October 7, 2024 • 27 mins
Women are headed to Red Bull Rampage for the very first time! To celebrate this huge milestone, I sat down with Chelsea Kimball (who will be competing) to discuss what this opportunity means to her.
We chat about how she's been preparing, what success at Rampage would look like for her, and what comes next.
While most of us will never chuck ourselves off a cliff like she is, Chelsea manages not only to be awe-inspiring but also totally relatable to those of us mere mortals. She shares some tips on how to deal with fear, and how to progress our technical riding.
👉 Full show notes: https://femmecyclist.com/chelsea-kimball-interview
🔥 Get 50% off all Femme Cyclist training plans with coupon code PODCAST 50 https://shop.femmecyclist.com/product-category/training-plans/
Connect With Chelsea
👉 Instagram: @chelseasendsit
👉Instagram: @femme_cyclist
👉Website: https://femmecyclist.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristen (00:00):
Women are headed to Red Bull Rampage for the very first
time.
To celebrate this hugemilestone, I sat down with
Chelsea Kimball, who will becompeting, to discuss what this
opportunity means to her.
We chat about how she's beenpreparing, what success at
Rampage would look like for herand what comes next.
Well, most of us will neverchuck ourselves off a cliff like
(00:23):
she is.
Well, most of us will neverchuck ourselves off a cliff like
she is.
Chelsea manages not only to beawe-inspiring, but also totally
relatable to those of us meremortals.
She shares some tips on how todeal with fear and how to
progress our technical riding.
That's coming right up Realquick.
Before we jump into today'sepisode, I want to tell you
(00:44):
about the training plans I'vecreated for you all.
Whether you're looking to get alittle fitter or faster, or you
have a big event or race youneed to prepare for, a
structured training plan canhelp you achieve your goals.
I have a variety of pre-madetraining plans you can choose
from, or I can build you acustom training plan specific to
(01:04):
your needs.
Podcast listeners get 50% offwith coupon code PODCAST50.
Head to femcyclistcom to getstarted today.
Chelsea, you've got Rampagecoming up here in just a couple
of weeks.
What is going to Rampage meanto you?
Chelsea (01:22):
Rampage for me has always been, I think, a little
different than a lot of peoplesee it, because I've never
looked at Rampage as just thecompetition.
I've always come out here liketwo weeks before the competition
to ride with my friends andjust like meet everybody else
that has traveled here fromaround the world just to ride.
Um.
So rampage, at least in my life, has always been much more than
(01:47):
a competition.
It's been like a whole festivalwhere you meet people and just
like have camaraderie and a goodtime.
Um.
So this year, uh, being inrampage it's definitely a whole
different, uh, whole differentball game.
Yeah, um, I guess it's.
It's the same in the respect of, like, I'm still here before
(02:08):
the competition just riding, but, uh, there's definitely a
little more.
I feel more pressure on myselfand I feel like I have to be
more, uh, strategic in what I'mriding and uh, just because I
want to stay healthy and get tothe competition.
Yeah, but, yeah, just droppinginto Rampage for the first time
(02:28):
that women are competing is soexciting.
Kristen (02:32):
Yeah, do you feel some pressure with that too, knowing
that you are one of the firstwomen to get to compete?
Chelsea (02:38):
I mean, I don't think that's for me, that's not
pressure, that's any differentthan just competing.
I just want to go there andlike, have a good, solid run and
and celebrate with everybodyafter we all do it, because it's
so think and cool what are youdoing right now to prepare?
(02:58):
um, I've been riding, uh, ridingevery day as much as I can and
just like riding differentfeatures, riding some steeps,
doing drops and working ontricks, and just trying to stay
loose and like comfy on the bike, but at the same time, not like
wearing myself out because wegot a big week start starting on
(03:19):
Monday.
Who do you have coming to helpyou?
So I have three friends.
One, her name is CJ Uh, she'sbeen my friend for so long.
She's actually the one that gotme into mountain biking.
Um, so she knows my ridingstyle and everything super well,
uh.
And then the other one is RyanRodriguez.
(03:41):
Uh, I, he's also been my friendfor so long, we've written so
much together and he himself isan incredible rider with lots of
experience uh, out here diggingand riding.
And then the last one, uh, isEric Duncan, another friend,
that also an incredible rider,lots of experience digging, and,
(04:01):
uh, they're they're all like sotalented in speed judgment and
riding themselves that I knowwe're going to build an awesome
line and and hit everything andit'll be great uh, you mentioned
your friend that got you intomountain biking.
Kristen (04:17):
Let's rewind for a moment and go back to that how
did you get into mountain bikingand what is kind of your story
of progression towards becominga professional mountain biker,
Ben?
Chelsea (04:26):
Yeah, I got into mountain biking because of CJ.
She was my climbing partner.
I was a rock climber mostlylike sport and trad climbing and
she was looking for a job,ended up getting a job at a bike
shop and she got fully addictedright away.
So this meant that I lost myclimbing partner and if I wanted
(04:48):
to hang out with her, I had toride bikes.
So, uh, reluctantly, I enjoyedmountain biking on my first ride
but, uh, I really wanted tofocus more on climbing.
Uh, probably until about 2016.
Uh, yeah, just climbed more.
I was really into big alpineroutes.
I attempted to climb El Capitanin Yosemite and, uh, after 2016,
(05:12):
I started racing a little bitand kind of got hooked into that
and just, I am a littlecompetitive, so it was fun, uh,
meeting people and going to theraces, and then it just kind of
progressed from there.
I did more races and then rodemore bike parks and hit more
jumps.
Then I came out here for thefirst time and after that, in
2017, I was like this, thisplace, virgin, utah.
(05:36):
The writing here, just like.
It was like a like.
Immediately I fell in love withit.
