Transcript

Dirty Freehub

This is the Connection. A dirty free hub podcast connecting gravel cyclists to where [00:00:10] they ride through short stories about culture, history, people, places in [00:00:20] lands.

Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett

Danielle Doelling grew up in Long Island, New York. On June 4th, 2011, Danielle fell rock climbing near Gunnison, Colorado over 250 feet. She’s [00:00:30] now paralyzed at T6 and a wheelchair user. Since her injury, she has become a passionate advocate for adaptive sports and disability justice. She loves handcycling [00:00:40] both on and off-road and mono skiing.
She was a proud founding member of the Challenge Athletes Foundation woman’s handcycling team and competed from 2019 to [00:00:50] 2024 around the country and world in paracycling, including two World Cups. In 2023, she became the first woman’s para gravel national champion at [00:01:00] the Gravel National Championship in Gering, Nebraska.

Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett

Thanks Danielle for joining us today.

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

You’re welcome. Glad to talk to you.

Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett

Yeah, tell us a little bit about your [00:01:10] story, you and your story. can you walk us through your journey to hand cycling and what led you to it?

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

So I was a very active person before I was injured in [00:01:20] 2011. In 2011, at the age of 28, I was in a rock climbing accident, which led me to be paraplegic and a manual [00:01:30] wheelchair user.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett Wow, that’s a big accident.

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

Yeah, so immediately in the hospital afterwards, I was Googling [00:01:40] adaptive sports and trying to figure out how I could get back outside. that’s the beginning of my journey to hand
cycling.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett I love that. It’s just a [00:01:50] new experience. For someone who’s never seen a hand cycle, how would you describe it? And are there, different kind of types of hand cycling? Like do you have mountain cycling, road cycling? What does that look [00:02:00] like?

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

Yeah, there’s different types of cycles, thankfully. it’s weird to say it, but I feel like I’m grateful that I’m disabled at this point in time because there [00:02:10] are technologies that are advancing. There’s mountain bikes also called off-road hand cycles. There’s road bikes, which could be like [00:02:20] more recreational or like racing style.
And now there are actually some gravel hand
cycles too.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett Wow. And do you have one [00:02:30] specific one that you use or prefer?

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

mean, I love the different sports for different reasons. I got super into racing, [00:02:40] so I do love my carbon bike that’s like really aerodynamic and you can go really fast. You can barely see anything. It’s
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett [00:02:50] Oh my goodness.

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

machine. The crank is like right in front of your face. I love my mountain bike.
I am currently using it for gravel cycling because I [00:03:00] don’t have a gravel cycle, but that’s a long-term dream. They’re just all very expensive, ranging from $7,000 to [00:03:10] $15,000.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett Totally. Yeah. And I feel like a lot of times people use their mountain bike sometimes to gravel cycle.
just like different fits and comfortability on those trails, [00:03:20] on the roads. Yeah. Is there any specific gear or anything worth trying before investing into the gear?

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

Well, it is a huge investment, so I do [00:03:30] recommend trying it somehow before you go through that. I mean, most people can’t even afford to purchase one outright. There [00:03:40] are a lot of grants. Well, I wouldn’t say a lot, but there are grants available to help with the cost of them. But a lot of the grants require you to try it first [00:03:50] anyway to make sure it’s really gonna work for you.
So, I do recommend giving it a try before you try to purchase.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett And what was your first time on the hand [00:04:00] cycle like? Was it nerve wracking, exciting, frustrating?

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

Well, I was super lucky how I got my first hand cycle when I was still in the hospital. [00:04:10] My grandpa was food shopping and he saw a paraplegic woman and was like, went up to her and told her, you know, my granddaughter was just [00:04:20] injured and she’s a new paraplegic and the woman was so kind. She said, “I have a hand cycle to give her.”
She was like a former [00:04:30] Paralympian.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett Whoa.

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

Yeah, I had access to it was like a re – recreational road hand cycle before I even got out of the [00:04:40] hospital. But to me, it’s just like freedom and a way to be outdoors. the wheelchair, it’s slow. So I like, we all like cycling for this reason. You cover a [00:04:50] lot of ground, you see a lot of scenery so I loved it from pretty much the moment I tried
it.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett It seems like your bike has good vibes being from the [00:05:00] Paralympian.

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

Mm-hmm.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett Yeah.

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

Yeah. I’ve had, it’s been donated to an adaptive sports
organization. I’ve
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett that’s

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

had newer iterations since then, but [00:05:10] grateful that I had that, in the beginning because it’s a huge life change to be in a wheelchair and it’s [00:05:20] important to still like have access to those things that you loved
before.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett Yeah, and you mentioned like the freedom and it’s like, you know, why we all kind of cycle or do our sports. It’s just like the [00:05:30] freedom and the challenge and just the grit on the really tough days, so.

