A Fall City teenager spent his summer establishing himself as a solid force in track bicycle racing.

Conor Klupar, who is an eighth-grader at Chief Kanim Middle School this fall, will be playing football for the Hawks, and has wrestled for the school in the past. Those accomplishments are on top of what makes him a top athlete: cycling.

Klupar has been riding bikes since he was 7 or 8 years old, and is based out of the Marymoor Velodrome in Redmond. He had a couple of solid finishes at the recent USA Cycling Junior Track National Championships in Carson, Calif., near Los Angeles. The teen finished seventh in the 500 meter time trial Aug. 14, then on Aug. 15 he finished sixth in the 4 kilometer “Scratch” event. Locally, Klupar had a solid summer at Marymoor, with strong showings throughout July, culminating in three straight first-place finishes in August in various races.

His dad, John, also raced with him at Marymoor, and had a solid summer, finishing anywhere from third to fifth place during all of his races the last several weeks.

The younger Klupar also races road events, similar to the Tour de Peaks race. He won the recent Mutual of Enumclaw Stage Race in the “Junior C” division, and also won the Lance Armstrong Olympics Race Series this summer. He finished third in the two spring races in that tour, then did well this summer, finishing first in two of the last three events, which were held primarily in Seattle. He also won the Redmond Derby Days “Junior C” event.

He closed out his very strong summer with a first-place finish last Sunday at the Blackberry Criterium race.

About his summer, Klupar, by e-mail, said it was a battle, but well worth it. “In the beginning, it was really tough to stay motivated. It was a lot of work for little reward (no racing). In the end it really paid off though, and it was fun to be mixing it up in the front of my races. Riding is fun, but it really is a lot of fun to win.”

Klupar races for the RAD Racing Northwest team, and a peek at their team results shows that among his teammates are a couple of other local cyclists who have been featured this summer in the Valley Record: Fall City’s Eric Emsky and North Bend’s Jarred Burklund. Klupar offers this advice for local residents who want to try the sport. “Biking is a really fun sport. You get to be very social on and off the bike, it makes you healthy, and it even cuts down on gas,” he said.