laughs Steve. “It was at a national race. And the best he’d finished all year was third. He [Jacob] wanted a new frame. … I said no. And I made a deal with him. I said, ‘If you win a race here, I’ll buy it for you.’ He went out that day and won his race. He crossed the finish line and looked at me and yelled ‘Supercross’ [brand of frame he’d asked for] with his hands thrown up in the air. … There is just something about when I make bets with them, I typically lose.”
The family travels together touring the country for races. So far this year, they’ve completed about 100 races.
“They race nearly every day,” says Steve. “There are five tracks around the area. We can go to those tracks and race. There are 11 tracks in Minnesota and each one gets a state race.”
“We tried basketball, and they did enjoy it,” says Steve. “They wanted to try soccer and we looked at baseball, but they’d have to give up two nights of BMX and they didn’t want to do that.”
The boys just can’t get enough of it.
“The track often shuts the lights off on my boys to get them off the track,” shares Steve. “It’s totally true. My kids will spend eight hours out there if I let them.”
Steve loves the fact that the boys have found something that they love and are good at.
“They definitely love seeing their first place trophies!” states Steve. “The smiles I get when I’m taking their photo [are priceless].”
What Lucas really looks forward to most is just having fun, whether it’s on the race track or in a hotel pool. For Jacob, it’s all about the race and winning. He prepares for his race by jumping up and down. It’s his way of revving up for the race and getting in the zone.
The brothers just completed their first international race in Belgium at the UCI BMX World Championship. Only 16 kids from each age group are allowed to race from the United States. In Jacob’s age group, only 10 will be going and 11 from Lucas’s group. Lucas will be racing 145 kids from all over the world while Jacob will compete against 99.
In Lucas’s first qualifying round, he had some pedal trouble that really hurt his chances. He didn’t make it through qualifying because of it but gave a mighty effort by finishing 3rd and 4th in his final two qualifying rounds.
Jacob won one of his three qualifying races and finished 2nd and 3rd in the other two. He advanced from qualifying to 1/8 mains, finished in the top four of 1/8 mains and advanced to quarterfinals.
“I couldn’t be more proud of their effort, sportsmanship and accomplishments this week,” says Steve.
Lucas and Jacob were right back on the track for their next race the day after returning to the States. There is nothing that can slow them down. They could very well be the next BMX Olympians, just like Alise Post, to hit the track and represent District 742 and their entire community!
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