A few years ago, Annijke Wade's career as a professional mountain biker was abruptly altered by an accident that left her paralyzed from the chest down. Since then, she has become a talented para-cyclist, riding a three-wheeled mountain bike and propelling herself forward by rotating her handlebars in small circles. Even though her relationship with cycling has changed over the years, Annijke continues to love the thrill and freedom of whipping down trails and venturing into the wilderness.
A few years ago, Annijke Wade's career as a professional mountain biker changed dramatically after an accident that left her paralyzed from the chest down. Since then, she has become a talented para-cyclist, riding a three-wheeled mountain bike and propelling herself forward by rotating her handlebars. Even though her relationship with cycling has changed over the years, Annijke continues to love the thrill and freedom of whipping down trails and exploring the wilderness.
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Annijke Wade:
I had a goal, right? Three days in the ICU, people were coming to visit me and they're like, "Oh my God, are you okay?" I am like, "I don't know, but I'm going to get this bike." And I would show them the Instagram videos. I'm like, "I'm going to get this bike and I'm going to be back out here, and that's what I'm going to do." I was like, "I just need to get to rehab and I can learn how to live and I'll be back out there and I'll see you in a couple months."
Shelby Stanger:
A few years ago, Annijke Wade was just starting a career as a professional mountain biker when her entire life changed in an instant. She was training at a bike park in New Mexico and she hit a jump at the wrong angle and fell hard. The accident left her paralyzed from the chest down. It was a traumatic event, but it didn't stop Annijke from continuing her career as a professional off-road cyclist. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production presented by Capital One and the REI Co-op MasterCard.
Since her accident, Annijke Wade has become a talented para-cyclist. She rides a mountain bike with three wheels and propels herself forward by rotating her handlebars in small circles, almost like pedaling with her hands. Even though her relationship with cycling has changed over the years, Annijke has always loved the thrill and freedom of whipping down trails, taking sharp corners and venturing far into the wilderness.
Annijke Wade, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living. I'm very excited to chat with you today.
Annijke Wade:
Thank you so much for having me, Shelby. Excited to be here.
Shelby Stanger:
So what was your relationship with outdoor sports growing up?
Annijke Wade:
As a child, kind of my first loves were really hiking and camping, and so I got into hiking and camping through Girl Scouts. I just loved being outside and connecting with nature. I spent a lot of time thinking about, in high school and in middle school, how can I spend more time in these places that feel really good to me? And so that's what my impetus was, was like, "Let's just find ways to gain enough skills to get outside."
And I think too, I'm an only child, so I have no problem going places on my own. And so many times instead of waiting to find people that want to do the same activities, I'm just going to go and do it. And so I decided to go to Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon to study environmental studies and also have the opportunity to have access to wonderful outdoor activities. So I learned how to snowboard. I started bouldering. I was hiking even more, camping most weekends. And so Portland was really the place where I had the opportunity to explore more of my outdoor identity. And I also started cycling for fun. And so originally I got a bike so I could get to my job at a campaign in downtown Portland, and then I started riding 20, 30 miles on the weekends just to explore the city and see what was there.
Shelby Stanger:
Portland has such a good bike culture. So then how did you get into gravel biking? Because I feel like that is where you fell in love.
Annijke Wade:
I eventually got a job with the Forest Service as an intern, and I was working in this geospatial department, poring over aerial maps and working on a database. And then I had a friend reach out and said, "Hey, I'm working for a tech company in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We work with maps and data and geospatial, and you get to live in New Mexico." And I was like, "New Mexico? That sounds cool." I had never thought of that. And so I went and visited and I was like, "Wow, this is a really amazing place." And so I accepted the job, moved three weeks later, and then one day I got an email and it was sent to the whole company and somebody was like, "We're starting up a mountain biking club. If anybody wants to join, we'll meet at this trailhead this day." And I was like, "Mountain biking, that sounds cool."
Because I had been looking for new ways to explore New Mexico, new ways to explore Santa Fe, and also a new way to interface with my environment. I just did a quick Google search on mountain biking and watched a couple videos and I was like, "All right, I'm going to mountain bike." So I went online and bought a mountain bike, figured out what kind of equipment I needed. My bike arrived, I put it together myself. I went and hit the trails and did a three-mile bike ride, and it just was very fulfilling. I was finding that there was this meditative state I could get into when I was on the trail, and all I could think about was the trail in front of me. I was getting to explore so much more of Santa Fe, unlocking these new trails. I started traveling to different parts of New Mexico on the weekends just by myself.
