If you haven’t already noticed, I love my winter riding. And the northwest. And my friends. And projects. Well here is another little edit for y’all.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Galbraith-Winters-With-Jill-Kintner-Katie-Holden-video-2013.html

The bike world lost a legend today. :( A young one, but a legend nonetheless. He is going to be missed by a lot of people!!!! So sad.

Photo: Canadian Cyclist

Ahhhhh I love being back in BC. I have missed it and everyone here so much. I am not quite in snow mode yet (even with the massive dump of snow in Whistler this past week)…so I have been doing lots of fun, wet rides with my friends. I spent a few days in Vancouver, some time in Whistler, some time in Squamish and now I am out on the Sunshine Coast. I will be here for another week and then I am headed back to Washington for a little photo mission. :)

I have traveled to Jamaica the past 2 years for the Jamaican Fat Tyre Festival. I feel like I talk about Jamaica way too much? Maybe I do. haha. Anyway, when I went to Jamaica for the first time two years ago I found out that they were getting the first BMX track in the Caribbean and I thought that was so cool. Basically USA Cycling put out a call for proposal from Caribbean countries and Jamaica won. By winning, they got a course designer, builder and a start gate and in return they had to lease the land, get the dirt, equipment etc. This all cool and everything but there was one minor problem….no bikes. Jamaicans love their bikes A LOT. But riding those bikes on a BMX track is not a good idea for many reasons. Sooo 2 years ago a submitted a proposal to Specialized’s First Gear program to get some bikes to Jamaica and it was accepted!!! So fast forward to present time….it has all come together. The track, the materials, the bikes, the grand opening celebration. SOOO COOL. I wouldn’t miss it for the world so I made the trek down there to see the track in real life, see all the bikes getting loved and also see a pretty public stoke of many Jamaican government officials.

Oh and its Jamaica so I couldn’t come and not get my shred on right! :)

I just want to thank Specialized for donating bikes and gear, Pro-Tec for helmets, the Oracabessa Foundation + Goldeneye for helping to fund this project Simon Dunne and Jonathan Gosse <- none of this would have happend without this guy!!!!

There is no hiding that Whistler is my very favorite place in the world. There is no other place that makes me happier. There is no where in the world I feel more at home or feel more love than Whistler. I love my friends, the community, the town, the mountains, the park, the passion. I feel love and I love right back. It is a pretty amazing feeling that is hard to describe without sounding like a total cheeseball.

I love NYC. It’s as simple as that. I will pretty much make any excuse to go there. No, it’s not the mountains…it is as far as you can get from my ‘happy place’ but in a totally different way it is another happy place for me. I just love walking around. I love the sights, the sounds, the people, the smells, the bustle. There is always something going on, people are always on their way somewhere. I absolutely love it. I can spend day in and day out just exploring!

So yah, you get the point. I did an event with Rebecca Rusch last fall in NYC. I also ran the NYC Marathon last fall.  I could not spend this much time out east and not come to NYC.

For this trip I partnered up with Bicycle Habitat which is a pretty awesome shop out of Soho. From there we held a free clinic in Cunningham Park in Brooklyn. We had a great turnout and I think everyone learned a thing or two.

NYC has quite a vibrant mountain bike scene. There are a bunch of die hards that work really hard to make sure that everyone can ride a mountain bike in NYC which is pretty cool. Aside from mountain biking, people just love bikes in general. Pretty awesome!

 If you are ever in NYC, do yourself and check out Yonkers, Cunningham and Highbridge Parks. You can find more information on Ride the City. There are more details about the trails and it also helps you to get to the trails via subway. Which I must add was a real experience. I am pretty good on the subways but the subway at rush hour with a bike was a definitely a good life experience. I navigated my way from Jersey City to Brooklyn…3 train changes, a lot of stairs and a mad sprint to the park. Yewwwwwwww. :)

One cool thing that I did while in Vermont was coach the Little Bellas for a day. Little Bellas is an organization developed by the Davison sisters with the goal being ‘to help young women realize their potential through cycling’. They have weekend camps, week-long camps and month long camps…and let me say, the girls love it. They get dropped off every morning and get to spend the day out on the trails, doing yoga and hanging out with all of their friends. These girls are young but they learn fast and there are some real shredders. I had a great time helping the girls to make some small improvements to their riding which made some pretty noticeable differences. It was also so fun to answer a huge array of questions and sign some posters and sweet Camelbak schwag. LOVED THIS!!

The film, Right To Play will be airing this Saturday on ABC, I encourage you all to check it out- It is both motivating and inspirational. Set those recorders now. :)

Our ladies ride day finally happened yesterday and it was a total blast. We had a great group and it was a gorgeous day.  We all parked at the bottom of Wilder Ranch and rode up through Wilder Ranch chatting and snacking on lots of Honey Stingers along the way. To end a rad ride we had Burgers and beer at Burger and everyone got some sweet stuff from Camelbak. Fun times. A huge shout out to Scotts Valley Cycle Sport for hosting the ride, getting more ladies on bikes and filling our hungry bellies. :)

I saw this documentary awhile back and thought you all might enjoy it!

The Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival is growing fast. More people, more sponsors, more legit. Pretty cool to see here in the SC…or Aptos I should say. This is the 3rd year going for the  festival and in addition to the Pumptrack, Dirt Jump and Short Track races/contests, they added a Super Enduro. Overall the festival has a great vibe, really laid back, lots of vendors, lots of food, beer, the Camp of Champions air bag. Fun times.

I have never done a Super Enduro but I decided I ought to have a go at it as it was the first legally sanctioned race in Demonstration Forest and Nisene Marks. The race was capped at 50 because it was the first event of its kind in the area…stackedddd field. Huge step for mountain biking here in Santa Cruz County. Basically the format of the race was three climbing stages, three downhill stages. The climbing stages were not timed per say but you had to finish them in an alloted amount of time. The downhill stages were timed and a combo of those three stages gave you the winner. I was sooo nervous for this race, I mean there was nothing scary on any of the courses but it was more the unknown. Wasn’t sure how to pace myself, didn’t really know where I was going. I seriously had so much fun, it was like a giant group ride with a few timed bits mixed in. When all was said and done it was like 25+ miles and 5000+ feet of climbing. Can’t say I did too well, I really had no idea where I was going and I found it hard to keep speed, get in the right gears or anticipate much but I just went with it. At least I got the first one out of the way and I know what to expect for next time. I think this is something we are going to see a lot more of in the near future. :)

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Soooo we attempted a Women’s Day in Santa Cruz back in March, but the skies decided to let loose for a week straight and we had to cancel. Specialized held a Women’s Day this past weekend…which ELLEN promoted, how cool is that? Well,  I was racing this past weekend so I had to pass on that specific ride. BUT third times a charm right? MAY 12th @ 12pm we are doing a women’s ride at Wilder Ranch in Santa Cruz, CA and I would loveee to see you there. Everyone is welcome…all ages, skill levels, speed, experience! It is just going to be a fun ride for everyone! It will be a great opportunity to ride some fun trails and meet some fun new friends and get some fun schwag. :) It’s going to be FUN.

You can sign up by sending me an email at katie@katieholden.com with May 12th in the subject line.

See you there!

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You in the Bay Area? I’ve got something for you to do this weekend!!! :)

More Mountain Biking Videos

Did you all have a chance to watch the first round of the World Cup in Pietermaritzberg, South Africa? If not, you should. Sooo excited to this season to get started…Yeahhhh

I’m doing/going/seeing:

Coaching for the Santa Cruz Mountains Cycling Team - the NICA team that I am coaching this year

Putting in some elevation for the Specialized/Strava Climbing Challenge

Getting wet and wild in the mud

Newsworthy:

Tracey Hannah wins her first World Cup after a four year hiatus from racing, Junior World Champion Manon Carpenter gets her first elite World Cup podium…and a 2nd at that! Greg Minnaar wins in front of a home town crowd, Gwin 2nd. 16 year old Richie Rude gets 31st at his first World Cup…so proud. :)

Mark those calenders:

Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival
Sea Otter Classic

Just heard this song this weekend, love it…

There are always a million things going on at any given time so in order to streamline things, I have decided to do a regular feature which keeps you in the know. Every Monday you will be able to see where I am and what I am up to for the week, a few things I think are newsworthy, events I am not attending but I think you should know about, stuff you ought to mark on your calenders…and a little tune to get your Monday rolling!

If you have something you would like me to share, tell me, I want to hear from you!

I’m doing/going/seeing:

Attending the Right to Play auction and film screening of ESPN’s Right to Play at the Vogue Theatre in San Francisco. I also have an auction item up so come bid for a good cause.

Starting A Classic Challenge from Specialized. The sufferfest starts this Thursday… :(

Coaching our Santa Cruz Mountains Composite NICA Team at the Central Coast Classic.

Wearing green and hopefully drinking a green beverage for St. Patrick’s Day

Watching World Cup #1 Live on RedBull.TV

Leading a Women’s ride for Specialized’s National Women’s Ride Day at Wilder Ranch in Santa Cruz, CA

Newsworthy:

RedBull is streaming all World Cups Live AND Rob Warner is commentating = YESSSS.
Gwin(ing) won a national round in South Africa this past weekend on the World Cup track with quite a few of the World Cup boys in attendence. Tracey Hannah won it for the ladies…can’t wait to watch her kill it this year!
Matt Scoles and Sarah Atkins won the Oceania Championships in NZ
I got named to the US team today for Pan American Championships!

I can’t but you should:

CCCX race in Monterrey, CA

Mark those calenders:

Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival
Sea Otter Classic
 

Been loving this song…

Photo / Sterling Lorence : Sun Valley, ID