Tracy Flucke of WE BIKE and Rebecca Cleveland, co-owner of the Bike Hub in De Pere joined us on “Wisconsin Tonight” for our Better Biking segment.
The Bike Fed has this great program called Women and Bicycles. Cleveland applied and was selected to serve as a Roll Model to encourage women to try riding who may not currently ride for one reason or another. About 12 women across Wisconsin serve as Roll Models, offering gatherings in the formats of meet ups, workshops, and group rides to help increase everyone’s confidence and comfort level which hopefully encourages them to ride more often.
Cleveland’s husband encouraged her to enter my first race in 1994, which was the very early days of mountain bike racing, and within a month, she had two first place finishes and was hooked for the next 15 years. She traveled across the country, eventually earned her UCI Pro License, which allowed her to race with some the best women in the world.
Road biking is also a great love for Cleveland, exploring the beautiful, quiet back roads that are so plentiful in Northeast Wisconsin, and because you’re on a bike, you’re going slower, on country roads, and noticing historical barns , tiny creeks, and fields of flowers that you just wouldn’t notice if you were in a car.
Mountain biking is definitely her first love, being out in the woods or up in the mountains out west, always finding a new way to challenge yourself to clear a big rock or make it up a steep hill.
How to get started or increase your skills:
a. Practice – ride with other bicyclists
b. Take a Bicycling Skills class
c. Join a Bicycle Club and participate in their rides – Bay Shore Bicycle Club is a great local club
d. Participate in woman’s only rides –Bike Hub rides
i. Go Ride Group
For more information:
The Bike Hub http://thebikehubonline.com/
Go Ride Community Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GirlsOnlyRide/?fref=ts
League of American Bicyclists – Women Bike http://bikeleague.org/womenbike
