Pumpkin spice, back to school, and CYCLOCROSS. I’ll be honest, I just wanted to write this post to talk about why I’m so excited for fall, specifically cyclocross season. It’s my first season back racing in over a decade and I’m a mix of nervous and psyched and just so many feelings. Real talk, I feel like my 17-year-old self all over again, gearing up for a best year ever kind of montage.
To me, back to school has always been a big deal. From deciding who I was going to be by way of my first day outfit (I recommend The Mirror Diaries for any tweens who are nervous about back to school) to when I started racing cyclocross in college and beyond, September always has felt more like New Years to me than January ever has. Maybe that’s why I’ve been so hard at work on Shred Girls book #5 😉
Cyclocross also has me asking a big question: Why can’t they play? Our first ever graphic novel illustrated by the amazing Crystal Yang and created by the incredible research team at RE.Sport investigates this question about soccer tryouts, but the concept expands beyond the soccer pitch. Our goal with this book was to get people—kids, coaches, parents, educators—thinking about who they are inviting to tryouts, and to be part of the team.
And—strange as it sounds to compare soccer to cycling—this book makes me think a lot about cyclocross.
If you don’t know my backstory, I was a very non-athletic punk bookworm who came to cycling when I was in college. I dabbled in triathlon thanks to my equally punk rock/bookworm RA freshman year being into Ironman, and he encouraged me to join Rutgers Cycling to work on the bike leg of the race. I showed up to a group ride, and pretty much instantly was invited to race cyclocross with the team—largely because they really, really, really needed the women’s points and didn’t have a woman on the team racing. The Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference was way ahead of its time when it came to equity, weighting men’s and women’s total points equally to encourage teams to add women to their roster.
It wasn’t just my cyclocross team that embraced inviting EVERYONE into the sport. Cyclocross, I learned, was all about the fun, the love, the mud, and the fact that anyone and everyone could race. Yes, there were fancy cyclocross bikes. But most races also offered an open category for racers to ride anything, from a tandem bike to a unicycle. Courses are short, open, and while they have some obstacles, they are beginner-friendly since running with your bike is just par for the course. There are kid’s races on tiny versions of the course, and balance bikes are welcome. The vibe is as inclusive as I’ve ever seen cycling get. Cyclocross is why the Shred Girls books exist, because without it, I never would have fallen in love with bikes and felt so strongly about getting other girls to do the same.
The sport has shrunk a bit in North America in recent years, but I truly believe that it’s poised for a comeback—or maybe it’s just wishful thinking because I miss it so much and I’m so excited to get back to it. I was never very good at it, or at least, I was decent at best, but that’s part of why I’m excited. It’ll be fun to be back in a low-pressure sport, just playing on my bike. It’s like in Why Can’t They Play when we talk about intramural soccer: It’s not serious, but it can be transformative for kids. Sport doesn’t have to be all about the score. It should be about the love.
A big reason I’m excited to get back to it, though, is because I think it is a sport that can invite more girls in. I think it’s a great entry point for any rider, and I love that unlike road or mountain bike racing, it can be done in a huge range of places—including right in downtown Toronto at Christie Cross (use code shredgurlz if you’re registering for a women’s or girl’s race!). These downtown races allow new riders to enter our sport because they’re easy to access via public transit—and the open race is a ton of fun!
So, if you’re in or around Ontario, make time to check out a Cyclocross Ontario Cup race—I’ll be there hosting free women’s and girl’s prerides, plus we’ll have a whole Shred Girls hangout zone at every race!
And this may be a weird segue, but bear with me: When I got into cycling, I was the only woman on the team. That meant I had no one to talk to about periods, saddle issues, or anything nether-region-related. But for young women athletes, pelvic health is SUCH a big deal, and a major reason so many teens quit sport. Luckily something we’re talking more about these days, but there’s still so much misinformation out there! That’s why we developed the Inner Power course with pelvic health physiotherapist Laura Powers—and it’s open now. Use code sgpinsider for 20% off!
Not sure what you don’t know? We also have a free quiz that you can take right here.
And finally on a cyclocross-y note, I’m THRILLED that our second children’s book, Lizzie Learns to Ride, is available for preorder now. Yes, it’s about bikes, but there’s another closer tie for me here. Remember how I said I was the only girl on the Rutgers Cycling Team when I joined? Well, after I joined, guess what happened? More girls joined. Including Girls in Gear founder and now-author Dr. Gabrielle Rossi, who became an amazing cyclist and even more amazing human who has now gotten thousands of girls on bikes. And why? Sure, she may have done it without me, or without our mutual cycling team. But I like to think that when those guys invited me to join, it kicked off a series of events that led to both Gabi and I dedicating our lives to making even more girls feel like they’re invited to play.
OK, I lied. ONE more cyclocross-y note. We also just introduced a new paid Substack from my dear friend Ellen Noble—who you may know as a silver medalist at Cyclocross World Championships, multi-time national champion, and all around amazing human. She came to me a few months ago to talk about how she wanted to share her story, and now she is documenting her return to cyclocross after taking a forced hiatus to deal with her autoimmune condition. This Substack is covering everything she’s learned and is learning, and we’re working together to make sure it provides a ton of valuable tips and advice so that other young women going through similar things feel less alone. Check it out (there’s a free tier too, but consider supporting her!).
Now that’s it! See you on the ‘cross course…
-Molly
