Say ‘yes’ to something rad in 2018

I’m sure my eyes widened when Brendan Arnold suggested I visit his BMX track. We were chatting at the 2017 launch of the Cannondale-3 Rox team this past January. The national BMX coach was telling me about the track he runs in Stouffville, Ont., about 50 km north and a bit east of Toronto. He said I should visit and try it out.

I hadn’t been on a BMX bike in almost 30 years. Mine was red and yellow. I rode it around the neighbourhood and to the corner store to get freezies and comic books. A friend and I occasionally set up a crude jump on our dead-end street. Not only did that bike lead me to some sick air, but wipeouts, cuts and bruises, too. When Arnold extend his offer, I didn’t hesitate with my “yes.”

Many cyclists said “yes” to new experiences on their bikes in 2017. You never know exactly where such a “yes” will take you. For me, I showed up in Stouffville in early summer with photo editor Matt Stetson. (He’s rad. He has his own BMX bike.) Lilies that Arnold’s mother-in-law had planted by the track were blooming. We started with the basics: getting speed by pumping the bike. I was pretty slow at the start, but throughout the morning, I got faster and faster. I practised starting from the gate. It was frustrating, trying to keep my balance at a standstill. But I got it soon enough.

Arnold and I got set for a race. I was to pedal down the first stretch, out of the first turn and then pump my way to the end. Arnold would start after I rounded Turn 1 and could only pump. After I launched down the ramp, I reached the first tabletop and my feet came off the flat pedals. I held onto the bars and slipped and skidded on my feet. Pins from the left pedal cut two bloody lines in my calf. I still have the scars, but really, it was the perfect injury. It didn’t hold me back from riding more that day. Now they’re something I can show off. “Guess how I did that?”

We later finished our race. Arnold beat me, but he says he really had to work for it. After the ride, he had freezies for us. Cool scar and frozen sugar water – it was a perfect BMX day for an 11-year-old or a 40-year-old.

This issue not only has the inspiring many stories, it’s all stuff that will make you fitter, faster and help you to have more fun. You just have to say “yes.”