Bron Willis – rider profile

Name – Bron Willis

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Profession – Mum and Writer/Editor

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Uphill or Downhill? – Uphill. I like to get the blood pumping!

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Most epic day on a bike? 9 July 2011, Casto Canyon, Utah, USA. Flashflood! It started out such a beautiful day, crossing so many dry creekbeds that we didn’t even notice them – until the rain began to fall and the creeks turned into rivers of gushing water. Then we noticed them. We turned back and rode through the creeks until the muddy water, strewn with debris, rose higher than our wheel axles. We each took a turn at falling in, but I think it was the sight of (my husband) Terry’s feet sticking out of the river vertically and the rest of him submerged that prompted the decision to stop and wait it out. Our too-cool-for-school guide had forgotten to bring his emergency sat phone so for a while we were looking at a night out in the wilderness with no food or warm clothes. But the rains eventually stopped, the rivers subsided and we headed for home. Eight exhausting hours later we arrived at camp to find it packed up and the driver keen to get as far away from the canyon as possible.

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Favourite trails (other than Castlemaine)…the ones I can take straight from my back door – old vehicle tracks through the foothills of Mt Alexander past the Oak Forest and back home

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If I wasn’t mountain biking I’d be…in the veggie patch with Tez and our little man Sonny

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One day I’ll ride…to work again (when work isn’t 150km away)

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When I head out for a ride I never (well, not often) leave without…one of the many fun-loving, upbeat, classy women of Castlemaine Womens Cycling who pick me up if I’m down or fly high with me when I’m up!

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My race highlight…Alpine Classic 150km January 20I0. I wasn’t racing really and I wasn’t MTBing but I was road riding, Bright to Mt Beauty and back (yes, Tawonga Gap twice) and then Mt Buffalo up and back to Bright. Exhilarating. Exhausting.