MANSFIELD — A Mansfield woman became one of the nation’s first women to represent the U.S. in an overseas electric mountain bike race in late August.
Ashley Hendershot, 33, of Mansfield was one of the first two American women selected to compete in the women’s e-MTB race during the 2021 Val di Sole Mountain Bike World Championships in Trentino, Italy on Aug. 27.
Hendershot is head coach of the Ashland Bike Project’s Team WILD programs. She used to work as a teacher at Danville High School and now works part-time at the Ashland Bike Company.
She finished last in the event because of a mechanical issue she experienced in the race’s first lap.
“I unfortunately had a chain drop in the first lap,” she said.
Hendershot fell behind because of the issue. It meant she was pulled because of a Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) rule that says any rider whose time is 80% slower than the race leader’s first lap is pulled out of the race.
“It was definitely a bummer, but it’s part of racing. Those things happen. I still finished though,” she said.
Had her chain cooperated, she just might have competed with the Swiss winner’s time of 49:24 — the UCI doesn’t allow just anybody to compete in its races.
Hendershot had to apply to UCI, the world’s governing body for the sport of bicycle racing, to be selected for the race. The qualifications include having a USA cycling license, experience in racing and past race results.
Though she had a minor hiccup the very first time she hopped in the saddle of an electric-powered mountain bike, she has experience.
Hendershot began racing e-MTBs in 2019. In her first race that year, she forgot to turn the bike on. She remembers wondering why the bike was so heavy and hard to pedal.
“Lo and behold, I had never actually turned the bicycle on,” she said.
But that year also happened to be the year she became a national champion. She won the first-ever e-MTB Grand National Cross Country Women’s National Championship in 2019 and placed second in the same race series in 2020.
Her performances over the last three years meant UCI chose her and another American woman, Callan Horwath, to participate in the Val di Sole race. They were the first American women to ever represent the country in a UCI e-MTB race.
“It was probably the toughest race I’ve ever done,” Hendershot said. “But at the same time, it was a lot of fun. I had never been on an e-bike course like the one I experienced in Italy.”
She said the course’s technical aspects — big rocks, roots and hill climbs — were much larger than those experienced over here.
Getting to Italy with a nearly 50-pound bike was almost as tough of a challenge, she said. The 18-hour trek for Hendershot and her husband started in Columbus, where they flew to Atlanta. From there, they flew to Amsterdam and then another flight landed them in Verona.
From there, Val di Sole is another 2.5-hour drive.
“And they gave us a Fiat for our rental,” she said. “The bike barely fit. We were definitely crammed. We had four bags, a bike and a bunch of parts for spares just in case I needed them for the race.”
She hopes her expertise in electric bikes helps pave the way for de-stigmatizing the sport among “purist” peddlers.
“The more people are educated about e-bikes and realize it’s not a dirt bike, the better,” Hendershot said. “It’s still a bicycle.”
BusinessWire said Europe still leads the world in eMTB sales, but North America isn’t too far behind. It seems the perception surrounding e-bikes has changed in the U.S. recently, and industry leaders say the pandemic had a positive influence.
The eMTB market hit $5 billion in 2020 and it’s expected to reach more than $10 billion by 2026, according to BusinessWire.
Sales of e-bikes, both for street and trail use, in the U.S. are up 139%, resulting in $681 million from April 2020 to 2021, according to the market research firm NPD Group.
Hendershot isn’t surprised by those numbers. Electronic bikes allow more people to enjoy cycling, both on the road and on the trails.
The only real barrier with electric bikes is their price. Some bikes range from $1,000 to $15,000 for the higher-end models.
“They’re definitely more expensive, so budget plays a factor into what you get,” she said.
Still, electric bikes make the sport more accessible, she said.
“Any age — really anyone, no matter your background — can get into it,” she said.
Another benefit is riding longer and covering more miles.
“You’re still getting the fitness aspect but you’re able to travel more. I got mine to keep up with my husband. Then it turned into racing,” she said.
