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MTB News and Notes: Missy on being Missy
For years she was one of America’s best downhillers — male or female — and one of the sport's most outrageous characters. Missy Giove never had much time for convention; she did things on her terms. Like it or not, she was an out-of-the-closet, in-your-face badass through and through.
Alas, all good runs must come to an end, and the leader in NORBA downhill wins has finally decided to call it a career. Giove may still do a race here or there, but the days of contesting a full NCS or World Cup series are over.
Giove won’t disappear completely, though. She’s signed on as one of the lead spokespersons for Trixter, a manufacturer of indoor trainer bikes, and she also wants to make some headway in the yet-to-take-off world of women’s freeriding. VeloNews caught up with the recently engaged Giove at last weekend’s Sea Otter Classic, and she was her usual effervescent self. Here are some of the highlights from that exclusive interview. Look for more in the next issue of VeloNews.
VeloNews: Now that you’re not racing, how are you keeping busy?
Missy Giove: I’m totally riding every day, totally into the freeriding thing, everything from jumping off cliffs to cross-country, moto, dirt jump, lots of downhill, lots of freeride. It’s all fun and that’s what’s great about it. I tried to push the women’s downhill scene and push that to the forefront. Now I’m trying to do the same thing with women in the freeride scene.
VN: Tell us about Trixter and the X-Bike.
MG: People don’t associate spin with cycling. Even like the top spin trainers look at it as a whole different thing. Well, we’re not just spinning, we’re x-biking. We’re associating indoor biking with mountain biking and road cycling, trying to bring all these people that are just in the gym and get them more involved with something like mountain biking.
This is off the hook, so many people do spin. Kind of like when the mountain bikes had no suspension and then they did, that’s the kind of stuff we’re doing with Trixter and the X-Bike, taking it to a whole other level. We take people who ride indoors and go to classes, and take them on a mountain bike ride.
Let’s face it, mountain biking is hard. People don’t realize how hard it is for the average person. This is a very hard sport. We can get people’s fitness level up for their health, so they can get out and go mountain biking. It can be so hard that it’s not enjoyable. Now it’s enjoyable and they are actually going to go out for a ride with their family and have fun. It gives them a more positive outlook on their mountain bike experience.
VN: Are you really done racing?
MG: I am officially retired – Anne’s doing the full World Cup thing — but I’m not coming back for anything like that. I’m going to show up at the races I want to show up at, but people are just going to have to wait and see. I’m just going to keep people on their toes, make sure they stay trained, stay out of trouble, keep pushing them to be better, because you know what I busted my ass to make women’s downhill racing viable.
VN: Think you’re going to miss the race game?
MG: Not at all. If I had to race, you know me, I could be a tiger, and that’s cool. But I don’t miss it. Now if you told me I could never ride, I’d be scratching and itching. It was never all about the racing for me.
That’s why with Anne, she was a race machine. She was more precise about racing. For me, I just love to ride, that’s why if I blew a corner if I was going too fast, I was just like, hmm, I just scrubbed some speed, but I just pulled off something sick and tried to push my level. If the outcome was second place, I’m happy with that.
You’re always trying to be your best, but it’s so not about racing and it never was for me. There are some people that are so competitive. Brian Lopes just hanging out, man, everything was the Special Olympics, ping pong, lifting weights, he’s so competitive. I’m more free form. That’s why I get the results, but it was always more about the riding.
VN: You had an interesting relationship with Anne-Caroline Chausson over the years. Is it fair to say you didn’t like her at times?
MG: You know I couldn’t have asked for a better competitor, and I liked Anne until we had a couple situations. There were times when I just felt like she was disrespecting the rest of the field.
I remember one race in France at Les Gets. It was super muddy and she crashed and slid down the mountain in the mud in her slippery Vans [shoes]. And I mean we were up to our hubs in mud. My bike got stuck and I had jump off and run.
Anyway, she crashed and slid down this hill and there’s no way in her Vans she could have gotten back up this hill. But you know what, she’s in France and her French people helped her out and carried her back up the hill, and she got back on and won. And the whole thing was on the TV, and nobody did anything about it. But it wasn’t the fact that the UCI gave her the win.
What f--ked it up for me in my head is when I came up to her and said, “Hey, you’re going to thank your French people for helping you today. You know you won because they helped you. You wouldn’t have been able to get your ass up that hill without them.”
But she just looks at me and says, “I crash four times, what were you doing. I won anyway. What, is everyone going slow?”
I said, “You think nobody else f--king crashed. You know what, you need to respect other people. We know you’re ill; we know you’re the bomb. You don’t have to shove it in everyone’s face. And you know what, without me you wouldn’t have anyone to compete against. You should be thankful.”
She should have been like, “Yeah, that was stupid, but whatever.” I wouldn’t have dogged her out because I understand. I know that she had pull. I know that she was riding for Cannondale and they have political power. And I know they’re not going to give her a zero at the first World Cup.
I mean, I was going to punch her out. I told her, “Don’t meet me in a dark alley because I’ll knock you out. And guess what? Don’t think I don’t come from the street because I’ll fight you like a dog.”
For the next few races I just didn’t even want to see her. It was hot for like three races; we were like ready to go. But after a while it was like, “You know what, I love you. We do the same thing. We’re all in this together.”
VN: So where do things stand today?
MG: We’re cool now. I mean you know she’s not that talkative, it’s not like we’re going to hang out. I mean I could have the best time with Anne if I picked her up every day at eight and we rode all day until eight at night and that was it. But outside of that we don’t necessarily have that much in common. But she’s an awesome competitor and I love that about her.
VN: What do you think your legacy will be?
MG: I just always wanted to inspire people not to live their life in fear. You know what you’re only here once and that’s it. You better live it up. People sometimes forget – people have insurance and all these things that are about the future, but what they forget is that you are just who you are and what you have every day. Love who you love, be who you are, 'cause that’s all you have. You come into this world alone and you die alone.
You’ve got to be happy with yourself. If some people don’t like you, well f--k it, not everyone is going to like you. And that’s okay. I don’t need somebody to like me in order to be happy with myself.
