LOCALadk Magazine

Saratoga Shredders, a 501c3 nonprofit organization based in Saratoga Springs, was started by Anna Laloe, a geologist and retired elite mountain bike racer, in 2017. e idea was to get more girls on mountain bikes. Spoiler alert, it worked! Saratoga Shredders now has over 100 girls, grades K-5, registered for the spring 2022 program in three different regions. In addition, Shredders has added an older rider program to its offerings, a coed program for grades 4-12, with the option to race for the Saratoga Shredders NICA race team that competes all across the state each spring. e groups ride in small pods of five to eight kids, with two adults in each pod, at trail venues all across the county, including Saratoga Spa State Park, Luther Forest, Kalabus Perry Trails, Gurney Lane, and Daniels Road State Forest (SMBA). e sport of mountain biking dramatically increased in popularity during the pandemic. In June of 2020, when Shredders opened up their first rides, aer contacting the department of health for permission, twenty girls showed up. Each week throughout that summer, their numbers doubled until reaching capacity at 200 girls, ages 5-12, in the fall of 2020. To be clear, cycling was really the only safe activity for kids to do together at the time. As long as they stayed ON their bikes, they were naturally socially distant from one another. ere weren't a lot of other options for kids in the area. As other sports and activities started to open up, Laloe and the Shredders board assumed their numbers would naturally decline, but that was not the case and Shredders seems to be here to stay. Typically more of a fringe sport, mountain biking has become 'mainstream' in Saratoga Springs, in the sense that parents can drop their kids off for mountain bike practice just like they can for soccer or baseball and other mainstream sports. ey can even choose to compete on the Shredders NICA team once they reach middle school age if they wish. Laloe emphasizes, however, that Shredders is about getting girls on bikes, not about racing. "For me, even though I'm a quite competitive person and have competed in this sport for a few years at a high level, mountain biking has provided me with such a sense of adventure and fun in the woods that I want these kids to be able to experience it too. It's an activity you can do throughout your entire life, not just at a young age. I want them to be able to enjoy biking in the woods with their friends—a simple adventure in their own little city!" Despite starting the organization by herself, Laloe attributes Shredders' success completely to the squad of about sixty volunteer female mentors and rad dads who make the organization so run smoothly. "ere is absolutely no way we could run Shredders sustainably without the help of our volunteers and local small business supporters. e speed with which the organization grew over a very short amount of time was only sustainable because the number of volunteers and local support also grew in that time." Local businesses Women's Care NY, Teakwood Builders, Grey Ghost Bicycles, Capital Bicycle Racing Club, Trek Saratoga Springs, and KindNest are all 2022 sponsors of Saratoga Shredders. Saratoga Shredders now runs spring and fall weekday programs in three different regions: Saratoga Springs, the Albany area, and the Queensbury area; as well as four weeks of mountain bike summer camps. ere is still availability for summer camps; that information is on their website: www.saratogashredders.com. SHREDDERS SAR ATOGA LOCALadk 15 Story by Anna Laloe and some young shredders & Photography by David Boshek North Country MTB

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