Living the Dream

One minute we’re sweating at 7 a.m. in Florida humidity and the next minute, we’re lucky if we see water. In July of 2024, R&R moved to their dream town, Salida, Colorado. Before our furniture arrived, we rode all the trails even with Florida fitness and lack of elevation in our lungs. It was tough but we did it!

R&R has been visiting Salida for years and even when we visited other mountain towns, we would compare their vibe to Salida’s. So after many years of doing this and not really finding a place that was better, it seemed clear to us this was the place we were meant to be.

Since moving here and gaining mountain fitness and technical riding skills, the mountain life just keeps getting better and better. We live a mile from the local trails and are now only a few hours to some of our most beloved trail systems in the West. It really is a dream life and we are grateful every day for the opportunity to live where we love to play.

View of S Mountain, part of the Salida Mountain Trails system.

R&R move basecamp to Sarasota

Thought we best update the blog with the newest information.

Prior to the pandemic, R&R packed up and moved to Sarasota, Florida on a chance at a unique career opportunity for Ryan. It was a very difficult decision but we finally decided to put aside all the racing, traveling, promoting and coaching to live a bit simpler, a bit slower and see what this new opportunity would bring us.

Then the world went to fashizzle.

We’re doing fine in Florida and lucky for us we’ve had the bikes to keep us from going completely bananas. We’ve ridden many of the popular trail systems within a few hours drive of our new home and quite honestly, we’ve been surprised by what the trail builders have done with the terrain they have. There’s actually more technical riding than we would have thought. And every time we’ve ridden, trail head parking lots are full so it’s been shown to us there are many folks who ride single track for sure. All that to say, maybe when it’s safer to come together as a group, we might find ourselves putting on some clinics in the future.

Until then, be safe, be happy and always ride inspired!

Ryan & Roxy

Spring Recap

R&R held three MTB Schools is spring. Two were local and one was in Des Moines, the first-ever MTB School road trip. One of our clinics was co-ed and the other two, including the Des Moines clinic, were women only. We continue to see more and more ladies on trails and that is a great thing! Women on bikes, research has shown, leads to families on bikes. We’re super stoked to be part of their journeys to better themselves.

For any rider, male or female, trail riding can be very intimidating and R&R must always remember this. We are so far removed from our beginner days and it’s our responsibility to always be aware that what comes so naturally to us could be absolutely foreign and scary to a new rider. This is the very reason why we break down all of our moves in small increments and build on each of them throughout the day. Still, it’s a lot of information and sometimes it’s fatiguing, especially when all you want to know is how do I not crash?! So, we’ll take all the feedback we’ve received this year and see how we can continue to improve and accommodate riders at all levels so everyone leaves stoked to ride!

On a fun note and yes, we’re bragging here, a few of our students felt brave enough to try a mountain bike race. That is amazing!! Racing is not the end goal at R&R but we believe it’s a great tool. For students to find the courage to strap on a number plate and line up with seasoned racers is a big step, both mentally and physically. Racing puts you in situations where you will push beyond what you thought you were capable of doing. Clinics are a safe environment for practice and repetition. Race environments are stressful, uncontrollable sometimes and will force riders to make decisions in real time. I commend anyone who lines shows up on a start line. No matter how seasoned, the result is never guaranteed, and it takes moxie to believe you belong there! Congrats to our students for stretching their limits!

So what’s next for R&R? Clinic season is done (too hot) so it’s time to travel and see some new trails and also some oldies but goodies. Then in the fall, we’ll be working with the NICS (Nebraska Interscholastic Cycling Series) to keep pushing to expand youth cycling in our state.

Until then, thanks for reading and hope to see you on the trails. As always, ride inspired!