Gwendalyn Gibson is a professional mountain bike racer from Grand Junction, Colorado. She races for the Trek Factory Racing Team as an Elite World Cup Cross Country rider. She’s a 2x National Champion at Colorado Mesa University, she won Nationals in 2016 at Mammoth, California, she took a top ten at the Under 23 World Championships in 2021, and she burst onto the world stage having a breakout year in 2022. Her meteoric rise in 2022 allowed her to take the UCI Elite World Cup Cross Country Mountain Biking race scene by storm. Gwendalyn is a young person who’s had tremendous success and in this conversation with Michael she gets vulnerable and real, sharing her early mountain bike story as a NICA rider in the Southern California League, her collegiate career and how she bet on herself, funding her last year as an Under 23 rider overseas through a hardworking, all-in and blue-collared approach on and off the bike. Gwendalyn also shares what it was like to learn that her longtime racing sponsor was closing shop, and how she grounded herself following an early season injury that threatened to derail her entire season—to bounce forward in search of her new team for 2023. Gwendalyn and Michael relive her historic win at Snowshoe in 2022, her breakout rides at Nove Mesto and Mont Sainte Anne and how she felt signing with one of the most respected and dominant teams in the world—Trek Factory Racing. Gwendalyn is a fighter whose depth, thoughtfulness and spirited personality shines in Part One of this two-part conversation.  Michael and Gwendalyn also dive into the art of visualization, mindset and the psychology of racing alongside the fastest women in the world. Gwendalyn is someone who really wants to inspire people and live a life that matters.