Wow, I love this place. The people, the beauty, the kindness…LOVE. This was my second trip to Jamaica for the Fat Tyre Festival and it certainly won’t be my last. There is something about Jamaica that is intoxicating- yes, we did drink a lot of rum but thats not what I mean. It just has this crazy energy, a youthfullness, it’s bright, it’s colorful, it’s loud, there are a million smells…it makes me happy. All of the things I hate about it make me love it even more…

I honestly don’t know what else I can say about it other than the trails are epic, if I wasn’t riding every day I would 10lbs. heavier with all the delicious food I ate, I met so many great people, my face hurts from smiling for a week straight…

I think I am going to let the pictures do the talking on this one. I do want to give a giant shout out to  Jonathan and Andy for organizing a killer trip, Martin and Norvall, Sanchez and ‘Fifty’ and the boys, the Blue Mountain crew, everyone on the trip…THANK YOU.

Got questions about Jamaica? Want to see more photos? Head on over to my Facebook page.

One more thing…I have a kinda big Jamaica related announcement coming soon…it’s pretty cool. :) Don’t go far.

So on a recent flight to DC, I sat next to a slightly intoxicated guy named Bob who chatted my ear off but kept me laughing much of the flight. He was traveling with a bunch of co-workers (who were also very aware that it was Friday!) who had just spent the week in SF on a business trip and who had all just listened to Timmy O’neil (Patagonia athlete) speak. These guys were totally fired up about everything, including my trip to Jamaica. Anyway, over the course of the flight I got a dissertation about corporate giving and Bob proceeded to give me a $100 bill and told me to pay it forward…(AWESOME!)

I carried around this $100 bill for awhile, waiting for the right person and the right moment…

I chose to pay the $100 forward to a guy named Grant. Grant is a farmer in Jamaica who (along with Andy of the Fat Tyre Festival) has created a seriously awesome downhill track. Grant doesn’t ride bikes, I don’t think he ever has but he uses the trail day in and day out as a walking trail and keeps it awesome for us bikers.

One of my favorite days of my trip was riding his trail down (20+ min) down to a black sand beach where he and his family and friends prepared the best meal in Jamaica. The special thing about this spot is that it is at a remote black sand beach….no buildings, the only way to get there is by boat, biking, hiking or donkey. Grant treated us like family in every sense of the word and for that, I am so thankful.

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I have been trying to wrap my head around what seems like a wave of recent loss and major injuries. Still trying to make sense of it all. Don’t get it.

Just after Christmas my friend Duncan was killed in an avalanche just north of Whistler. Duncan was such a large part of the Whistler community. He was on ski and bike patrol, always volunteering or puting in time doing this or that, he coached…he was always laughing or smiling. I have spent quite a bit of time with Duncan over the years, a lot of which was while we were training with Sasha Gier. I always had him in the corner of my eye trying to match his pace. He was a freaking machine. Just watching him made me push that much harder. It was after that winter of training that I started getting my first big results. I owe part of that to Duncan. I don’t think I will ever be able to pick up a medicine ball again without feeling Duncan’s energy.  No matter how many times I look at his picture, I can’t believe he is gone…

While Sarah Burke was not a personal friend of mine, I feel like her loss has hit me just as hard. I have looked up to her as a female athlete for so long….she was a huge part of the reason I joined the Freestyle Ski Team while I was at CU.  She made me feel like I could do and be successful at anything I put my heart into. While I liked skiing, I loved biking…so thats where my heart really was. :) Not only was she at the top of her sport but she was smart, respected, hard-working and she made huge strides for female atheletes. I think that Sarah’s spirit and drive is going to inspire a whole new generation of girls to go after what they want and fight for what they believe in. Thank you Sarah. :)

Each of these people have inspired me to do what I love…and love every minute of it.

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If an event includes SRAM and Miss Rebecca Rusch, you can count me in! In June I went out to Ashland for a ladies weekends and it was one of the most fun trips ever. We had a great group of female journalists, a beautiful house, delicious food and AWESOME trails. We rode on SRAM 2×10, worked on skills, raced the Avid Chainless Downhill and Super-D, checked out all the new SRAM products and laughed soooo much.

Over Thanksgiving one of my favorite teachers died, the Senor aka Senor Pizzuto. The International Community School (my school for grades 7-12) is a special, special place and I was lucky enough to get to spend 5 days a week with El Senor over the course of 4 years. I can still hear him.

The Senor is a legend- such an awesome fun, loving guy who had such a passion for teaching! The stories, the mannerisms, the one liners will live on forever. I see the Senor every time I hang out with my friends from high school…even some of my bike friends which is pretty crazy to think about. These people have never met the Senor but the one liners and mannerisms have been passed on from me. Strange but very cool. This guy had it. So much charisma!

The last time I saw/talked to the Senor was when I was home back in June, Jack Attack and I were out for a run and we crossed paths with him at an intersection. I had been meaning to calling him and check in on him for a long time because he had been struggling after having a stroke but I missed the chance and he is gone. Make me sad. :( Just another reminder to take the time for the people you care about…you never know.

You will be missed Senor!

Carne y Papas forever! :)

Practices have started up for the NICA team and I am having such a great time with it. We have 11 athletes plus us coaches. Kids range from grades 9-12 and they sure do have a lot of energy! The thing I love most about it is that these kids want to ride downhill, dirt jump, huck everything but downhill isn’t part of the NICA program (yet) so these kids have been getting their pedal on and loving in. They were dying in the beginning but every day they love it more and more. The improvement over the past month has been awesome. They are fitter, stronger and more confident on their bikes and we are only just getting started.

