BORP-NorCal SCI Adaptive Cycling Sundays: 22 riders, loads of fun and future plans

Some of the BORP staff and volunteers from the last day — in the back from left to right: Dan, Leo, Nick, Eric, Franklin, Debbie. In the front: Wojtek

As part of our collaboration with BORP to bring adaptive cycling to the South Bay, we lost two battles: one to Mother Nature (which led to cancellation of one date due to poor weather) and another one to Mother’s Day which reminded us to never plan any activities on this day other than those celebrating moms. Otherwise, the first-ever collaboration between BORP and NorCal SCI to stage a series of Adaptive Cycling events at the Vasona Park and Lake in Los Gatos resulted in 22 unique riders experiencing the joy and exhilaration of adaptive cycling, majority of them for the first-time ever. As organizers of this event, BORP and NorCal SCI couldn’t have been more pleased with the results.

This last Sunday’s event was the last in these series that brought big grins on the faces of not only the riders but also their friends or families who came to ride along the beautiful trails of Vasona Park. Gilly came all the way from Stockton along with her six-year-old son. She was injured in 2019 in a rollover accident and Sunday marked the first time she had been on a cycle again. Upon returning from their first ride around the park, her exhausted son hilariously complained that “mom was going too fast for him to keep up with”.

Tyler came from Fresno along with his fiancé and family and even though his sore shoulder cut his outing short, they were all thrilled that he participated.

Davis came from San Ramon to try a foot pedal cycle for the first time and he clearly had a great time riding along with Dan, the event coordinator for NorCal SCI and was happy he came.

We had multiple repeat riders who came not only to enjoy a beautiful day at the park but also try out different bikes to see which one fits them the best.

The BORP staff of Leo, Justin, Jorge and Eric were simply a joy to work with and they made every rider comfortable throughout the process. We also have to mention Jason who volunteered for BORP on multiple weekends.

Our volunteers of Ed, Phil, Wojtek, Kevin, Mike, Chris, Dana (came all the way from Sacramento), and Debbie were kind to spend several hours each to make our riders’ experience a great one.

We’d like to thank the staff at the County of Santa Clara Parks and Recreation Dept. who helped us secure a terrific launch site and plenty of parking for our riders.

Finally, the question is where do we go from here? Hosting these events was a great learning experience for us as an organization as well as exposing the concept of adaptive cycling to a group of individuals with physical disabilities that hadn’t experienced it. We don’t want to let the cat out of the bag yet but what if we just say, COMING SOON!

Dan, Nick and Franklin
NorCal SCI