The young at start: 1st youth club takes part
At-risk kids eager to experience ups, downs of new sort
EDWARDS» As temperatures hovered around 30 degrees in Breckenridge on Sunday morning, a group of young people, accompanied by their parents and adult coaches, amassed at the starting line of this year’s Ride the Rockies, with a red ribbon stretched across before them.
The youths, wearing goldand-white-rimmed sunglasses, leaned on their bicycles — many of them donated — with their small bodies barely large enough to fill the distinct redwhite-and-blue uniforms of the Denver Front Rangers Cycling Club, which volunteers established 25 years ago in partnership with the Denver Police Department to mentor and help atrisk children in the metro area get on bicycles.
The group is the first youth cycling club to participate in Ride the Rockies’ 33-year history. Its 12 participants span all backgrounds, from Highlands Ranch to Arvada. Six of them — including three brothers — are from Sun Valley, Denver’s poorest neighborhood, and are here as part of a partnership between the Front Rangers and the Sun Valley Youth Center. Four of the six from Sun Valley are refugees from either Ethiopia or Burundi.
All of the Front Rangers riders receive professional coaching at Inspired Training Center in Denver, who help them learn how to ride, manage nutrition and pace themselves. Recently, the young riders finished the Cherry Creek time trial and also competed in criterium events and cyclocross.
For many, it will be the longest they have ever been away from home. And it’s certain to be memorable. The hardest part so far?
“Waking up so early,” said Sun Valley’s 11-year-old Paul Deferse, who, along with the others, rose at 4:30 a.m. to get ready to push off just after sunrise. “The 10 miles at the end were all downhill, so that was really easy.”
“It got really cold this morning,” said Cherry Creek’s Darius Townsell. “I couldn’t feel my fingers.”
After the ride, in a parking lot across the street from Battle Mountain High School under a hot sun, the boys laughed and jumped excitedly from a box truck where they had left their bicycles in storage after spending hours climbing thousands of feet against relentless winds.
“It’s like trying to wrangle butterflies,” Sun Valley Youth Center executive director Kris Rollerson said.
Their energy belied the fact that many of them — all under 18 years old — had pedaled more than 60 miles from Breckenridge over Fremont Pass and Tennessee Pass with about 2,000 other cyclists for the start of the tour, which spans 418 miles over six days.
“The cycling clubs we looked at required a massive financial investment,” said Michael True, 55, of Arvada, whose 13-year-old son, Austin, is part of the team. “He wasn’t looking to be a pro cyclist. He just wanted to be riding.
“The kids are learning some amazing riding skills, but also personal skills: Take care of your bike before you eat, put your bike away and take care of your kit before doing anything else.”
The staff and adult volunteers expected most would make it to the first aid station, roughly 15 miles into the ride, then take a van to the top of the biggest climbs before riding downhill. But the kids exceeded expectations.
One of the 15 riders finished all 77 miles, four nearly completed the route, and one crashed and had to be tended to by medics — but he eventually got back on his bike and continued.
“The kids were actually kicking the coaches’ butts this morning,” Rollerson said. “It’s been so cool watching their little personalities come out. … It was just really cool having them pick the brains and learn from other folks who have been doing this ride for so many years.”