Kristen (05:44):
Was it always gravity riding for you?
Chelsea (05:47):
I started out trail riding in Big Bear, california.
When I first started, there wasa lot of cross country.
Everybody I rode with was crosscountry racers or road racers,
so we always pedaled up, but Ialways liked the downhill more.
Okay, yep, so then after thatmostly downhill racing and then
some Enduro racing.
Kristen (06:07):
What is it about the gravity running that you like?
Chelsea (06:10):
It's just more fun.
Going uphill there's like itcan be challenging and you can
find a pleasure and excitementand like doing something new,
but uh, it's a lot more effort,whereas riding downhill can be
just plain fun with like notmuch effort, not much risk, just
plain old fun.
Kristen (06:31):
Going back to Rampage.
What does success look likethere for you?
Chelsea (06:37):
Ooh at Rampage.
Success, yeah.
Success, I think to me isbuilding a line top to bottom
that I'm happy with, meaninglike the features.
I didn't make too small, Ididn't go too big to where I
didn't want to hit the features.
So just like make a line thatI'm like happy with and proud to
(06:59):
show people, and just like geta clean run top to bottom.
Kristen (07:03):
Does it, does it feel scary to you?
Chelsea (07:06):
Oh, a hundred percent.
Yeah, I get moments throughoutthe day where I'm like, oh yeah,
in a week or so I'm going to bestanding at this start gate and
they're going to be countingdown and saying my name.
Oh, it's crazy.
How do you deal with that fear?
Many different ways.
I have trouble a lot of times,like I've definitely backed down
(07:27):
from features that I know I'mcapable of, because whatever
inside of me is telling me don'tdo it, whether it's the risk or
just plain fear of crashing orwhatever.
But to get past that, I have alot of different methods,
whether it's breathing orvisualization, or going to hit a
(07:49):
feature that's similar but alittle smaller, just so I have a
little bit of, like, immediateconfidence burst before going
for a bigger feature.
Um, they all kind of help, uh,as well as like seeing somebody
do it in front of you, in frontof me, helped a lot.
So there's there's a lot ofdifferent methods.
Kristen (08:08):
What kind of advice do you have for women listening,
most of whom who are mountainbikers, are most likely cross
country mountain bikers.
What kind of advice do you havefor them to try like riskier
riding?
Chelsea (08:29):
like riskier writing, I'd say that you can try the
same moves we're doing on bigdrops Like technically it's the
exact same thing as hopping offof a curb Like you can do.
You can do the same movementsin a pretty much risk-free
locations.
So I'd say, just like doingyour best to find those places
to practice can help a lot.
(08:50):
And then when it comes to gaps,I know, even for me, like if I
see a jump with a gap right nextto a tabletop of the same size,
I'm way more afraid of the gap,cause it's scary.
Yeah.
But like just finding littletrail gaps, like one rock to
(09:10):
another rock or or even goingsomewhere and digging a hole and
jumping over it, like anylittle thing helps the more
practice you can get, do it.
And if you, if you want to doit, then really commit to it.
Like trying something onceisn't gonna make it easier.
(09:31):
It only gets easier when youtry it over and over and over
and over.
Kristen (09:35):
That's really good advice.
Thank you For all of the ladiesgoing to Rampage.
What is the community likethere?
Are you friends with the otherladies?
Chelsea (09:44):
What is the community like there, are you friends with
the other ladies?
Yeah, we're all.
We're all friends.
I've actually I've been ridingwith quite a few of the ladies
so far.
I think now everybody is intown for the girls, the guys too
.
We're.
We're really all friends.
We all go to the same eventsthere's.
I don't think any of us aresuper competitive, uh, to
(10:07):
especially.
None of us are competitive tothe point of, like, getting in
fights over anything.
Uh, cause we're all doing it,cause we love it and working
towards a common goal.
Kristen (10:26):
So we definitely ride together and we're all friends
and it's yeah, it's.
It's pretty cool how howeverybody treats each other.
Do you feel like the mentalityof competition is different than
racing?
The mentality of like jumpcompetition yeah, like uh, where
you're not racing based on time.
Right, this is, or maybe it isthe same.
Chelsea (10:42):
I think, at least for rampage, the risk is a lot
higher.
Um, so, as far as just likedanger and risk of serious
injury, I think, I think rampageis much different than any
other event.
But other than that I think, uh, with like World Cup racing,
(11:04):
those racers are going so fast.
If they take one little bit ofa wrong line, then they're, they
could easily crash, and thenit's like they're there to race
so they want to push themselvesto go faster, and every line
perfectly.
So I think the competitionaspect and just pushing yourself
(11:25):
to do things is is very, verysimilar.
Kristen (11:29):
How does your family feel about you doing this?
Chelsea (11:32):
Uh, my family's so supportive.
Uh, my grandparents don'tunderstand at all, Um, but uh,
yeah, they've.
Uh, they've definitely askedlike why I don't do something
more productive with my life.
But, uh, they they mean well,uh, but of course our
grandparents generation didn'thave mountain biking to know the
(11:52):
pleasures of it.
So, uh, but my dad is supersupportive.
He often I'll tell him I didn'tdo something or he'll just be
like, oh, why didn't you do it?
Like you're going to do it nexttime, Right, he's just always
encouraging and supporting.
Uh, both my parents have alwaysbeen awesome.
Kristen (12:12):
Are they going to be there?
Chelsea (12:13):
Yep, yep, they're going to be there.
I, I have a brother and hiswife have two daughters, and I
really, really wish that theycould come, but they're pretty
far away, so I'm not sure ifthey could make it happen.
But yeah, my dad's definitelygoing to be there.
Kristen (12:27):
Yeah, that'd be really cool.
Why do you think that it hastaken you so long, or why has it
taken so long for women to getinto rampage, and what was sort
of the forcing mechanism to makeit happen this year?
