By: Molly Hurford May 27

In the pro MTB scene, the US has the big names: Georgia Gould, Katie Compton, and while she isn’t racing for the US, let’s face it, we’ve got Katerina Nash. The list goes on. These racers consistently finish in the top ten at World Cup races, and land on the podium pretty frequently as well. In the last World Cup, Gould was fourth. And if you didn’t catch on, all of those big names happen to be women. The top US man in the same World Cup race? Somewhere in the low teens. Yet somehow, the women continue to be paid less than the men, and paid less attention, no matter how deserving they are.

While cycling is growing across the board in the US, it seems to be growing fastest among its most ignored demographic: the ladies. After this weekend, I can say with anecdotal certainty that this is a fact. I’ve been staying on a houseboat that boasts multiple-time endurance MTB world champion Rebecca Rusch, pro downhiller Katie Holden, and MTBer Susan Robinson. To say that my talents pale in comparison to theirs is an insult to the shade of pale. These women shred. And lucky for me, they don’t seem to mind me tagging along for this stop on Rebecca’s Gold Rusch Tour.

Gold Rusch is Rebecca Rusch’s brainchild, and combined with Specialized and a bunch of her other awesome sponsors, they’re into their second successful year of MTB promotion. The tour, as Rebecca explained to me, has two main purposes. The first is to get more women into mountain biking overall. To that end, they run clinics for women at these events, and let me tell you: when the first clinic ran yesterday and over thirty women of every shape, size and skill set showed up, the looks on the pros faces were incredible. They were stunned! I was surprised, but not quite as surprised. After all, I’ve been witnessing the growth of women’s cyclocross in the beginner ranks on the East Coast for the past two years, and I know how the scene is changing.

The second part of the tour, and the part I find most exciting, is that Rebecca makes a point of inviting women in the cycling media to tag along, providing housing and transportation, which explains why I’m writing this from a houseboat. As she puts it, none of us are making much money doing this, so if she can help out and get us to these events, that’s great for women in cycling and cycling in general. I love her for this, as both a racer and a journalist. She has a great point, one that I don’t think most people ever think of. The cycling journalism industry is, for the most part, a boy’s club. And that does women a disservice, since the tendency is to spend more time covering the men’s fields and maybe overlooking the women’s field just a teensy bit. Case in point, the World Cup MTB races.

With so much talent and so much dedication in the women’s MTB scene in the US, isn’t it time they got a little bit more credit? I’ve heard it time and time again about women’s racing: people don’t watch it because it’s boring. Well, if you saw Katie Holden bombing a downhill ahead of you on the trail, I’m betting you would stop to take a look.

In the past few months I’ve been thinking a lot about women’s racing and the way it works. I’ve been approached by a lot of women at the highest level in our sport asking if I have any ideas for teams they could ride for next year. Every time a woman asks me that, I’m a little sad. It’s great when I can offer suggestions, but more often than not, I have to admit that the pickings are slim, and if it’s money and a real contract you’re after, you’re going to have to wait in a very long line. The odds of a woman making it as strictly a cyclist are slim to none, emphasis on the none. Pretty much every lady I know works a job to fund a pro career. Even Katie Compton coaches. Mo Bruno Roy does massage, Nicole Duke cuts hair. Yet somehow, it’s our women who are making huge waves in the global world of pro cycling, not the men. Hmm…

But back to DirtFest. I’ve learned a lot about Rebecca in our close quarters as houseboat buddies. For one thing, she cooks a mean stir fry! But for another, despite being World Champion and having a very, very full plate during MTB season, she’s also a firefighter. This lady couldn’t be more badass if she tried. What’s amazing to me is that Rebecca is already set as an athlete. She has a name, a brand, and serious cred as a solid racer. So she doesn’t really need to be pushing for women’s cycling to be coming up in the world. She does it because she truly thinks it’s important, and I couldn’t agree more.

