Femme Cyclist Podcast

Celebrating Women In The Red Bull Rampage With Pro Rider Chelsea Kimball

• Kristen Bonkoski

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Women are headed to Red Bull Rampage for the very first time! To celebrate this huge milestone, I sat down with Chelsea Kimball (who will be competing) to discuss what this opportunity means to her.

We chat about how she's been preparing, what success at Rampage would look like for her, and what comes next. 

While most of us will never chuck ourselves off a cliff like she is, Chelsea manages not only to be awe-inspiring but also totally relatable to those of us mere mortals. She shares some tips on how to deal with fear, and how to progress our technical riding.

👉 Full show notes: https://femmecyclist.com/chelsea-kimball-interview

🔥 Get 50% off all Femme Cyclist training plans with coupon code PODCAST 50 https://shop.femmecyclist.com/product-category/training-plans/

Connect With Chelsea

👉 Instagram: @chelseasendsit




Support the show

👉Instagram: @femme_cyclist
👉Website: https://femmecyclist.com

Kristen:

Women are headed to Red Bull Rampage for the very first time. To celebrate this huge milestone, I sat down with Chelsea Kimball, who will be competing, to discuss what this opportunity means to her. We chat about how she's been preparing, what success at Rampage would look like for her and what comes next. Well, most of us will never chuck ourselves off a cliff like she is. Well, most of us will never chuck ourselves off a cliff like she is. Chelsea manages not only to be awe-inspiring, but also totally relatable to those of us mere mortals. She shares some tips on how to deal with fear and how to progress our technical riding. That's coming right up Real quick.

Kristen:

Before we jump into today's episode, I want to tell you about the training plans I've created for you all. Whether you're looking to get a little fitter or faster, or you have a big event or race you need to prepare for, a structured training plan can help you achieve your goals. I have a variety of pre-made training plans you can choose from, or I can build you a custom training plan specific to your needs. Podcast listeners get 50% off with coupon code PODCAST50. Head to femcyclistcom to get started today. Chelsea, you've got Rampage coming up here in just a couple of weeks. What is going to Rampage mean to you?

Chelsea:

Rampage for me has always been, I think, a little different than a lot of people see it, because I've never looked at Rampage as just the competition. I've always come out here like two weeks before the competition to ride with my friends and just like meet everybody else that has traveled here from around the world just to ride. Um. So rampage, at least in my life, has always been much more than a competition. It's been like a whole festival where you meet people and just like have camaraderie and a good time. Um. So this year, uh, being in rampage it's definitely a whole different, uh, whole different ball game. Yeah, um, I guess it's. It's the same in the respect of, like, I'm still here before the competition just riding, but, uh, there's definitely a little more. I feel more pressure on myself and I feel like I have to be more, uh, strategic in what I'm riding and uh, just because I want to stay healthy and get to the competition. Yeah, but, yeah, just dropping into Rampage for the first time that women are competing is so exciting.

Kristen:

Yeah, do you feel some pressure with that too, knowing that you are one of the first women to get to compete?

Chelsea:

I mean, I don't think that's for me, that's not pressure, that's any different than just competing. I just want to go there and like, have a good, solid run and and celebrate with everybody after we all do it, because it's so think and cool what are you doing right now to prepare?

Chelsea:

um, I've been riding, uh, riding every day as much as I can and just like riding different features, riding some steeps, doing drops and working on tricks, and just trying to stay loose and like comfy on the bike, but at the same time, not like wearing myself out because we got a big week start starting on Monday. Who do you have coming to help you? So I have three friends. One, her name is CJ Uh, she's been my friend for so long. She's actually the one that got me into mountain biking. Um, so she knows my riding style and everything super well, uh.

Chelsea:

And then the other one is Ryan Rodriguez. Uh, I, he's also been my friend for so long, we've written so much together and he himself is an incredible rider with lots of experience uh, out here digging and riding. And then the last one, uh, is Eric Duncan, another friend, that also an incredible rider, lots of experience digging, and, uh, they're they're all like so talented in speed judgment and riding themselves that I know we're going to build an awesome line and and hit everything and it'll be great uh, you mentioned your friend that got you into mountain biking.