Chelsea (12:40):
So I see this question in a lot of from a lot of
different angles.
I see this question in a lot offrom a lot of different angles,
like logistically, having morecompetitive, more competitors in
an already in an event that'salready very constrained by time
because of weather, with windand just logistics for so many
(13:01):
people building their own linedown a mountain.
It's really difficult to add awhole nother field of
competitors to an already fullcompetition.
So I know that is one reason.
Logistically it's reallydifficult.
Another reason is, like it'sthe question have have there
(13:25):
been enough women to make a fullcategory and have a good,
proper competition before, or isit just now that there's, that
there's enough women?
The other side to that is ifthey made the category a long
time ago, would there be waymore women right now?
And we don't know the chicken orthe egg, we don't know.
(13:45):
But I'm definitely happy thatit is now and I think there were
a lot of forces behind this.
All of the rallying last yearthat I saw on the Internet of of
like why aren't the women here?
Was pretty incredible.
I had no idea that anythinglike that was going to happen
and I think it had a massiveeffect.
Kristen (14:06):
Yeah, what do you think the next steps are for women's
free ride?
Chelsea (14:16):
Women's free ride.
I think it's a question forfree ride in general.
Rampage is the highest level ofour sport and it's been that
way for men for a long time, somaybe it's a better question is
what is the next step for freeride?
And I hope, uh, I hope it itturns into like more people,
(14:36):
creating more competitions ofdifferent sorts all over the
world, because the the morevariety we have, uh for elite
athletes to compete, competeit's only going to grow our
sport.
Kristen (14:49):
What's your favorite competition?
You've done.
Chelsea (14:51):
Let's see it might be a race.
I do a lot of events calledlike fest events.
They're big jump events butthey're not competitions and my
favorite of that category isDark fest, just because the
jumps.
The jumps are just the best inthe world, like there's in my
mind.
There's no question about it.
But for a competition, uh, I'veraced this uh enduro race in
(15:16):
thailand called theinternational chiang mai enduro.
I was there two different yearsbefore coven happened and it
was canceled and just thecommunity out there in Thailand
was so awesome and the race wasdone really well and just the
trails and the community yeah,we're over the top fun.
Kristen (15:35):
What are your goals going forward, like five-year
goals.
Chelsea (15:39):
Let's see Five-year goals.
Kristen (15:42):
I need to think about this more, whatever time frame
you.
Chelsea (15:49):
Let's see right.
I actually just this yearpurchased property with the help
of my dad, um, I got like sixand a half acres of land in
California and I just plan todevelop it for jumps.
I want to have I want to have awhole jump line.
I have one, I have trick stepups just to improve my own
riding as well as host eventsand I'm really excited to
(16:10):
develop that and that'sdefinitely going to take over
five years.
I'm sure it's a big, bigproject.
An event last year calledDesert Days and I'm actually
going to be bringing it back in2026 in the spring as a whole
(16:31):
new format of video competitionthat's open to anybody that
wants to try.
So I'm excited to create that.
Kristen (16:38):
What is the format of that?
How does that work?
Chelsea (16:41):
So I'm hoping to make it in conjunction with another
local event and it'll be prettymuch anybody can come out to
southern Utah and film for fourdays.
It'll be four specific days.
They'll have two days to editand then we'll judge on the
(17:12):
third day and then we'll showthe videos at this local event
and announce the winners on thelast day and there will be
categories for both men andwomen, with awards like Best
Line, best Overall Video, mostCreative and different things
like that.
So riders, photographers andvideographers can all be in
contention to win like $1,000per prize and then just joining
this free ride type ofcompetition with a real local
(17:33):
mountain bike festival I thinkis an awesome way to grow the
community, because not everybodyknows about free ride.
Kristen (17:42):
Who do you look up to?
Chelsea (17:45):
Let's see A lot of people Um, there's a lot of, uh,
I guess.
One example, uh, david Godziak.
Uh, I had the privilege ofwriting at him and Shimon's
house in Poland and, uh, he's anincredible writer.
He does so much and also runs abusiness like renting out
(18:08):
machines at the same time, andit's just like it's impressive
seeing athletes like him thatalso do other things to like
kind of prepare for the future.
So that was super cool.
Matt McDuff right now is makinga huge big air compound up in
(18:33):
Kamloops.
That is just like his passionand dream.
And then I just have so manyfriends that have made decisions
in their life that setthemselves up for success but
also just enjoying the processof whatever success is to them,
and I really look up to that forsure.
Kristen (18:50):
Yeah, what is your training look like?
Chelsea (18:55):
Let's see I'm coming leading up to rampage.
I was really committed togetting better backflips all
summer, so anytime I had theopportunity on a safe jump, I
did as many flips as I could.
Um, while I've been down herein Virgin, uh, yeah, just doing
shuttles and riding steeps,hiking up and doing different
(19:18):
drops and jumps.
Just, uh, getting repetition ondoing different tricks.
Um, just trying to be asprecise as possible.
And then also at night, beforeI go to bed, just practicing,
visualizing different features,practicing visualizing different
(19:38):
features, and I'm trying toprepare by visualizing, like
being at the drop-in during thecompetition, just trying to
prepare myself for what thatmight feel like you've mentioned
now I mean multiple times thatyou really enjoy virgin.
Kristen (19:48):
What is it to you like about the desert that speaks to
you as opposed to maybe like PNWriding, or, or elsewhere?
Chelsea (19:56):
Gosh, what is it?
I?
The dirt out here is reallygood.
It can get really dry and dusty, but somehow there's still
traction.
So just the dirt is awesome.
The, the, uh, the feeling oflike being up there on a Ridge,
just totally exposed, is sounique.
There's lots of sunshine.
