flow riders race team
WOMEN OWN THE MOUNTAIN.
The Flow Riders Race Team is the Front Range’s first and only all-women downhill mountain biking team, dedicated to helping riders grow into their strongest, most confident selves through skill development, leadership, collaboration, and a little bit of chaos.
Our vision is to grow women’s downhill mountain biking by building a competitive race team and an inclusive community where riders of all levels progress together—pushing limits, supporting one another, and showing up fearless, driven, and a little feral.
Every ride has a beginning….
Written by Coach Kelsey
The Flow Riders Race Team started in 2024, but the idea started turning five years earlier. Back in 2019, I raced my first downhill race by myself. There weren’t many women racing, and I remember walking around the base the night before races with the registration pulled up on my phone, trying to convince women to sign up for the race. Partly because I wanted more women in my category. But partly because I genuinely wanted more women to race.
That question - “Where are all the women??” - haunted me.
Five years later, I was sitting on a couch at a Boulder Mountainbike Alliance (BMA) Board Retreat with Wendy Sweet, the Executive Director, and asked her what I thought was a ridiculous question. “Can I make a women’s race team through BMA?” I expected at least a few reasons it wouldn’t work. I, for one, had no clue how to deal with liability insurance and create a website. She smiled and said, “Sure.” What felt like days later there was a website, a registration page...and suddenly I had to figure out how to build a race team.
Everything else was built on a hope, a prayer, and absolutely zero experience. I planned a “Get to Know You Ride,” and the weather was absolute crap that day - more than a dozen women still showed up and wanted to know about the team. 19 signed up for the team that year... I had expected four, maybe five. I embarrassingly thought designing a team jersey based on a Hawaiian shirt was a good idea. Halfway through the season, my coaching staff completely disappeared, and suddenly I found myself trying to coach and learn what a team manager was supposed to do. My friend Joe Vadaboncoeur quietly stepped in one day, asking if I needed help, never asking for a title or anything back. He became the right hand of the team and carried us through the rest of the season at Trestle. “I cried the whole way home after the last Trestle Series race in 2024. I couldn’t believe that I did it, and that it actually worked. These women were amazing.” I learned a lot that year.
In 2025 we shifted - Wendy stepped in to help with back end management, I brought on Libby Felts as a full time Assistant Coach. The team grew to 27 that year. I still had no idea what I was doing, and was still figuring it out the hard way. We had Team Captains leading rides, more wanted to race, more bought downhill bikes for the first time. Another corner was turned in 2026. Jamie Higham came on as Team Manager, Mechanic, and full-time emotional support for myself and half the team. After registrations closed, more women kept asking, “Is it too late to join?” We figured we wouldn’t say no to anyone. We ran out of jerseys and started giving them team T-shirts because it’s all we had. 53 women strong now. USAC sanctioned races, enduro races, more team rides, pit spaces, mechanic clinics. We were recognized everywhere we went. Women supporting women. The dream was happening.
Looking back, none of this happened because I had a master plan. It happened because women kept saying yes. They showed up for rides in questionable weather. Convinced friends to race. Volunteered to help. Coached. Fixed bikes. Became captains. Found friends. They believed in something that was only an idea.
Every year I get asked what my goal is for the team. It still hasn’t changed since I was heckling women on the bike park base in 2019. I just don’t want another woman to show up to her first downhill race feeling like she’s the only one there.