By Amelia Imker

I’m sideways, flying through a switchback, eating dust. To the untrained eye this sounds like high stakes torture, and to be honest, when I first started biking, I would have agreed with you. But now I can testify that the corkscrew is one of the most fun features on a race course.

You’re probably asking yourself: How did your opinion on biking change so drastically? So, let’s start at the beginning.

Picture an eighth grade girl, who was kind of awkward (I mean it’s middle school so unfortunately that’s pretty much a given), who was forced to bike because her parents signed her up to practice with the team. Not only this, but she had done only two bike rides the summer leading up to the season (giving her very little conditioning) and she didn’t even like biking. In fact she had hated every second of it. And suddenly she had to join a team with no one she even vaguely knew and somehow had to keep up with high schoolers.

Now, if you’re thinking that situation sounds terrible, you would be right. How do I know? Because that was me.

I showed up on the first day of practice flooded with anxiety and to top it off there were no girls on my team, which sounds insignificant, but made it all the more terrifying. Eventually after I stood around awkwardly while other kids talked, we started our ride. I started last hoping I would work my way forward and my heart dropped when I realized I was, in fact, the slowest.

As we started up a long hill I vividly remember my legs and lungs being on fire and how I resented every second of the climb on that hot summer afternoon. To top it off, in addition to my frustration with my slowness, my lack of experience also showed up in how I rode tech, which was not at all. I got stopped at every single slightly techy feature. But finally, after a grueling climb up and getting off my bike close to 15 times I made it to the top, where much to my embarrassment, everyone had already caught their breath and was waiting for me.

Little did I know, the worst was yet to come…the downhill.

The whole time going down I was riding my brakes and felt like I was going to die. The slightest tech feature had me looking like I had seen a ghost. All the while I was trying to keep up with everybody else. But, to no avail, I fell behind more than twice as far as I did on the climb. By the time we reached the bottom my body and mind were completely fried and I never wanted to touch my bike again.

But I had practice two days later. Then another practice, then another, then another, then another and after a few skipped team dinners all of a sudden the season was gone. I was extremely happy it was over, but I did end up getting a lot more comfortable on my bike during it.

By the time the next season rolled around, I was slightly more inclined to bike, but probably wouldn’t have if my parents hadn’t forcibly pushed me to. But something changed, I started to enjoy it more. I started to understand the type 2 fun of the climbs, and I learned to enjoy the flow of the downhills even though they still scared me half to death.

The biggest game changer for me was when there were other girls on my team. We quickly became friends, which made all the rides feel more fun. And eventually they convinced me to go to the team dinners where I met the rest of the girls on the other teams. There were only about 7 or 8 of us, but I was starting to feel connected to the bike community I had heard about the whole last season.

And after hanging out with all the girls the first race, and cheering everybody on, I finally understood what people talked about when they said the “bike community”. All the girls were so welcoming and inclusive even though they were all a little older and much faster than me.

That’s when I fell in love with biking.

I started to truly enjoy the environment the people build, and appreciate the beautiful environment we have with the mountains that enables us to bike, and suddenly a little dirt felt so insignificant. And slowly, as I spent time on my bike, I built my confidence and learned to enjoy the downhills even though they still scare me sometimes.

But during such a transition period from middle school to high school the bike community was so welcoming and anchored me through all the chaos. And although 8th grade me would have preferred to do anything but mountain bike, now I don’t know what I would do without mountain biking. Or all the amazing friends and coaches that have supported me and helped me grow, not only as a biker, but as a person.

So yeah, now there’s almost nothing I’d rather do than be flying through a switchback eating dust.

Amelia Imker is a Junior at Ralston Valley High School and a Colorado native. When not biking she can be found baking or hanging out with friends.