Women who ride: Willow Koerber

I didn’t know a lot about Willow before last week when she took the Bronze medal at XC Worlds. I knew she raced for Gary Fisher, that she lives in Ashville, NC, and rides the trails at Pisgah National Forest often. Having been to slick, rocky, rooty, steep, and river-crossing Pisgah, this explained (for me) why Willow is said to be one of the best technical riders on the women’s Pro XC circuit. The petite Koerber was a gymnast as a younger woman, and doesn’t have the amazing power of, say, Sabine Spitz, but when the course is very technical, she rocks.

And so, my first guess about the course in NZ this year was that it must have been quite a ride! Willow finished ahead of Sabine to snag the final podium spot!

It’s easy to find photos of Willow on gnarly terrain too - here she is in B.C with a downhill rider:

From Willow’s web site, I learned that she likes jumping out of trees and sweeping the floor - truly a lady of many talents.  This is one rider who I would travel a long way to watch on a course.  Meghan! met her at Nationals this year and said she was incredibly nice and very down-to-earth.  And, of course, she got Willow’s autograph for her boyfriend too.

Here’s a video of Heather Irmiger (left) and Willow (right) after Nationals and before heading to Worlds this year. Heather, who won the race at Nationals, finished 10th at worlds.

I think it must be hard to be interviewed after a race like that, but I loved the way these two answered the final question - “did you think you’d be here winning a national championship 10 years ago?” And they both said - YES.