Hi Folks!

As part of the warm up for Bike to Work Week (May 11-17), I had planned a visit to a school to show them a few trials tricks, then take them for a ride. I certainly didn’t want to be a hypocrite and drive, but how was I going to get to the school with two different bikes? Knowing that my example is more powerful than my words, I decided to borrow a bike trailer from my friend Dimitri, and just tow my trials bike and high jump bar to the school. It was only about a 35 minute bike ride, so no big deal. I, along with 95 students, rode their bikes to school-NICE!!

(Big rig vs Small rig—could this be a sign of things to come?)

If you’re a Vancouverite, the Trips for Kids DownBeat Slideshow and Silent Auction is coming up on May 7^th. I’ll be doing a trials demo, Sterling Lorence and Kari Medig will present slideshows, and there will be some incredible auction items up for grabs. Check out all the specifics here!

The desire to progress and push my riding is at a momentary plateau; but I am inspired to progress and push my persona, and to use this brief period of my career in a responsible way to promote the joys of cycling and to contextualize these joys in a way that may help to serve the everyday challenges of life. This is the broad brushstroke of a vision I have for the next season or three or more. How these thought patterns evolve and materialize is yet to be determined, but I’m quite excited about the possibilities.

Mr. David Howard, author, father, and executive editor of Mountain Bike Magazine met me last year at the Mont-Sainte-Anne World Cup to hang out and spend some time talking; the resulting article has just been published in their June 2009 issue. The article is titled “Ryan Leech’s Toughest Trial”, and captures part of my thought process as described above. FYI, after the main body of the article, it is continued on Page 81, they just forgot to add the “continued on” part. Also, the articles referenced in the story titled BikEcology, were written for the now inoperative Mountain Biking Magazine, not Bike Magazine, but are nonetheless available on my blog.

The Sea Otter Classic in California has come and gone, so the riding season is officially on in North America (did it ever end in Vancouver?!). But for those that have winter knocking on the door, I hope you take advantage of some great rides before the weather finally turns.

Have fun!

RL

POV of young kid giving me a high five