Of course, women’s cycling has always been special; the camaraderie in women’s cycling is unlike anything I’ve ever known. And Gold Rusch is brilliant for one major reason, in my book: mountain biking is an awesome way to introduce any level of cyclist to competitive cycling (second only to cyclocross, but I’m a wee bit biased.) This is because you aren’t racing in a pack like you would on the road, and because most people who already own a bike own a cruiser capable of at least sampling trails, it’s a good “in” for cyclists. It’s especially great because the scene is low key, and as someone who raced road, track and triathlon, I can say it’s a lot less intimidating and the people are a little nicer. There’s a steep learning curve with mountain biking, admittedly, but I’ve noticed that women in general are more comfortable asking questions, making mistakes, and really trying to learn. This is especially true when offered a women-only clinic where no question is a bad one.

I guess the point of this article, and the Gold Rusch tour, is three-fold, but it all boils down to improving the lives of every woman cyclist, from the beginner to the seasoned pro. 1) Introduce MTBing to beginner women; 2) Allow female members of the cycling media the chance to travel and attend some of the big shows; and 3) Point out to the world that there are major names in women’s cycling in the US, and try to build recognition of the pros that spend their lives training, racing and passing on knowledge. I don’t know that Rebecca would call herself a feminist, but I would certainly say that she’s blazing a new path for women pro cyclists. The overarching goal, though, is simple: increase awareness of women’s cycling. Because if we do that, who knows? Maybe someday we’ll see equal pay, equal recognition and equal opportunities for women in every type of cycling.

Time for me to disembark the houseboat and go ride.

By: Molly Hurford May 8

This past week, I decided to do something a bit different with my training. I'd been feeling a bit of cycling fatigue: all of those long, long hours on the bike that I'd mentioned in my last column were starting to wear on me, and frankly, I needed a break from the saddle. So rather than continue with another long week of riding, or give up altogether and take a rest week, I decided to spend some time working on core and flexibility. Sure, I could have hit the gym, or popped in an exercise video. But the chance to test something out and write an article while doing it was too good to pass up, and so I ended up taking advantage of a beginner special at Bikram Yoga in Northampton, Massachusetts. Unlimited 90-minute classes for a week, in a room heated to 105 degrees with a humidifier running the whole time. And since I was still riding, it's not exactly as if it was a rest week. More of an adventure week with deep breathing and a whole lot of sweating.

I'm not the kind of person who's into yoga for the spiritual benefits, if I'm being honest. I'm more about the flexibility and core aspects, so the whole proper breathing/clearing your mind thing really isn't my style. Bikram, however, is a weird combination of the two styles: it's hard -- there's a lot of balance and stretching involved, and the heat ensures that your body is always working -- but it's also very gently flowing, and even I was starting to get on board with the whole "focusing inward" jazz. Still, for me, there were several main benefits, none of which were spiritual.

1. Heat training! Learning to breathe deeply in a room that's 40% humidity and 105 degrees hot is going to be sort of awesome in helping me survive mid-summer races that normally beat me up. It's been making breathing on rides a lot easier too, which I credit to the deep breathing during class, and the fact that no matter how hard a pose is, you're supposed to breathe only through your nose.

2. Flexibility increase: my knees feel a million times better, and my posture got better after just a couple of days. When I'm riding, my back isn't as stiff as it was before, which is a nice bonus.

3. Core/balance: I recently started mountain biking, which is in itself an article for another day. When I started doing yoga and working on the balance poses, I found myself getting through turns faster and correcting to avoid crashes with much more ease than before. I think at least part of this is because I'm learning better balance and control.

4. Sweating all the bad stuff out! There's nothing like working up a good sweat, and this class is awesome. Every time I finish class and rinse off, I feel about a thousand times cleaner and more energized. Sure, I'm also wicked dehydrated, but that just means I drink a whole lot more water. So my system feels a lot cleaner, toxins feel removed, blah blah blah, yoga-speak.