(20:16):
I love the sunshine.
That turns me away from the PNWa little bit, because I'm
originally from Arizona.
So a lot of rain and I just getsad and want to drink coffee
all day.
Yeah, but yeah also, this placeis just plain beautiful.
Like we have Zion, that you canlook in one direction and see
(20:37):
all the cliffs of Zion and thenyou can look out in the other
direction and see just likerolling, rolling hills of like
solid red rock and then, withthe Pine Valley Mountains like
how tall are they?
Maybe around 10,000 footmountains in the background.
In the winter they get coveredin snow and uh, yeah, I always
(20:58):
just have to pinch myself causeI stop and look around and it's
just beauty in every direction.
Do you trail ride too?
Yes, uh, I love trail riding.
I've realized that if I don'ttrail ride then I get like I I'm
not as happy.
I like trail riding.
Uh, pedaling kind of sucks, butit gets a blood flow in and no
(21:19):
matter what the trail is, I'malways a little happier after I
go on a trail ride.
Kristen (21:23):
What are some of your favorite trails in that area?
Chelsea (21:26):
Uh, this area, I gotta say this area is lacking a
little bit in trail riding.
My favorite thing to pedal isGrafton.
You pedal up this dirt roadcalled Crybaby Hill and then you
can do another loop called WireMesa and then pedal over on
single track to Grafton and geta super fun downhill at the end.
Kristen (21:47):
Yeah, I really like that area too.
What accomplishment are youmost proud of thus far in your
career?
Chelsea (21:55):
It's super awesome that I was able to get Queen of Dark
Fest at the first Dark Festthat women were invited to ride
at, at Freeride Fiesta.
I think I might still be theonly girl that's done a top to
bottom run there.
And then, um, I think, justoverall I'm really happy with
(22:19):
all the uh like relationshipsand people that I've met
throughout the mountain bikingcommunity.
It doesn't really have to dowith my career, but uh, but in
mountain biking I think, uh, weall partially love it because of
the people that we get to ridewith, so that's a big deal to me
when these girls watch rampagein a couple of weeks and see you
out there, what do you wantthem to take away from that?
(22:40):
The smiles, hopefully just a lotof smiles.
Um, hopefully it motivatespeople to get out there and like
try something a little bigger,go off that next biggest drop at
the bike park or something.
Um, but overall like yeah, justjust happiness and in riding
and what we've all been blessedwith for mountain biking.
Kristen (23:03):
What have I not asked you that you would like folks
listening to now?
Chelsea (23:07):
I guess one thing that I I struggle with sometimes is
like progression.
Um, of course, I always want tobe getting better.
I think most people are thatway, like I would guess that
everybody likes hitting newthings and getting better and
seeing progress.
But progression is tough.
You can practice every day andit's it's never going to be,
(23:31):
it's never going to be gettingbetter noticeably every single
day Like, uh, so many times itfeels like I'm getting better
and then I'm just like eitherplateaued or or now I'm not
landing a trick or something.
Uh, so progression isn't justan uphill thing.
It comes, it comes in waves,and uh definitely want people to
(23:56):
just like stay committed towhat they're trying to do and
push past it, because you willcome out the other side.
You will get better.
If you practice, you're goingto get better.
It just might take a while.
Kristen (24:10):
I've got three final questions for you, but first, do
you have any sponsors you'dlike to give a shout out to?
And also, where can people comefind you online and follow
along with you?
Chelsea (24:20):
All right Sponsors, specialized, has been a huge
sponsor of mine for like four orfive years.
They give me so much and areawesome to work with, so, yeah,
they're a huge sponsor.
And then Pit Viper is alwayssuper supportive of everything
(24:43):
I'm trying to do.
And Reverse Components, a smallGerman company.
They've definitely been helpingme out for a long time,
definitely been helping me outfor a long time.
And then TRP uh, I've I lovetheir breaks.
I've pretty everybody I've methas uh, so they helped me out as
well.
And yeah, that's uh most of mysponsors.
And then, uh, for social media,I'm mostly just on Instagram.
(25:08):
Uh, my Instagram is Chelseasends it all one word, uh, and I
have a YouTube but there's notreally anything on there.
So maybe after rampage, therewill be three final questions.
Kristen (25:22):
The first one is what bike or bikes do you ride?
Chelsea (25:26):
Okay, I ride all of the bikes.
Uh, specialized definitely hasme, uh has a whole quiver that I
get to use.
Um, the one I'm going to beriding at rampage is the new
status too.
It uh, as soon as I got on itthe new one in April I was just
like totally hooked.
(25:46):
I love to ride my specializeddemo, my downhill bike, downhill
bike, uh, my Enduro, my stumpjumper Evo and my P3, uh, my
Levo SL.
Like I said, they've, uh,they've really hooked me up with
, with all of them.
But, yeah, ever, ever, sinceApril hit and I got on this
(26:07):
status, it's all I want to rideand it's definitely what I'm
going to ride at rampage.
Kristen (26:11):
Second question for you is where's your favorite place?
You've ever ridden your bikefavorite place?
Chelsea (26:17):
um, yeah, this might be my favorite place, although it
can get a little stressful attimes.
Um, there's so many awesomeplaces in the world to ride.
There's, yeah, so many amazingplaces.
This, this, is probably myfavorite, but if I, if I can
name a few others like ChiangMai, thailand, uh, whistler, of
(26:42):
course, disneyland for bikes.
Actually, flagstaff, arizona,has some awesome trails,
bellingham does.
The east coast has a lot ofawesome bike parks.
Um, yeah, queenstown.
I could go on forever.
There's so many cool spots.
Kristen (26:58):
Final question for you is what is your favorite thing
about riding your bike?
Chelsea (27:02):
Yeah, I think my favorite part of it is just
riding a fun trail with friends.