And so very, very quickly, mountain biking became so much to me. And then because I was getting hooked on cycling, I was like, "Well, I should start commuting to work too." And I was like, "Well, maybe I'll use my road bike." But there are so many potholes in Santa Fe and so many unimproved roads that I was like, "I don't feel super comfortable riding my road bike to work." Somebody had mentioned gravel biking, like "Get a gravel bike, thicker tires," and I was like, "Gravel biking. What's that?" They're like, "Well, it's drop bar biking, a little bit thicker of tires. You're getting into mountain biking so you can ride off-road too." And I was like, "Oh, maybe a gravel bike would be the perfect commuter for me." And so I got a gravel bike with the purpose of riding to friends' houses, riding to work on a daily basis, and then very quickly realized that there was a whole set of trails and trail network in Santa Fe that was perfect for gravel cycling.
Shelby Stanger:
It didn't take long for Annijke to get hooked on mountain and gravel cycling. She enjoyed the freedom of moving fast and being out on trails away from civilization. As she fell deeper in love with off-road cycling, Annijke began competing in races, working toward a coaching certification and getting involved in advocacy for athletes and cyclists of color. In 2021, she even landed her first sponsorship through the brand Pearl iZUMi. Little by little, the pieces of her cycling career were coming together. Then one day when she was out training on the trails, things took an unexpected turn.
Annijke Wade:
It was July 17th, it was just an average Saturday. I went out to go ride with some friends, and it was the first run of the day, and I was on a trail that I had ridden about 70 to 80 times. It was a blue jump trail. I was going about 20, 25 miles an hour, so not super-duper fast for downhill. It was an average speed. The jumps are about 15 to 20 feet, which are medium-sized, not super tall, but not really small. And I hit a jump during the run and got a little out of control. I realized I was like, "Oh, something is not right here." And so I tried to dump as much speed as I could, pressing the brakes so I didn't have to go to the next feature, but I wasn't able to do that.
And so I ended up going to the next feature, which was a step-up, and the next thing I remember is floating through the air. I was disconnected from my bike. And then the next thing I remember from that was I was on the middle of the trail on my stomach, and I realized that I couldn't feel anything from my chest down. It was just a black void. It just felt like there was nothing there. And so I called out to one of the people I was riding with and said, "Hey, I need some help." And she was like, "Well just get up and we'll get off to the side of the trail and we'll call for some help." And I was like, "I can't move." And she was like, "Well, maybe your legs are broken." I was like, "No, no, no. I can't move my legs. I can't even feel them."
And so I very quickly realized that this was a very serious incident. The first thoughts through my mind actually when I landed was I went to go rub my tongue on my teeth to see if they were all there, because I was like, "I don't want to deal with any dental work." I was like, I know how it is to deal with a lost tooth. And so I realized, I was like, "Okay, all of my teeth are intact." I don't seem to have any broken bones that I can tell, but something else is going on. And so we spent the next hour or so working with bike patrol and folks on the trail to get me off of the mountain. I got down from the mountain, and then I took an ambulance to Taos to have a CAT scan and an MRI. And that's when we started to realize, oh, this is getting even more serious.
And I noticed people were just moving very, very quickly around me with a sense of expediency. And I was like, "Oh, something is really not good." I've never had so many people shuffling around. And at that point I was like, "Am I dying? What's going on?" And so I became a little bit worried. And then I got airlifted to UNMH Hospital, so University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. The next morning I had surgery on my back. My accident happened on a Saturday, so I think it was Monday at 6:00 PM the doctor came in and said, "Hey, you have a spinal cord injury. You're probably never going to walk again, and this is going to be your life." And so that was very hard news to hear. You don't even know how to receive that information. But in a lot of ways, that helped set me on a path of acceptance.
I was like, "Okay, I know what's going on. I'm not going to be able to walk, so now I need to figure out how I'm going to live and what's next." And so when I was in the ICU, I was on Instagram and I realized I followed a couple of people that had spinal cord injuries already. And there was one guy that was riding an adaptive bike at Winter Park Resort. So this is day three after my accident. And I was like, "Oh, okay. I'm going to get that bike, that same bike this guy has, and I'm going to be back on a bike in a couple months." And so yeah, I decided day three that I'm not going to let this stop me and I'm going to get back to mountain biking, get back to my community and get back outside.
Shelby Stanger:
You have an incredible disposition. Not a lot of people could have taken that news the way you did. How did you get into acceptance so fast? I've talked to several people with spinal cord injuries, and they don't accept it at first. And anybody with big news, it's hard to accept something that maybe you didn't want to have happen to you.
