By Nate Van Noord (RO Staff)
A personal experience with a local legend - Stacy Gery.
Stacy Gery, getting ready to lead her class.
When I moved from Detroit to Colorado Springs in 2021, I hung up my daily commuter and bought a mountain bike. I was surprised how different the mountain biking skill set is with navigating roots, rocks, switchbacks, and descents. I’ve had a blast exploring all the trails around town, but like learning any new sport, I realized I have a lot to learn.
So, I signed up for a class with Stacy Gery of MTB with Stacy. Stacy, a former high school Spanish teacher, has taught mountain biking - and piano - for many years. She moved to Colorado from Pennsylvania 12 years ago - after spending a couple years in Bolivia for her graduate degree. A woman of adventure, she has hiked the whole Appalachian Trail and Colorado Trail (the CT was her favorite!).
Luis, on the left, demonstrating while Baron explains.
I signed up for MTB Stacy’s ‘essentials’ class held at Eagleview Middle School, next to Ute Valley Park. When I arrived, I met two of her instructors, Baron and Luis. Baron, a former student of Stacy, was a highly competitive rider for years. Luis interned with Stacy originally as part of his college degree and now works as a technician at a local bike shop as well.
They, along with Stacy, led the class of 7 other students in a round of introductions to start the class. Most folks were in a similar boat as me having picked up the sport recently. After intros, they showed us what to check on our bikes before riding and recommended specific gear like pedals, pads, and shorts. Once we got through the preliminary stuff, we proceeded over to a grassy area where the instructors explained, demonstrated, and then coached us through a variety of skills like proper riding positions, braking, and cornering. As a former schoolteacher myself, I can attest that they did an excellent job of both explaining and demonstrating each skill. They weren’t hesitant to correct our form but did it in a tactful way that helped us learn the skills.
Working on keeping eyes up and looking through the turn…
Once the session was finished, I struck up conversation with a few other participants.
Karl and Dalene, both 63, were very fun to meet. Karl is picking up the sport after many years away and had encouraged Dalene a couple years ago to pick it up for the first time. They thought the class was great and regret having not taken it sooner.
I met Bekah too - who is also from Michigan! She was inspired to start riding after moving to Colorado a year ago. She is a software engineer, in her mid 20s, and learned about Stacy through a Facebook page of women riding in COS. She learned a lot about cornering - like keeping her eyes up and looking through the turn. Bekah’s looking forward to taking a ‘rock’ class from Stacy next, but wants to apply all the skills from the ‘essentials’ class first.
Similar to Bekah, I’m excited to get out there and practice everything I learned with MTB Stacy! This is a great way to dive deeper into mountain biking. I couldn’t encourage a better route than to engage one of her sessions. You won’t regret it.
Check out MTB Stacy’s website below.
