Ride Along: Saratoga Shredders Mountain Bike Ride
The cutest mountain bikers you've ever seen, plus America's next best mullet, New Year's Eve in Saratoga and more.
**Editor’s note: When you’re done reading the main story, keep scrolling for weekly tidbits from all over Saratoga!**
When I pulled into a parking lot on the Global Foundries technology campus in Malta this past Wednesday at 5pm, I was met by an unlikely crowd: 75 girls, ages 5-12, mountain bikes at the ready. The girls were separated into groups by age, each of which had its own name—or names. “Attention baby pandas and hamsters!” I overheard adult mentor Marcella Hammer announce to her rowdy crew of third-graders (whose real name is the dragonflies) as I rolled my own bike up to the first-grade mayflies.
“Who remembers the ABCD bike check?” Anna Laloe, the female force responsible for this gathering of girls, was saying. The mayflies quickly recalled A, B and C—air, brakes and chain—from last week’s skills day, before getting caught up on the word derailleur. “See if anything looks particularly bent,” Anna said, gesturing to her own bike’s gear-changing mechanism. “Excuse me,” a little girl named Mary said. “I’m not really good at catching up to people.” After reassuring Mary, whose bike had a purple basket with a stuffed animal in it on the front, that she wouldn’t be left behind, the mayflies mounted their bikes and headed across the road into the Luther Forest trails.
If you mountain bike locally, chances are you’ve had at least one run-in with the Saratoga Shredders—a horde of the cutest pink- and purple-clad athletes the sport of biking has ever seen. “We’re really the only K-12 youth mountain bike development program in the state of New York,” says Anna Laloe, who founded the nonprofit with the goal of getting more girls on mountain bikes. “I don’t even know if it exists in the country.”
While Anna had been leading girls’ rides for a few years, Saratoga Shredders was officially incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization in June of 2020, when mountain biking was one of the few sports that was safe to do given the pandemic. “We had 20 girls show up to the first ride, and that number basically doubled every practice for the rest of the summer,” Anna says. “In the fall of 2020 we had over 200 girls who had registered for the program.” Since then the program has grown to include a Shredders North K-5 program in Queensbury, a Shredders South K-5 program in Albany, a co-ed program for grades 4-12, and a free after-school program for middle school girls to ride in the Saratoga Spa State Park.
Shredders is so popular, that when I asked a few of the girls if their friends at school thought it was cool that they mountain biked (some of my adult friends still think I’m crazy for doing it), they looked at me, confused. “Three of my friends are in shredders,” one first-grader told me. In just two years, Saratoga Shredders has made mountain biking mainstream, at least in elementary school circles.
On the trails, I heard Marcella yell ahead to her dragonflies: “You’re in Dinosaur Alley! You’re going to miss it!” I quickly caught up to their group in time to spot the tree bent like a long neck dinosaur. At the next intersection, one dragonfly needed a bathroom break, and the others stopped for a snack.
“Did you know dolphins fart?” Syd asked me. “I’ve been dying for a few years,” she continued nonchalantly. “But then I re-spawned because I’m a goddess.” The rest of the ride featured much more talk of re-spawning (a Minecraft reference that went right over my head), conversations about where to go next (Gravity Cavity was a favorite, but we avoided the Caverns of Doom), and navigating around other riders. “These are called ‘males on the trail,’ Marcella explained as we pulled over to let a group of men pass.
And while Shredders is definitely a lot of fun and games (especially when you’re riding with the dragonflies) the positive impact it’s having on its participants is obvious. “I had one parent come to me in the spring of 2021 and say her daughter was clinically depressed,” Anna says. “She decided to join Shredders, and I’m not saying Shredders healed her, but she was off her medication within a couple of months of joining.” In other cases, joining Shredders has helped get entire families outside; I met two adult mentors who got into riding because of their daughters.
And then there’s the sense of belonging that comes with being a part of something like Shredders. “I had a girl in seventh grade who last year was being severely bullied at school,” Anna says. “She just feels like she’s found her people at Shredders.”
—Natalie
Quote of the Week
“Are we chili vikings?”
—Matt Beecher, owner of Bailey’s
New Year, New Party
On Thursday, the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, Commissioner of Accounts Dillon Moran and other members of the Saratoga community gathered at Putnam Place to announce a new New Year’s festival to replace First Night in Saratoga: the two-day New Year’s Fest. Family-friendly activities will take center stage on New Year’s Eve afternoon, and fireworks will be shot from the new City Center Parking Garage around 6:30pm. Then, local, regional and national musical acts, including The Samples, Cowboy Junkies and Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, will take the stage (literally), performing in downtown venues including Putnam Place, Ice House and the Saratoga City Center. New Year’s Day will kick off with a 5K race, followed by activities including bridge and poker tournaments and a food festival. Tickets are on sale now.
The Pumpkin Espresso Martini to End All Pumpkin Espresso Martinis
(Serves 2)
Ingredients:
4 oz Tito’s vodka
4 oz Kahlua
2 oz Silk almond milk pumpkin spice creamer
Splash of Stok unsweetened cold brew
Instructions:
Shake in shaker with ice, pour into martini glass and top with cinnamon.
Hair Apparent
This week, Stillwater resident Scott Salvadore officially broke into the top 25 of the USA Mullet Championships. Voting for the final round—a.k.a. to crown the best mullet in America—opens soon. Follow Scott’s wife, Ashley, on Instagram for updates.
Bid News
Our newest silent auction is live! Bid now on items including a Burden Lake Airbnb, a luxury whiskey basket from First Fill Spirits, a car-lover’s basket and more. Auction closes Sunday at 3pm.
This Week in Saratoga Living After Hours
On Monday, we asked readers to ID three super-secret Saratoga spots.
Then, on Tuesday, we previewed new Ballston Spa brewery The Speckled Pig, which celebrated its grand opening yesterday.