Kaysee Armstrong
When Kaysee Armstrong first discovered mountain biking through friends in the whitewater kayaking community, she thought, “This is a lot less scary than kayaking and I still get to exercise and hang out with friends.” She immediately took all her savings and went and bought a mountain bike. When a friend took her to the trailhead, she was overwhelmed by a rock and a group of roots. Like, “How am I supposed to ride over that?” That day she turned around and went back to the car. Realizing she couldn’t just give up and return the bike, she threw herself at mountain biking full-force–literally. She wrecked a lot, cried, threw a tantrum or two, and sold her kayak. Naturally, she did show improvement. Learning to make it over obstacles gave her a sense of accomplishment that she started craving. “Mountain biking can be as easy or as hard as you want it and there are always new obstacles to conquer.” A former competitive cheerleader, she now brings that competitive spirit to pro XC racing. She’ll join teammate Evelyn Dong focusing on the Singletrack Series this year. When she’s not racing, she’s coaching the Gravity Academy XC National Team, or mentoring Little Bellas to show the next generation of women just how empowering the bike can be.
Evelyn Dong
You can always spot Evelyn Dong at the races with her everlasting smile and laid-back demeanor. Before she became smitten with mountain biking, Evelyn was an elite Nordic skier living in Bend, OR. In the summers, she practiced riding on Bend’s fast and flowy trails, and soon discovered she was a natural. In a relatively short amount of time after her race career began, she showed impressive talent, winning Crusher the Tushar, a grueling gravel race near her hometown of Park City that she attended last-minute on a borrowed bike. Her edge is being able to perform without knowing what’s ahead, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that she loves to climb! She’s continued on in recent years to bring in a 2nd place finish at the 2019 National Championships in Winter Park.When Evelyn isn’t training or racing, she works as a bike mechanic at her local bike shop and rides dirt bikes with her old teammate/roommate and Santa Cruz rider, Keegan Swenson. Evelyn still continues to Nordic and backcountry ski in the winters to help her stay in top riding form. This year Evelyn will join new teammate Kaysee Armstrong with a focus on the Singletrack Series, a new series of XC races that she's helped tie together under one umbrella.