Allison Arensman

“It’s supposed to be hard. If it were easy, everyone would do it.”

-Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own

D.O.B.: 03/19/1994

Location: Valdese, NC

Current City: Brevard, NC

Height: 5’4

Specialty: Breakaways; Bike handling; Time Trials; Long, hard races; gravel

Previous sports: Baseball, Soccer, Swimming, Triathlon,

Nickname: Alli Cat, Little Rocket, Big Al,

Years racing: 5

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Allison is from North Carolina, and grew up playing multiple sports: baseball and soccer in middle school, and swam competitively along with trying a few local triathlons in highschool. She got into cycling at age 17 by racing the local cyclo-cross series, and since then has also branched out to compete in road and mountain bike. She is currently studying at Brevard College in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina and is half-way through achieving a BS in Exercise Science. She also rides for the Brevard College Cycling team where she has experienced success in individual national titles as well as team national titles in several different disciplines. Her favorite discipline is cyclo-cross which requires the combination of ability to time trial and race criteriums with the technical aspects of mountain biking, all of which she loves.

Allison is passionate about riding and can’t stop smiling when she is on a bike...although during intervals the smile is more of a grimace. She is always looking for things, big or small, that she can improve to make herself a better athlete, a better ambassador for her team and sport, and a more rounded person. She loves the team aspect of cycling and enjoys nothing more than doing her job so that the team can succeed. One of her favorite things about the sport is getting to hang out and work with junior riders and kids who come to race or to watch, wide-eyed and excited: “they’ve got so many questions, are so genuinely interested about what we do, and pumped on life, it’s contagious”.

Career Highlights

  • 1st place, USA Cycling U23 Road Nationals Criterium, 2015
  • 4th place, Tour of Utah Women’s Edition Day 1, 2015
  • 1st place, USA Cycling Collegiate Cyclo-cross Nationals, 2015
  • 1st place, USA Cycling Collegiate Road Nationals Road Race, 2014

2015

  • 1st place, USA U23 Road Nationals Criterium
  • 1st place, USA Collegiate Cyclo-cross Nationals
  • 2nd place, U23 Pan Am Continental Cyclo-cross Championships
  • 3rd place, USA U23 Road Nationals Time Trial
  • 3rd place, Cascade Cycling Classic, Criterium
  • 4th place, Tour of Utah Women’s Edition, Day #1

2014

  • 1st Kingsport UCI C2 Cyclo-cross Cup
  • 1st Collegiate Road Nationals Road Race
  • 1st Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals Cross Country
  • 1st Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals Short Track
  • 3rd Collegiate Cyclo-cross Nationals
  • 3rd U23 Road Nationals Time Trial

2013

  • 1st North Carolina State Champion Cyclo-cross
  • 2nd Airforce Cycling Classic NCC Criterium
  • 2nd U23 Cyclo-cross Nationals
  • 3rd NCGP UCI C2 Cyclo-cross
  • 4th U23 Road Nationals Time Trial
  • 10th Derby City Cup UCI C1 Cyclo-cross

What inspired you to become a bike racer?

Funny thing is, I was very against cycling for a long time. I hated it, I hated that pain that came with it, I hated the idea of having big legs, and I didn’t like spandex. Cycling was something which I kinda slid into... I had been a swimmer for 4 years and wasn’t getting any faster, and since I cannot stand losing I began exploring other options. My current coach, Sonni Dyer (who was then my dad and brother’s half-IronMan coach), and my dad encouraged me to give cycling a chance. I was pretty frustrated with swimming at that time, and so after thinking and praying about it, did a few time trials in the late summer and then the cyclo-cross season that winter. I won the series for the category 4 women and was hooked from there.

Who is an inspiration to you in your life, both on and off the bike?

My passion to ride, work hard, and never quit comes from God. He is my strength and joy, to quote Eric Liddell: “when I [ride] I feel His pleasure”.

