Page 43 - Flathead Living // Spring 2015

ROSE GRANT // 32 // KALISPELL
ROSE GRANT WON A FEW mountain bike races in high school but chalked it up to poor competition. After drifting away from the sport, she picked it up again as an adult and went right back to winning. It occurred to her that the success probably had less to do with the competition than with her. She was just a really good mountain biker.
In 2011, her first year with Kalispell’s Sportsman & Ski Haus Cycling Team, Grant went undefeated in local races, cruised to a Montana state championship, and won two national titles. She turned pro the next year.
With a coach and a structured training plan, she finished sixth at last year’s USA Cycling nationals for cross country and first for marathon, her first national title as a pro. She also competed in her first two Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Cups. It was a quick ride to the top.
“You start climbing the ladder and it’s addicting,” she says. “You continue to go through the open doors. I feel like this is what I’m supposed to be doing.”
While adjusting to the demands of a professional athletic career, Grant has also been adapting to new responsibilities at home. Her daughter, Layla, was born in March 2013. She left her job as a bank teller to fully dedicate herself to being a “Professional Mom Athlete.”
Grant calls her husband, Nelson, her biggest sponsor for enabling her to pursue her cycling dreams while fulfilling her motherly duties. Other relatives help out, too. For a Professional Mom Athlete, it takes a village.
WHAT MOTIVATES YOU
“I FUNCTION BETTER AND I’M HAPPIER WHEN I’M ON MY TRAINING PLAN. I THRIVE OFF IT, REALLY. AND RACING MAKES YOU TRAIN ON A WHOLE OTHER LEVEL. I’M CURIOUS TO SEE WHAT MY POTENTIAL IS. I HAVEN’T FOUND IT.”
Grant is excited for 2015. She’s in her first year racing for the Stan’s NoTubes elite women’s team, which consists of professional female mountain bikers from Vermont to New Mexico to British Columbia.
As the snow melts, she is transitioning away from winter’s cross-training activ- ities, such as backcountry skiing and Nordic skiing, into an exclusively moun- tain biking routine, accompanied by plyo- metrics and strength workouts. She’ll be ready on race day. And so will little Layla, who will be cheering from the sidelines, along with the rest of the village.
STATS
USA Cycling national marathon mountain biking champion in 2014; sixth at cross country nationals; amateur cross country national title in age division; amateur marathon national title; multiple Montana state championships
SPRING 2015 | FLATHEAD LIVING 41