ABOUT ELLA
Date of Birth: May 20, 1994
Place of Birth: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Nationality: Dutch
Height: 1.79m
Main Discipline: Cross-Country Marathon
Engineer by day, cyclist by night. I am an ambitious, goal-oriented and dedicated female mountainbiker who loves to explore nature by bike. By sharing my journey as a woman working and riding in male-dominated sectors I hope to inspire other women to start riding and enjoying the trails. No need to ride competitively, just ride your own pace work on developing yourself and your skills. Underneath, you can read about my own story, it is not one of someone doing sports at a high level since childhood but of someone falling in love with shredding on two wheels at a later stage in life. I chose to say yes to this epic adventure called mountainbiking and so can you!
I am quite a late-bloomer concerning cycling, except for some mountainbike rides around the Veluwe with my father at a young age. After straying from all kinds of sports, I bought my first road bike at 21, mostly to get some cardio training in next to all the strength sports I was doing. After graduating from university in 2019 I moved to Assen, where I saw all these mountainbike routes and something was sparked again! I walked into a local bikeshop, bought a simple hardtail and picked up mountainbiking again. As with everything I do, before I knew it I was investing a solid amount of hours in training per week and happily riding both my road- and mountainbike.
To improve my skills, I signed up for a clinic where I met Marleen from SoulRide. In 2021 I rode my first marathon competition, the Amerongse Berg Marathon. This sparked the competitive beast in me and I started training more and more. Unfortunately, I was hit by a car shortly after that in September. Everything seemed fine afterwards, but my shoulder kept causing issues and pain. It turned out (in January) my rotator cuff tendon had been partly ruptured, which set me back a year to fully recover. During this I could barely ride my MTB, but I could ride my road bike luckily. End 2022, I came in contact with SoulRide again, and we started a partnership where Toon is now my coach. From that time onwards, I also picked up competitions again.
At the start of the 2022/23 season I had to find out what discipline I wanted to ride. I started out with some local XCO races to see if that was my thing. These were some perfect winter training but not the discipline I had started to love so much in Amerongen almost two years before….
So marathon (XCM) it was! At the start of the season I rode some manches of the Belgian Ardennes Marathon Series. For a Dutchie, quite some elevation and a bit more technical. But despite the seemingly vertical trails these marathons run over I loved the suffering and the adventure along the way. Success came in June, when I won the Bartje100. A completely different track, nice and flat, which suits me much more with my height (and weight).
I finished the season in style at the Nationals XCM, held on a hilly course in Limburg during the Bart Brentjens Challenge. As always, my plans for the coming 2024 season are even more ambitious. More elevation, longer distances, more days in the saddle. But most importantly, with a great team supporting me, and an amazing community to ride with! Want to keep up to date of my journey? Then follow me on my instagram where I post regular updates on my training and goals.