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

Yeah. I always liked, you know, signing up for races or rides, and having [00:05:40] that goal on the calendar and, you know, having an excuse to travel. I did a lot of like the bike for
MS
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett Oh,
yeah.

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

In Oregon and [00:05:50] Washington and stuff like that.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett That’s really cool. Was there a specific moment when you knew hand cycling was gonna be a big part of your life and did you [00:06:00] have any inspirations?

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

Yeah, so I always had hopes in the back of my mind to compete or race. And I got this [00:06:10] great opportunity, I think it was around 2017, the Challenged Athletes Foundation had a triathlon camp, paratriathlon. So I flew down to [00:06:20] San Diego for that and I got to try swimming the racing wheelchair and cycling down there.
[00:06:30] But my love was really the cycling part. And then after I got home from this camp, the guy who led the camp, Carlos Maleda, he [00:06:40] called me and said he was interested in starting a women’s hand cycling team and would I like to be on it? And I, I was like, “This is meant to be.” [00:06:50] So he actually is a paraplegic who won the Kona Iron Man five times.
So he had a lot of knowledge of racing and [00:07:00] training, which I didn’t know anything about. I definitely miss like cardio and those endorphins that you get from really working your body like that. I [00:07:10] just didn’t have the tools. So I learned a lot from Carlos how to race and train and plan for these events.
And so we traveled all over the country and the [00:07:20] world competing.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett That is so exciting. That’s a really amazing to hear.

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

Yeah, it was,
it was awesome.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett Yeah, you get lots of excuses to travel [00:07:30] then.

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

Mm-hmm.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett Yeah. How cool. If someone’s interested in trying hand cycling, where should they start? Like, it sounds like you had some mentors that were super helpful, but are there clubs or [00:07:40] organizations? Do you have any advice for that?

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

Yeah, most places do have a local adaptive sports organization. You might, if you’re rural, you might have to travel [00:07:50] somewhat, but like here in Central Oregon, it’s Oregon Adaptive Sports and so you try to find the most local chapter of one of those adaptive [00:08:00] sports organizations and they can usually steer you to, either they’ll have bikes that you can try out or they can steer you in the right direction.
The Challenge [00:08:10] Athletes Foundation and also the Kelly Brush Foundation, they provide grants to people for either equipment or [00:08:20] travel or coaching, but also they could probably steer you in a, in the right direction
too.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett Yeah, and it sounds like mentors have been a big part [00:08:30] for you as well, like finding those people along the way.

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

Yeah, my advice would be definitely just don’t be afraid to ask for help. It’s a very niche [00:08:40] area. But I was so glad that I had that guidance to get into racing because it was so fun and I met so many amazing people and [00:08:50] got to see the world. And so it’s worth reaching out a couple times to different people or organizations to get the help that you need to figure [00:09:00] it
out.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett Now that I know that you’ve been racing all over the world, I want your autograph hanging on my wall. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

I love Dirty Free Hub. I love [00:09:10] gravel cycling, first of all, but I love Dirty Freehub because they are really conscientious about accessibility of their [00:09:20] routes. So they have all access routes they fit certain criteria of length and elevation and remoteness that [00:09:30] are slightly more accessible.
And then they’ve also started having adaptive cyclists reviewed routes. So you could go in there and [00:09:40] see if an adaptive cyclist has done it. And like I would try to point out any difficult area, like getting around a gate or, Basically it’s like game [00:09:50] over if there’s two trees that are really close together that you can’t get around or if like a log has fallen on the trail.
So
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett Mm-hmm.

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

even getting that most up-to-date [00:10:00] info about the state of the route is really important. So super grateful for Dirty Free Hub for all the work that they do
there.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett Oh, we Thank [00:10:10] you and like appreciate you for doing all that and being our champ to help get other people out there too.

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

Yeah, I think Gravel right now, having done all the different [00:10:20] disciplines, it’s just like my happy place because you don’t have to be scared of cars.
You can just get out and see things and get a [00:10:30] good
workout.
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett Yeah, and I still feel like you can travel a little bit in your own local areas sometimes. You get to like, oh, what’s, it’s like a Christmas present almost like, what’s over here in this area? [00:10:40] Which gravel route is out there?

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

Yeah, and I just discovered how Dirty Free Hub have info about like, oh, the local cafe to hit up
Dirty Freehub – Kira Corbett Well, thank you so much, [00:10:50] Danielle. We really appreciate the work you’re doing for us too.

Gravel Champ – Danielle Doelling

You’re welcome.

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