Kristen:

Let's rewind for a moment and go back to that how did you get into mountain biking and what is kind of your story of progression towards becoming a professional mountain biker, Ben?

Chelsea:

Yeah, I got into mountain biking because of CJ. She was my climbing partner. I was a rock climber mostly like sport and trad climbing and she was looking for a job, ended up getting a job at a bike shop and she got fully addicted right away. So this meant that I lost my climbing partner and if I wanted to hang out with her, I had to ride bikes. So, uh, reluctantly, I enjoyed mountain biking on my first ride but, uh, I really wanted to focus more on climbing. Uh, probably until about 2016. Uh, yeah, just climbed more. I was really into big alpine routes.

Chelsea:

I attempted to climb El Capitan in Yosemite and, uh, after 2016, I started racing a little bit and kind of got hooked into that and just, I am a little competitive, so it was fun, uh, meeting people and going to the races, and then it just kind of progressed from there. I did more races and then rode more bike parks and hit more jumps. Then I came out here for the first time and after that, in 2017, I was like this, this place, virgin, utah. The writing here, just like. It was like a like. Immediately I fell in love with it.

Kristen:

Was it always gravity riding for you?

Chelsea:

I started out trail riding in Big Bear, california. When I first started, there was a lot of cross country. Everybody I rode with was cross country racers or road racers, so we always pedaled up, but I always liked the downhill more. Okay, yep, so then after that mostly downhill racing and then some Enduro racing.

Kristen:

What is it about the gravity running that you like?

Chelsea:

It's just more fun. Going uphill there's like it can be challenging and you can find a pleasure and excitement and like doing something new, but uh, it's a lot more effort, whereas riding downhill can be just plain fun with like not much effort, not much risk, just plain old fun.

Kristen:

Going back to Rampage. What does success look like there for you?

Chelsea:

Ooh at Rampage. Success, yeah. Success, I think to me is building a line top to bottom that I'm happy with, meaning like the features. I didn't make too small, I didn't go too big to where I didn't want to hit the features. So just like make a line that I'm like happy with and proud to show people, and just like get a clean run top to bottom.

Kristen:

Does it, does it feel scary to you?

Chelsea:

Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah, I get moments throughout the day where I'm like, oh yeah, in a week or so I'm going to be standing at this start gate and they're going to be counting down and saying my name. Oh, it's crazy. How do you deal with that fear? Many different ways. I have trouble a lot of times, like I've definitely backed down from features that I know I'm capable of, because whatever inside of me is telling me don't do it, whether it's the risk or just plain fear of crashing or whatever. But to get past that, I have a lot of different methods, whether it's breathing or visualization, or going to hit a feature that's similar but a little smaller, just so I have a little bit of, like, immediate confidence burst before going for a bigger feature. Um, they all kind of help, uh, as well as like seeing somebody do it in front of you, in front of me, helped a lot. So there's there's a lot of different methods.

Kristen:

What kind of advice do you have for women listening, most of whom who are mountain bikers, are most likely cross country mountain bikers. What kind of advice do you have for them to try like riskier riding?

Chelsea:

like riskier writing, I'd say that you can try the same moves we're doing on big drops Like technically it's the exact same thing as hopping off of a curb Like you can do. You can do the same movements in a pretty much risk-free locations. So I'd say, just like doing your best to find those places to practice can help a lot. And then when it comes to gaps, I know, even for me, like if I see a jump with a gap right next to a tabletop of the same size, I'm way more afraid of the gap, cause it's scary. Yeah. But like just finding little trail gaps, like one rock to another rock or or even going somewhere and digging a hole and jumping over it, like any little thing helps the more practice you can get, do it. And if you, if you want to do it, then really commit to it. Like trying something once isn't gonna make it easier. It only gets easier when you try it over and over and over and over.

Kristen:

That's really good advice. Thank you For all of the ladies going to Rampage. What is the community like there? Are you friends with the other ladies?

