♪♪
Mom: Bye Ellie. Ellie: Bye Sometimes you get out of bed
and it's like cold outside and you're running late,
you don't want to bike to school, but you end up getting on your bike anyways.
You're about halfway to school, and you go, you know, I really like riding my bike to school.
It's a good way to start your morning.
I'm Ellie Mitchell and I'm a winter cyclist. I've always lived in Alaska
my whole life, it's kind of like a part of me. And you have to learn how to deal with the
weather, it's one of the biggest things in Alaska. And snow biking is just another
way to deal with the snow. And it's so much fun to be able to go out
and ride your bike even if there's snow outside.
Having my dad biking was always kind of an influence
on me. Dad: I try really hard not to put the pressure
on my children. You know, this is something that I do for fun, and if they want to
do it for fun, that's great too. Ellie: Then at about eight I started really getting into mountain biking.
It just kind of, I kept doing it, and then I got into mountain bike racing.
Dad: We do cyclocross races, mountain bike races,
and I can't really ride with her anymore. Ellie: Sometimes it gets competitive, and you know I'll be in my mind
gotta beat my dad. Dad: No, she's really nice to me so far, haha.
Ellie: And then about a year and a half ago, I got my first snow bike, it was something I'd been wanting,
for a while, because you have so much fun biking and then it snows
and you kind of sit by the window hoping it all will melt enough so that you can go ride
your bike down the street.
Dad: The winter cycling, it's still a learning curve, it's kind of steep
you know to go out and do an adventure race, you know to do a 50k race.
Ellie: They don't make a junior division,
because there's only a few of us. So you do have to learn how to race with
the adults, and it's intimidating but it also encourages you
to push yourself that much harder. Announcer: About three minutes to the start.
Kim: In order to race if you're under 18, we meet as a board
and we decide if you really are capable of doing it. We don't want anybody hurt
or scarred for life. So, when we sat down and Al and Ellie
applied, we're like - well of course - and we said are you going to ride with her? Because really that makes a difference,
we don't want a 13-year-old that maybe is a little scared or nervous out there.
And he said I don't think I'll be able to keep up but I'm gonna try.
Announcer: Five, four, three, two, one, go!
Dad: You kinda get addicted
to these adventure races. Ellie: Most of it is mental, you have to keep telling yourself
that it's gonna be hard because if you tell yourself that it's gonna be easy
then you're setting your expectations too high.
They're always gonna be challenging, and you kind of just,
you have to keep reminding yourself that each pedal is getting you further.
And that eventually you're gonna reach the end, but you just have to take it one step at a time.
Dad: It's a really neat community. You need to be at the checkpoint at mile 80
of a 100 mile race just to experience how great, you know, people are.
Congratulations you guys! Come on girl!
Yeah girl! C'mon, yeah! [CHEERING]
Woo! Ellie: So it's really nice
because all the adults out there are very supportive of the juniors, which is really nice.
Adult: You are riding super good! Dad: It's just a
really fun group of people. Adult: Were you able to keep up Al?
Ellie: So I really hope to continue cycling.
I want to join the college team, and just be able to
ride and have a blast doing it. And if I can get to a high competitive level
then I'd like to do so. But I also just want to have a lot of fun
biking because that's what it's kind of all about. ♪♪