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Finding a home in U.S. has given cyclist drive

Saito breaks away from family, basketball to find love in mountain biking

By Zac Taylor
ztaylor2@mscd.edu

At 27, Yuki Saito is poised for a professional career in cycling. But just three years ago he came to the U.S. from Japan, without any familiar faces in Denver, or even a competent knowledge of English.

He grew up in Tokyo, the son of two music teachers and the younger brother of a sister following her parents’ path. Yet, he chose to deviate from the musical road of his family members, and he wound up playing basketball for Nippon Sport Science University, one of the top college teams in Japan.

“I was on the team, but I wasn’t the best,” Saito said. “I tried hard but I couldn’t make it (to the professional league).”

So he earned his degree from the university, but he no longer pursued basketball. Instead he began working as a personal trainer. Then, having visited Denver once before, he decided to move there.

“I wanted to start something new,” Saito said. “I came to Denver once before, and I liked it.”

And like that, a basketball player from the largest city in the world moved to a country where he didn’t know the language, leaving his friends and family back in Japan.

When he first came to the U.S. he needed to learn the language, so he enrolled at language school. Soon Saito had found a new passion in a sport he had never seen back home.

“My teacher at the English language school was into mountain biking, so he took me to the mountains,” he said.

Already an outdoors fanatic back home, he now had a new sport that let him experience the opportunities that Colorado has to offer. For the next year, as Saito learned English, he was either mountain biking, hiking or trail running — anything that took him up to the mountains.

“I wanted to be an outdoor activities director, a tour guide,” Saito said about his initial goals in the U.S.

He has always loved the outdoors and all of the activities around it, but his opportunities were limited in Japan.

“I didn’t have a chance to do outdoors stuff because there are no mountains in Tokyo,” Saito said.

Now he’s expanded his interests beyond mountain sports, but not beyond the outdoors, as he recently ran the Denver half marathon with his girlfriend. And as a testament to his endurance, he had been mountain bike racing for Metro only the day before.

This endurance is why Saito has propelled to No. 2 in the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference rankings. He has yet to outright win an event in any of the races this season, but he is always just behind the leaders. He has also competed in every race so far this year, even when it involves cross-state drives and, maybe, a half marathon the following day.

His ranking is second only to rider Bryan Alders from the University of Colorado at Boulder, who fellow Metro rider Ben Stein declared the best in the conference. Yet, Saito is still guaranteed a place in the nationals, which will be held in two weeks in North Carolina. As the only Metro participant, he will be representing the rest of his teammates including Stein, who founded the club.

“We have one professional rider right now,” Stein said about his teammate. “Yuki (Saito) is a great rider and a pro.”

Following nationals, Saito will be graduating in the spring and his collegiate mountain biking career will be over. But he still wants to continue riding.

“I would like to pursue a career in cycling,” he said. “I’m going to try and get a contract with a pro cycling team like Trek or Specialized.”

Saito already rides at the pro level with the Walt Works team, so he knows about competition. He just hasn’t yet earned the wages that many of the other riders make. His contingency plan if he doesn’t make a big pro team in the U.S. is to return to Japan where he notes that, “the competition is at a much lower level.” His top goal, however, is to return to his home country as a competitor for the next Olympic Games.

“My ultimate goal is riding for Japan,” Saito said, smiling.