Anyway, don't take my word for it! My yoga instructor for the past week, Audrey Liley, was awesome enough to sit down and answer a few questions for me, since my yoga knowledge isn't exactly all that stellar. I just know that flexible, I ain't.

My first question was, what the heck is Bikram yoga? I didn't realize that it was named after a guy, and I certainly didn't realize that it was a relatively recent development. Audrey told me, "Bikram yoga is a series of 26 postures and two breathing exercise that was developed by Bikram Choudhury. He created this series by putting together the 26 and two that work the entire body in each 90 minute class. The series is the safest way for everyone, no matter the age, fitness level, ability level, size, et cetera, to heal the body inside and out."

Of course, more importantly, I wanted to know if she thought a cyclist would get any benefits from the class. I knew it felt good for me, but I wasn't sure if that was just an individual thing. "There are endless ways that a cyclist could benefit from this yoga. First, the cardiovascular benefits from they yoga. In this class you work your heart and lungs so that they function together as efficiently as possible. Second, yoga opens the joints to allow for smoother movement. Third, this yoga helps to improve focus and concentration.. on and on!"

As a triathlete, I admit that one of Audrey's tips for a first timer really stuck out to me. After all, I spent my first two years of racing wearing a sport bikini rather than a skinsuit or bibs and a jersey, so for me, the class didn't feel too strange. For cyclists used to piling on the layers, especially since winter is just now winding down, it might be a bit daunting, walking into hot yoga for the first time and seeing the state of dress (or undress) that most people are in. But if you do decide to give it a shot, Audrey has a couple of suggestions: "Hydrate well before class. Wear the least amount of clothing you are comfortable wearing. Take as many classes as you can in the first week of practice."

Good thing they offer the beginner special. Audrey is completely right: taking classes every day for that week was extremely helpful, and incredibly gratifying. I found myself making small improvements daily, which was really exciting for me.

Of course, almost more important than her tips for taking class were her recovery tips: "The best recovery post-yoga is water and maybe a nap after the first few classes, although many people feel really re-energized after class. Electrolyte replacement is also recommended."

During every class, I felt like I needed a nap about halfway through. But by the time the class was over, I was usually the first one bouncing off my mat and out of the hot room, excited to get moving on the rest of my day. It definitely woke me up in a way that a hard bike ride never does. That said, usually it woke me up so I wanted to go for a ride and wear myself out, so I was exhausted by the end of the day anyway. The only down side to Bikram is that, while it's great for balance and flexibility, it's not really a huge workout in the way a more fitness-oriented yoga class tends to be. But that's actually perfect with my riding schedule. It's an addition, not a substitution, so it doesn't wear you out for riding later.

My last question for Audrey was about how a super competitive type-A personality cyclist should approach yoga. I know I had a problem with it because, no matter how easy they told me to take it, I still wanted to "beat" the person next to me and "win" each posture. I'm embarrassed to admit how excited I was when the instructors would point out how well I did a move, and how bummed I'd be when they suggested corrections.

Audrey actually laughed about that, and said, "Most people who are drawn to Bikram yoga are super type-a and pretty competitive."

She then explained how they manage to calm it down for those people: "Luckily the words we use and the intensity of the practice generally takes some of that edge off the competitive nature, but that feeling is very normal. I suggest that everyone practice the class like it is their first time, no matter if they have practiced this yoga for years. Bikram himself is a very intense person who started yoga at the age of 5, but also did competitive weight lifting until he suffered a severe knee injury. He left weight lifting and focused on yoga to heal this knee."

Whoa. A weight-lifting yogi? This guy might be my hero.

So moral of the story: if you're looking for a new supplement to spice up your routine, check out a hot yoga, or specifically, a Bikram yoga, class. It might be kind of cool. (Pun intended.)

