Saskatoon spin studio’s Roughrider-themed class appeals to football fans

Green is the colour, but riding is the game for one Saskatoon spin instructor.

Wearing her Saskatchewan Roughriders jersey, a beaded necklace with the team’s logo, green glow stick bracelets and under-eye paint, Paige Hansen cheered on a mostly-full studio as she led her second Riders-themed cycling class on Thursday.

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The last time she taught a class like this at RYDE YXE was before the 2025 Labour Day Classic, a game which the Riders won. To keep the luck going, she decided to keep the same playlist this time around.

That includes “Welcome to the Jungle,” which fans will recognize as the team’s walkout song, plus “The Last Saskatchewan Pirate,” “Green is the Colour,” and even “Long Live the Night” – a song played on The Green Zone every time the Riders win.

With some participants happily breaking a sweat in their green and white, Hansen said there were people she doesn’t normally see who signed up for the class.

Paige Hansen, pictured alongside Hailey Watrych and Chad Thomas, said if the Riders win the West Final she’ll host another themed class before the Grey Cup on Nov. 16. (Marija Robinson/650 CKOM)

With a laugh, Hansen said it “feels like a family, and once you’re in it, you can’t get out.”

Hansen said caught the “infectious” Rider bug over a decade ago, and it happened because of her own health struggles.

“I am a childhood cancer survivor, so I was diagnosed with leukemia when I was 18 months old,” she said.

Hansen said her life at the time involved a lot of “hospital pokes, fasting, (and) ‘You can’t do this’” encouragement.

She said compromised immune system meant she couldn’t even go out and play with friends. That continued until she finished her treatments at age four.

When she was five, Hansen said she went to a Rider game, and that’s when she and her mom, “fell in love” with the team. They even became season ticket holders starting in 2013, along with her aunt.

“Since then, we went every year, and it’s kind of just something that we found to be happy about after my treatment,” Hansen said.

Coming out of treatment, she said the games were “something to look forward to that was high energy.”

Their season tickets were in the front row of the end zone, and Hansen said players would see her and come over to say hi. She also met some of Roughriders after speaking at events organized by the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Canadian Cancer Society.

From there, Hansen said her “obsession” with the Riders only grew.

While Hansen had to forgo the season tickets this year because of work and nursing school studies, she said she wouldn’t miss heading to Regina for the West Final.

“We’re gonna win. Absolutely no ifs, ands or buts,” she said.

If the Riders beat the B.C. Lions on Saturday, Hansen said she’ll find a way to get to Winnipeg for the Grey Cup next weekend, but not before she hosts another Riders-themed spin class.

For Hansen, the importance of the Riders is almost indescribable.

“Just different than any other sport, any other team,” she said.