The Cycle Effect Story
Watch how riding a mountain bike has helped shape the future of a young immigrant girl in Summit County, Colorado.
Video Transcript
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ROXY ALVARADO: Mountain biking feels free. When I'm on the trail, I'm just able to let myself go. I started The Cycle Effect in August last year. Before Cycle Effect. I never really did any mountain biking or any biking at all. I was never really a sporty person. I joined the Cycle Effect because of Miss Isabel, who told me about the program and about what they did.
ISABEL RODRIGUEZ: The Cycle Effect is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower young women through mountain biking.
ROXY ALVARADO: I met coach Isabel when I was seven years old. She was my second grade teacher.
ISABEL RODRIGUEZ: She had come to visit her dad, who was living here in the States, and her mom was down in Mexico. She decided she didn't just want to visit she wanted to stay here.
ROXY ALVARADO: Coach Isabel and I bonded over our experiences coming to a new country. To help me understand the new language in this country.
ISABEL RODRIGUEZ: And when I started with The Cycle Effect, started in December of 2019, and then in 2020, everything shut down with a pandemic. She, I knew, needed a program like this in her life.
ROXY ALVARADO: With COVID, I had more anxiety at school and out of school. But then when I was with The Cycle Effect, and I talked with the other girls, and I learned that they were also struggling with maybe anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues that I could resonate with. That helped me a lot to understand that it was OK what was going on.
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My first day at The Cycle Effect, I did not have any training at all. Thankfully I did not fall, which I did later on. But I really had a lot of fun that day, and I just remember thinking, that's it, I'm staying here.
ISABEL RODRIGUEZ: Mountain biking can be very intimidating. It's also not a very accessible sport because the equipment is very expensive, the training can be very expensive. The Women's Sports Foundation has given us the resources to be able to offer all of that. We offer the bike, the helmet, the uniform, the training, amazing coaches who are also, at the same time, amazing mentors.
ROXY ALVARADO: Having the community of girls older and younger around me, I really like having that because we respect each other.
ALEXA COLIN CARBAJAL: I have seen Roxy grow so much since this past year she'd be in the cycle. But Roxy is a great leader. She really encourages people, that really lifts up their mood so that they can continue and just have a smile on their face.
ROXY ALVARADO: I've learned how to be myself around other people, which is definitely something I did not know how to do before.
ISABEL RODRIGUEZ: For Roxy to step into a space like this, I knew that I could provide her with all the tools to go as far as she wanted on the mountain bike. Whatever she wanted to learn, however much she wanted to challenge herself.
ROXY ALVARADO: When I'm on the trail, all I could think about is, you've gone through a lot before you can do better than this. So just keep going and go through it because you can do it.