Hi! I’m Mackenzie Myatt
I’m a cyclist, author and poet. I grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada and have recently moved to the Southside of Atlanta in East Point, Georgia. I first moved to Atlanta in 2016 to attend the Savannah College of Art and Design on a cycling scholarship. I am currently a member of the Goldman Sachs ETFs Racing team and I’ve been racing bikes my whole life. I’m writing a three-part article series to tell you about my experience at Spin the District 2024 (SPIN). SPIN is a three-day cycling event in Atlanta, Georgia for professionals and amateurs alike.
This past spring I was invited to compete in Spin the District, in Atlanta’s ATL Airport District, as a member of the professional women’s cycling team – Goldman Sachs ETFs Racing (GS ETFs). Our team competes in the biggest professional ‘short course’ road races in the country called criteriums. (Cry-tear-e-um… or something like that). Criteriums are closed course, high speed, high intensity, mass start races that run for an hour usually through Downtown streets. Part of the allure is the high-stakes nature of the event.
At virtually max heart rates, 50-100 riders take asphalt corners, three to four bikes wide, at 30-40 miles per hour. A small mistake can be devastating for the whole field but it’s strangely addicting. Thrilling from the inside and from the sidelines.
My team is based in Greenville, South Carolina and travels extensively to major races from Oklahoma to Wisconsin, Idaho and Indiana, Colorado and Missouri, so Spin The District is practically a local race for us.
SPIN caps off one of the most popular criterium series in the country – USA Speedweek & USA Crits. Races take place in Alabama, Georgia and North & South Carolina with some of the biggest payouts and even offer a team overall prize purse. The strongest professional teams in the country come for Sunny King in Alabama, Spartanburg Crit (South Carolina), Athens Twilight (Georgia) and stay to compete for the overall. Together, Speedweek and USA Crits run sixteen races in six weeks. That’s about 2.5 races a week all within driving distance.
Spin The District, now Speedweek’s featured last weekend of races, was originally conceived to bring awareness to tourism opportunities in the ATL Airport District – Union City, College Park and Hapeville – and an economic boost.
It has since snowballed into something much bigger and more impactful.
Historically, the Southside of Metro Atlanta is a place for people to pass through to get to somewhere better – but it’s turning into a real cycling destination thanks to collective community effort. An expanding system of bike paths, the imminent connection of the Southside Beltline, hand-built mountain bike trails, the rejuvenation of the Dick Lane Velodrome and the passion of Metro Atlanta Cycling Club (MACC) all play a part in making the ATL Airport District a great place for cycling.
The ATL Airport District fills in the gap between downtown Atlanta and the busiest airport in the world. It combines the allure of big city-living and small-town charm. It’s the perfect place for a bike race. It’s affordable and you can get to the ‘A’ easily for Atlanta’s best tourist activities: CNN Center, Zoo Atlanta, Coca Cola Museum, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, The Georgia Aquarium (the largest aquarium in the country), and Centennial Olympic Park are all a thirty minute bike ride. You can also take the MARTA train – it’s a straight shoot north from the airport. East Point and College Park each have their own stops along the way.
Spin The District attracts cyclists from across the United States and several other countries including Columbia, Chile, Canada, Slovenia, Poland and South Africa. The only way for a kid to dream something is if they can see it and SPIN puts the highest level of the sport right in their backyard. A backyard that also happens to include the busiest airport in the world. Airplanes are cool, but it’s who’s on them that’s much more interesting.
Excerpt from Mackenzie’s book ‘In Defense of Big Dreams’.
SPIN documented our day-to-day experience in the middle of a week of high-stakes racing. What does it look like when we have breakfast together? What do we talk about on the morning spin? When we get back to the hotel, who takes a nap and who goes for Netflix? Who needs to be wound up and who needs to wind down? How do we motivate, inspire and take care of each other? React to illness and injury, crash and get back in it. Try, fail, try harder and try again.
Celebrate.
Who are we most excited to see afterwards? Who do we grab an extra taco for? What does it feel like to truly be a part of a team?
Stay tuned for part two coming out next week to learn more about Goldman Sachs ETFs Racing, MACC Cycling Club and their respective roles in cycling.
