You can always spot Evelyn Dong at the races with her everlasting smile and laid-back demeanor. Before she became smitten with mountain biking, Evelyn was an elite Nordic skier living in Bend, OR. In the summers, she practiced riding on Bend’s fast and flowy trails, and soon discovered she was a natural. In a relatively short time after her race career began, she showed impressive talent, winning Crusher the Tushar, a grueling gravel race near her hometown of Park City that she attended last-minute on a borrowed bike. Her edge is being able to perform without knowing what’s ahead, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that she loves to climb! She’s continued on in recent years to bring in a 2nd. place finish at the 2019 National Championships in Winter Park.

When Evelyn isn’t training or racing, she works as a bike mechanic at her local bike shop and rides dirt bikes with her old teammate/roommate and Santa Cruz rider, Keegan Swenson. Evelyn still continues to Nordic and backcountry ski in the winters to help her stay in top riding form. This year Evelyn will join new teammate Kaysee Armstrong with a focus on the Singletrack Series, a new series of XC races that she's helped tie together under one umbrella.

On your day off, what do you enjoy doing most?

"Right now it's snurfing. I'm lucky enough to have easy access to a few mellow slopes so getting out is convenient. Most of my time snurfing is generally spent upside down in the snow getting swarmed by dogs licking my face, but I've learned enough to get a couple decent turns in."