About Vanessa
Hello!
My name is Vanessa Monie. I currently reside in Richland, WA with my husband and our family. I am originally from Albuquerque, NM but the Pacific Northwest seems to have captured my heart since attending Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.
I was a swimmer and equestrian throughout elementary school and high school. I swam competitively for Whitman College and started biking recreationally in 2008. My brother became a professional cyclist several years after he graduated college and his journey in the sport, as well as just purely my observations of the sport itself, enchanted me. I fell in love with the sport. I loved the team component to road racing and the places it brought you. The feeling of being on the bike and riding hard, reaching the top of a hill, sprinting as fast as you can.
I started riding with the intention of racing professionally at the end of 2011. My first racing season was in 2012 and I raced as much as I possibly could that first year, traveling hours in our team van (we were based out of Boise, ID) to races all over the Pacific Northwest.
My own dreams of racing professionally were cut short by a chronic dysfunctional hip joint, I raced nationally as a category 1 road cyclist for two years but after five years of full time road biking focus, I decided I needed to shift focus and move bike racing to a recreation level activity.
I still ride and race! I have since been recreationally competitive as a triathlete, having several seasons as a triathlete, and just recently I have been enjoying dabbling in road racing again and gravel racing events.
I have been a coach for four years now and it is something I look forward to every day. Coaching endurance athletes is a passion for me. It's an activity that energizes me and I can't think of anything more satisfying than being part of someone's journey to achieving a goal or overcoming an obstacle or discovering what they are capable of.