By: Molly Hurford Apr 4

While I was on Tim Johnson’s Ride on Washington, putting in 530 miles in 5 days in order to raise awareness for Bikes Belong, I became much more interested in cycling advocacy. But, if you’ve read this column before, you might know what a huge nerd I am when it comes to sports nutrition, so when I heard that the ride was going to be supported by the men who wrote The Feed Zone Cookbook, Allen Lim and Biju Thomas, I couldn’t have been more excited. I got the opportunity to sit down with them before breakfast the last morning of the trip and really pick their brains about nutrition and what led them to writing their now famous cookbook. Where I live in Western Massachusetts, their book has become the new bible for racers, who now pound homemade rice cakes on rides, host dinner parties featuring recipes from the cookbook, and spend hefty chunks of time talking nutrition and about the importance of eating real foods, especially bacon.


First, I wanted to know a little bit about how the two came together, and how they ended up writing a cookbook.

Allen Lim gave me a bit of background: “I’m Chinese; I’m from the Philippines; I grew up in LA’s Chinatown and then East LA. I Learned how to run very fast there. Then I eventually went to college and studied exercise physiology. A lot of my original work was based around the use of powermeters, particularly understanding competitive cycling.”


His background explains a lot about both his cooking influences (Asian), and also about how he started caring about the care and feeding of cyclists. But everyone has a story about how they fell in love with cycling, and I wanted to know his.

“It was a little bicycle that I called Snow White. It was a little pink thing with tassels. I found it in my friend’s house and I taught myself how to ride when I was 4 years old by coasting down his driveway with my feet splayed out. I fell in love with bicycling, and from that point on, I found myself riding all over LA. I eventually joined the Boy Scouts, which had nothing to do with getting my ass kicked at all, and eventually got my bicycling merit badge, and with my brother and cousin Shawn, we rode our bikes with the Boy Scouts from LA to San Diego, and learned how to change flats and ride. Then I eventually started bike racing and I’ve been riding ever since. I’d been trying to figure out a way to make cycling a part of my life. My real inspiration was Kevin Costner in the movie American Flyers. I wanted to be Kevin Costner.”

As for his shift to coaching and dealing with professional cyclists, Lim told me, “A lot of the kids I grew up racing with ended up as professionals. I’d always stayed connected. By the time I moved to Boulder, CO, and I was in graduate school, I had already coached at the collegiate level at UC Davis and the University of Colorado. After I finished my Masters, I got picked up by USA Cycling and I was a resident coach at the US Olympic Training Center. That’s when I really started working with more elite level riders. That continued to build upon itself and eventually I started a women’s cycling program, so the first work I did in pro cycling was actually with women. I ran that program for two years and started eventually coaching men in Boulder.”


However, Lim is only half of the dynamic duo of the cycling nutrition world. His co-author, Biju Thomas, is the one responsible for most of the recipes in the cookbook, and it makes sense, since when he and Lim met, Thomas was a chef.

“Biju was good friends with Jonathan Vaughters. So we met through Jonathan and started talking about food. I started having opportunities to go to dinner parties that he was throwing, and his food was fantastic and it was what I was used to, what I ate growing up, since we both have Asian influences, and it just worked out. So when I left Garmin and went on to Radioshack, I brought Biju on to cook for Lance and help me out on the road, and eventually he started cooking for Levi (Leipheimer-Ed.). Then we wrote the book and the rest is history.”

“So did he bring the cooking and you brought the science aspect to it?” I asked.

“I brought the dishwashing aspects to it,” Lim responded, laughing.
Thomas chimed in from the doorway, adding onto Lim’s self-deprecating description: “We spend all our time shopping, driving, and washing dishes. We’re two really, really glorified dishwashers.”

So how did these two “glorified dishwashers” end up writing a top-selling cookbook? Actually, as it turns out, it was more out of practicality than anything else. Lim explained his reasoning:

“It was this kid who rode for Garmin. There was this incident where he had no clue; in Europe for the first time, no idea what to eat, handling nutrition, et cetera. And I realized talking to this guy about fats, carbohydrates, proteins, macronutrients, that kind of stuff, wasn’t going to cut it; I literally had to help this kid go shopping, prepare a couple of meals, teach him some basics about cooking, and I realized that the conversation needed to be much more practical. It needed to be about, ‘hey, here’s what you can make, page 75, the chicken tikka masala, eat it, don’t worry about it, it’s all good, it’s everything that you need.’ So rather than trying to talk the science, we wanted to talk the practice.”


