Bulletin E-Edition:
Young bicyclists get riding tips from a professional
By Scott Hammers / The Bulletin
Published: October 02. 2009 4:00AM PST| order photo
Fifth-grader Kristin Black, 10, left, and her classmates visit with professional cyclocross and mountain bike racer Ryan Trebon on Thursday afternoon at Bear Creek Elementary School. Trebon was at the school to help Commute Options teach a class on bicycle safety.
Scott Hammers
The Bulletin
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Around town, Ryan Trebon says he can go pretty much anywhere without being recognized. But Thursday at Bear Creek Elementary School, he faced down a jostling mob of autograph-seekers unlike anything the reigning national cyclocross champion typically sees outside of Europe.
Trebon was the celebrity guest for a group of fifth-graders wrapping up two weeks of bicycle safety training with Commute Options. On Thursday, Trebon and other adult volunteers led the students on a bike ride around the southeast Bend neighborhood surrounding the school.
Second-grade teacher Seth Graham invited Trebon to go for a ride with the students and talk about what it’s like to ride a bike for a living.
After wowing the kids with stories about 180-mile rides, the 18 bikes crowding his garage and beating Lance Armstrong, Trebon said he was hoping he’d get another chance to do another ride with students soon.
“I’ve wanted to do this, but it’s been hard to fit into my schedule until now,” he said. “It was great, the kids, they’re hilarious, you know?”
Commute Options now offers bike safety instruction in 13 Central Oregon schools. For the next two weeks, the group will be at REALMS in Bend, and in the second half of October, the group will close out the season with a course at Juniper Elementary School.
Sami Fournier, a bike safety instructor for Commute Options and a one-time teammate of Trebon on the Kona pro team, said the area surrounding Bear Creek is one of the best for riding with young cyclists. The kids seem to particularly enjoy riding through the roundabouts, she said,
“The kids are real motivated by the notion of driving, and this is that building block to driving,” Fournier said. “We tell them this is all the stuff they need to know when they go and take their driver’s test, who yields at a four-way stop, that kind of thing. We really talk to them about driving a bike like you’d drive a vehicle.”
The programs also seek to encourage kids to ride their bikes to school, something Graham said is already fairly popular at Bear Creek.
Even on a chilly morning, Graham counted more than 30 bikes chained to the school’s bike racks.
“I would ride to school if my mom thought I was responsible enough to cross main roads,” said fifth-grader Kristin Black, 10. “That’s why I don’t ride to school.”
Graham said getting to meet a world-class cyclist is particularly helpful for boosting the confidence of students who have been timid about riding bicycles.
At the end of the day Thursday, Graham met with the mother of one such student.
Her son had fallen off his bike during the ride and missed his chance to get an autograph from Trebon while being treated in the nurse’s office, Graham said, but his mother said he’d had a great experience.
“Even with a crash ... he was excited about it,” Graham said. “That’s what it’s all about for us.”
Scott Hammers can be reached at 541-383-0387 or at shammers@bendbulletin.com.
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