Doin' Stuff Friends™
I sat down with Lexi of Angels NYC CC to discuss her love for gravel riding, a severe mountain biking related injury, and giving more than you expect to receive.
Lexi was stumped when presented with a game of F***, Marry, Kill, where she was forced to categorize her preferences between gravel, mountain, and road biking. One choice was easy. She quickly responded with, “Marry the gravel bike.” It took her longer to decide between road and mountain. “F*** the mountain bike. Even though I mostly ride road now, I would kill the road bike.”
Lexi began gravel biking in 2019. “It’s how I most enjoy being on my bike. There’s a particular system of gravel roads that really set that in for me, Mohonk and Minnewaska in New Paltz.” These paths are just thirty minutes outside of Poughkeepsie and close to where Lexi lived before moving to New York City this past year. “There are over 100 miles of gravel roads that are networked together. They’re mostly hard-packed gravel, but there are some mountain bike trails woven between.”
A component of gravel cycling that appeals to Lexi is the scenery. “It’s just beautiful. There are cliff lines and different kinds of trees and wildlife. Sometimes you gotta stop because there’s a porcupine crossing, so you’re like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna let you go.’” Riding on gravel, however, requires one to move at a slower pace than mountain or road biking. “I like gravel biking because it’s a little bit slower. I don’t care if I’m going a few miles an hour slower. Why would I do the same climb on a road that I could do on gravel next to a stream, looking at a cliff? So what if my Strava says I was going slower? It’s my experience, not for kudos on Strava.”
Although Lexi prefers slower gravel rides these days, that wasn’t always the case. She discovered mountain biking as a middle schooler in summer camp. “It was pure joy. Probably stupid just bombing downhills, building jumps bigger and bigger, crashing constantly. As children, you have no bones,” Lexi joked. “You have no bones and you have no fear.” Lexi became more involved in mountain biking later in life after befriending employees from Cannondale while living in Connecticut. “It was late Fall, and we went to Collis P. Huntington State Park in Redding. We did a seven-mile ride, which I’m like, ‘That’s nothing.’ Connecticut is known for being very techy. It was a lot of rocks, very stop-and-go. I had a great time.” Lexi explained that techy, or technical, means that the trail surface is more chunky and covered with rocks. More precision is required to navigate these trails. This is the opposite of a flow trail, which tends to have more hard-packed dirt with fewer rocks, allowing a cyclist to move more quickly.
Outside of cycling, Lexi is extremely passionate about rock climbing. “Climbing has been number one for me for a really long time. I climb multiple days a week, I’ve been a rock climbing coach, and I’ve climbed at a high level in various disciplines.” Climbing is part of Lexi’s personal and professional life. She works as a Chiropractor and Acupuncturist and has owned her own practice in the past. “I specialize in treating rock climbers and cyclists. I’ve also written articles about climbing and climbing injuries.”
Lexi pointed out that mountain biking parallels rock climbing in terms of problem-solving, which explains her fascination towards it. “There are skills, like a skinny. A skinny is like a log that you keep your bike on like a tightrope. There are rock gardens, and every rock garden is different, like a problem that you solve and figure out to get the bike through.” Mountain biking was prevalent in Lexi’s life during a time when she could afford to take more risks. “It was a time where I had less responsibility and less of a need for my body to be functioning at all times.” On the Fourth of July 2020, Lexi severely injured herself at Thunder Mountain Bike Park in Massachusetts. “In rock climbing, if there’s a 0.0001 percent chance you could do the move, you try it. You try it over and over and over again. But in cycling, if there isn’t a 95 percent chance you could do it, don’t do it.”
Lexi misjudged a jump, fell twenty feet, and broke her back, clavicle, and multiple ribs. “Bike patrol is carrying me out, and I’m like, ‘Happy Fourth of July! Ow, that hurts! Have a nice day,” to all of these people having the best day of their lives.” Lexi said her immediate thoughts upon impact were, “I can’t rock climb, I can’t ride my bike, I have to go to work tomorrow.” At the time, Lexi owned her own practice and needed a functioning body as a Chiropractor. She scheduled a surgery a week after the wreck, but performed her regular chiropractic duties for the week with eight broken bones.