If you weren’t bike racing, you would be...?

I would probably be very in to lifting and developing my knowledge of coaching… maybe even back in horseback riding. I could see myself traveling a lot, developing my guitar playing skill more, spending more time with my family, especially my siblings, and I would probably be doing a LOT more work in my college education: double majoring, lots of internships, research projects, etc.

What is your biggest accomplishment on the bike?

Learning that I should not define success or myself by my last result. Instead, take a step back and look at the process it took to get to the result and all that was learned along the way.

Favorite meal when training?

Homemade chili, baked sweet potato fries, Mediterranean salad and watermelon!

The best thing about being a bike racer is?

To be cliché, winning is pretty awesome! At the same time, the longer I stay at racing the more I enjoy it because of the challenges it constantly offers and the enjoyment had in overcoming those obstacles. I also REALLY enjoy traveling and all the new adventures that come with it!

Favorite place you’ve raced your bike and why?

Valmont Bike Park in Boulder CO. (Best cyclo-cross course in the U.S.!), or Bend Oregon because it’s beautiful and I love being out West...

Favorite cross training or off season activity?

Mountain biking and Lifting

Best tip for a new bike racer

Enjoy it. Don’t become so immersed in it that you forget why you started racing to begin with.

What are one or two things that you do daily that are the key to your success?

I try to stay focused on having a growth mindset. This mindset is excited by what others would deem as ‘failure’ and sees it as an opportunity to learn and to strength weakness. Growth mindset is staying optimistic and consistent because you’ve got the big picture in mind. All the little pieces along the way, good or bad, can be tools used to become the best you can be.

What is something that nobody would know about you?

My dream growing up was to become a jockey and race thoroughbreds and Arabians.

Favorite things to do off the bike:

  1. Music. Listening to it or playing the guitar and singing
  2. Being with my family/friends
  3. Eating/Baking good food
  4. Hiking
  5. Rock Climbing

Top 10 warmup/pre-race songs on your iPod:

  1. Motivated-NF
  2. Buried Beneath- Red
  3. Smack Down- Thousand Foot Crutch
  4. Dear X, You Don’t Own Me- Disciple
  5. Don’t Waste Your Life- Lecrae
  6. Lie To Me (Denial)- Red
  7. Nuthin’-Lecrae
  8. Your Heroes are Dead- Project 86
  9. Zone Out (Amped Remix)- KB
  10. Boasting- Lecrae

What does Ridebiker Alliance mean to you?

It means community and support that has not yet been experienced in the women’s peloton. I am so excited to get to be a part of it!!

TWENTY16 has an emphasis on education with the initiation of our Junior Scholarship program in 2015. https://teamtwenty16.com/education.htm

Being a professional athlete straight out of highschool...yeah, we’ve all thought about it: you could forever put school behind you, travel all over the country and possibly the world, and get paid big money to be an athlete. That’s the dream right?

But did you ever consider what happens if you get injured? Or where you want to be 10, 15, 20 years down the road? Ever consider that you might not be able to be a professional athlete for the rest of your life?

I think a lot of athletes dismiss the idea of college as an unnecessary nuisance, a pebble in their training shoe. I agree, college isn’t always easy, in-fact, it can get down-right stressful... but isn’t the world of sports stressful too? Quality training, hard work and dedication, these are tough and stressful, but they lead to results, and hopefully to winning! College is the same, except you won’t be ‘training’ for this season, you will be training for the season that will come in 10, 15, 20 years, when you’ll be moving on from being just an athlete and you’ll start exploring other interests, other job options.

I propose that instead of viewing college as something which would get in the way of your goals as an athlete, consider that continuing education is simply giving yourself more options, and thinking further ahead than what you see right now.

Don’t stop after high school, broaden your mind, knowledge and interests. You’re not going to be able to compete forever, and once you’ve been in the athletic industry for a decade or two you’ll probably want to try something new anyway.


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