Since it’s “transfer season” in the world of UCI mountain biking, it seems like as good a time as any to share some changes coming to my race “team” for 2026. I first started racing under the “Ride Fierce Racing” name in 2021, as I was moving from racing with a team (Ronin Velosport) back…
Author: Abi
Elite mountain bike racer, data science student, former teacher...
Singletrack is my superpower
I don’t know why this is the phrase that came to mind as I started the Marji Gesick 100-mile mountian bike race in Marquette, Michigan last weekend, but I grabbed onto it and added it to “Stay Curious” and “Be Patient” as my mantras for the day. This spring, as I was determining my race…
j’adore ça ici
Correct me if you speak French, but I think that means “I love it here.” It’s been years since I spent time in Europe, and it really is addicting. I’m sitting in the Zurich airport now, waiting to board my flight back to the U.S. and already scheming how I can come back and spend…
2025 Ride Fierce Women’s Scholarship: Success!
The four recipients of the 2025 Ride Fierce Women’s Scholarship have each completed their races, and I am so, so proud of each of them! Here are some short updates from each of them! The Shed Enduro: Annie Chapelle Holy Jalapeno, I did The Shed Enduro 2025!! WILD! I had a blast and I am…
Wow. Just Wow.
I opened up a new message on Slack to my manager and CTO at work this morning and realized that the last message I had sent to that particular group of individuals was from the ER in January after getting hit by a car. The subject of today’s message was that I had been selected…
THE Downieville Classic!
I don’t really remember how I first heard about The Downieville Classic, but somehow, back in Indiana, when I first started racing mountain bikes, there were three “big” races that I quickly learned about: Iceman, Leadville, and Downieville. I’ve raced Iceman numerous times over the years and plan to make the trip from Virginia again…
Let it Shine
This is the mantra that Erin Ayala, of Skadi Sports Psychology, helped me identify in the lead up to the Enduro National Championship, but also one that has kind of “stuck” ever since. The idea was that racing isn’t about “proving” myself, but about putting the skills, fitness, etc. that I’ve worked so hard for…
Just Have Fun
This is what I told myself as I pulled into the parking lot for the start of the 2025 ORAMM race. My most recent XCM event (Nationals) put me far enough in the hurt locker that it left me reconsidering whether I even wanted to race these endurance events at all, and ORAMM wasn’t far…
2025 Ride Fierce Women’s Scholarship: It’s Almost Race Day!
For the women of the Ride Fierce Women’s Scholarship, it’s almost race day! Megan: racing ORAMM on July 27Annie: racing The Shed Enduro on August 3Abby: racing Slatyfork Enduro on August 10Nicole: racing Shenandoah 100k on August 30 If you happen to be at any of these events, make sure you give these women a…
Endurance MTB Nationals–in ROANOKE!
Though I was very much on the “fringes” of the team that spent the last several years working to bring Endurance MTB National Championships to Roanoke, I was involved just enough to know that it was a possibility…and then, eventually, that it was really going to happen. There’s not much I like better than showing…
Ride Fierce Racing 