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NOV/DEC 2018
Age: 14
School: Summit High School
Sport: Cycling
Sponsors: Sage Titanium Bikes and Skout Backcountry Organics
Race Highlights: Winner of 2018 Sea Otter Classic Girls 13-14 XC race, 7th place finish
in 2018 Cyclocross Nationals, 9th place finish in 2018 Cross Country Nationals
Age:10
School: Buckingham Elementary
Sponsors: Yess, The Hub Cyclery, High Desert Bmx
Race Highlights:
2017 UCI BMX World #6
2017/2018 BMX Oregon State #1
2018 BMX Gold Cup #1
Current BMX National age group #5
Natasha Visnack is a mature and confident Summit High School Freshman. She first got
involved with cycling on family bike rides. It just started from there and has become one of
her passions in life. Natasha has tasted the very top of the podium and she likes it there;
she knows what hard work and dedication can accomplish.
At just ten years old, Sophie Rodriguez, a Buckingham
Elementary 5th grader, is already following in the footsteps
of her mentor Olivia Armstrong. She first got on a bike at
four because she watched her dad Albert race bikes and it
quickly became a family affair. Sophie gravitated to cycling
because as she puts it, “cycling and especially BMX is a
family sport. Everyone in my family rides”.
Natasha looks forward to pushing herself in training and racing. She’s not afraid to go to
that deeper place that she feels is more intense than any team sport. Natasha is more
inclined to endurance sports as she doesn’t possess the skill to throw, catch, kick, or hit
required in team sports.
For Natasha, there is no perfect race, there is always something to improve on. But on
race day when things work out there is an amazing feeling of accomplishment. When
either finishing on the podium or satisfied with her performance she is pumped for the
next race.
“It was easy getting into cycling at first”, Natasha says, “but the challenging part is staying
in it. After some time you might have to come to terms that you could be the only girl on
the team”. Her advice is to not be afraid of being the only girl. Although it’s hard at first,
soon enough you will fit right in. At this point in Natasha’s young cycling career she mostly
races XC mountain and cyclocross. She plans to add more road racing soon and enjoys
an occasional TT or crit.
P: David Visnack
When It comes to having mentors in Bend, Natasha look up to good friend Emma
Maaranen. “I love that she can have fun with her cycling while still being serious”. Natasha
also looks up to Serena Bishop Gordon because she does a great job of giving back to
the cycling community, especially for women.
Sophie’s hard training has paid off, she likes to eat healthy
and train with long road rides, mountain biking, and rock
climbing to build strength. Her sixth place at the 2017
Worlds has placed her eyes on improving and getting
faster. Most Worlds are too far, and too expensive to get to
but she plans to show everybody how fast she has become
in 2020 when the Worlds comes back to the US. Sophie
is also racing in mountain biking and is looking forward to
road racing.
A bright future awaits this young lady, she has seen other
older Bend girls take cycling to the world’s stages. She has
good mentors here in Bend, like Olivia, Yolanda Neff and
Heather Jackson just to name a few.
Both photos by Mike Albright
P: David Visnack
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