It doesn't have to be gnarly,just like some sort of fun
descent, and yeah, that'sprobably my favorite thing.
Kristen (27:18):
I'd love to ask you a favor.
If you enjoyed this episode,can you please go ahead and
share it?
You can do that by sharing iton your Instagram stories or
just letting a friend know aboutit.
The more that you help us getthe word out, a friend know
about it, the more that you helpus get the word out, the more
women we reach, the betterquality of guests we get on the
(27:42):
show.
So it's a team effort and Ireally, really appreciate you.
Until next time, happy writing.
Women are headed to Red Bull Rampage for the very first
time.
To celebrate this hugemilestone, I sat down with
Chelsea Kimball, who will becompeting, to discuss what this
opportunity means to her.
We chat about how she's beenpreparing, what success at
Rampage would look like for herand what comes next.
Well, most of us will neverchuck ourselves off a cliff like
(00:23):
she is.
Well, most of us will neverchuck ourselves off a cliff like
she is.
Chelsea manages not only to beawe-inspiring, but also totally
relatable to those of us meremortals.
She shares some tips on how todeal with fear and how to
progress our technical riding.
That's coming right up Realquick.
Before we jump into today'sepisode, I want to tell you
(00:44):
about the training plans I'vecreated for you all.
Whether you're looking to get alittle fitter or faster, or you
have a big event or race youneed to prepare for, a
structured training plan canhelp you achieve your goals.
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Chelsea, you've got Rampagecoming up here in just a couple
of weeks.
What is going to Rampage meanto you?
Chelsea (01:22):
Rampage for me has always been, I think, a little
different than a lot of peoplesee it, because I've never
looked at Rampage as just thecompetition.
I've always come out here liketwo weeks before the competition
to ride with my friends andjust like meet everybody else
that has traveled here fromaround the world just to ride.
Um.
So rampage, at least in my life, has always been much more than
(01:47):
a competition.
It's been like a whole festivalwhere you meet people and just
like have camaraderie and a goodtime.
Um.
So this year, uh, being inrampage it's definitely a whole
different, uh, whole differentball game.
Yeah, um, I guess it's.
It's the same in the respect of, like, I'm still here before
(02:08):
the competition just riding, but, uh, there's definitely a
little more.
I feel more pressure on myselfand I feel like I have to be
more, uh, strategic in what I'mriding and uh, just because I
want to stay healthy and get tothe competition.
Yeah, but, yeah, just droppinginto Rampage for the first time
(02:28):
that women are competing is soexciting.
Kristen (02:32):
Yeah, do you feel some pressure with that too, knowing
that you are one of the firstwomen to get to compete?
Chelsea (02:38):
I mean, I don't think that's for me, that's not
pressure, that's any differentthan just competing.
I just want to go there andlike, have a good, solid run and
and celebrate with everybodyafter we all do it, because it's
so think and cool what are youdoing right now to prepare?
(02:58):
um, I've been riding, uh, ridingevery day as much as I can and
just like riding differentfeatures, riding some steeps,
doing drops and working ontricks, and just trying to stay
loose and like comfy on the bike, but at the same time, not like
wearing myself out because wegot a big week start starting on
(03:19):
Monday.
Who do you have coming to helpyou?
So I have three friends.
One, her name is CJ Uh, she'sbeen my friend for so long.
She's actually the one that gotme into mountain biking.
Um, so she knows my ridingstyle and everything super well,
uh.
And then the other one is RyanRodriguez.
(03:41):
Uh, I, he's also been my friendfor so long, we've written so
much together and he himself isan incredible rider with lots of
experience uh, out here diggingand riding.
And then the last one, uh, isEric Duncan, another friend,
that also an incredible rider,lots of experience digging, and,
(04:01):
uh, they're they're all like sotalented in speed judgment and
riding themselves that I knowwe're going to build an awesome
line and and hit everything andit'll be great uh, you mentioned
your friend that got you intomountain biking.
Kristen (04:17):
Let's rewind for a moment and go back to that how
did you get into mountain bikingand what is kind of your story
of progression towards becominga professional mountain biker,
Ben?
Chelsea (04:26):
Yeah, I got into mountain biking because of CJ.
She was my climbing partner.
I was a rock climber mostlylike sport and trad climbing and
she was looking for a job,ended up getting a job at a bike
shop and she got fully addictedright away.
So this meant that I lost myclimbing partner and if I wanted
(04:48):
to hang out with her, I had toride bikes.
So, uh, reluctantly, I enjoyedmountain biking on my first ride
but, uh, I really wanted tofocus more on climbing.
Uh, probably until about 2016.
Uh, yeah, just climbed more.
I was really into big alpineroutes.
I attempted to climb El Capitanin Yosemite and, uh, after 2016,
(05:12):
I started racing a little bitand kind of got hooked into that
and just, I am a littlecompetitive, so it was fun, uh,
meeting people and going to theraces, and then it just kind of
progressed from there.
I did more races and then rodemore bike parks and hit more
jumps.
Then I came out here for thefirst time and after that, in
2017, I was like this, thisplace, virgin, utah.
(05:36):
The writing here, just like.
It was like a like.
Immediately I fell in love withit.
Kristen (05:44):
Was it always gravity riding for you?
Chelsea (05:47):
I started out trail riding in Big Bear, california.
When I first started, there wasa lot of cross country.
Everybody I rode with was crosscountry racers or road racers,
so we always pedaled up, but Ialways liked the downhill more.
Okay, yep, so then after thatmostly downhill racing and then
some Enduro racing.
Kristen (06:07):
What is it about the gravity running that you like?
Chelsea (06:10):
It's just more fun.
