MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Fall 2017

38 ML BLUE FALL 2017 ML: What’s it like using this region as a training ground? MH: It’s beyond amazing. The Collingwood pool is great and then starting in June we were swimming in the Bay. The Ironman course had 2,000 metres of climbing so being able to climb up and down Scenic Caves Road and tackle the Escarpment climbs was perfect. The roads are amazing—there is just nothing bad about Collingwood, honestly. I also love being able to walk for all of my errands. I’ll walk to the grocery store with my backpack, load it up and haul it all back. I can combine my workouts with my day-to-day stuff. ML : Tell us more about the inspiration for the Shred Girls series and the goals. MH: Shred Girls is centred around three young girls who come together around a love of cycling. Only two of them really know they love cycling; in the first book, Lindsay’s Joy , she’s just realizing it. I keep describing it as a Babysitter’s Club with bikes. It’s the book series that I would have liked to see when I was a kid. I was a super inactive kid and I see tons of girls who don’t really think cycling is cool. The drop-off rate for girls leaving cycling happens in the middle grades. I read Babysitter’s Club and I literally had a babysitters club because I thought it was cool. So if I can get girls reading Shred Girls because it’s an interesting story and the characters are cool, they’ll hopefully realize that riding bikes is fun. That’s the end goal. ML: You had plans to self-publish but now it sounds like the series will hit bookstore shelves with more support. MH: When I first put the idea out back in May, Rodale Books emailed me and asked for a copy. They picked it up and it’s going to be re-released next winter with their resources and illustrations—so it has a chance of reaching a wider audience via bookstores. It will be great to get the books outside of the cycling industry as well. I’ve had a lot of women buying it for nieces and daughters and I’ve heard of a few girls getting bikes because of it. That’s exactly what I’m hoping will happen. It’s a cool way to get new girls into bikes and keep the ones already biking excited. I also have the Shred Girls website where I'm doing bios of real-life girls who are out crushing it on bikes. There are stories and videos and lots of fun stuff for younger girls. It’s like Girls’ Life magazine but with bikes. ML: What kind of response have you seen from the local cycling community? We have a lot of friends in the community with young kids and the response has been huge. I have to hold off until Rodale releases the book next year. The number of young riders who are excited about riding in this region is growing. Canada is so far ahead of the U.S. in that sense. Canadians have some of the best female cyclists in the world; the role models are here. In Ontario, you have Emily Batty—if that’s not going to get a bunch of young girls excited about riding I don’t know what is. ML: What’s next for Molly? MH: I’m coaching a few cyclocross clinics and then I’ll be travelling in Europe with the team I manage, Aspire Racing. In the winter, we’ll go back to California and help with the Ontario Cycling Association junior camps. Next year, I think I might race some short course stuff and try to win the Mind over Matter at Kelso. This might be the year I train to go faster instead of just longer. shred-girls.com , theoutdooredit.com, mollyjhurford.com “I was a super inactive kid and I see tons of girls who don’t really think cycling is cool. The drop-off rate for girls leaving cycling happens in the middle grades…” COURTESY MOLLY HURFORD