Catching up with Marla Streb

By Karen Brooks

Marla Streb is a legend. If you don’t know this, you’ve been riding recumbents, or not riding at all. Seriously, she was a dominant force in the downhill scene in the ‘00s (with a couple of Single Speed World Championship titles thrown in), and has a captivating personality. Now, Streb is focusing on family and managing her former race team.

How did you transition from racer to team management?

During the last nine (of 16 total) years of racing professionally, I started conspiring to one day become the GM or marketing manager of Team LUNA Chix. Clif Bar & Company is a notoriously loyal sponsor, and even supported me during both pregnancies as a pro. So if I proactively showed an interest and helped the team with PR and marketing while racing/pregnant, they might eventually hire me full-time after my career, which they did. For this “semi-retired pro,” it’s been a dream soft landing.

Do you miss racing? Plan to do any events just for fun?

Yes, I miss some aspects of racing, especially the community vibe and the feeling of total physical exhaustion that racing provides. I’ve raced one local XC event this year, and will certainly ramp back up now that the girls (two and five years old) are starting school.

The mountain bikers (and other athletes) on Team LUNA Chix have had incredible success in the last few years, earning the UCI’s #1 team ranking, with plenty of individual race wins. What’s the team’s secret?

It may not be a secret, but the LUNA Pros’ individual successes come from being a part of the most well-oiled, organized mountain bike program in the world. From the unwavering support of Clif Bar’s Gary and Kit Erickson, to enjoying the best sponsors, product, and staff available, the athletes can really focus on winning. Their salaries are also commensurate with that of the men, so that doesn’t hurt.

What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done on a bike?

I barely remember this, but I coasted down a sidewalk in Fruita, CO once at about 30mph with my calves on the handlebars (instead of my hands). The resulting crash was sudden, epic, and haunts me every time I look at my butt in the mirror. Personally, I was not scared (Red Bull + tequila), but others mentioned that it was the scariest thing they’ve ever seen. Scary perhaps, but I’ve done dumber. (And if this wasn’t the answer to the previous question…)

What led you to race the DH at Snowshoe, West Virginia in 2002 with no protection?

Again, I’m not the brightest firefly in the jar…so I probably thought that I could save a tenth of a second by dressing like a speed skater.

Not to sound cliché, but—how do you balance motherhood, work and fun?

The work part is impossible with young kids, so now I drag my “night person” body out of bed at 4 a.m. for work. When I was seriously training, I just dragged my kids behind me in the Chariot trailer and climbed 3,000ft. up somewhere. For fun? Luckily, I got a lot out of my system in the 42 years before I decided to have kids, especially the last 16 years of racing around the world, surrounded by fit, young men. So at this point, hanging with the kids is my way of having “fun.”

On that note—are you looking forward to raising your kids as total trail shredders?

If my two girls grow up to enjoy shredding trails with their mother, then my life will be complete. My maternal mission: to love, nurture, and take them to the emergency room.

I hear you are working on opening a bike cafe in Baltimore…

It’s a concept café—about a third dedicated to bike retail, mostly focused on the café, with fresh coffee, then there’ll be the fun liquor side of it. There are some combinations of café/coffee shop/bike shops, but not all three in one place. It’s called The Handle Bar Café. It will have indoor and outdoor bike parking (with locks available), a bikewash, a sink outside the bathroom for just washing up—anything that you can imagine as a cyclist that you’d like. We’ll also do clinics, women’s rides, kids’ rides, and we’ll have enough room to do a spin class to encourage exercise in the winter, not hibernation. It’ll be low key, fun, functional, comfortable, and community-oriented. It’s kind of my dream situation—I’m always looking for places like that that will accept my drenched body. We’ll even welcome recumbent riders. We hope to open around the first of September.

Keep reading

This interview originally appeared in Issue #157. Order a subscription now and you’ll get all our content delivered right to your door as soon as it’s published.
 

 

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