Our little Brevard girl had a fabulous year, finishing with a bronze at the 2010 World Championships in Mont Sainte Anne, Canada. She finished second overall in the World Cup Standings. Those quads you see in her pictures ain’t no joke. She was the highest finishing American out of 720 athletes—37 of them Olympians. She rides her pink bike for Subaru-Trek.
Apparently the last lap was a little heated when she ate dirt on a rocky descent, getting passed by Catharine Pendrel (CAN) and then by Irina Klentieva (RUS) on the next climb. It was enough to tick her off—burning past Pendrel in the last 200 meters for third.
This girl isn’t so fond of crashing, so she rarely does. That said, she also crashed into a Swiss rider on the first descent, slamming into rocks. Ouch. I can’t imagine what it would take to actually take the woman out. It seems that when things get tough, Willow turns into a bulldog.
Everyone is up in arms over the fact that she now rides a 29er hardtail. The wheels are nearly as big as she is considering she’s just 5’2”. Maybe that’s an advantage for someone with short legs? It certainly works for her. Some complain the larger wheels are too bulky for switchbacks, but Willow has proven that it’s just a different way to ride them.
Not only does she break hearts at the finish line, she’s also breaking hearts around the world as a model in the 2011 Cyclopassion calendar. There’s even a video trailer on YouTube of the making of the photo shoot. Surely it papers many a teenage bedroom wall and bike shop break room.
