Hi! I’m Mackenzie Myatt
Remember me from part one? I’m a cyclist, author and poet and I’m here to share my experience from Spin The District (SPIN) 2024 cycling event with you. SPIN is a three-day series for professional and amateur cyclists alike and takes place in the ATL Airport District. This is part two of a three-part series.
My team, Goldman Sachs ETFs Racing wasn’t the only team to be followed around with cameras. SPIN also followed Metro Atlanta Cycling Club (MACC) – likely the oldest Black cycling club in the state. MACC is based in The ATL Airport District and runs bi-weekly group rides out of East Point, Georgia. MACC and Goldman Sachs ETFs came together on one of those exact rides. It’s something special to combine two groups of people who have historically faced significant barriers to the sport and still do.
MACC’s mission is to promote cycling in the black community and build camaraderie among all cyclists.
MACC was founded in 1986 out of the now defunct Yellow Jersey Bicycle Shop in South Dekalb. They continue to carry the Yellow Jersey legacy with weekly group rides and create a safe place for riders of all ages and abilities to share their ‘one love’ of cycling. MACC’s ‘One Love Century Ride’ has raised roughly $100,000 for underprivileged youth since 2006. This year it took place on Saturday, August 31. You can register for the 2025 event at onelovecentury.org.
MACC is one of many clubs in the country that are inspired by the story of Major Taylor – the first Black World Champion cyclist. He turned pro in 1896 and his accolades include several world records, world championships and victories in North America, Europe and Australia.
There is a larger-than-life size mural of Taylor at the Dick Lane Velodrome in East Point, Georgia to commemorate his legacy. If you are looking for a good read, check out Mayor Taylor: The Extraordinary Career of a Champion Bicycle Racer, by Andrew Ritchie, to learn more about his amazing story.
Excerpt from Mackenzie’s book ‘In Defense of Big Dreams’.
Goldman-Sachs ETF is a women’s only team, and by being a women’s only team, it allows GS ETFs to have the full focus and resources of the management instead of existing in the shadow of a men’s team. GS ETFs main goal is to provide opportunities for women with diverse backgrounds in cycling. The team has existed under different names over the past nine years, but it has always provided a safe place for women to pursue their dreams.
This year, GS ETFs is comprised of nine incredible athletes. These women are all accomplished in their own right, independent of their role on the team. We have an Olympic gold medallist, riders who have been professional for many years, runners-up in the criterium national series ‘America’s Criterium Cup’, members of respective national teams, and riders who competed internationally in multiple disciplines (mountain bike, cyclocross and track).
One of the things that first struck me
About being on a women’s team
Is how much each of us has overcome
Just to be here.
Excerpt from Mackenzie’s book ‘In Defense of Big Dreams’.
We have two Olympians, a world champion and a lot of love for life on two wheels.
Never mind what these women have accomplished off-the-bike. We are a doctor, mother, author, baker, business owner, chef, data scientist and student. More than any of that – we are humans trying to see what we are capable of. Sometimes we win, most times we don’t. But still, we dream. Most of us work full-time ‘on the side.’ We race the professional circuit with all expenses covered, but making rent has to come from somewhere else. This makes our athletic accomplishments all the more impressive.
Never mind what these women have accomplished off-the-bike. We are a doctor, mother, author, baker, business owner, chef, data scientist and student. More than any of that – we are humans trying to see what we are capable of. Sometimes we win, most times we don’t. But still, we dream. Most of us work full-time ‘on the side.’ We race the professional circuit with all expenses covered, but making rent has to come from somewhere else. This makes our athletic accomplishments all the more impressive.
Excerpt from Mackenzie’s book ‘In Defense of Big Dreams’.
One of the most beautiful things cycling brings to my life are the people I meet and the places where I meet them. Travelling is inevitable at the highest level of any sport and it is also one of the most meaningful aspects. Through cycling I have travelled all across Canada, the US and Europe. I truly believe each new place you visit adds a different perspective to your repertoire.
I grew up in a small town in a small province on the east coast. Local licence plates read: Canada’s Ocean Playground. When I was 18, I was offered a cycling scholarship to an arts school in the south. It wasn’t just a new country. It was a new world with new people and new opportunities; a lot more bikes and a lot more people riding them.
I lived in Atlanta, Georgia while I attended the Savannah College of Art and Design studying writing.
I spent most of my time riding north and east. I rarely travelled south save for the notorious ‘Airport Ride’ that is Atlanta’s largest, longest running group cycling ride. As per the name, it starts in downtown Atlanta on Peters Street SW and draws a lollipop past Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. At 60 miles long and relatively flat, The Airport Ride attracts cyclists of varying abilities and more than one hundred riders at a time.
Normally, such a large group would spark animosity on the road, but the south Atlanta communities have embraced it and even cheer on the spectacle as they roll out. Having history in the area speaks volumes. At more than forty years old, The Airport Ride is more tradition than habit. It’s a pillar of the Atlanta cycling community that unites The Airport District to the rest of the city in a way that little else does. It shows that sport can overcome the so-called divide between the south side and the city in a matter of minutes. And that’s just the slow Sunday stroll. Just wait until we turn left across the tracks and really stomp on the pedals.
The Airport Ride is famous for its high-speed Highway 29 that takes the collective energy of the group and turns it into jet fuel. At 30-35mph, the peloton flies back through Union City and College Park to Atlanta with all the adrenaline of a machine that is running on bingo fuel.
This kind of riding is synonymous with the ‘American-style of racing’ that created crits (short for criteriums). Criterium racing is all out, balls to the wall chaos around a short downtown circuit. Imagine F1, but only wearing lycra and no roll cage. We wear a helmet and gloves but otherwise we have very little protection. It’s not unusual for a pile up to happen and riders can be seriously injured. If you haven’t broken anything (sometimes even if you do), riders can take a ‘free lap’ and re-enter the race at the tech zone exactly where they left. Free laps end with about 10 minutes left.
Criterium racing favours spectators in a way that few other cycling disciplines do. The most common crit course has four corners (maybe more, sometimes less) but it has to fit into an approximate one-mile loop. Riders race for about an hour and the first rider across the line wins fame, fortune and free beer. Mostly beer.
Stay tuned for part three coming out next week to learn more about my day-to-day experience at Spin The District and the finale in College Park.
