One week after her husband’s funeral, Sally Marchand Collins got back on her bike.
It’s been 18 years now since that February day, and she knows that reconnecting with that bicycle helped her move forward.
The more she rode, the more friends she made, and the more she started to laugh again. As hard as it was, “cycling seemed to heal my heart,” she said.
Pete, already an adventurous person, had bought a bike to keep up with Sally.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]The couple, married in 1994, visited Brown County from their suburban Carmel home every weekend to conquer the hilly roads and trails. They dreamed about riding all over the world, she said.
But in 1999, after riding the Hilly Hundred, Pete complained of pain in his spine. “Days later, we found he had chronic myelogenous leukemia,” Collins said. “Our life came to a halt, our dreams faded. … But one dream seemed to stick: To ride 100 miles in one day with Team In Training with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.”
Pete didn’t make it to that race in 2001. Collins rode it anyway, on a tandem bike with her 65-year-old father.
Since then, she’s ridden in the 24 Hour Solo Elite World Championships in California and Australia. She placed third in the coed division of Race Across America. She’s competed in endurance races in Canada, England and Ireland to raise money for cancer research.
And all the while, she’s been passing along everything she’s learned.
Over Thanksgiving last year, Collins moved to Brown County, fulfilling another lifelong dream. In addition to owning Sundance SalonSpa in Zionsville, she’s now also the owner and “chief enthusiasm officer” of Sundance MTB Skills Clinic & Adventure.
This summer, she’d like to see local women join her at the 14th Annual Sundance Midwest Women’s Mountain Bike Camp. It’ll take place from June 7 to 9 at Brown County State Park.
The camp has attracted women from many states and several countries, Collins said — but not often from Brown County.
That could be because the camp often sells out on the same day tickets become available. This year, that day is Monday, Feb. 11, starting at 8 a.m.
Collins started getting involved in women’s mountain biking camps in 2003. In 2005, a former biking student of hers, Tania Juillerat, created the Midwest Mountain Bike Clinic.
Collins bought the business in 2017. In fit in with what she feels she’s called to do: “finding the beauty in life, giving back to others and making the most of every day.”
Up to 65 women will gather at the state park’s rally campground on Friday, June 7 to get to know each other and take a “crash course” on mountain biking safety.
After stretching or yoga, Saturday’s events will start with a fundamental skills workshop led by Collins, a skills assessment, and drills on a few obstacles. Then, riders can move to the trails.
Once they have the basics, riders also can learn wheel lifts, bunny hops, drops, cornering, log up-and-overs, tight switchbacks and other more advanced maneuvers.
It’s OK if you’ve never been on a mountain bike before; that’s part of the point of this weekend.
The average age of a camp participant is about 54 years old, and it’s not unusual to see women in their 60s or 70s mountain biking for the first time, Collins said.
Biking is a lot like hiking, only you get to see more, she said. While just keeping yourself upright on the uneven terrain can seem challenging at first, “it makes the mountains in your life look like tiny little anthills,” Collins said.
The camp is run by supportive coaches whose aim, in addition to building skills, is to help women “conquer their fears and live life more fully” on and off the bike, she said.
Collins has worked with many women who turned to biking to work through anger or loss, or simply to find out what they were made of after “life has thrown a wrench in their spokes.”
Her motto is that “Life ‘behind bars’ is what every doctor should prescribe.”
She also believes in the power of surrounding oneself with nature.
Collins grew up in a family of seven in the middle of the woods in Thorntown. It had been her father’s dream to move to a cabin in the mountains, and Collins adopted that dream as her own, she said. She’s spent 10 years looking at houses in Brown County, and this past fall, she finally found one that spoke to her. Now, she can share it with her father, too.
“To be honest, I hadn’t felt that at home in years,” Collins said. “I had always felt like a fish out of water in Carmel.”
Now, “every day is a surprise, and I find myself falling more in love with where I live.”
For 27 years, she had dreamed about living in a place with mountain biking trails right out her back door, making it easy to get to her place of “inner peace.”
Every kid experienced that when they first hopped on a bike and found freedom, independence and joy, before “life happened,” she said.
“Hopping back on a two wheels helps us realize that simple childhood joy all over again,” she tells riders on her website, sundancemtbskillsclinic.com.
“You never forgot how to ride; you simply forgot how it made you feel.”
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WHAT: 14th Annual Sundance Midwest Women’s Mountain Bike Camp
WHO: Women riders of all skill levels
WHEN: Friday, June 7 to Sunday, June 9
WHERE: Brown County State Park
COST: $399. Includes fundamental skills and advanced maneuver instruction by experienced coaches, including Olympic mountain bike coach Shaums March; three days of camping; Saturday and Sunday lunch; and “swag” from sponsors.
SIGN UP: Opens at 8 a.m. Friday, Feb. 11. It may sell out in one day. Visit bikereg.com and search for “Sundance.”
EVENT SITE: sundancemtbskillsclinic.com
OTHER OPPORTUNITIES: Sally Marchand Collins also coaches bikers in Brown County three times a month throughout the year with private mountain bike lessons. She can be reached through her website, or through Facebook under “Sundance Mountain Bike Skills Clinics.”
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