Saturday Forest Park Ride Report

Saturday was the inaugural Cylisme MTB 101 ride with the juniors in Forest Park. DeyShaun and I arrived a few minutes early to the Thurman Gate of Forest Park. Unfortunately Marquel was ill and wasn't able to make it. After getting DeyShaun fitted on the yellow hardtail, Will Cortez and John Ebenal showed up. A short while later Fergus, Naiqwan and Aubrey arrived.

We tooled up Leif Erikson and Saltzman with a few brief stops for food, mechanical adjustments and sight seeing. We were in high spirits, with lots of laughing, and garnering smiles and kind words from the walkers and runners we passed. Will and Fergus and John provided quality mentoring and leadership among our three novice mountain bike riders.

At the top of Saltzman, we entered the singletrack that leads to FL 5. John had to turn towards home, while the rest of us went down the fun stuff. The smiles from Aubrey, DeyShaun and Naiqwan made this one of my best mountain bike days ever. It's truly wonderful to share the sport with newcomers, especially 13 and 14 year olds like the Cyclisme juniors. DeyShaun, Aubrey and Naiqwan all showed tremendous potential as future MTB racers. Naiqwan set a rigorous pace up Saltzman, and the three descended much faster than I expected them to (I kept DeyShaun and Naiqwan behind me to control any chaos).

Naiqwan took a little tumble on the muddy fire road descent, and DeyShaun took on on the FL5 singletrack. No harm was done, and we proceeded on. Naiqwan's bike had an issue with shifting which took out the chain and a few spokes, so he got the old Cyclisme push for the final 6 miles back to the cars.


This was outstanding fun for everyone, and I'm looking forward to our next MTB 101 in the next couple of weeks.

Greg