Crushing It For The Cape

The Cape Crushers, the regional high school mountain bike team, is getting into gear to represent Cape Cod in the national series in Pennsylvania in mid July. For these young bicyclists, obstacles in the way mean opportunities for progress.

What is Cape Crushers?

Justin Torrellas and his daughter Io Torrellas, then eight years old, used to spend time running and biking. Justin did the running, and to keep up with him Io was pedaling. However, it was not long before the roles were reversed and Justin would struggle in Io's wake to catch up with her. That is when he decided to not only sign Io up for the regional mountain bike team, Cape Crushers, but to take up mountain biking himself, an old passion of his, and co-train the team.

When are nationals in cross country mountain bike?

Io, today 12 years old, has been crushing it at cross country mountain bike regional series and July 19 she is switching gears to represent Cape Cod in the nationals. To her Cape Crushers mean one thing: To have fun. "I always look forward to starting the season. I'm always talking about it at school and my friends are like 'what's that?'" Io says. "I'm so excited to go." For head coach Justin and the other coaches, that means the number one goal has been fulfilled. For him essence of mountain biking and the Cape Crushers is for the kids to enjoy themselves in the woods.

     "The biggest skill is actually in the mental skills seeing an obstacle in front of you and figuring out how do I go around this, over this, um, through it," he says and points out the hidden metaphor. "There's always things in your way. Are you gonna have a good time flowing through it or are you gonna struggle against it?"

What is mountain biking?

Justin says he is astonished by the members quick improvement when they first join the team. Spending time on the bike flowing through the woods does a lot for the high schoolers' skills. Io points out that it's about speed and speed will always improve with practice. It's just like riding a bike.