Alyssa's story: Spinderella

BaseCamp athlete Alyssa Biel shared her experience at the 2026 Spinderella bike ride in Idaho.

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Spinderella is a ladies-only event, with 10, 22, 50, 75, and 100-mile distances to choose from. I decided my distance for this event would be based on whether my friend Michelle would also go ride it or not. Thankfully Michelle decided to attend, so we ultimately chose the 22-mile route so we could enjoy riding together that day.

The theme of the event for this year was Luau, so I tried to figure out something fun aside from leis and grass skirts that would go with the theme. I decided a shark pool float would be a humorous accessory to my outfit for the ride.

I'm not sure if the longer distances have a more race-like atmosphere around the start, since I've never participated in those other distances. For our ride, it was a very casual start; they let about 10-15 riders leave at a time, roughly a minute apart, just to not have a massive lump of cyclists with varying riding abilities trying to ride on the shoulder.

Our course was fairly mellow, which allowed ladies of all ages and abilities to participate, and the positivity and joy between everyone out on the course was infectious. We encountered a little bit of rain during our ride, but the event runs rain or shine as it uses paved roads the whole way. There are several stocked aid stations along all the routes and even a a mobile "knight in shining armor" service you can call via phone if you run into any issues during your ride.

This is definitely up there in the top for events I've ever done for the amount of things included in the swag bag. There is also a pretty good-sized raffle, with a handful of the bigger value items you can select from to put your raffle tickets into the draw for. It's great to see so much support around for a ladies-only event like this.