This past summer, I spent many Friday nights at the Valley Preferred Cycling Center shooting UCI events where many local pros were mixed in with international riders, all trying to earn points for their bid towards Rio 2016. Among them, was a rider with a kit I didn’t recognize. Granted, I was new to the track, but I usually recognized a local sponsor that was mixed in with national sponsors on a rider’s kit.  This mystery rider was Missy Erickson.

Erickson was born in Alexandria, MN, and started riding at 16. After 4 years at Fort Lewis College on a full cycling scholarship, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a goal of becoming track sprint athlete. Since then, she has become a dominant force on the boards, winning 4 elite national titles, including the 2014 Sprint and Keirin national championships. She was also a part of the 2013 and 2014 Pan Am Championships team, and is currently the #1 ranked American female rider in both the US and UCI rankings.

It has not always been an easy ride for Erickson. In October 2013, she started feeling back pain, and it would not go away. She continued to train and race, and an MRI in June diagnosed her with an L5 PARS fracture to her spine. Though she trimmed down her schedule to only the events she needed to qualify for the US World Cup team, she continued to train and race towards her goal, along with adding physical therapy to her already busy schedule.

To help get her story out, Erickson released her video entitled “Missy Erickson” on November 17th, 2014. In that video, and on some of the posts on her website, missyerickson.wordpress.com/, you’ll find some of my shots from this summer.

Good luck Missy, and see you back at Trexlertown this summer!