Q&A

• How did you start Mountain Bike riding? How old were you? I stared racing 4x and downhill at the age of 14. I only started because of a deal that I had with one of my friends, more of a joke and I lost so I started racing and fell in love with it. I started racing BMX at the age of 5 when I followed in my brother’s footsteps. I always wanted to do anything that he did and was a bit of a tomboy who was into every sport I could try.
• Favorite movies: Travis Pastranas 199 Lives, Baseketball and I love all chick flicks.
• Heroes: Pink because she is a tough chick who isn't afraid to be herself. My brother for getting me into the sport. Tara Llanes. She became a paraplegic after a mountain bike accident and is such an inspiration and a fighter.
• If you were not a pro mountain bike rider, you would be? A fighter jet pilot would be awesome. I love anything extreme but I believe in destiny and that I was always meant to be riding my bike. I cannot picture myself doing anything different.
• What is the biggest obstacle you have faced? The 2003 Canberra bush fires when my home got burnt down. This was a hard obstacle to overcome as we literally only escaped with the clothes on our back and our race bikes which helped my family keep focused and have something to strive for. Another big obstacle I had to overcome was in 2006 when I had an allergic reaction to antibiotics and went into renal failure. I had to have a lot of time off my bike and came very close to going into cardiac arrest.
• What is the best advice you've heard? Be yourself because everyone else is taken.
• What is the best advice you've heard on improving in your sport? Train hard, race easy.
• Where is your favorite place to ride? Whistler, Canada. I have been there 2 years in a row and fell in love with the place. The riding is fantastic for downhill, 4x and trails and it has such a chilled out lifestyle there. It is definitely my favorite place in the world.
• At this level, what is something unique that you do in your training to improve your riding? I think one that that I do different to the rest of the girls on both the BMX and Mountain bike international circuit is I compete in 2 separate cycling disciplines. I use the training in both sports to complement each other. For example, I practice my gate starts for mountain biking on my BMX bike so that I am more efficient on my mountain bike. I practice bike jumps for BMX on my mountain bike to give me that extra bit of confidence and a little more room for error. Skills training for 4x doing rock gardens, drops/logs etc compliments and helps my skills and bike handling on my BMX.
• Do you have any other special talents? I came 2nd in my state at a Golf tournament and I love sewing, I did textiles all through school and made quilts/clothes etc. Also I love everything to do with design, art and craft. I run my own website, use Photoshop/illustrator to make my race reports, sponsorship resumes and design my helmet.
• What are your goals for 2009? I have had a really good 2009 season this year and I have been able to tick off a lot of my goals like becoming 4x World Champion, Australian BMX and 4x champion, Oceania 4x Champion, the overall Australian National Elite Women's series winner, improve my gate start and win my 2nd 4x Mountain bike World Cup. For the rest of the year my goals are to train up hard and get prepared for January 1, 2010 the start of the next year's race calendar and to complete my schooling via correspondence (cert 3 in fitness studies).
• What are your strengths? My major strength would be handling the pressures/expectation of being an elite athlete at international level. I find that I always step up to the plate when I have to and I love big crowds to pump me up.
• What are you working on? Currently my gate starts in BMX are my biggest weakness so my coach, Wade Bootes and I are spending quite a bit of time getting them sorted. Because I am focusing on my major goal of competing for Australia at the London 2012 Olympic Games, I am working on managing my time/training schedules for next year 2010 so that I can defend my 4x World Title and also to be able to compete in some of the 4 World Cups.