Travis Saeler never considered himself an active sportsman.

He took up bicycle riding three years ago "just to try something new and get out from in front of the TV.

"Before that, I probably haven't ridden a bike since I was 8 or 9 years old," the Butler resident said.

Don't expect him to stop riding any time soon.

Saeler, 30, recently won the expert division of the West Virginia Mountain Bike Association Single Speed Series. He finished with a perfect score of 160.

A racer is awarded 20 points for each first-place finish, 19 for second, etc. The series consists of 15 races and a championship race. Each racer's seven best finishes - plus his championship finish - are tallied for points.

Saeler competed in 12 total races in the series, winning seven of them, and he captured the championship race last month. This is the first year he's competed in this series.

"Before I began riding a mountain bike in 2001, my athletic years had ended with junior high track," Saeler said. "I started in the beginner's class my first year and was competing in the expert class by the end of that summer.

"Getting hooked up with people riding at a much higher level than me and practicing with them accelerated my progress,"

Danny Wilson, 17, a Butler High School senior and Fenelton resident, won the expert junior (18-and-under) division this year, also with a perfect score of 160.

Wilson has been racing since he was 8. He and Saeler both raced for Dirty Harry's Bike Shop in Verona before being selected for the Bluestone bicycle race team.

"Bluestone decided to put a team together and came and got four or five of us from Dirty Harry's," Saeler said. "They did business with them."

Saeler, Wilson, T.J. Platt and Scott Root of Pittsburgh combined to win the four-person expert division of the 24 Hours of Seven Springs Race recently.

Saeler and Wilson have been part of the winning quartet in the 24 Hours of Seven Springs for three consecutive years.

"It's exciting and it's competitive," Wilson said of mountain bike racing. "I'm hoping to move up to the (adult) expert class and compete in some national events next year."

Wilson won the junior sport (age 14-and-under) points title in 2000. He finished second or third in points in the men's junior sport and junior expert each of the past three years before winning the title this season.

Saeler and Wilson put in a lot of practice time. Saeler said he takes 20- to 25-mile bike rides twice a week and trail rides every Wednesday.

"The races are on Sundays and I'll pre-ride the race course Saturday," Saeler said. "I like to know what's coming."

"I do a lot of training, but I keep it fun," Wilson said. "I'll ride anywhere from seven to 15 hours per week. I'll lift weights, too."

Before this year, Saeler had finished fourth in the Ohio Mountain Bike Championships in 2002 while winning the Bean's Bike Park Series. He finished second in the Bean's Bike Park Series last year.

He said the West Virginia series is more popular.

"They run 18 to 20 races per year and probably get 200 bikes per race," Saeler said. "And each race is 20 to 27 miles long, so you have to maintain a pretty good pace.

"I hope to move up to the semi-pro level next year and compete in some larger national races."

Saeler and Wilson both plan to compete in the bike race at Snowshoe, W.Va., next summer. That event is part of the National Off-Road Bicycle Association.

"There's usually six or seven extremely competitive bikes at a local series race," Wilson said. "There's 50 to 90 at a national race.

"I've tried a couple of other sports, but this is the one for me. I imagine I'll stay with it for a long time."

"I own six bikes now," Saeler said. "I don't imagine I'll be stopping any time soon."