Ruth Moon
July 23, 2008

Move over, Sex and the City: Three local women chose a more down-to-earth method of bonding over the past few months.

Cindy Perkin, 59, Rhonda Erickson, 50, and Jackie Clark, 54, have been training together to participate in their first official ride ever, at the Colorado-Eagle River Ride on July 26.

Perkin, whom Erickson dubbed the group’s ringleader, said she came up with the idea at Erickson’s 50th birthday party. She decided at the party that she wants to finish a ride before she turns 60 in December.

“Slowly but surely, they all said, ‘I’d like to do it,’” Perkin said. “I’m planning to continue and do better next year if we make it. We’ll make it.”

Perkin had not ridden a bike since she was a teenager until she picked up the hobby about four years ago when she moved to Fort Collins. She lived in the valley for 34 years prior to her move, where she owned Special Events flower shop with Erickson. Clark was an employee at the shop.

After selling the shop, Perkin went on a bike tour of Italy where she fell in love with the sport. She bought a hybrid bike — a cross between a mountain bike and a road bike — when she got back to the States.

Perkin has been coming out to the Vail Valley to train with her friends on weekends for the past three months. She usually rides between 60 and 100 miles each week and works out on an elliptical machine, but said distance training is the most important part of her workout routine.

“You just have to put in the miles,” she said. “From what everybody says, to do 100 miles, you just have to keep going.”

Perkin said she enjoys the training because it’s a good way for the three women to get in shape and stay fit.

“It makes us all get together and do something healthy. We’re getting better and better — but I am not a thin bicyclist,” Perkin said. “We’re not hotshot bikers, just old girls biking.”

Perkin has been a big motivation for the other two women going on the ride, Erickson said.

“I thought if you’re going to do it, going on 60, and I’m going on 50, I’ll do it,” Erickson said. “She’s always been our fearless leader in the store, in the flower shop and in life. She always makes us push ourselves a little bit harder.”