Beyond the Ride: The Sturdy Bitches

Editor’s Note:

Beyond the Ride is our love letter to the people who make mountain biking better. This isn’t a series reserved for sponsored athletes or the folks in power at bike brands (although we’re excited to cover those too). Instead, it’s an open invitation: Do you know someone who’s working to make mountain biking better? Nominate them here. We want to highlight the local ripper, the policy wonk who works with land agencies, the mechanic who saved your race, and the organizer who put it on. This is for the advocates, the storytellers, the builders, and the coaches.

Name, age, current place of residence?

We are Sturdy Bitch Racing: Ady Bee Lane (46), Julie Crittenden (49), Katie Jackson (47), Jessica Mavica (40), and Michelle Brittnacher (38) - all located in the greater Seattle area of Washington State

What do you do? (Specifically related to mountain biking)

We put on awesome mountain bike events for women: the Sturdy Dirty Enduro, the Dirty Downhill, monthly trail building days, and Train 2B Sturdy. We also work with local coaches who offer clinics, creating opportunities to elevate the rider to racer experience. And, on occasion, we race bikes also.

What’s been the bike-related highlight of your year?

Honestly, we think the best is yet to come! We are super excited to celebrate the Sturdy Dirty Enduro’s 10 year anniversary on July 6th at Raging River Mountain Bike Trails. This year we are having the first-ever adaptive race category at the Sturdy Dirty Enduro. We're also stoked to host our first women's downhill race, the Dirty Downhill, that will take place at Dry Hill in Port Angeles in Fall 2024!

If you could leave any impact on mountain biking, what would you like to be remembered for?

We would love to be remembered for creating inclusive, welcoming, and encouraging spaces in mountain biking, having helped pave the way for better representation of women in the sport... and for throwing awesome parties in the woods!

What, outside of mountain biking, makes you excited?

There's an “outside of mountain biking”? Just kidding. Kinda. Ady likes to ski with her family in the winter; Julie takes her boat on awesome adventures and fishes in the Puget Sound; Michelle skis, hikes, paddle boards and travels to beautiful places around the world; Katie dabbles in gravel and CX and loves camping and ski trips with her family; and Jessica forages for culinary mushrooms, does CrossFit, and gets bendy doing yoga.

What are your goals for the next year? (They can be anything from race results to injury recovery, to just trying to ride your bike more)

Our goal for the next year is to keep having the best bike parties that we can wherever we go. We would love to continue to expand MTB racing especially for underrepresented groups and spreading the word that everybody can belong on bikes! After our first year with an adaptive category we are excited to learn more about how we can increase access to adaptive athletes in the future and see our work transition to other events in the area.

What’s the most exciting trend in mountain biking you’re seeing right now (and how can we help it)?

We're excited to see more women breaking into more aspects of mountain biking such as freeride competitions, trail building, and sawing. There's been women in these spaces for years, but recently there's been a larger number of women taking ownership in these areas and it is so inspirational. Representation matters and seeing more women working with saws and trail tools helps demonstrate to other women that they can do these things too.

Ten years ago, we knew nothing about race directing and we figured it out with help from the community. Eight years ago, we knew nothing about trail building, and by putting in the hours we've learned so much, culminating in the Sturdy B Team leading the volunteer effort on Canyon Creek Downhill (CCDH) - Washington's first women-led trail.

What other question do you wish we’d asked?

“What opportunities are there in mountain biking?” There are so many positive things happening right now - we'd like to see the diversity in the sport continue to increase. So, if anything, it would be great to see the idea of "Either/Or" go away and more "Yes/And". And we can all make that change in our own thinking and by being welcoming to anyone in the biking community.

Any sponsors, friends, or family you’d like to thank?

We'd like to thank our families, especially our partners, who put up with us disappearing into event planning mode every year. Our amazing sponsors: evo, Transition, SRAM, Georgetown Brewing, Shredly, Smartwool, Wild Rye, Arc'Teryx, and Dumonde Tech. And, of course, our volunteers and community who help make the races and trail building happen and for being so dang fun!