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Milwaukee, WI
Rider: Catherine W.
Road, dirt, or virtual?
Road and Virtual
Favorite course on Zwift:
Three Sisters – I love a good climb or two or three!
Favorite outdoor ride?
Anywhere in Wisconsin’s Driftless Region: lots big climbs, fast downhills and smooth curvy roads with almost no car traffic
How long you have been cycling?
Since I was 4, I spent my childhood on my bike pretty much. Mountain biked in my 20’s and then was consumed by motherhood for the next ten years. In the past four years, my kids are now old enough that I’ve found more time for me once again!
Favorite long ride food?
I keep it simple: MacroBars
What is your most memorable cycling experience?
Trek 100 ride in 2019. I opted for the metric century but plan to ride the imperial one of these years. This was my longest ride ever. A few months before, I started riding on Zwift to manage the stress of juggling a divorce, my kids and my career. My bike and this ride marked my commitment to take care of myself and the ride was a perfect goal for me to strive for. I felt so empowered after that ride and made a decision to continue to build my strength and stamina as an athlete. To this day, cycling both indoors and outdoors is such a critical outlet for me and allows me to take care of me.
Rider: Christina H.
Where do you live?
New Mexico, USA
Road, dirt, or virtual?
Road and Virtual… small amounts of Gravel, I’m just starting it!
Favorite course on Zwift:
Watopia Mountain route, super nostalgic because I remember when they opened it it was this amazing new long super climby ride, and I remember thinking “well we can’t get any more climbing than this! HA”
Favorite outdoor ride?
would either be the Ironhorse route in Durango, my friend’s favorite Cafe Loop in Burlington Vermont, or any local route around where I live where cars are friendly. We’re at 7000 feet where I live, so lots and lots of climbing and beautiful scenery!
How long you have been cycling?
I’ve been riding my bike seriously for about 12 years. I started when my coworkers at my job out of college all rode on the road, and we’d go out during lunch. Then it became my outlet for stress in a ridiculously bad graduate program out in Boston. I’ve been on Zwift for over 5 years! When I joined it was just the watopia little mountain route, oh how it has changed!
Favorite long ride food?
Has to be peanut butter energy balls with chocolate. Yum!
What is your most memorable cycling experience?
I have many, but the one that comes to mind today was the first Ironhorse ride I did, I only did 1/2 of it because I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do all the climbs because they go up to 10,000 feet at the summit! You end before the two biggest climbs, but no one told me that you’d have to climb up the ski hill at purgatory. I remember when the race helpers told me to turn and go up that road, I think I said to them “you have to be kidding me” When we had started the ride it was only 20 degrees F, and I’d already peddled through snow, sleet, sunshine, and up some pretty significant elevation, and then THIS? Even my significant other who met me at the top said he’d thought to himself “well she isn’t going to enjoy THIS development” But, I SURVIVED! The view was BEAUTIFUL! There was HOT CHOCOLATE at the top! I did it all again but the ride in total the next year and cut about an hour off my time to get to that point (Yay training!)! As a ride that was nearly 70% straight up climbing, and not being one of the lightest of riders, it felt so so so good to finish it off and crush it to the end.
Rider: Michelle H.
Where do you live?
Colorado, USA
Road, dirt, or virtual?
Road and Virtual
Favorite course on Zwift:
Greatest London Loop
Favorite outdoor ride?
Silverton, CO to Ouray, CO over Red Mountain Pass
How long you have been cycling?
Ever since I learned to ride my bike when I was a little kid. Some years I have more miles than other years, but no matter what is going on, I always enjoy getting out on the bike.
Favorite long ride food?
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich or banana and peanut butter.
What is your most memorable cycling experience?
There are two. Biking across Nebraska was my first week long, cross-state ride. It was amazing at the finish to know that I made it 500 miles. The second was the day I biked 155 across Indiana. It is amazing what a body can do and I learned a lot about myself that day.
Rider: Stefanie H.
Where do you live?
Minnesota, USA
Road, dirt, or virtual?
Road, gravel, and virtual
Favorite course on Zwift:
Watopia figure 8, it has a little bit of everything
Favorite outdoor ride?
From my house through downtown St Paul, to the Gateway bike trail and out to Marine-on-St Croix and lovely rolling rural roads–woods, farms, lakes, a big river, a cafe–and back to my house. It’s usually about an 80 to 100 mile day.
How long you have been cycling?
Bike commuting on and off since 2008 (the bike commuting is currently on), but didn’t start seriously biking until 2015 when I got a road bike.
Favorite long ride food?
Mashed banana and peanut butter rolled up in a flour tortilla. Also love cinnamon raisin pancakes.
What is your most memorable cycling experience?
Every ride is an adventure, but one that I will never forget is my third attempt to complete the Dirty Benjamin, a 100 mile gravel race. I convinced Megan H. to do it with me and we got lost in the pouring rain because we couldn’t see where we were going and both our Gramins blipped out and my printed off cue sheets had disintegrated in the wet. We finally got back on course only to get caught in a severe thunderstorm about 90 minutes later. We sheltered under an overhang of a storage shed and after 45 minutes without a sign of the weather letting up, we called Megan’s husband for a rescue. I made a fourth attempt to finish the race the following year in 95 degree hot and humid weather and placed something like 93 out of 97 but I finished!