Joe Kopena: an E! True Veloworld Story

The Multiple sides of a legend.

With his first year as the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference Director, Joe Kopena has experienced more late nights and early mornings than most college students can dream. Countless amounts of sleep, soul, and bodily fluids have been donated by Joe to the ECCC at staggering costs to his own personal and work lives. Joe Kopena is the mastermind behind the best run and most competitive cycling conference in collegiate American, and this is his story…

Little is known about Joe’s upbringing, but what is known is he was brought up by a pack of cheetahs and their cubs. Although less frequent in his more recent years, as a younger individual he could almost always been seen with a dew similar to his routes.

After a long-lost aunt found Joe in the Savannah, it was difficult for Joe to come to grips with a newfound life in Philadelphia along with the fact that a pack of cheetahs were not true parents. The Deleware Valley offered no flat grassy planes for Joe to roam about on and continue the fast-moving culture of the cheetah. He tried his hand at running, but eventually grew tired of the slow paced speed at which he moved.

It was then, around 2001, that Joe found his nitch in the world of cycling. This was coupled with his acceptance and attendance to Drexel University where, although resentful, he accepted the Dragon as a new mascot. Mountain biking came first, and somehow Joe found a home within the strange new crowd he roamed in. He felt at home riding through the woods and across the planes of the northeastern United States.

But it was still more speed that Joe yearned, and thus came road cycling. Available records show Joe’s first collegiate road race to be March 2nd, 2002 at the classic Rutgers University Criterium, coming in 12th place in the Men’s D field. He advanced through to the Men’s C field by the end of that 2002 road season. After a round 2003 season, Joe contemplated suicide, but was talked out of it by one Christopher Hair.

All legends start somewhere. Joe progressed through the ranks of the ECCC, through to Bs and eventually As in 2006. Joe’s last truly collegiate race was at Vassar College’s Easterns Road Race in 2007, where he was assaulted by a moto-ref wielding a mace. It was a bittersweet ending to 6 years of collegiate bike racing.

After his incident, Joe took on a largely administrative role in running the ECCC, and eventually invented the Intro Category. Joe was not always a law-abiding racer or organizer, however. Below he can clearly be seen breaking Rule 7I3 of the Collegiate Cycling Rulebook.

Today the ECCC rules Joe’s life. Due to the workload, he’s forgotten to pay his rent a number of times, and thus has been evicted from his home and forced to live in his Prius.

If you would like to donate to the Joe Kopena Fund: America Cares, please see Caitlin Thompson at the next race weekend.

This has been an E! True Veloworld Story. Until next time: Rubber side down…