It is pretty cool that these kids can just pedal from/school to singletrack for practice, not a lot of places you can do that. Since the days are short we have also been busting out the night lights which adds another element of fun. Whenever I ride with a light I feel like a kid again…there is something so freaking cool about it. LOVE it. And one more thing…I get to coach with lover boy (aka my boyfriend). Pretty cool to get to share this experience with him!

Check out the article on Pinkbike from my trip to Jamaica last February!

Photos by: Ian Hylands

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After the NYC Marathon I made my way down to Mexico for a little girls R&R with my mom and sis. Love the mother daughter bonding! :)

I was so flattered to be invited to speak at the ROMP Christmas Dinner last week. The people that make up ROMP are awesome…tons of people from all different backgrounds just totally stoked on bikes. They make riding in the Bay Area a reality for many of us…our trails don’t just appear. :) Thank you ROMP!

This was my first real speaking engagement but I would love to do more in the future. It was definetly a bit nerve racking but once I started talking and got into the groove I felt pretty good- I think that is how most things are in life. Starting out is always the hardest…

This is not at all bike related but I think that it is pretty cool nonetheless….

My dad is writing a book right now about Charles W. Woodworth who is my great, great Grandfather. He founded the Entomology department at University of California at Berkley and did some other cool stuff which you can read about here if you like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_W._Woodworth . Anyway my dad has made a few trips over there to visit his old house and do some research at the library.  The current owners recently put the house on the market and sent my dad information about the open house so that he could go spend some more time at the house…which he did. When he arrived the real estate agent told him that a member of the Berkley Historical Society had just been by with a photo album that he had picked up at a flea market 15 years ago that had belonged to Elizabeth Woodworth, Charles Woodworth’s daughter. Basically, this guy who was a member of the Berkley Historical Society had bought it at the flea market because he thought it was cool and 15 years later he got an email (via the Berkley Historical Society) that one of the historical houses was up for sale and he recognized the name from the photo album that he had bought 15 years earlier.

So now we have this new gem! These are pictures that he had never seen before- pictures of the whole Woodworth family out doing family things. There were some members of the family whom my dad had never seen a photo of…and now he has their actual family album.

Sooo cool.

http://www.tarpoffandtalbert.com/listing/images/flyer.pdf

As an up and coming racer, Tara Llannes, was someone that I always looked up to. She was fast, she was fit, she had skills…and she was an all around great ambassador for the sport of mountain biking. She would be right up there for the win in every race and she was also really smart on the business side of things. She was the perfect athlete.

Then one day it all changed…

Tara was competing at a Jeep King of the Mountain race out in Colorado when she crashed landing on her head leaving her paralyzed. That was one of the most humbling moments of my life as a young athlete. I guess up until that point I felt invincible to a certain extent- but no one is invincible. I had always seen Tara as this invincible female athlete who I could only aspire to be as good as one day- and in instant later her life was changed.

Tara has been to hell and back on her road to recovery…the accident happened back in 2007 but every day she works her bum off to be the best person she can be in every way possible. Tara’s life is very different now but by the way that she carries herself every single day…you would never know this horrible thing happened to her. She does not feel sorry for herself and she does not wait around waiting for something to change, she makes change- she is the exact same person with the exact same fire and the exact same drive.  The time has come where she is getting herself back on a bike…it’s got 4 wheels this time but a bike is a bike…and I would love nothing more to see her ripping around again.

The bike is expensive and every donation counts. Please donate here:  http://reg.ccnbikes.com/index.php/event/getting-tara-llanes-back-where-she-belongs-on-dirt

You can find more information about Tara here: http://www.google.com/search?gcx=w&ix=c1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=TARA+LLANES

I must  also add that it is because of Tara I ride/race with a Leatt Brace! My mom bought be one almost immediately after her accident and I have ridden with one ever since…in my personal opinion there is no reason to ride downhill without one. Just a thought there for you… :)

I am really excited to announce that I will be coaching a NICA team for Scotts Valley & San Lorenzo Valley this winter/spring…under the name Santa Cruz Mountains Cycling Team! For those of you not familiar with NICA,  it is a high school league for grades 9-12. Riders practice 3x per week and compete in 6 races as a team throughout the season. The leagure caters to all ability levels…beginners to all the way on up to kids who will make the USA Team. The more the merrier. Everyone is just out there to have fun on bikes. The races are all no more than three hours away so for a lot of the races we will just drive over there the morning of the race…others we will all camp out there. At the end of the races we will all hang out and have a BBQ. Over the course of the season we also have some cool fundraisers and social events planned which is always fun. Plus we are gonna have the raddest kits around. :)

Lucky for me it doesn’t really overlap with my season as the majority of the season takes place in the winter months so i’ve got some time to devote to this!  I started riding bikes in high school and fell in love with it-  it has opened the doors to so many amazing experiences, opportunities and friends so it’s awesome to pass it on. Whether the kids stick with it or not after High School, it’s not up to me…I do think that riding bikes and sports in general are so positive for kids. Sports teach kids how to develop life skills, interact with other people, use their bodies productively….they learn how to take care of themselves by being active, eating well and setting goals. It is just a really positive thing. Bikes, soccer, baseball, basketball, swimming, gymnastics…doesn’t matter….

As of now, we’ve got two main coaches…Andrew Cavaletto, my lovely boyfriend and owner of Scotts Valley Cycle Sport (don’t think he will like being called lovely. ha)  and myself. Managing the team is Steve Simonovich of Santa Cruz Pasta Factory.We have got some great sponsors on board to help cover some of the costs because we all know riding bikes can be expensive…Scotts Valley Cycle Sport, Santa Cruz Pasta Factory, State Farm Insurance, Scotts Valley Market, Specialized, Bell/Easton/Blackburn and Smith.

If you know a kid  (or are a kid reading this!) who lives in Scotts Valley or Felton that is in grades 9-12 that might be interested in this, shoot me an email at katie@katieholden.com and we will chat more!