Going uphill there's like itcan be challenging and you can
find a pleasure and excitementand like doing something new,
but uh, it's a lot more effort,whereas riding downhill can be
just plain fun with like notmuch effort, not much risk, just
plain old fun.
Kristen (06:31):
Going back to Rampage.
What does success look likethere for you?
Chelsea (06:37):
Ooh at Rampage.
Success, yeah.
Success, I think to me isbuilding a line top to bottom
that I'm happy with, meaninglike the features.
I didn't make too small, Ididn't go too big to where I
didn't want to hit the features.
So just like make a line thatI'm like happy with and proud to
(06:59):
show people, and just like geta clean run top to bottom.
Kristen (07:03):
Does it, does it feel scary to you?
Chelsea (07:06):
Oh, a hundred percent.
Yeah, I get moments throughoutthe day where I'm like, oh yeah,
in a week or so I'm going to bestanding at this start gate and
they're going to be countingdown and saying my name.
Oh, it's crazy.
How do you deal with that fear?
Many different ways.
I have trouble a lot of times,like I've definitely backed down
(07:27):
from features that I know I'mcapable of, because whatever
inside of me is telling me don'tdo it, whether it's the risk or
just plain fear of crashing orwhatever.
But to get past that, I have alot of different methods,
whether it's breathing orvisualization, or going to hit a
(07:49):
feature that's similar but alittle smaller, just so I have a
little bit of, like, immediateconfidence burst before going
for a bigger feature.
Um, they all kind of help, uh,as well as like seeing somebody
do it in front of you, in frontof me, helped a lot.
So there's there's a lot ofdifferent methods.
Kristen (08:08):
What kind of advice do you have for women listening,
most of whom who are mountainbikers, are most likely cross
country mountain bikers.
What kind of advice do you havefor them to try like riskier
riding?
Chelsea (08:29):
like riskier writing, I'd say that you can try the
same moves we're doing on bigdrops Like technically it's the
exact same thing as hopping offof a curb Like you can do.
You can do the same movementsin a pretty much risk-free
locations.
So I'd say, just like doingyour best to find those places
to practice can help a lot.
(08:50):
And then when it comes to gaps,I know, even for me, like if I
see a jump with a gap right nextto a tabletop of the same size,
I'm way more afraid of the gap,cause it's scary.
Yeah.
But like just finding littletrail gaps, like one rock to
(09:10):
another rock or or even goingsomewhere and digging a hole and
jumping over it, like anylittle thing helps the more
practice you can get, do it.
And if you, if you want to doit, then really commit to it.
Like trying something onceisn't gonna make it easier.
(09:31):
It only gets easier when youtry it over and over and over
and over.
Kristen (09:35):
That's really good advice.
Thank you For all of the ladiesgoing to Rampage.
What is the community likethere?
Are you friends with the otherladies?
Chelsea (09:44):
What is the community like there, are you friends with
the other ladies?
Yeah, we're all.
We're all friends.
I've actually I've been ridingwith quite a few of the ladies
so far.
I think now everybody is intown for the girls, the guys too
.
We're.
We're really all friends.
We all go to the same eventsthere's.
I don't think any of us aresuper competitive, uh, to
(10:07):
especially.
None of us are competitive tothe point of, like, getting in
fights over anything.
Uh, cause we're all doing it,cause we love it and working
towards a common goal.
Kristen (10:26):
So we definitely ride together and we're all friends
and it's yeah, it's.
It's pretty cool how howeverybody treats each other.
Do you feel like the mentalityof competition is different than
racing?
The mentality of like jumpcompetition yeah, like uh, where
you're not racing based on time.
Right, this is, or maybe it isthe same.
Chelsea (10:42):
I think, at least for rampage, the risk is a lot
higher.
Um, so, as far as just likedanger and risk of serious
injury, I think, I think rampageis much different than any
other event.
But other than that I think, uh, with like World Cup racing,
(11:04):
those racers are going so fast.
If they take one little bit ofa wrong line, then they're, they
could easily crash, and thenit's like they're there to race
so they want to push themselvesto go faster, and every line
perfectly.
So I think the competitionaspect and just pushing yourself
(11:25):
to do things is is very, verysimilar.
Kristen (11:29):
How does your family feel about you doing this?
Chelsea (11:32):
Uh, my family's so supportive.
Uh, my grandparents don'tunderstand at all, Um, but uh,
yeah, they've.
Uh, they've definitely askedlike why I don't do something
more productive with my life.
But, uh, they they mean well,uh, but of course our
grandparents generation didn'thave mountain biking to know the
(11:52):
pleasures of it.
So, uh, but my dad is supersupportive.
He often I'll tell him I didn'tdo something or he'll just be
like, oh, why didn't you do it?
Like you're going to do it nexttime, Right, he's just always
encouraging and supporting.
Uh, both my parents have alwaysbeen awesome.
Kristen (12:12):
Are they going to be there?
Chelsea (12:13):
Yep, yep, they're going to be there.
I, I have a brother and hiswife have two daughters, and I
really, really wish that theycould come, but they're pretty
far away, so I'm not sure ifthey could make it happen.
But yeah, my dad's definitelygoing to be there.
Kristen (12:27):
Yeah, that'd be really cool.
Why do you think that it hastaken you so long, or why has it
taken so long for women to getinto rampage, and what was sort
of the forcing mechanism to makeit happen this year?
Chelsea (12:40):
So I see this question in a lot of from a lot of
different angles.
I see this question in a lot offrom a lot of different angles,
like logistically, having morecompetitive, more competitors in
an already in an event that'salready very constrained by time
because of weather, with windand just logistics for so many
(13:01):
people building their own linedown a mountain.
It's really difficult to add awhole nother field of
competitors to an already fullcompetition.
So I know that is one reason.
Logistically it's reallydifficult.
