For as long as I can remember, I’ve been riding bikes.  My brother has built bike jumps and features all over our back yard.  My mom says that he ruins her flowerbeds, but that’s where I and our neighborhood friends started getting our bike skills.  My family goes mountain biking most weekends in the spring, summer and fall, and during the summer I race at Catamount Family Center in the Wednesday night mountain bike races.  This fall I started racing in the Wednesday night Cyclocross Races at Catamount, and my dad took me to several races in Maine and Massachusetts.

I started doing the day camps with Little Bellas when I was 10 and this past summer I did the sleepover camp at Hosmer Point.  It was awesome.  When I ride mountain bikes with my family, we just ride and ride.  But with Little Bellas, we ride and then stop and have a dance party.  It’s the best.  The mentors carry little boom boxes.  I ride a lot with boys, but with Little Bellas, I like how it’s all girls and all fun.

Because Cyclocross Nationals was only a 4-hour drive from my house this year, we decided to go.  My brother trains a lot for his races, but because I’m only 11, I don’t really train.  I rode my last cross race at Ice Weasels in Rhode Island in early December, and then it got cold and started snowing in Vermont, so I started Nordic skiing.  The week before Nats, my brother’s coach said it wouldn’t hurt for me to do a couple rides on the trainer, so I did two 15-minute workouts on Zwift last week.  Then the day before the race, I pre-rode the course.  The night before the race, my dad and I went out for gelato.  On race day, I wore my Little Bellas shirt that has the signature of Lea Davison on it that I got at Camp.  I loved how so many people recognized the shirt and cheered for me.

-Greta, Age 11, Little Bella