Before Team Access, Kristine loved to ride.

She just did it alone.

Her dad had given her a bike years earlier, and riding quickly became something she enjoyed. But without a cycling community or organized adaptive programs, there wasn’t anyone to ride with or opportunities to be part of something bigger.

“I love to ride,” Kristine says. “I love being part of a team, the team support, meeting everyone, and making new friends.”

Everything changed when someone from Southern Arizona Adaptive Sports encouraged her to give adaptive cycling a try.

“They said, ‘We’re starting a bike team. Why don’t you try it?’”

She did.

The following year, Kristine joined Team Access for El Tour de Tucson, becoming one of the organization’s earliest riders.

“What a difference that was,” she says. “They helped me so much, and the ride was so much easier. It was very successful for me.”

What began as an opportunity to ride with others quickly became a community that felt like home.

Today, Kristine is a familiar face in the Southern Arizona Adaptive Sports cycling program. Whether she’s out on a Saturday morning ride or preparing for El Tour, she’s known for encouraging everyone around her. She’s often the first to celebrate another rider’s accomplishment or challenge a teammate to ride a little farther than they did the year before.

Cycling has become a family tradition as well.

When Kristine decided she was ready to take on the 32-mile route at El Tour, she recruited her dad to ride alongside her as her support rider. Before long, the entire family had become part of the experience.

Her mom has watched that transformation happen firsthand.

“The bike story for us has been long involved in our family, and we’re so grateful for the team’s support,” she says. “It’s enriched Kristine’s life.”

Today, Kristine no longer wonders whether she can do something. She’s the one encouraging others to believe they can.

“It’s, ‘Of course you can do it with me, Mom. Let’s go. I can do this.’”

That confidence has become one of Kristine’s greatest gifts to the Team Access community. The support she once received is the same encouragement she now gives to every new rider who joins the team.

Kristine’s story is a reminder that access creates opportunities that extend well beyond the bike. One rider discovers a community. A family discovers a new way to spend time together. And a teammate becomes the person inspiring others to keep showing up, keep pedaling, and keep believing they’re capable of more than they imagined.