Chelsea:

What is the community like there, are you friends with the other ladies? Yeah, we're all. We're all friends. I've actually I've been riding with quite a few of the ladies so far. I think now everybody is in town for the girls, the guys too. We're. We're really all friends. We all go to the same events there's. I don't think any of us are super competitive, uh, to especially. None of us are competitive to the point of, like, getting in fights over anything. Uh, cause we're all doing it, cause we love it and working towards a common goal.

Kristen:

So we definitely ride together and we're all friends and it's yeah, it's. It's pretty cool how how everybody treats each other. Do you feel like the mentality of competition is different than racing? The mentality of like jump competition yeah, like uh, where you're not racing based on time. Right, this is, or maybe it is the same.

Chelsea:

I think, at least for rampage, the risk is a lot higher. Um, so, as far as just like danger and risk of serious injury, I think, I think rampage is much different than any other event. But other than that I think, uh, with like World Cup racing, those racers are going so fast. If they take one little bit of a wrong line, then they're, they could easily crash, and then it's like they're there to race so they want to push themselves to go faster, and every line perfectly. So I think the competition aspect and just pushing yourself to do things is is very, very similar.

Kristen:

How does your family feel about you doing this?

Chelsea:

Uh, my family's so supportive. Uh, my grandparents don't understand at all, Um, but uh, yeah, they've. Uh, they've definitely asked like why I don't do something more productive with my life. But, uh, they they mean well, uh, but of course our grandparents generation didn't have mountain biking to know the pleasures of it. So, uh, but my dad is super supportive. He often I'll tell him I didn't do something or he'll just be like, oh, why didn't you do it? Like you're going to do it next time, Right, he's just always encouraging and supporting. Uh, both my parents have always been awesome.

Kristen:

Are they going to be there?

Chelsea:

Yep, yep, they're going to be there. I, I have a brother and his wife have two daughters, and I really, really wish that they could come, but they're pretty far away, so I'm not sure if they could make it happen. But yeah, my dad's definitely going to be there.

Kristen:

Yeah, that'd be really cool. Why do you think that it has taken you so long, or why has it taken so long for women to get into rampage, and what was sort of the forcing mechanism to make it happen this year?

Chelsea:

So I see this question in a lot of from a lot of different angles. I see this question in a lot of from a lot of different angles, like logistically, having more competitive, more competitors in an already in an event that's already very constrained by time because of weather, with wind and just logistics for so many people building their own line down a mountain. It's really difficult to add a whole nother field of competitors to an already full competition. So I know that is one reason. Logistically it's really difficult. Another reason is, like it's the question have have there been enough women to make a full category and have a good, proper competition before, or is it just now that there's, that there's enough women? The other side to that is if they made the category a long time ago, would there be way more women right now?

Chelsea:

And we don't know the chicken or the egg, we don't know. But I'm definitely happy that it is now and I think there were a lot of forces behind this. All of the rallying last year that I saw on the Internet of of like why aren't the women here? Was pretty incredible. I had no idea that anything like that was going to happen and I think it had a massive effect.

Kristen:

Yeah, what do you think the next steps are for women's free ride?

Chelsea:

Women's free ride. I think it's a question for free ride in general. Rampage is the highest level of our sport and it's been that way for men for a long time, so maybe it's a better question is what is the next step for free ride? And I hope, uh, I hope it it turns into like more people, creating more competitions of different sorts all over the world, because the the more variety we have, uh for elite athletes to compete, compete it's only going to grow our sport.

Kristen:

What's your favorite competition? You've done.

Chelsea:

Let's see it might be a race. I do a lot of events called like fest events. They're big jump events but they're not competitions and my favorite of that category is Dark fest, just because the jumps. The jumps are just the best in the world, like there's in my mind. There's no question about it. But for a competition, uh, I've raced this uh enduro race in thailand called the international chiang mai enduro. I was there two different years before coven happened and it was canceled and just the community out there in Thailand was so awesome and the race was done really well and just the trails and the community yeah, we're over the top fun.

Kristen:

What are your goals going forward, like five-year goals.

Chelsea:

Let's see Five-year goals.

Kristen:

I need to think about this more, whatever time frame you.