Another reason is, like it'sthe question have have there
(13:25):
been enough women to make a fullcategory and have a good,
proper competition before, or isit just now that there's, that
there's enough women?
The other side to that is ifthey made the category a long
time ago, would there be waymore women right now?
And we don't know the chicken orthe egg, we don't know.
(13:45):
But I'm definitely happy thatit is now and I think there were
a lot of forces behind this.
All of the rallying last yearthat I saw on the Internet of of
like why aren't the women here?
Was pretty incredible.
I had no idea that anythinglike that was going to happen
and I think it had a massiveeffect.
Kristen (14:06):
Yeah, what do you think the next steps are for women's
free ride?
Chelsea (14:16):
Women's free ride.
I think it's a question forfree ride in general.
Rampage is the highest level ofour sport and it's been that
way for men for a long time, somaybe it's a better question is
what is the next step for freeride?
And I hope, uh, I hope it itturns into like more people,
(14:36):
creating more competitions ofdifferent sorts all over the
world, because the the morevariety we have, uh for elite
athletes to compete, competeit's only going to grow our
sport.
Kristen (14:49):
What's your favorite competition?
You've done.
Chelsea (14:51):
Let's see it might be a race.
I do a lot of events calledlike fest events.
They're big jump events butthey're not competitions and my
favorite of that category isDark fest, just because the
jumps.
The jumps are just the best inthe world, like there's in my
mind.
There's no question about it.
But for a competition, uh, I'veraced this uh enduro race in
(15:16):
thailand called theinternational chiang mai enduro.
I was there two different yearsbefore coven happened and it
was canceled and just thecommunity out there in Thailand
was so awesome and the race wasdone really well and just the
trails and the community yeah,we're over the top fun.
Kristen (15:35):
What are your goals going forward, like five-year
goals.
Chelsea (15:39):
Let's see Five-year goals.
Kristen (15:42):
I need to think about this more, whatever time frame
you.
Chelsea (15:49):
Let's see right.
I actually just this yearpurchased property with the help
of my dad, um, I got like sixand a half acres of land in
California and I just plan todevelop it for jumps.
I want to have I want to have awhole jump line.
I have one, I have trick stepups just to improve my own
riding as well as host eventsand I'm really excited to
(16:10):
develop that and that'sdefinitely going to take over
five years.
I'm sure it's a big, bigproject.
An event last year calledDesert Days and I'm actually
going to be bringing it back in2026 in the spring as a whole
(16:31):
new format of video competitionthat's open to anybody that
wants to try.
So I'm excited to create that.
Kristen (16:38):
What is the format of that?
How does that work?
Chelsea (16:41):
So I'm hoping to make it in conjunction with another
local event and it'll be prettymuch anybody can come out to
southern Utah and film for fourdays.
It'll be four specific days.
They'll have two days to editand then we'll judge on the
(17:12):
third day and then we'll showthe videos at this local event
and announce the winners on thelast day and there will be
categories for both men andwomen, with awards like Best
Line, best Overall Video, mostCreative and different things
like that.
So riders, photographers andvideographers can all be in
contention to win like $1,000per prize and then just joining
this free ride type ofcompetition with a real local
(17:33):
mountain bike festival I thinkis an awesome way to grow the
community, because not everybodyknows about free ride.
Kristen (17:42):
Who do you look up to?
Chelsea (17:45):
Let's see A lot of people Um, there's a lot of, uh,
I guess.
One example, uh, david Godziak.
Uh, I had the privilege ofwriting at him and Shimon's
house in Poland and, uh, he's anincredible writer.
He does so much and also runs abusiness like renting out
(18:08):
machines at the same time, andit's just like it's impressive
seeing athletes like him thatalso do other things to like
kind of prepare for the future.
So that was super cool.
Matt McDuff right now is makinga huge big air compound up in
(18:33):
Kamloops.
That is just like his passionand dream.
And then I just have so manyfriends that have made decisions
in their life that setthemselves up for success but
also just enjoying the processof whatever success is to them,
and I really look up to that forsure.
Kristen (18:50):
Yeah, what is your training look like?
Chelsea (18:55):
Let's see I'm coming leading up to rampage.
I was really committed togetting better backflips all
summer, so anytime I had theopportunity on a safe jump, I
did as many flips as I could.
Um, while I've been down herein Virgin, uh, yeah, just doing
shuttles and riding steeps,hiking up and doing different
(19:18):
drops and jumps.
Just, uh, getting repetition ondoing different tricks.
Um, just trying to be asprecise as possible.
And then also at night, beforeI go to bed, just practicing,
visualizing different features,practicing visualizing different
(19:38):
features, and I'm trying toprepare by visualizing, like
being at the drop-in during thecompetition, just trying to
prepare myself for what thatmight feel like you've mentioned
now I mean multiple times thatyou really enjoy virgin.
Kristen (19:48):
What is it to you like about the desert that speaks to
you as opposed to maybe like PNWriding, or, or elsewhere?
Chelsea (19:56):
Gosh, what is it?
I?
The dirt out here is reallygood.
It can get really dry and dusty, but somehow there's still
traction.
So just the dirt is awesome.
The, the, uh, the feeling oflike being up there on a Ridge,
just totally exposed, is sounique.
There's lots of sunshine.
(20:16):
I love the sunshine.
That turns me away from the PNWa little bit, because I'm
originally from Arizona.
So a lot of rain and I just getsad and want to drink coffee
all day.
Yeah, but yeah also, this placeis just plain beautiful.
Like we have Zion, that you canlook in one direction and see
(20:37):
all the cliffs of Zion and thenyou can look out in the other
direction and see just likerolling, rolling hills of like
solid red rock and then, withthe Pine Valley Mountains like
how tall are they?
Maybe around 10,000 footmountains in the background.
