The Cycle Effect:
The effects of COVID-19 this year have managed to make our team think creatively and modify our current Cycle Effect programming. At a time when it’s been hard to be physically together in the team environment we strive to nurture, The Cycle Effect (TCE) has been strongly united and continues to empower young women through mountain biking to create brighter futures and stronger communities.
Back in March our team in Summit County had just begun training indoors with our North and South teams at our local recreation centers; while the Edwards and Eagle teams were beginning to get on bikes and start riding. All of that came to a sudden halt as our communities shut down and everyone went into quarantine.
As our season had just begun, we quickly transferred all of our programming to a virtual platform where ironically, we all trained together across counties. While each athlete, coach and staff member was training at home and physically isolated from our team, we were able to gather girls across teams to follow our live fitness training at the same time on Mondays and Wednesdays through YouTube. Our Summit TCE coach, who lives half of the year in Mexico and normally can’t join us until the summer, joined us online earlier than expected through our virtual programming. We created opportunities for families (siblings, parents and pups) to come together at home and exercise along with their TCE athlete. Furthermore, we had the capacity to provide access to a live virtual workout to the larger community led by our TCE coaches through YouTube Live and Instagram Live platforms. TCE now has the opportunity to provide light within our communities in these challenging times.
“TCE is what I look forward to in the week. It’s been super fun for me! Can’t wait to meet the coaching team in person!” ~New Summit Coach
Our work as a team and organization evolved and adapted rapidly to the changing circumstances. We come together as a full time staff over Google Hangouts a few times a week to check in with each other and collaborate on how to keep our organization strong. This virtual reality has allowed us to bring together all of our coaches from across the organization and counties to meet each other and collaborate on how to continue to improve our programming to keep every single one of our athletes engaged during our time of social distancing. We collaborate to engage them through personal texting/phone calls as well as chat groups like whatsapp, Google Hangouts and Google Classrooms. Getting to see each other’s faces across all counties (including our new Mesa County program expansion) has been the most powerful part of this process, providing us with the opportunity to see the extent of the impact of our organization in Colorado.
As we moved from spring quarantine into summer we began to have in-person programming. Adhering to COVID guidelines as our communities reopened, while challenging, developed well in the nature of our outdoor sport. On June 1st, we were riding outdoors with face masks and gloves in smaller groups and with lots of excitement about the weather and enjoying being back with the team. We increased rapidly in the number of participants and got very creative about how to engage with all of our athletes while keeping everyone safe.
“Ciclismo de montaña es el mejor deporte que podemos practicar durante la pandemia de COVID-19 por que es algo en donde estamos afuera con amigas y no hay tanto contacto entre nosotros, podemos salir a divertirnos un rato y distraernos para no estar en casa todos los días.” ~TCE New athlete
“Mountain biking is the best sport to practice during the pandemic of COVID-19 because it’s safe to be outside around friends, it’s not a contact sport, we can go out to have fun and not have to stay at home” ~TCE athletes
As a recent addition to the team, Summit County Program Manager Isabel Rodriguez believes that the organization needed this. TCE has many new faces this year, from coaches to athletes to new Program Managers and a whole new program in Mesa County. With program locations in various counties, we often do not have the opportunity to unify as one team to get to see each other’s faces at the same time and work cohesively on our program. Today these mediums of technology are the best thing we have to connect to our participants, coaches and families. Through our virtual programming we have made the transition to a more cohesive team and community. Our participants, families and communities are now unified more than ever before. We have been able to stay active and connected throughout the summer and have empowered over 40 new athletes through the sport in just this season. We feel it is more important than ever before to connect and be positive role models and have had the opportunity to do so under COVID-19.
