Roberto – 35 Born in Guanajuato Mexico
Roberto was a dedicated weightlifter and had a back injury that kept him from heavy lifting again. With this loss, he started gaining weight and needed a way to exercise, so one of our team riders encouraged him to start cycling. He rode occasionally on the Tuesday Velo City Cycles ride and then was challenged to start riding with Vivela. Roberto progressed rapidly with multiple successive rides that increased in length ( longest ride – 50 miles) and average speed until he was able to keep up with the team on our Saturday morning ride to Grand Haven. During this season Roberto joined multiple ¡Vamos! New rider events, bought a road bike, lost 12 pounds and continues to ride strong.
The City of Holland Parks and Recreation website indicated the following concerning new programming needed for our community. Vivela is proud to be actively working on making our Latino community healthy and strong one bike ride at a time.
“63.2% of adults in Ottawa County are considered to be obese or overweight per their BMI, which follows national trends. According to the 2018 Community Assessment for Ottawa County published by the Greater Ottawa County United Way, Hispanics are two times more likely than other groups to be overweight or obese. As Holland has a large Hispanic population, this is a statistic that should be considered when targeting groups for new recreation programming.”