The Future is Bright - Lilly Mollenkopf

As larger-scale industry investment for women’s events like Redbull Formation has dried up in recent years, grassroots events, like the recently hosted She Shreds Legacy, have begun popping up to fill the gap. For the femme freeride community, such events offer a chance to progress, network, bolster portfolios, and, most importantly, have fun in a supportive environment. The Future is Bright is a series dedicated hearing more from the athletes at these grassroots events about their "why:" why they participate and why things like She Shreds Legacy matter.

Lilly Mollenkopf was one of several U18s who participated in the event. Her positive energy and joyful love of the sport were so contagious that she ended up winning the "Best Shreddy Vibes" athlete's choice award for the week!

Name, age, current place of residence?

Lilly Mollenkopf, 17, Kalispell, MT.

Why did you attend She Shreds?

I attended She Shreds because I absolutely love biking, but I’ve only really been doing it for two years now - and throughout that time I’ve just been biking with mostly guys, so I knew it would be super inspiring to do the event.

What makes She Shreds stand out, to you, from other MTB / freeride events?

She Shreds was the first mountain bike event I’ve ever even done, so I don’t have much to compare it to, but it definitely felt like such a welcoming, uplifting, inspiring event and overall great time!

Did you have a proudest moment from the event?

This one’s hard - there's actually so many that I can think of, so I’ll just give a few!

One of them has to be leading off one of the Sparkle trains of the event. Since that trail has been built, it’s definitely been one of my favorites, and to see everyone have fun on it was super, super cool. Also, I’ve never even really led a party train bigger than like five people so that was also sick!

Another one would probably have to be doing the Forty road gap drop for the first time. That was something that I’ve been wanting to do since the beginning of the year and I finally got the courage to do it!

And I think the last one would have to be winning the Best Shreddy Vibes award. During the second day of the event, I kind of felt like I had it really met everyone, and I wasn’t putting myself out there enough, and I was just kind of worried that I wasn’t meeting and biking with enough people so it was just super cool to see that people did notice me and noticed my attitude toward the event and towards biking in general! Also when Heather brought the award out to me and gave me a hug it was just a really nice moment. I know she has put so much work into the event and it was really cool to see everything pay off and how proud she was.

Did you have a most challenging moment from the event?

I think my most challenging moment was when I noticed that I had blown the rebound on my fork at the end of the second day. It was definitely a bummer. I had only ridden that bike for like two weekends and it was soooo fun - but then it broke and it was really sad and also I wasn’t really sure what I was gonna do for the event the next day. I figured everything out in the end, but it was definitely a little bit stressful and messed with me emotionally. (I definitely needed to cry a bunch because I went and cried in my truck for like an hour, and then I woke up the next day and I was definitely feeling a lot better so I think that helped, haha.)

Did you have any goals coming into the event?

I think my goals coming into this event were to put myself out there more and be more confident in myself. And also to meet a bunch of sick shredders and have a great time!!

Do you have any goals moving forward (this season or in future seasons)?

This event definitely opened my eyes to the possibilities that I have with biking. I think it would be really cool to start doing more events and competing, and just getting myself out there trying to take biking somewhere!

Anything else you wish I had asked / that you want to share?

I can’t wait for next year!

Any family, friends, or sponsors you want to thank?

I would like to thank my mom for being there for me and letting me go up to the bike park and basically live there every weekend. I also want to thank all of the people who work at Legacy; I only met everyone up there like three months ago, but I already feel like I have a whole other family up there. Everyone is just super welcoming and super nice. It’s the best place to be! And I want to thank Heather because she put so much work into putting this event together and she was the one who got me to do it and who was always there to support me through my biking at Legacy, so I’m super grateful for her!