The Cycle Effect: Teaching Girls Mountain Biking + So Much More
Photos courtesy of The Cycle Effect
Tina Ooley didn’t think mountain biking was for her when she first tried it in her mid-30s. Her mountain biking husband urged her to take up the sport and she had a few friends who also rode.
“I was intimidated by it,” she recalls. “I thought it was hard.”
But after her brother died of brain cancer at age 37, Ooley needed a way to deal with her grief — she wanted to do something “crazy,” something “hard.” So, she signed up for the 2010 Whiskey-Off Mountain Bike Race in Prescott, Arizona. Competing with five other women, Ooley placed third in the single-speed category. It changed her life.
“I learned what I could do,” she says. “My mountain bike ‘Brother Ride’ had just shown me I was more than I thought. It’s why I’m so passionate about it now. I work with women all the time who wish they’d had something like this — to help them discover their power.”
Ooley is the Mesa County manager of The Cycle Effect, a nonprofit Brett Donelson founded in Eagle County in 2010 to give girls ages 10-18 opportunities to ride and race mountain bikes. The program is geared toward girls who otherwise wouldn’t have the resources to participate in the sport, or who would gain from the physical, mental and emotional benefits of mountain biking. Donelson expanded the program first to Summit County and then to Mesa County in 2020 thanks to a Colorado Health Foundation grant.
Ooley and her team of six assistant coaches and five volunteers meet with girls twice a week at Las Colonias Park in Grand Junction, and twice weekly in Clifton at Central High School or Mount Garfield Middle School. From February through early November, girls on the Mesa County team participate in community service projects, learn mountain biking techniques and go for rides on school property, the Colorado Riverfront Trail, the Lunch Loop Trail System and Bike Park or at the Dos Rios Bike Playground.
As girls arrive to practice, they each pull a bike and a detached front wheel from the trailer, attach the quick-release wheel, check the tires for air, test the brakes and make sure the gears are shifting correctly. Then they all gather in a circle for a “mentorship” talk — little life lessons they can apply on the trail as well as at school and life in general. Finally, it’s time to ride.
The Cycle Effect has been an important outdoor outlet for adolescent girls cooped up during a pandemic. Fourteen-year-old Adriana Ballagh says she didn’t have much to do and was looking for something new to take her mind off stress caused by COVID-19.
“I learned a lot throughout the season about how to ride safely and taking care of ourselves if something happens on the trail,” Ballagh says. “I enjoyed having a group of people to support me. It’s not just biking.”
The Las Colonias practice location offers easy access to the paved riverfront trail, which extends past the Dos Rios Park all the way to the Lunch Loop trails on Bureau of Land Management property.
Many of the 2020 participants had never been to the Lunch Loop or ridden a mountain bike before, Ooley says. It wasn’t relevant to them until they were given a bike to use. The Cycle Effect removes obstacles to the sport by providing bikes, helmets and instruction.
“There’s something magical about riding with the girls and seeing the wonder in their eyes from seeing something new. That’s my favorite part – to be able to create more access. We’re normalizing outdoor recreation. It’s good for their health.”
— Tina Ooley, The Cycle Effect Mesa County Manager
“There’s something magical about riding with the girls and seeing the wonder in their eyes from seeing something new,” she says. “That’s my favorite part — to be able to create more access. We’re normalizing outdoor recreation. It’s good for their health.”
Assistant coach Valeria Herrerra had never mountain biked before she was hired by Ooley to help mentor the girls. “It’s a new hobby for me; I love it,” she says.
Herrerra is acquainted with many of the team members through her work at the Riverside Educational Center, an after school program for students of low-income families.
“Many of the girls are first-generation Hispanic Americans whose parents don’t speak English,” Herrerra explains. “They’ve never experienced this. Tina’s mission is to build a team with different ethnicities who wouldn’t normally have these opportunities.”
Indica Dobbins, 14, learned about the Cycle Effect through a cousin who participated in Summit County’s program. Dobbins says she’s motivated to “be the best.” That competitive nature helped spur her to victory last year when she won her first race in Eagle.
“It’s really fun to try and clear the tabletop — a jump with a flat section of dirt in between the takeoff and the landing — that’s generally my goal,” she says. “I’ve been learning a lot of new techniques which makes it more fun to get out and ride.”
After losing control and flipping over her bike last year while ascending a ramp at Dos Rios, Dobbins ended up with a busted lip that required four stitches. Two weeks later, after a little encouragement, and despite some fear, she rode the ramp again.
“I conquered something I was afraid of — even now I’m a little scared of it, but I feel better knowing I did it,” Dobbins adds.
Community service is an important element to the program. Girls are encouraged to perform a recommended 20 hours of community service each year. Roughly eight girls volunteered last year for Food Bank of the Rockies. This year, the Mesa County Cycle Effect team will volunteer time outdoors with COPMOBA (Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association), to help maintain area trails.
In 2020, there were 18 bikes shared amongst 37 girls (Ooley and her coaches meet with the Las Colonias group Mondays and Wednesdays, and the Clifton girls Tuesdays and Thursdays). A second van and more bikes will allow the program to serve 70 girls this year. Ooley also hopes to acquire transportation for the Clifton girls to get out more often on single-track trails that are more easily accessible from Grand Junction.
To support the girls’ newfound love of cycling, The Cycle Effect has a goal of making the bikes available for purchase at the end of each season for a “very affordable price,” says Ooley. The plan is to replace the program with new bikes each year. That wasn’t able to happen in 2020, however, due to a shortage of new bikes available for purchase during the pandemic. “Bikes are hard to get now,” Ooley says. “This year we had to hold onto the bikes.”
Cost to participate is $200 and scholarships are available. For more information visit thecycleeffect.org.
Originally published in the Spring 2021 issue. Editors Note: Tina Ooley is no longer with TCE, the organization thanks her for the great work she has done with the athletes and their families.