Celebrating 15 years strong, a special cycling community hosts a range of professionals that meet and ride, say, every Wednesday at 6:15 a.m., in front of Amante coffee in North Boulder. What are they doing? Of course, riding, but it really is a unique chance to network with people. That’s right, this ride is about who you can meet and less about how far, how fast you can ride.
“We talk before, during, and after the ride,” Russ Chandler said, Organizer and Manager of Wednesday Morning Velo. ”It’s all about networking and using a bike ride to meet people. It’s expanded now into the businesses of the communities and we have people riding who are architects, bike shop owners, personal service providers, realtors, mortgage lenders, business managers, pro riders, and a whole bag of people.”
The Wednesday Velo was started by a couple bankers in 2001, originally called the “Banker’s Ride” and served to entertain customers and clients. Growing from a few riders, to well over 50 riders, now, 65 sponsors, and some 450 people on the newsletter. Chandler and Rob Andrew have continued on the tradition, and have even added something special this year for those who want to get into the network ride, which has an age range of 20-years-old to 70.
“The groups got too fast, last year we expanded it into a two group ride,” Chandler said. “ That got more women to come out and slowed things down…which was great. This year we have three groups: the faster group, in between group, and the slow pack. We wanted everyone to be able to make the ride.”
(Read more about the 3-ride format: http://wednesdayvelo.com/groups)
The Wednesday Morning Velo will start tomorrow, Wednesday May 7, 2015 and wrap up on Wednesday September 30, 2015.
