Cycling for change: After-school program helping thousands of Pajaro Valley children get fit.
Stephen Alfred seems to be making the most of some forced downtime from his racing career by working to impart some of his love of the sport of bicycling to local kids.
Regardless of his suspension, the program he is working in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District is a good one.
While the linked article may make some data mangling conclusions about the rates of obesity here and elsewhere, the underlying fact is that kids these days do not get enough exercise. And many kids don't grow up riding bikes as we did when we were young. Two things that add up to unhealthy children.
Not only is it long term cost effective to get kids healthier now, it is better for their mental and emotional development as well.
I wish I had some extra time to volunteer to work with him and his program.
Update: As BicycleDudeGuy points out, the linked article above is out of date and, about one year after the first article was published, Stephen Alfred received a lifetime ban from the sport of cycling. Regardless of the professional issues he has faced, I really like what he is doing in the school system and hope he is able to instill some of the passion for cycling that he has had.
