Michelle Sinnot
Mountain biker

Accomplishments: Last year I placed top 4 at every Norba National I entered as an expert. This was pretty cool, but my most important personal accomplishment was competing in Japan for a year with 5 Japanese teamates, none of whom spoke english. Aside from the language barrier, I had three major rainy seasons, a whole lotta mud, wierd food, and major heat and humidity to contend with, all while trying to race as a professional athlete! I ended up doing very well there placing top 5 in every race.
Residence: Tahoe City, California
Age: 27

When I am not going huge I am working at a resort in Squaw Valley, saving money to travel, and planning my next big adventure.

Tunes: I like everything but country. Most notably I like Ben Folds Five, Elvis Costello, Liz Fair, Natalie Merchant, Ani DeFranco, Air, Pavement, The Crystal Method, Girls Against Boys, Madonna, and of course having grown up in the 80's I love 80's- New Order, Depeche Mode, Roxy Music, Berlin and the like. Quite an eclectic mix.

My favorite place to shred is of course Tahoe, but I love the roots and mud of the East Coast, namely the trails of North Carolina and West Virginia.

My favorite places to kick back and be mellow are on a rock by a river, on the beach, in a field of wildflowers, or just chilling on a pier by the lake in Tahoe.

At the age of 19 I started mountain biking.

The worst injuries I ever suffered were in Japan. It was during a race and my front wheel washed out as I was hauling ass down a rocky decent. I cheese grated myself over the rocks, splitting open my hip and knee and giving myself a concussion. The worst part was I still had one lap to go and I couldn't communicate to my Japanese teammates what had happened as I came through the feed zone all bloodied and disoriented. So, I finished the race (5th) and then was taken to a Japanese hospital for stitches, which was an experience all in itself! For such a modern country their healthcare is pretty antiquated!

The biggest influence for me in this sport would have to be Julie Furtado. She dominated over everyone for a couple of seasons and she did it all before EPO and other performance enhancing drugs were prominent.

What pisses me off ?
Hikers who give me dirty looks, horses who take big dumps in the middle of the trail, road racers turned mountain bikers, closed singletrack, and anything NORBA.

If I could initiate a change in competitive mountain biking it would be to curb the use of performance enhancing drugs. It would also be to have more technical courses and way more singletrack.

The popularity of the X-games has affected the way I operate in that I pursue snowboarding more aggresively in the winter. Also, it makes me think more about freeriding and doing more technical, steep and gnarly decents in mountain biking instead of focusing on cross-country racing. Because in the X Game mentality, no one gives a crap about cross-country racing!

Issues for newcomers to the sport of mountain biking? If you are going to race, keep it fun. Don't get so serious that you forget why you got into racing in the first place, because you love to ride your bike.

The actions that will affect this sport in positive ways will be land access, having more areas open to bikes, and increased television coverage, allowing our sport to become mainstream and more accepted by people who may otherwise have not understood who and what mountain bikers are.

The negative issues facing mountain bike racing is drug use. The increased use of EPO and other performance enhancing drugs is scary. Especially with mountain biking being an olympic sport, there is so much pressure placed on the athletes to win for their country. I just hate to see mountain biking become corrupted with drugs like road racing is.

What do I see in my future for mountain biking?

I see myself competing less and playing more. I would like to attempt some of the crazy lines you see in the Kranked videos. I want to start pushing more steep and technical decents for women, you see men doing them in these videos and I know women can do them too. I also want to travel and mountain bike all over the world, documenting my journies for Go Huge!

In 5 years I see the sport of mountain biking being way more downhill oriented. I see that event itself becoming an Olympic sport. I would love to see mountain biking as popular as football or basketball, but I think that will take more than 5 years.

If I could relate one idea to the world it would be NONCONFORMITY. It is okay to not slug away at the 9-5, to see the world, and to pursue your passions and your dreams. You only live once so LIVE.