© Chris Milliman/Red Bull

If you’re a mountain bike or cyclocross fan, you’ll know Ellen Noble. The talented American CX pro is known not only for her technical skills, such as being able to ‘bunny-hop’ cyclocross barriers (lifting the front and then back wheel to allow you to ‘hop’ over obstacles), but for being an equality advocate and supporter of aspiring young riders. However, behind the scenes, Ellen, whose career has seen a staggering 21 UCI podiums and multiple national titles, has spent the last two years battling an invisible illness behind the scenes.

As the 24-year-old revealed in an Instagram post earlier this year, in 2018, after she’d enjoyed a successful start to the race season, ‘the lights went out’ on her health and she spent the next two years searching for answers. Eventually, Ellen was diagnosed as having Hashimoto’s, an incurable autoimmune disease related to thyroid function, which has turned her life and racing career on its head. Very kindly, Ellen agreed to chat about her experience in this Q&A, along with her future plans for her coveted Quest cyclocross camp for young women, and what’s making her smile right now (spoiler: it’s dogs).

Regular readers will remember I last interviewed French lawyer Perrine Fages back in 2018 when we chatted about her incredible Arch to Arc world record, which involved running 87 miles from London’s Marble Arch to Dover, swimming the English Channel and then cycling 181 miles to Paris (I know!). Since then, Perrine hasn’t stopped – she took the crown of the BikingMan Ultra 2018 women’s champion, ran the Oman by UTMB ultra, gravel biked the Annapurna route self-supported and last week completed a relay swim of the English Channel in a swimsuit.

In March this year, Perrine joined fellow ultracyclist Steven Le Hyaric in attempting a crossing of Siberia’s frozen Lake Baikal by bike. Their 635km ride, which took place in -30°C temperatures, was cut short due to the unusually snowy conditions (it’s usually ice, not snow) which delayed their journey and risked Perrine missing her flight home for work. To find out more about this and Perrine’s Himalayan cycle adventure, I put some questions to her via email.

Markella Mildenberger was fit and active before a routine surgery went wrong in 2011, affecting her ability to walk and leaving her with chronic pain. Life, as she knew it, changed forever and for the next five years, she watched her world unravel. The turning point came in 2016 when Markella learned that her pain was permanent, and she made the decision to start ‘living life again’.

Three years later, whilst looking for a new challenge, and with no mountain bike experience (but a huge amount of pain just sitting on the saddle), Markella, a mountain bike newbie, signed up for one of the world’s most gruelling multi-day MTB events, the BC Bike Race in British Columbia – 7 days, 300km and 10,000m of elevation along some of the sport’s most technical trails – and made a film of her experience: “It’s Just Like Riding A Bike”.

Ahead of the UK premiere on Monday 16 March, which kicks off a week of adventure, wildlife and environmental films at the annual Four Seasons Film Festival, I caught up Markella via email to hear more about her experience.

© Joe O’Connell-Danes

Given Lou Gibson’s lengthy list of cycling achievements (which include riding the entire Tour de France one day ahead of the pros with the InternationElles, and representing Great Britain at Grand Fondo racing) you’d be forgiven for assuming that she’d been attached to a bike from a very early age. But in actual fact, the events manager got to the age of 31 without having owned one.

Here, Lou tells me how a running injury and the breakdown of her marriage inadvertently kicked off her cycling journey, plus she shares the highs and lows of riding 3460km during last year’s InternationElle’s Tour de France ride for equality.

In the five years since she turned pro, British Ironman triathlete, Laura Siddall’s impressive successes include becoming ETU European long course champion and winning Ironman Australia three times in a row. However, if you follow Laura on social media you’ll know that she’s just as honest about the challenging times she’s faced as she is about celebrating the successes she works hard to enjoy.

Describing 2019 as a ‘mixed year’ (she broke her collarbone in May), the 39-year-old Parcours athlete chats about her training, how she overcomes tough moments out on the course, and why she’ll always feel privileged to do what she does for a living.

In 2007, Maria Leijerstam reached the South Pole by bike, becoming the first person ever to cycle there. Since then, Maria has finished countless expedition adventure races, written a book about her South Pole cycle, run ultras, founded the Burn Series adventure race series and become a mum to two girls who are now two and four.

In two days, after five years out of the circuit, she’s lining up for her first expedition adventure race since having children: an epic 6-day, 700km race across Sweden to the fjords of Norway. I caught up with Maria on the phone a few weeks ago to chat about this, her training, and her incredible Antarctic cycle.

It took Jenny Graham just 124 days to cycle solo and unsupported round the world last year, riding an average of 156 miles a day to cover the 18,000 mile distance. It was a remarkable feat that smashed the existing record by almost three weeks and saw 37-year-old Jenny encounter bears, kangaroos and the kindness of strangers as she navigated her way through 16 countries.

Jenny fills me in on her epic journey around the world by bike below, along with her must-have kit and upcoming plans with The Adventure Syndicate. But if you want to hear more, please go and see her Kendal Mountain Festival Tour talk on 5 April in Penrith.

Photo: Le Col

As 39-year-old distance cyclist Jasmijn Muller prepares to set off tomorrow on her second attempt at the fastest ever cycle from Lands End to John o’ Groats – current record: 52hrs and 45 minutes for the 841-mile ride – here’s part two of our extended Q&A. (You can read part one here). Jasmijn originally planned her second attempt for July, but poor weather meant she had to postpone her start date until now. All being well, she’ll be off tomorrow!

Good luck Jasmijn, we’re all rooting for you! You can follow Jasmijn’s tracker here.

Photo: SportsCam

On the blog today, we’re going all sport psychology with Dr Josephine Perry of Performance in Mind, an age group Ironman triathlete turned sport psychologist who works with everyone from endurance athletes to tennis players in order to give them the mental tools for a winning performance.

Dr Perry chats through some of her own techniques for improving performance during races and training, and reveals how a start line comment during an Ironman triathlon led her to pursue a new career as a sport psychologist.

Earlier this year, former duathlon AG world champion Claire Steels ditched running (and the UK) in favour of riding for cycling team Fusion Velo Performance, as she moved her personal training business to the Spanish cycling haven of Pollença in Mallorca.

Here, the 31-year-old chats through a typical day in her new life in Mallorca, from training clients to bagging some seriously impressive Strava QOMs.