Chelsea:

Let's see right. I actually just this year purchased property with the help of my dad, um, I got like six and a half acres of land in California and I just plan to develop it for jumps. I want to have I want to have a whole jump line. I have one, I have trick step ups just to improve my own riding as well as host events and I'm really excited to develop that and that's definitely going to take over five years. I'm sure it's a big, big project. An event last year called Desert Days and I'm actually going to be bringing it back in 2026 in the spring as a whole new format of video competition that's open to anybody that wants to try. So I'm excited to create that.

Kristen:

What is the format of that? How does that work?

Chelsea:

So I'm hoping to make it in conjunction with another local event and it'll be pretty much anybody can come out to southern Utah and film for four days. It'll be four specific days. They'll have two days to edit and then we'll judge on the third day and then we'll show the videos at this local event and announce the winners on the last day and there will be categories for both men and women, with awards like Best Line, best Overall Video, most Creative and different things like that. So riders, photographers and videographers can all be in contention to win like $1,000 per prize and then just joining this free ride type of competition with a real local mountain bike festival I think is an awesome way to grow the community, because not everybody knows about free ride.

Kristen:

Who do you look up to?

Chelsea:

Let's see A lot of people Um, there's a lot of, uh, I guess. One example, uh, david Godziak. Uh, I had the privilege of writing at him and Shimon's house in Poland and, uh, he's an incredible writer. He does so much and also runs a business like renting out machines at the same time, and it's just like it's impressive seeing athletes like him that also do other things to like kind of prepare for the future. So that was super cool. Matt McDuff right now is making a huge big air compound up in Kamloops. That is just like his passion and dream. And then I just have so many friends that have made decisions in their life that set themselves up for success but also just enjoying the process of whatever success is to them, and I really look up to that for sure.

Kristen:

Yeah, what is your training look like?

Chelsea:

Let's see I'm coming leading up to rampage. I was really committed to getting better backflips all summer, so anytime I had the opportunity on a safe jump, I did as many flips as I could. Um, while I've been down here in Virgin, uh, yeah, just doing shuttles and riding steeps, hiking up and doing different drops and jumps. Just, uh, getting repetition on doing different tricks. Um, just trying to be as precise as possible. And then also at night, before I go to bed, just practicing, visualizing different features, practicing visualizing different features, and I'm trying to prepare by visualizing, like being at the drop-in during the competition, just trying to prepare myself for what that might feel like you've mentioned now I mean multiple times that you really enjoy virgin.

Kristen:

What is it to you like about the desert that speaks to you as opposed to maybe like PNW riding, or, or elsewhere?

Chelsea:

Gosh, what is it? I? The dirt out here is really good. It can get really dry and dusty, but somehow there's still traction. So just the dirt is awesome.

Chelsea:

The, the, uh, the feeling of like being up there on a Ridge, just totally exposed, is so unique. There's lots of sunshine. I love the sunshine. That turns me away from the PNW a little bit, because I'm originally from Arizona. So a lot of rain and I just get sad and want to drink coffee all day. Yeah, but yeah also, this place is just plain beautiful.

Chelsea:

Like we have Zion, that you can look in one direction and see all the cliffs of Zion and then you can look out in the other direction and see just like rolling, rolling hills of like solid red rock and then, with the Pine Valley Mountains like how tall are they? Maybe around 10,000 foot mountains in the background. In the winter they get covered in snow and uh, yeah, I always just have to pinch myself cause I stop and look around and it's just beauty in every direction. Do you trail ride too? Yes, uh, I love trail riding. I've realized that if I don't trail ride then I get like I I'm not as happy. I like trail riding. Uh, pedaling kind of sucks, but it gets a blood flow in and no matter what the trail is, I'm always a little happier after I go on a trail ride.

Kristen:

What are some of your favorite trails in that area?

Chelsea:

Uh, this area, I gotta say this area is lacking a little bit in trail riding. My favorite thing to pedal is Grafton. You pedal up this dirt road called Crybaby Hill and then you can do another loop called Wire Mesa and then pedal over on single track to Grafton and get a super fun downhill at the end.

Kristen:

Yeah, I really like that area too. What accomplishment are you most proud of thus far in your career?

