The Good, The Bad and The Muddy: Folsom High Cycling

Angus painted up after Saturday's ride with FHS Cycling Team.

One of the things that has continued to impress me about the Folsom High Cycling Team is that many of the kids have great attitudes and work really hard.  Today was no different as I saw a number of kids - many faster than me- working their tails off powering through sand and mud, aggressively descending, and pushing their bodies to the limits. There is a lot to be proud of and it is great to see. They are definitely in the “Good” column of Folsom High Cycling.

Then there was the group that I was with today…  Meh, not so great. About three quarters of the way through a long loop a sub-group of kids stopped (the other group was far ahead).  I was running sweep so I stopped as well.  I mentioned to them that the rider leading the group was starting to get out of sight.  Nothing… They just stood there. When I tried to encourage them to get moving again they mentioned something about waiting for the fast group to come around again and joining them. None of them seemed in the least bit interested in getting back on their bikes and doing what they had come there to do: ride.

I had a tough dilemma before me:  the kids didn’t want to ride and I couldn’t leave them.  I decided to wait to see how long it would take for them to get going again.  15 agonizing minutes dragged by before one of the kids mentions something about getting cold and wanting to ride again.  Taking advantage of that I told them it was time to get going. Finally, the group was on the move again. 

We finished the long loop and then we were supposed to start doing several loops on the short track.  After one lap (about a mile) they stopped again.  The rider leading the group mentioned he was going to do another lap with a strong and obvious implication that the group was to follow.  No one moved and he ended up riding the first loop alone.  He came back and did another lap, as if expecting at least some of the kids to join him on the second lap.  Again, no one followed.  In yet another attempt to get the kids moving again, another ride leader and I mentioned a few times that we were going to do part of the short track, climb a hill, and then return.  We repeated it several times with the expectation that the group would follow and we began riding away slowly.  And guess what!...  No one followed.   

Honestly, the ride left me a bit disappointed. I know that all can’t be sunshine and roses, I’ve seen so much to be proud of in the Folsom High School Cycling Team, but it was a blow to the joy of it all to see a group of kids not appreciate what they had before them. If there were high school cycling teams when I was in school, I would have been all over it, riding as often and with as much heart as I could.  Most of these kids aren’t riding cheap bikes, many of their parents were able to invest a lot more money in these bikes and equipment then my parents could invest in mine.  I could only have dreamed to have such opportunity and equipment handed to me when I was their age!

From my perspective, I saw this one group of kids unwilling to participate in an awesome opportunity.  Their parents cared enough to go without money and time so that their kids could have something good in their lives and they were wasting that opportunity, squandering that token of affection from their parents and right along with it wasting my time –as faithful readers of this blog know is incredibly precious for me, especially with a baby son waiting at home wondering where his dad is- and limited resources.  I have kids at home that would love for me to spend the day with them.  Instead I am out sitting in a valley with a bunch of kids with expensive bikes and gear that don’t want to ride. 

I can only hope that something, sometime –hopefully soon- will click for these kids and they will see that this is a time and opportunity in their lives to seize and live to the fullest. I can only pray that something that I can do or say may inspire at least some of them to make the most of what a community of caring adults can give because very few things in life can give the fierce and primal satisfaction of coming home with a bike so wonderfully painted with mud.