At the beginning of this year, I posted a reel of me freaking out before a trail feature with the sole purpose of being vulnerable and drawing attention to the fact that everyone gets scared sometimes. Within hours, I had thousands of internet trolls telling me that, as a woman, I shouldn’t ride bikes, and should go back to the kitchen. 

Rather than selling all my bikes as the haters encouraged, this lit a fire in me to use my voice to get more women on bikes, and more women racing mountain bikes. 

I get it. I was an “adult-onset” athlete myself. I didn’t start racing mountain bikes until I was almost 30. Racing mountain bikes isn’t easy. It takes time, effort, and money, luxuries that not everyone has. It also means doing something that not a lot of other women around you are doing. It can be scary at times. 

But it is also SO rewarding. 

The community of women in mountain biking is really that: a community. On the race course, we are competitors, but we are also friends, and just want to see more women joining us on the trails. 

And that’s what I want, too. So I’m going to keep using my voice. But I’m also SUPER EXCITED to announce a personal project to help get at least a few more women racing here in Appalachia in 2025. 

The Ride Fierce Women’s Race Scholarship is a grassroots initiative to provide a pathway for more women to race mountain bikes here in Appalachia / the Mid-Atlantic. For 2025, I will be sponsoring four women’s entries to four regional races (one woman per race), as well as providing coaching for each woman in the lead-up to each event. Skadi Sports Psychology has graciously offered a spot in her sports psychology master class for each of the women, and several of my partners, including Handup Co., Black Ox, and CarboRocket, have donated a small “prize pack” of gear.

This sponsorship is specifically for adult women (over 18) who have never raced an enduro or cross-country marathon (XCM) event before. The target races are the 2025 Slaty Fork Enduro, the 2025 Off-Road Assault on Mount Mitchell (ORAMM), the 2025 Shenandoah 100k, and the 2025 Shed Enduro. Applications are open until January 15th, 2025.