LaPoint + Wednesday Night Ride
Have you ever dreamed of spending your summers following your passion? Meet Margie LaPoint, a long time Tahoe resident that is totally immersed in the cycling. She rides road bikes, mountain bikes, cross bikes, and works at the bike shop during the summer. Margie is also on the Northstar Mountain Bike Team.
Aside from bikes, Margie has the perfect career that allows her to take summers off by working as a transitional kindergarten teacher at Glenshire Elementary. Margie has been spending her summers riding and working at Pacos for the last 20 years. She enjoys the work saying, “I love cycling and I enjoy the clientele that comes into Pacos because it's their love too.”
She enjoys learning about the latest technology for her own cycling endeavors and sharing this with those who come into the shop. The camaraderie of the staff and the Pacos community make it a really great place to be on and off the bike.
A lot of riding, hard work, and fun times have awarded her the title of 3X National Champion for marathon, cross country, and enduro mountain biking. This number may grow because Margie has now found a new love for cyclocross racing. She is digging how technical cyclocross is with shorter courses and quick little hills. The best time spent on her bike comes down to the end of the day when she takes her two Vizslas, Ryder and Boone out for a decompressing ride along with her husband Dan Hill who can also be found at the front end of many cycling events himself.
Around this time there were so many great riders who lived in the area but nothing was organized to bring them together for rides. Margie and Paco put their heads together to create a group ride that's still rolling today in the same format as the day it started. The original goal, that was ultimately accomplished, was to find a route that could accommodate a variety of riders in a great skill building atmosphere.
Starting in Truckee, riders take a conversational pace on the relatively flat HWY 89 section out to the base of Alpine Meadows Road. This is when it heats up (depending on how you feel) with a race up the hill towards the parking lot of Alpine Meadows Ski Resort ending in a hard finish at the entry sign. If you don’t feel tack sharp, just take an easy spin up and regroup at the top, or time it right and jump back in at the bottom for the return ride.
The return ride to Truckee forms as a traditional pace line to swiftly and safely take the group home. This is not a race, safety and group communication is the focus of the ride and each rider is solely responsible for themselves. Throughout the years the ride has seen many different people cycle through this group. It has been embraced by the community and many have learned to push their boundaries and advance their cycling skills by participating.