Thomas chimed in here, to explain his motivation: “I was hoping to meet a girl.”
“Let me tell you, Biju did this to enhance his internet dating profile,” Lim told me, poker-faced.

“Yes!”

“That’s the only reason he did it.”

Thomas didn’t stop there: “I kept getting not approved for Eharmony because apparently I don’t have a job. Apparently, I’m unemployable: In bed at 1, up at 4, living out of a truck, 9 months out of the year. Who wants to date this guy?”

“That being said, ladies, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Biju does have this dark, Clooney thing going on.”

“Is it the lights? Is it because I’m old and angry?”

Clearly, the two have become close in those 9 months in the truck.

I asked Lim what his core concepts for food for athletes were, and I admit, I loved the answer:

“The fundamental core of our nutrition concepts is, ‘don’t be a douchebag.’ Eat real food, cook from scratch, take the extra time—because it does take work, and not everything in life is convenient. So we try to keep it simple, and we try to keep it real.”


Since we were on such a long trip, I wanted to know the motivations for how they were cooking for us. To give an idea, we’d have a buffet-style meal ready when we got in from our rides (100-140 miles) each day, and the meals were typically a white rice or pasta with a meat sauce, a salad, and options like yogurt, fruit, bread and bottles of Coke (with natural sugar).

Lim explained to me his rationale: “You needed to replace food, so we gave you food. Calories, calories, calories. Everything that’s bad for you when you’re sitting on your butt all day in front of the computer is good for you when you finish a 140 mile bike ride, so we’re feeding you a lot of white rice, a lot of pasta, really easy, digestible foods. We pair that with some sort of meat dish, salad, vegetables, yogurt, nuts. We’re not shy about the calories, we’re not shy about our use of real fat, and things like olive oil and salt.”

Thomas added on, stressing, “If normal people ate like this, they’d be miserable, heart attacks waiting to happen. But when you’re in the middle of the season, racing and training, you can eat like this. That said, everything was real food, everything was made fresh. We don’t have a freezer for that reason, we also don’t have a microwave.”

OK, so on a different note: what about the riders who are looking to drop weight?
According to Lim, “If a rider wants to lose weight, it’s just about portion size. I don’t think there’s anything about the diet that changes. It’s not about doing anything extraordinary, you don’t have to turn into some weird manorexic, you don’t have to start starving yourself or eating just carrots or apples. You just have to watch your portion size. Don’t skimp on what you have before training and after training, but do watch what you eat in the evening. I hate to say it, but you’re going to bed a little hungry every night. And if you’re going to bed hungry every night, that’s maybe about 500 calories that you’re peeling off your diet, so that’s maybe a pound a week, so you have to be super, super patient. And again, the don’t-be-a-douchebag principle applies.”

One of my last questions was a bit self-serving. I’m not the greatest cook in the world, so I wanted to know if he had any secret tips. Turns out, he did.

“If you suck at cooking, all you need to do is buy one of these things. It’s called a rice cooker, and all you need to do is put rice and water in it, and you need to hit the little button. That’s about as easy as it gets. You gotta have confidence in yourself to turn that stove on!”

Lim didn’t want to just talk about food though. For him, taking on the task of cooking for the Ride on Washington was about more than just taking a job. “Working in bicycle advocacy is exponentially more difficult than working the Pro Tour, for a lot of reasons. There are more of them (events-Ed.), and the schedules are terrible. You start way too early, you ride for way too long, you finish way too late. But the juice is worth the squeeze. The bicycle advocacy and the cause is absolutely more noble than chasing each other around on bicycles. Even though that’s fun, this is more than just trying to show off and try to be the best, it’s about trying to help the world.”