Introducing new segments of the population to the joy of mountain biking is something that has always been close to the heart of Natalia Pulido since she arrived in Manitou Springs with her husband Manuel in 2016. Now teaching clinics for Colorado Mountain Biking Association (COMBA), their Latina Women’s Program, Pulido hopes to inspire more Latinas to embrace this sport as she has.
“I was born in Chile and I moved to the United States in 2001.” Pulido arrived in Texas with her mom and went to physical therapy school in Fort Worth – Texas. She met her husband Manuel there through the art world. “He’s an artist, and I’m an artist so we met in galleries. He was into mountain biking, and I just kind of wanted to try it.” Natalia borrowed an old one from him. “And since then, I’ve been like, ‘This is kind of fun.’ And I was really into it. Not just that I felt like I was having fun, but I was forgetting about everything else.”
When the couple moved to Manitou Springs, Pulido says her world opened to mountain biking even more. “That’s where I found community. But also, I connected with some ladies from the Colorado Mountain Biking Association through the women’s program.” They invited her to coach the Spanish language clinic for Latinas, an opportunity she immediately embraced. Pulido didn’t have her mountain biking coaching certification then, but she got it just to be able to share her joy of mountain biking with more Latinas. Pulido also became involved in their impact committee to help bring diversity into the sport, not just for herself as a Latina, but also to help create representation for women in the mountain biking sport, especially women of color. “So, I’m very passionate about that and spreading joy. It just helps to diversify the sport.”
Advocating for More Accessibility to Mountain Biking for the BIPOC Community
The main roadblock, she says, for the BIPOC community, is the lack of accessibility to the sport. “Bikes are expensive; gears are expensive.” But Pulido says it also is a lack of connection of not seeing similar people in the sport. In the clinics and coaching, she tries to make these women feel connected through biking. “It is about being welcoming and having a safe space to feel included and be a part of the community.”
The goal of the Latina clinics is just to have an entry point to the sport so these women can discover the sport and perhaps “really love it like the way I did.” They can get their first bike, start riding and (eventually) be inspired to coach other women or do racing themselves. Pulido does compete in some races back in Texas including many for endurance. “I would like to see more women of color racing eventually and also building community in the way we’re doing. But it takes a lot of community involvement and support from brands and those who already have a platform, to be able to share it with those who don’t have a voice.” Pulido says it all comes down to building momentum.
Pulido says she has met wonderful people who in the same way are trying to create a change. Moving forward, Pulido sustains energy by working through the women’s program directly. “The clinics are very low cost. And we always offer free scholarships, which include bikes.” Sometimes, they will just charge a small amount for support, like for photography, for the permits. “But we’re a non-profit. So, we also just spend a lot of time meeting and chatting. We don’t really do it for monetary benefits. We just do it to create a change and give back to the community.”
Reflecting on Lessons Learned from Mountain Biking
Pulido reflects on the lessons that mountain biking has taught her. “It is just part of my life, kind of overcoming obstacles and my own fears. I can see obstacles in my life, that they try to stop me. But it’s very rewarding when you overcome those fears, and you can do things. And then later on, it’s like, “Oh, yeah, this is nothing. I can just do it again!'”
Pulido also continues her career in physical therapy. She works with kids with special needs as a pediatric PT and uses mountain biking lessons there as well. “We’re always making goals, like, ‘We have to achieve this goal’ and make it a positive movement”. It is the same thing, she says, transferring those ideas to mountain biking. “It’s just about moving forward.” She compares it to using physical therapy to help her patients be able to walk again. She sometimes even tries to get them to ride a bicycle through the adaptive cycle movement “because I know bicycles just help us physically, emotionally, and mentally. So, I just like to provide that and help as much as I can.”
Pulido doesn’t have any plans for her own business as a coach. Mostly, she says, it’s just to use her skills and share them with a community that likely hasn’t had the opportunity to experience mountain biking. Pulido says she and her husband will work with Kids on Bikes this summer as well as conduct a Spanish language clinic for kids as well as possibly one for Latinos and the local community in the future.
Pulido says she hopes she can expand the clinics a little more in the Springs area. “That’s my goal.” Pulido is trying to provide more Spanish language clinics in the Springs (at least one in the coming months). She also would like to do one for Latinas who are in the Pueblo area since it can be hard to access the Denver area, where many of the main Latina clinics take place. “I think that whenever it comes to this type of work or advocacy, you have to kind of leave the egos outside. You cannot lead something where you want to get something back. That’s not the way to do it. You have to do this for the community.”