Annijke Wade:
I think the further out I am from my injury and my accident, the more I realize how rare it is to accept something like that so early on. But in the moment, at the time, it was like that's what I needed to do. And I had become so in love with mountain biking. I had a wonderful community of people. I felt like this was finally the sport for me, the way for me to interact with my environment that I just wanted to get back out there, and I didn't want to skip a beat, and I wanted to be able to still enjoy the outdoors. So for me, it was seeing somebody with a bike out there living life was like, "That's what I needed." I was like, "Oh, yeah, this guy out here is shredding and he's happy and having fun. That's going to be me. I'm not going to let this stop me."
And it helped me so much because now I had a goal. Three days in the ICU, people were coming to visit me and they're like, "Oh, my God, are you okay?" I'm like, "I don't know, but I'm going to get this bike." And I would show them the Instagram videos. I'm like, "I'm going to get this bike and I'm going to be back out here, and that's what I'm going to do." I was like, "I just need to get to rehab and I can learn how to live and I'll be back out there and I'll see you in a couple months." And people were like, "What? What are you talking about?" But for me, I needed that goal. I needed something to look forward to and something to set my sights on, and it helped me immensely.
Shelby Stanger:
In 2021, professional cyclist Annijke Wade suffered a spinal cord injury while mountain biking. Two of her vertebrae were injured, and she was told that she would never walk again. While Annijke was recovering in the ICU, she saw a video of someone para-cycling on her Instagram feed. That was all it took to put her on the path to get her own adaptive bike. She knew that getting back on the trails would be an important step of her healing process.
Annijke Wade:
As soon as I got to rehab, I let everybody know my goal is to get on a mountain bike. And so I immediately started making plans with my physical therapist and occupational therapist and my care team about getting back on a bike. And so I think it was about two months after my accident, I was able to try a bike out in rehab. Oh my gosh, it was so exciting. I remember I had my mom bring my helmet and my riding sunglasses. Of course, I had to get kitted out and get prepared for my first little bike ride. And I got to ride around the rehab center and down one little dirt road, and I had reached out for a quote from the bike brand that I now work with, Bowhead. I reached out for a quote from Bowhead and started putting together my dream bike, but these bikes are really expensive. They're like $16,000.
So I was like, "I don't know." I was like, "I have a GoFundMe, so I got to weigh it out, but this is really important to me." And so I got a quote for the bike, and then one day I got a call from the bike company and they were like, "Hey, we're calling about your bike build and we have some questions." And so I called back, I was like, "Hey, I submitted the quote, but I'm not ready to buy the bike yet." And they're like, "No, we think we already have the funding for it." I was like, "I don't think you're right. I'll still give you all the details." And then about three or four days later, my athlete manager, Brice Shirbach from Pearl iZUMi, he texted me and said, "I can't keep this secret any longer." He basically told me that Pearl iZUMi was buying me my bike and I would have a bike as soon as I got out of rehab. And so it was three months after my accident, I had my own adaptive mountain bike.
And so a couple weeks later, I went on my first ride, and I remember I fell over in the bike and I was like, "Oh, crap." I was like, "Everybody's going to be really mad. I just broke my back mountain biking, and here I am fresh out of the hospital. I fell over." I was like, "I hope nothing's wrong." And it wasn't, but I was like, "I can't believe this. I was just in the hospital and just became paralyzed. I spent so much time in rehab thinking about this and dreaming about it." Because I also saw this accident as an opportunity to do whatever I wanted. I'm like, "Oh, when do you have an opportunity to pause in your life and reevaluate everything and be like, where do I want to go? Who do I want to be? What do I want to do?" And so I took that as an opportunity to be like, "All right, I'm going to be an adaptive mountain biker. I don't know what that means, but this is my goal and I'm going to do it."
Shelby Stanger:
So what did that first ride look like for you?
Annijke Wade:
Oh my gosh. It was a little terrifying because you have to balance on your bike, and if you don't, you're going to fall. And it's a lot skiing and snowboarding when you're learning. And I'm sure maybe surfing too. You just fall so much in the beginning. You have to get comfortable with falling.
Shelby Stanger:
But falling on a bike sucks.
Annijke Wade:
It does, yeah.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah. It's way different than falling in the water.
Annijke Wade:
And the trail, I remember in particular, that trail was really hard. I could still feel like the bits of gravel that were getting into my skin as I was falling. And I very quickly realized just because I knew how to ride a bike before did not mean that I knew how to do it before. So there's so many skills that crossed over, like learning how to read a trail, looking at features or understanding how your body might move through something, but so much was different. And so that's when I had to start working with being really disappointed on the trail, because I used to be able to do things so easily. And so there were a lot of mental hurdles that first year and a half just becoming more comfortable on the bike, being okay with being a beginner again, being okay with failing.