In the winter they get coveredin snow and uh, yeah, I always
(20:58):
just have to pinch myself causeI stop and look around and it's
just beauty in every direction.
Do you trail ride too?
Yes, uh, I love trail riding.
I've realized that if I don'ttrail ride then I get like I I'm
not as happy.
I like trail riding.
Uh, pedaling kind of sucks, butit gets a blood flow in and no
(21:19):
matter what the trail is, I'malways a little happier after I
go on a trail ride.
Kristen (21:23):
What are some of your favorite trails in that area?
Chelsea (21:26):
Uh, this area, I gotta say this area is lacking a
little bit in trail riding.
My favorite thing to pedal isGrafton.
You pedal up this dirt roadcalled Crybaby Hill and then you
can do another loop called WireMesa and then pedal over on
single track to Grafton and geta super fun downhill at the end.
Kristen (21:47):
Yeah, I really like that area too.
What accomplishment are youmost proud of thus far in your
career?
Chelsea (21:55):
It's super awesome that I was able to get Queen of Dark
Fest at the first Dark Festthat women were invited to ride
at, at Freeride Fiesta.
I think I might still be theonly girl that's done a top to
bottom run there.
And then, um, I think, justoverall I'm really happy with
(22:19):
all the uh like relationshipsand people that I've met
throughout the mountain bikingcommunity.
It doesn't really have to dowith my career, but uh, but in
mountain biking I think, uh, weall partially love it because of
the people that we get to ridewith, so that's a big deal to me
when these girls watch rampagein a couple of weeks and see you
out there, what do you wantthem to take away from that?
(22:40):
The smiles, hopefully just a lotof smiles.
Um, hopefully it motivatespeople to get out there and like
try something a little bigger,go off that next biggest drop at
the bike park or something.
Um, but overall like yeah, justjust happiness and in riding
and what we've all been blessedwith for mountain biking.
Kristen (23:03):
What have I not asked you that you would like folks
listening to now?
Chelsea (23:07):
I guess one thing that I I struggle with sometimes is
like progression.
Um, of course, I always want tobe getting better.
I think most people are thatway, like I would guess that
everybody likes hitting newthings and getting better and
seeing progress.
But progression is tough.
You can practice every day andit's it's never going to be,
(23:31):
it's never going to be gettingbetter noticeably every single
day Like, uh, so many times itfeels like I'm getting better
and then I'm just like eitherplateaued or or now I'm not
landing a trick or something.
Uh, so progression isn't justan uphill thing.
It comes, it comes in waves,and uh definitely want people to
(23:56):
just like stay committed towhat they're trying to do and
push past it, because you willcome out the other side.
You will get better.
If you practice, you're goingto get better.
It just might take a while.
Kristen (24:10):
I've got three final questions for you, but first, do
you have any sponsors you'dlike to give a shout out to?
And also, where can people comefind you online and follow
along with you?
Chelsea (24:20):
All right Sponsors, specialized, has been a huge
sponsor of mine for like four orfive years.
They give me so much and areawesome to work with, so, yeah,
they're a huge sponsor.
And then Pit Viper is alwayssuper supportive of everything
(24:43):
I'm trying to do.
And Reverse Components, a smallGerman company.
They've definitely been helpingme out for a long time,
definitely been helping me outfor a long time.
And then TRP uh, I've I lovetheir breaks.
I've pretty everybody I've methas uh, so they helped me out as
well.
And yeah, that's uh most of mysponsors.
And then, uh, for social media,I'm mostly just on Instagram.
(25:08):
Uh, my Instagram is Chelseasends it all one word, uh, and I
have a YouTube but there's notreally anything on there.
So maybe after rampage, therewill be three final questions.
Kristen (25:22):
The first one is what bike or bikes do you ride?
Chelsea (25:26):
Okay, I ride all of the bikes.
Uh, specialized definitely hasme, uh has a whole quiver that I
get to use.
Um, the one I'm going to beriding at rampage is the new
status too.
It uh, as soon as I got on itthe new one in April I was just
like totally hooked.
(25:46):
I love to ride my specializeddemo, my downhill bike, downhill
bike, uh, my Enduro, my stumpjumper Evo and my P3, uh, my
Levo SL.
Like I said, they've, uh,they've really hooked me up with
, with all of them.
But, yeah, ever, ever, sinceApril hit and I got on this
(26:07):
status, it's all I want to rideand it's definitely what I'm
going to ride at rampage.
Kristen (26:11):
Second question for you is where's your favorite place?
You've ever ridden your bikefavorite place?
Chelsea (26:17):
um, yeah, this might be my favorite place, although it
can get a little stressful attimes.
Um, there's so many awesomeplaces in the world to ride.
There's, yeah, so many amazingplaces.
This, this, is probably myfavorite, but if I, if I can
name a few others like ChiangMai, thailand, uh, whistler, of
(26:42):
course, disneyland for bikes.
Actually, flagstaff, arizona,has some awesome trails,
bellingham does.
The east coast has a lot ofawesome bike parks.
Um, yeah, queenstown.
I could go on forever.
There's so many cool spots.
Kristen (26:58):
Final question for you is what is your favorite thing
about riding your bike?
Chelsea (27:02):
Yeah, I think my favorite part of it is just
riding a fun trail with friends.
It doesn't have to be gnarly,just like some sort of fun
descent, and yeah, that'sprobably my favorite thing.
Kristen (27:18):
I'd love to ask you a favor.
If you enjoyed this episode,can you please go ahead and
share it?
You can do that by sharing iton your Instagram stories or
just letting a friend know aboutit.
The more that you help us getthe word out, a friend know
about it, the more that you helpus get the word out, the more
women we reach, the betterquality of guests we get on the
(27:42):
show.
So it's a team effort and Ireally, really appreciate you.
Until next time, happy writing.
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