MURRAY \u2013 A group of Murray parents and their children are spreading their love of riding bicycles to other families with monthly rides to school and a newly formed competitive cycling team.<\/p>\n
While the tradition is brand new, the plan moving forward is for any interested Murray Middle School student to gather at Gear Up Cycling the last Friday of each month before riding their bikes approximately one mile to get to school. The gathering is called a \u201cbike bus,\u201d and Friday was the third time it took place, but the first time it was on the traditional day the group is planning to stick with in the months ahead.<\/p>\n
The monthly ride grew from an idea Rachel and Roger Riquelme had after years of riding bikes to school with their sons, seventh-grader Wyatt and fifth-grader Ezra. Rachel said the family has seen quite a few benefits over the years from cycling in the mornings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel like when they ride to school, they have better days at school,\u201d Rachel said. \u201cThey do better in class, they\u2019re in a better mental health space and they\u2019re just more excited to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family had talked for years about getting more children involved before discovering the bike bus concept online. Rachel said they decided to do a trial run and invite people out for a single ride last May on the last day of the 2025-26 school year. She said Gear Up Cycling at the corner of 15th and Main streets seemed like the most logical starting point for the route, and the owners were happy to host them.<\/p>\n
Rachel said the first ride drew about 24 children and 10 adults, exceeding the organizers\u2019 expectations. A second ride on the first day of school earlier this month drew about 32 riders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids were just so joyful, and it\u2019s the absolute best way to start your morning,\u201d Rachel said.<\/p>\n
That response led organizers to make the ride a monthly event, Rachel said. She said Roger typically begins each ride with a safety talk, reminding riders that bicycles are vehicles and that cyclists must always follow traffic laws, as well as explaining how riders can communicate with each other through hand signals to help keep the group safe.<\/p>\n
Since the Riquelmes were out of town for the first regular monthly ride on Friday, the safety talk fell to Lizzy Bales and her fianc\u00e9, Christian Goatley, who both own Gear Up Cycling together. They said that when they were contacted about potentially serving as the meeting point, they were excited by the idea. Goatley said riding as a group can make the trip to school more enjoyable for everyone involved, and he expressed hope that the event eventually could expand to include other schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bike bus is just a good way to get kids riding to school in the community, and a good way to get them excited about bikes,\u201d Goatley said. \u201cWe\u2019re just getting started, and kind of taking it as (it comes), but it\u2019s been a good turnout so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bike bus also connects with a larger effort to build youth cycling in Calloway County, as the Riquelmes and a couple of other families decided to start a competitive youth cycling program called Murray-Calloway Cycling, also known as the MurCal Cyclones. Rachel said the team\u2019s head coach, Joel Weinberger, is a friend of theirs who has also been an avid morning rider for years with his and his wife Dena\u2019s daughters, Dorothy and Betsy, and their son, also named Joel. Chris Taylor, who serves as the organization\u2019s director, and his wife, Georgena, also became involved in the team with their daughters, Quinn, Ella and Molly. Georgena, Rachel and Roger also help coach, along with Brandon Thurmond.<\/p>\n
Rachel said the organization was established as a 501(c)(3) so children from throughout Calloway County can participate regardless of which school system they attend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started with just our three families\u2019 kids \u2013 which would be eight kids altogether \u2013 but now we\u2019ve grown and picked up several other families, and we have 12 or 13 riding on our team now,\u201d Rachel said. \u201cLast weekend, we went to our first race, and we had two girls, Dorothy and Betsy, get second place in their categories. It was for the whole state of Kentucky, and we have four more race weekends coming up in the fall, where we\u2019ll get to camp together, race together and just let the kids bond. We\u2019re really, really excited, and it\u2019s the most supportive team and community we have ever found.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kentucky Interscholastic Cycling League (KY NICA) hosted last weekend\u2019s race at the Highlander Trail System in Lucas. Chris Taylor said 10 MurCal riders competed, and all completed the race. Chris said MurCal hopes to eventually hold its own races locally for children ages 4-12, and the organization also is working to make participation more accessible, since the cost of cycling can be a barrier to some. A season costs about $400 per child, he said, but the organization is able to subsidize some participants.<\/p>\n
Outside of the racing aspect, the kids who gathered Friday morning were simply happy to get together on their bikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to do this because it seemed fun, and I am on the mountain bike team,\u201d said Chris and Georgena\u2019s middle daughter, fifth-grader Ella Taylor.<\/p>\n
Another fifth-grader, Quinn Gibbs, missed the bike bus on the first day of school, but she and her mother, Allie, were there Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like biking, and we live really close (to MMS), so we thought it would be fun to bike to school,\u201d Quinn said.<\/p>\n
Rachel said she is hoping the bike buses and team continue to catch on with others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re excited that they can be a part of it, their friends can be a part of it and maybe it can be something that just grows with them,\u201d Rachel said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MURRAY \u2013 A group of Murray parents and their children are spreading their love of riding bicycles to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[22492,22490,1163,49,48,7001,635,22489,22493,22488,22494,82,44344,2882],"class_list":["post-875223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-adventure-travel","tag-aerobic-exercise","tag-bicycle","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-child","tag-cycling","tag-human-powered-transport","tag-land-transport","tag-micromobility","tag-outdoor-recreation","tag-sports","tag-sustainable-transport","tag-transport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}