Team Category: Community

Ana (Asheville, NC) is all about finding joy and connection with others on two wheels. She started bike commuting while going to college in Gainesville, FL, and has dabbled in bike racing, ultra-endurance riding, and bikepacking since then. Her favorite kind of riding, however, is a galavant around town on mixed surfaces to get a pastry or coffee. She fell in love with the way that cycling transformed her experience of the outdoors and the people that surround it. Ana works as a bike mechanic at a community-focused shop called Gravelo Workshop in Asheville, NC and is involved with the local Radical Adventure Riders chapter. She is passionate about the southeast cycling community, long and short adventures on bicycles, and creating space for marginalized folks in the industry. She also loves making food, playing in dirt, and lounging with furry friends.

Ally (she/her, Missoula, Montana) has been tending to her love affair with bikepacking for many years — what started as diving head first into her first big tour down the Baja Divide in 2017 has blossomed into a decade of community organizing and working to make the bike industry a more welcoming, inclusive world. Previously the Art Director of Adventure Cyclist magazine, Ally now works as the Graphic Designer for The League of American Bicyclists. She is a co-founder and organizer of Slow Spokes, a bikepacking club that has hosted workshops, overnights, and community events for gender-expansive and women riders in Missoula since Spring 2024.

Ariel Marlowe is based in Austin, TX and dove headfirst into bikepacking in 2022. He is a co-leader and board member of Black History Bike Ride, a ride leader and safety officer at Bikes or Death, and spends his time collaborating with non profits and other BIPOC organizations around the country to provide leadership and community organizing experience.

Ariel was a 2024 BIPOC Grant recipient who has used his grant to initiate a gear library in Austin, while hosting a range of beginner to intermediate trips locally. A collaborator to the core, he loves sharing his knowledge and experience with others, so that more leaders can be empowered to create spaces for people to learn about and experience bikepacking.

A Latine cyclist who grew up in San Antonio, Texas. Mike is passionate about getting other BIPOC folks on bikes to experience the freedom and community that it brings. Even though Mike is new to the outdoor industry, he has organized community events and Bikepacking trips including co-organizing a BIPOC specific Bikepacking trip in Vermont.

Christy (she/her) grew up in the beautiful southern Indiana town of Bloomington, with small stints in Estes Park, Colorado while her folks worked at a summer camp. She has lived in Colorado most of her adult life, now calling Golden home. Although she took to mountain biking and bikepacking later in life, they were fast friends. With her love of camping and riding her bike, bikepacking was the perfect combo. Since her first bikepacking trip several years ago, she has thoroughly enjoyed a variety of rides, including 9-day trips and local overnights. She spends her days guiding young children at a public Montessori school, encouraging them to find the peace and joy and wonder that she finds in the outdoors.

Susie (she/they, Los Angeles, California) is a designer and artist based in LA. For over a decade, they have been actively organizing within the LA bike scene, with a focus on fostering community for gender-expansive and women riders. Growing up in Idaho sparked Susie’s passion for the outdoors, while attending school in Washington reintroduced her to bikes. Their love for bikepacking emerged from a series of memorable misadventures, igniting a passion for camping by bike that she eagerly shares with others.

In 2021, Susie co-founded Wild Wolf Cycling Collective, where they developed a bike campouts program and a gear library aimed at making overnight bike trips more accessible for first timers.

In 2022 she led monthly trips for the collective and created a zine featuring all 12 routes. Each year, the program and gear library have continued to grow, further expanding opportunities for new bike campers.

Zoey (she/her, Winthrop, WA) developed a strong aversion to biking as a child as she was dragged on a tag-a-long behind her parents on the White Rim and on a variety of other heinous family biking adventures. After swearing off the stuff in her youth, Zoey began a cautious re-exploration of mountain biking as an adult, which unexpectedly turned into a love for two wheeled adventure. Her bikepacking story began with strapping homemade bags to an old school 90’s Fuji Tahoe and heading into the mountains of Idaho. It evolved into strapping much improved homemade bags to the same bike and touring a loop of the Western Wildlands and the Great Divide Mountain Bike routes in 2023. Post loop, Zoey relocated from Salt Lake City to the North-Central region of Washington. She hopes to dive deep into the existing community in her new home, and contribute to the creation and expansion of an open, inclusive group of excited biker people!

Mick (he/him, Big Spring, TX) is co-founder Trail Warrior, a 501c3 non-profit providing guided Veteran expeditions in the form of adventure cycling and bikepacking trips.  “While living near Reno/Tahoe and then Boise for years, I loved to take opportunities to go explore local trails by bike. I personally discovered bikepacking in 2014 and have never looked back. I’m either on a ride, telling stories about the last one, or planning the next one. Sharing the adventure of exploration by bike with those who served our country is a great way to give back.”