Akimoto Moto

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Ryo Akimoto was the 2020 Regional Champion of Japan.

There is chill to the air as the sun creeps over Israel Mountain and dances onto Old Main, illuminating the weathered slate on the east side of the roof. The humming of a lawn mower can be faintly heard somewhere out of sight, and a single illuminated classroom window suggests a teacher has arrived early to prepare for the day. Otherwise, Miller School’s campus is still. Students are sleeping in the dorm, and teachers have not arrived yet. This is a magical time on the Hill–enjoyed only by those who rise in the dark and start their days before the sun warms the dew on the grass. 

A lone student sits quietly in the middle of the Bull Ring. The glow of his thin MacBook provides just enough light to see his concentrated expression as he moves his hands over the cursor of his trackpad making tiny but important edits to his work. There are no distractions other than the beauty of campus and the chirping of birds waking up in the Bell Tower. It is just how Ryo Akimoto (class of ‘22) likes it when he works. 

In the early hours of the morning, Ryo Akimoto is a machine with an engine for creativity. Coupled with a focused entrepreneurial drive, Ryo is on the move. During his senior year, he used an independent study facilitated by the Student Success Center to build a social media marketing business. Noticing an opportunity to improve social media content for professional Japanese cycling teams, Ryo developed a content management system to deliver best-in-class social media assets to increase fan engagement and to build the brands of athletes and teams. His work was immediately successful, and inquiries from other professional teams began trickling into his inbox. Within a few months, Ryo had a full book of clients and a workload that generated a revenue stream that would classify as a full-time salary for most young professionals, and he continued to build the company after graduation.

Seeing an opportunity and pursuing it is Ryo’s modus operandi. After his freshman year of high school in Japan, he realized that if he wanted to pursue his dream of becoming a professional cyclist, he needed to pursue his athletic and academic goals at the Miller School–home to the world’s premier junior development cycling program. Although his English was weak and his cycling prowess was in its infancy, he made the leap his sophomore year and never looked back. Once at MSA, he gradually worked his way up from the junior varsity cycling team onto the varsity roster, and he began competing in national-level road races. 

Ryo’s coach, Andy Guptill, remarked: “Ryo has a drive and determination rarely seen in athletes. He was not a strong rider his sophomore year, but he was determined to be given opportunities to learn and race.”

His first experience racing on the varsity team was memorable. Ryo laughed and explained: “My coaches told me that I was going to get dropped on the first climb–only a few miles into an 80-mile road race. They then said, you still need to finish the race. To do this, I would need to work together with the handful of other riders who couldn’t keep pace on the first climb and ride with them the entire day. We would be ‘racing’ only to finish.” 

Ryo finished the race in second-to-last place–over thirty minutes behind the main peloton. For most, this experience would have been demoralizing. For Ryo, he used it to identify an opportunity where others would see only failure. 

“When I crossed the finish line, most of the other racers had already changed out of their cycling kits and were eating lunch. I wasn’t sure whether I should celebrate finishing or hang my head in embarrassment for finishing so far behind the others. Then, my coaches and teammates ran up to me and encouraged me and celebrated my effort as if I had won the race. I realized then that there are small victories in the process of pursuing dreams. My teammates’ support made me realize this lesson, and I think about it every time I get on the bike.” 

Coach Guptill continued: “Ryo continued to make progress, and he soon was finishing races in the main group. By the end of the season, he even managed to mix it up in a few sprint finishes among the lead riders.” 

He carried this steady progression into the summer months and had a breakthrough performance in the Junior National Championship Road Race in Japan (in a regional version due to the pandemic). On a rainy day in July, he utilized the lessons he learned and the grit he had developed at Miller School to seize the biggest opportunity of his young racing career. He slipped into an early breakaway and sprinted ahead in the final meters of the race to win the regional National Championship Road Race. 

For Ryo, finding opportunities and pushing himself to achieve success has paved the road to accomplishing his dreams. After his rocky his sophomore year, Ryo developed into one of the most talented road cyclists in Japan and a force in the United States road cycling circuit. The summer after his senior year, he moved to Europe to race as a guest rider on a professional cycling team. He now is a student at the University of Arizona, where he is a member of the Wildcats cycling team.

Ryo smiled and acknowledged: “I had to think back to my coaches’ advice before my first road race when I got to Europe in the summer of 2022. The level of racing was so fast. I knew that no matter what, I would finish the races I entered and steadily improve in order to be competitive at the top of the sport. It was one pedal stroke at a time, but I knew I could do it. This mentality is the same one I now use in college and with my growing business.” 

From building a social media marketing business to training and racing at the top level of the sport, Ryo has shown that life is like the morning hours on campus. Not everyone is willing to rise early to see the glimmer of light as the sun rises. These hours are a small blank canvas on the outskirts of the day—it is here where Ryo finds magic and writes his own story.