Chelsea:

It's super awesome that I was able to get Queen of Dark Fest at the first Dark Fest that women were invited to ride at, at Freeride Fiesta. I think I might still be the only girl that's done a top to bottom run there. And then, um, I think, just overall I'm really happy with all the uh like relationships and people that I've met throughout the mountain biking community. It doesn't really have to do with my career, but uh, but in mountain biking I think, uh, we all partially love it because of the people that we get to ride with, so that's a big deal to me when these girls watch rampage in a couple of weeks and see you out there, what do you want them to take away from that?

Chelsea:

The smiles, hopefully just a lot of smiles. Um, hopefully it motivates people to get out there and like try something a little bigger, go off that next biggest drop at the bike park or something. Um, but overall like yeah, just just happiness and in riding and what we've all been blessed with for mountain biking.

Kristen:

What have I not asked you that you would like folks listening to now?

Chelsea:

I guess one thing that I I struggle with sometimes is like progression. Um, of course, I always want to be getting better. I think most people are that way, like I would guess that everybody likes hitting new things and getting better and seeing progress. But progression is tough. You can practice every day and it's it's never going to be, it's never going to be getting better noticeably every single day Like, uh, so many times it feels like I'm getting better and then I'm just like either plateaued or or now I'm not landing a trick or something. Uh, so progression isn't just an uphill thing. It comes, it comes in waves, and uh definitely want people to just like stay committed to what they're trying to do and push past it, because you will come out the other side. You will get better. If you practice, you're going to get better. It just might take a while.

Kristen:

I've got three final questions for you, but first, do you have any sponsors you'd like to give a shout out to? And also, where can people come find you online and follow along with you?

Chelsea:

All right Sponsors, specialized, has been a huge sponsor of mine for like four or five years. They give me so much and are awesome to work with, so, yeah, they're a huge sponsor. And then Pit Viper is always super supportive of everything I'm trying to do. And Reverse Components, a small German company. They've definitely been helping me out for a long time, definitely been helping me out for a long time. And then TRP uh, I've I love their breaks. I've pretty everybody I've met has uh, so they helped me out as well. And yeah, that's uh most of my sponsors. And then, uh, for social media, I'm mostly just on Instagram. Uh, my Instagram is Chelsea sends it all one word, uh, and I have a YouTube but there's not really anything on there. So maybe after rampage, there will be three final questions.

Kristen:

The first one is what bike or bikes do you ride?

Chelsea:

Okay, I ride all of the bikes. Uh, specialized definitely has me, uh has a whole quiver that I get to use. Um, the one I'm going to be riding at rampage is the new status too. It uh, as soon as I got on it the new one in April I was just like totally hooked. I love to ride my specialized demo, my downhill bike, downhill bike, uh, my Enduro, my stump jumper Evo and my P3, uh, my Levo SL. Like I said, they've, uh, they've really hooked me up with, with all of them. But, yeah, ever, ever, since April hit and I got on this status, it's all I want to ride and it's definitely what I'm going to ride at rampage.

Kristen:

Second question for you is where's your favorite place? You've ever ridden your bike favorite place?

Chelsea:

um, yeah, this might be my favorite place, although it can get a little stressful at times. Um, there's so many awesome places in the world to ride. There's, yeah, so many amazing places. This, this, is probably my favorite, but if I, if I can name a few others like Chiang Mai, thailand, uh, whistler, of course, disneyland for bikes. Actually, flagstaff, arizona, has some awesome trails, bellingham does. The east coast has a lot of awesome bike parks. Um, yeah, queenstown. I could go on forever. There's so many cool spots.

Kristen:

Final question for you is what is your favorite thing about riding your bike?

Chelsea:

Yeah, I think my favorite part of it is just riding a fun trail with friends. It doesn't have to be gnarly, just like some sort of fun descent, and yeah, that's probably my favorite thing.

Kristen:

I'd love to ask you a favor. If you enjoyed this episode, can you please go ahead and share it? You can do that by sharing it on your Instagram stories or just letting a friend know about it. The more that you help us get the word out, a friend know about it, the more that you help us get the word out, the more women we reach, the better quality of guests we get on the show. So it's a team effort and I really, really appreciate you. Until next time, happy writing.