Shelby Stanger:
These days, Annijke takes curves with confidence and rides at high speeds on technical terrain. She's even beating old personal records from before her accident. Annijke has two different off-road bikes, one for gravel and one for mountain riding, and both are electric. In addition to training on the trail, Annijke lifts weights to strengthen her upper body since that's where most of her power and stability comes from. Even though her cycling looks different than it used to, Annijke's mission remains the same. She's always advocated for making the trails more welcoming to everyone. Prior to the accident, Annijke focused on improving racial diversity and inclusion in the sport. Now she works to bring more adaptive athletes into the world of para-cycling.
Annijke Wade:
When my accident happened, actually, one of my friends was laughing because I was already starting to do advocacy and learning about adaptive mountain biking advocacy while I was still in the hospital and in rehab. And so one of my friends was joking with me, and she's like, "Annijke, there's better ways to advocate for disabled folks than becoming disabled." And I was like-
Shelby Stanger:
That's so mean.
Annijke Wade:
"You're right." I was like, "You're totally right. That's a good call out. I didn't have to become disabled to start advocating for individuals with disability." But I started to take that as a privilege. Now I have a whole nother identity that I can advocate for, and I can be in this space of listening and learning and understanding. And so I very quickly was like, "All right, I've got a very interesting intersection of identities and-
Shelby Stanger:
And a legit microphone.
Annijke Wade:
Yeah, a unique perspective. I was just plugging myself into all the different things. I was like, "I've got skills. I can organize things, just let me know what we need to do and who to talk to. And I've got contacts in the biking community." And so that started that out. And then in 2023, I launched my own group called DirtBound. And the idea here was to really start to use the platform I have to give back to other people. I had just completed my first gravel race and I was like, "I want to find ways to bring more people into this space." And so I created an organization called DirtBound that aims to support individuals in para-off-road-cycling and empower and educate. And I decided, "Okay, I'm going to bring five individuals to a gravel race in Steamboat Springs, Colorado." We're going to pay for their lodging, their travel and their food, and do a program like building confidence and teaching folks about off-road cycling and getting their nutrition plan together, basic bike maintenance, what it's like to race.
And it was super awesome and it was exciting because I felt like I was able to use all of my industry connections, everything I've learned in this space to start to create a community for other people. I think one of the things I was really focused on before my accident was racing and competition. And in the past year and a half, I've really shifted my focus to just the joy of being outdoors. It's not that I don't want to race. It's not that I don't want to be competitive, but I just find it so healing to be connected with my community and connected with the outdoors. And I want more people to have that opportunity. And so for me, that's what excites me. It excites me to see people trying out the sport for the first time, building confidence and gaining those skills and being able to access that joy themselves.
There are some hurdles. You have to get comfortable with your equipment. Your first few rides are probably not going to be that much fun. You're going to be a little bit nervous. But when you finally are able to access that joy, that to me is exciting. And I think especially individuals with disabilities, it's so important for us to find ways to just enjoy life. So much of the world is not built for us, it's not accessible. We're dealing with significant hurdles for medical care and access and financial hurdles that having those small moments of joy I think really carry you. And so that's what excites me about adaptive mountain biking is getting people outside, getting them to experience joy.
Shelby Stanger:
What advice would you give to other adaptive athletes or newly adaptive athletes?
Annijke Wade:
Yeah. I think the biggest piece of advice is just to go and try the sport and really keep an open mind and be okay with not knowing what you're doing. I think one of the hardest things about trying a new sport is just going out there and doing it. Because you can build it up so much in your mind. What if I look silly? What if I fall? What if I don't know what I'm doing? What if I can't get in and out of the equipment? What if, what if? You can just go on and on and on, but you really just need to take that first step and just try it, right? And you're not going to be good the first time. And if you are, that's incredible. More power to you. But you just have to start the thing. And I think to me, it's so important to be outside and in nature that I want to emphasize to people that's the most important thing.
It's not about how fast you ride. It's not about how good you are at doing something or what type of equipment you have. Sometimes it's just about being outside in nature. And these pieces of equipment, that's what allows us to do that. And especially as a person with a disability, I don't take being outside for granted. It's so much harder for me to be outside. I interface with the world in such a different way. I have different capacity to engage with things. So being outside is very, very healing, and I'll take whatever I can get.
Shelby Stanger:
Annijke is paying forward the joy she's found as an adaptive athlete. If you watch videos of her riding, you'll see just how happy she is out on the trails. You can keep up with Annijke's latest adventures and endeavors on Instagram @geodesicdome. That's G-E-O-D-E-S-I-C-D-O-M-E.
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Peers Nitzberg of Puddle Creative. Our senior producers are Jenny Barber and Hanna Boyd. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. As always, we love it when you follow the show, take time to rate it and write a review wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.