Two weeks after the surgery, Lexi attempted to ride her bike down her street. “I was and am very stubborn. There are things we take for granted as people who are not currently injured. When you ride a bike, every crack or bump in the road is excruciating when you have a significant injury.” It quickly became clear to Lexi that she wasn’t recovered enough by that point to ride. When doctors finally cleared her to ride once again, she returned feeling more trepidatious. “I was really scared of things that I would never think twice about before. Even when the fear did diminish, I wasn’t enjoying mountain biking as much because I was always hyper aware of injury, where I hadn’t been previously.” Lexi still mountain bikes occasionally, but now with her gravel bike on less challenging terrain. “I find easier trails more exciting on a bike with no suspension as opposed to rolling over stuff with a full suspension bike and having to do bigger things to feel the excitement of it.”
Since moving to New York City this past year, Lexi has found community in road cycling. “I’ve lived in Upstate New York, Connecticut, Utah, and Colorado. I’ve ridden road [bikes] a bit everywhere, but it’s always been so lonely. Heading up into the mountains in Colorado, there are some big loops, and they feel really dangerous. Not just because of the route, but because there’s absolutely no cell service and the cars could just smack you.” Lexi said that the roads in and around New York City feel more traveled by cyclists, which makes her feel safer. “There are road cyclists in New York City all the time. It’s the only place I’ve lived where I’ve thought, ‘Wow. I’m not alone.’”
Whether cycling or rock climbing, Lexi has been able to build friendships through shared interests. “I call them ‘doin’ stuff’ friends. I’ve got my friends that I do my bike riding with. I’ve got my friends that I climb with. I like to try and find ‘doin’ stuff’ friends who actually want to be real friends.” Lexi explained that on occasion, these friends can overlap in several shared interests. “I have one friend who climbs, rides bikes, and is a real friend. I’m like, ‘Wow. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.’
The main reason Lexi moved to New York City from New Paltz in the last year was to reduce her commute to work. A perk of living in such a highly populated city is the opportunity to meet more people with shared interests. “I did want a better cycling community and climbing partners who are friends. There are like four jillion climbing gyms in the city. The potential for ‘doin’ stuff’ friends is much higher living here than living in the sticks.”
Lexi expanded her cycling community in NYC after her ‘doin’ stuff’ friend, Julia, sent her the page for Dawn Patrol, a social ride for women and non-binary people. “She was like, ‘You should check this out,’ but I start work at dawn most days.” During the process of researching Dawn Patrol, Lexi became connected to Leslie, a Co-Founder of the group. Leslie is also the Founder and Captain of Angels NYC CC, a new women’s racing team. Although Dawn Patrol may not fit into Lexi’s schedule, Angels NYC CC can. “I filled out this whole questionnaire about whether or not I’d be a good fit. Of all the teams I’ve read about, I don’t ride fixed gear bikes, and I don’t want to do a minimum of ten races a year because I do other things. I want to ride different races or just rides. Angels felt like a good fit.”
Beyond cycling, Lexi is excited to be a part of a team that gives back to the community. “Angels have a big part in community service. We use our ability and our bikes to do community service. It’s not just community service for bikes.” Lexi explained that giving back is a part of her personality, and “small-scale socialism” is important to her. “After work today, I delivered some vegetables to friends. Generally, just give more than you ever expect to get back.” In her own time, Lexi enjoys making gluten-free baked goods and handing them out. “My favorite kind of ride is to bake a bunch of cookies and then deliver them around the city. I’ll post on my Instagram, ‘Who wants cookies next Thursday?’”
Lexi is hopeful that the community service element of the team will allow her and others to bring different parts of their personality into their mission. “Hopefully, we’re going to do something with the climbing gym soon. It’s nice to connect with like-minded people that actually want to communicate with each other about things and ride together, but not have it only be about races.”
In terms of racing, Lexi plans to compete later this year for Angels NYC CC. “I have races in October and November. They’re both gravel races. One is a more technical gravel race, but it’s a little shorter, like 35 miles. And then I’m doing one on my birthday in November. It’s a little over 50 miles.” She also hopes to take on some new challenges as well. “I’ve never done a cyclocross race before. People have told me I would like it, and it feels like the final frontier. Maybe I’ll try one because, why not?”
If you enjoyed reading this article, please consider donating to the link below to help me grow the Spokes Stack brand.