Marcus came to Colorado with his parents as an infant. He attended Denver East High School and Colorado State University. Marcus is a BBQ Pitmaster and home chef; he even won a Top Chef competition on a cruise ship! Marcus is also a Knight of Sufferlandria. You can usually find him either on the bike or in the backyard BBQing.

Throughout his life he has continued to push boundaries specifically in regard to race and equity. After the deaths of two young children in a Kansas gravel pit, Marcus and his cousin were the first to integrate into a swimming pool in Dodge City, Kansas where he spent all his summers with his maternal grandparents. He attributes his strong morals to his family. He became a board member of Susan G. Komen during a time when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is now a 15-year survivor! Marcus is always one to fight against the odds.

Like many kids, Marcus was lucky to have a bike growing up. That sense of freedom and joy is still a driving force for him today. Marcus was a “crit-master” and has spent lots of time on the velodrome as well- he loves the speed. He is grateful that he has been surrounded by talented coaches that push him beyond his limits, showing that split-second smile when you know you’ve given it your all. Neal and Marcus founded Ride for Racial Justice in July of 2020 as a response to the racial and political divides that capture our country. For the first time in his life Marcus was afraid to ride his bike, and out of that fear came a posse of cyclists to support the mission. Ride for Racial Justice is not a parade, but a movement for parity, diversity, equity, and inclusion in cycling. It’s about change, that same change that he was part of as a child.

Neal Henderson is the co-founder of Ride for Racial Justice. As a long-time coach and endurance athlete based in Boulder, CO, he has coached hundreds of athletes from juniors and amateurs to professionals, world champions and Olympians over the last two plus decades. Neal has been awarded multiple coach of the year honors from USA Cycling and USA Triathlon, as well as being awarded the Doc Counsilman Science Award from the United States Olympic Committee for applying sports science to training for Team USA athletes. In addition to founding APEX Coaching & Consulting in 1999, he works as the head of sports science for Wahoo Fitness. Neal believes that everyone should be free to safely ride a bicycle no matter their race, color, gender, class, or sexual orientation.

Massimo Alpian grew up in New York City and now resides in Boulder, Colorado. A son of immigrants, Alpian holds an accomplished international non-profit career which focused on human rights, climate change and its effect on refugees, and humanitarian assistance in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa at organizations like UNICEF and the United Nations. He also holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations from Columbia University, and undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from New York University and St. John’s University.

A love for the outdoors and bike racing are what brought Massimo to leave his non-profit career for a marketing and communications career in the outdoor industry roughly a decade ago and move to Boulder, Colorado. Alpian has worked on both the brand and agency side executing communications and brand strategies for outdoor brands like CamelBak, Brompton, Bicycles, KEEN, Inc., Fjällräven, HOKA ONE ONE, Tracksmith and Thousand. In his current role managing global media relations for Cannondale, he works on making cycling and bikes accessible to all, while working on the ground with the board of Ride for Racial Justice to push the sport forward and create greater diversity, equity and representation for the current and next generation of cyclists.

Alisha was born and raised in Colorado Springs, CO. She graduated from CSU with a double Bachelors in Psychology and Sociology (Go Rams!), went on to receive her Masters in Justice Policy from UTSA, and is seeking her second in Social Work from MSU Denver. Prior to her 8-year career in law enforcement, Alisha was a mental health counselor for 5 years in adolescent residential treatment facilities. She now works for SRAM as a Community Specialist. Alisha has climbed seven 14,000 ft mountains, run 40+ races, completed the Athens Marathon, completed 2 Ragnars, 3 Sprint Triathlons, 250 cycle miles in 3 days for the Police Unity Tour, and played semi-professional FULL contact football. In July of 2020, Alisha founded Bike Ride for Black Lives and is a League Cycling Instructor with the League of American Bicyclists. She believes in living life E.P.I.C. and in her spare time she likes to solve the Rubik’s cube!

Rubén Mercado is an art director and musician based in Louisville, CO where he lives with his wife and daughter. Of Puerto Rican heritage, he was raised in Spanish Harlem in the ’70s, where salsa music, wall murals, and graffiti became the inspiration for a successful career in the arts.

A latecomer to cycling, he caught the cycling bug after moving to Colorado in 2015. He quickly fell in love with the freedom that the gravel roads of the front range offered up. The past seven years have been a fantastic journey of exploration both on and off the bike. He’s looking forward to the next phase of the journey.

In 2022, Ruben was selected to be a part of the RFRJ SBT GRVL program. In his words, the experience was life changing. Not only was the team successful at SBT GRVL (4 podiums, no DNFs), more importantly they were able to spread the RFRJ message, vision and hope for a more equitable future for the sport of cycling. Through his continued work with RFRJ, Rubén hopes to advocate for diversity within the cycling community. In particular, to work with youth to nurture the love of cycling and offer opportunities seldom available within the BIPOC community.

Allison (she/her) lives and works in Northern California. She has spent the early part of her career caring for underserved populations in Philadelphia, Detroit, and various cities around northern California. The outdoors and athletic endeavors have always been essential to her life. The noticeable lack of BIPOC representation is something that has always been disquieting but the mental and physical rewards garnered from being active outdoors were too big to pass up.

Over the last 10 years, she has overcome major illness, recovered from brain surgery, lost (and regained) her athleticism, and used the outdoors to get through it all. Now she’s on a mission to help other BIPOC athletes show up to start lines, use the healing power of movement, and find a sense of belonging. Ride For Racial Justice has truly helped light a fire in her athletic endeavors and she is on a mission to get more people on bikes.

Renee Marino

Board Emeritus