This is Maddy Nutt.  She’s a British gravel bike racer.  And she spoke at last week’s Rouleur Live convention in London.  I was in the front row.

She’s pretty … and that’s nice.  But there’s a world beyond in this woman.  She glowed as she talked, and as she listened to others onstage.

Rouleur magazine wrote an article about Maddy recently:

When people told her that her dream of becoming a professional gravel racer was fanciful, and questioned her choice to wave goodbye to the career she had worked hard for [in finance], Nutt did it anyway.

…

Completing a stacked calendar of gravel events has taken Nutt all over the world – she’s raced in Australia, Mexico and Africa this season alone.  Nutt seems to thrive on tough terrain and come into her own when the limits of her endurance are tested.

Maddy:

“The race started pretty fast and I did crash quite hard, but I immediately got back up and was determined.  I knew my legs were good and I couldn’t lose this opportunity.  I was away with one of the Rwandan riders and on a key climb I knew I could push hard to get a gap, then try to keep everyone out of sight.  I paid for it later because my legs were so wrecked and I ended up getting cramps.  But because I was winning, I was too stubborn to get off the bike.  All I had to do was somehow keep the momentum going and not crash on slippy sand.  It was hard and I was panicking that someone was going to catch me.  I had a few hundred metres to go and I started crying because I was overwhelmed by winning the race, but also in so much pain.”

And here’s another photo … different than the first:

Dirt

Blood

Probably exhaustion

And ice cream

***

Thanks for inspiring me, Maddy