If you haven’t heard about Breakfast Club in Austin, Texas, prepare to be inspired. Imagine up to a thousand cyclists on a fully supported group ride with an inclusive environment and incredible food and drinks after the ride. We heard about this group and instantly had to reach out and learn more about it. Their mission statement says it all: “Breakfast Club is for everyone. We don’t care if it’s your first time riding a bike or if you’ve raced in the Tour de France. Once a month, join us on a Saturday morning at Central Machine Works for coffee, a two-hour ride and breakfast. Emphasis on the latter.”
During our conversations, we were intrigued by the popularity of an offshoot of the regular ride, an all-women’s ride called Babes Ride, run by women for women. The leader of that group is Jordie Ammons, and we had a chance to talk to her.
Tell us about yourself prior to Breakfast Club and then how you got involved? I’ve been in Austin for about 15 years. I went to University of Texas, and then just really never left. I grew up playing sports. I’m 5-2, so it’s strange that I played volleyball as my primary sport growing up! And then when I hit the high school level, I was just burnt out with it and didn’t want to play anymore. So, I walked on to the UT rowing team to get into a more endurance-style sport, I suppose. That segued into long-distance running in college and right out of college and then I got into triathlon. And then, naturally, I dated a cyclist. So he showed me the rules of the road, that sort of thing…and then I broke up with the cyclist but still kept riding my bike!
So, you began with the monthly Breakfast Club ride—and then tell me how the Babes Ride happened? It was more like a group of friends, and we had our little COVID friend group, where a bunch of my runner friends, you know, were getting injured. And so, a group of my girlfriends and I were, like, let’s just meet at a local bar, we’ll go ride bikes for a little bit—it doesn’t have to be super-hard or super-fast, it can be pretty chill, and then we can come back and we’ll have drinks afterward. It was more like a social-happy-hour type environment rather than “this is going to be a really intense workout.”
THE FULL INTERVIEW IN 009
