094 – Hannah Harvey on Racing, Winning & Joining Team CRC Belfast
Todays Guest
Hannah Harvey
On episode #94 it is my pleasure to get Hannah Harvey on the podcast. We had been chatting back and forth for a number of weeks before we could get this to happen. Hannah is a super busy girl. She works full time and has a very busy schedule so it was great Hannah could find the time and come on the show. Hannah has not been riding that long but she has made a real impact since she got the racing bug and normally can be found standing on the podium at the end of the day. Hannah’s racing did not start the way she wanted, she had a hard crash resulting in an injury that put her out for a while before she decided to start racing again.
In fact it was two years before Hannah decided to race again and Hannah being Hannah decided this should be the Red Bull Foxhunt! Hannah just liked the idea of the Foxhunt setup and decided she would give it a go. On race day she ended up riding harder than she ever did. She jumped the road gap (see video below), took harder lines and bombed it down the mountain. She was hooked.
Hannah quickly started attending more and more races in Ireland and was finding the race scene a place she wanted to be. A few years later Hannah is a constant race winner and is a well known part of the growing Irish ladies race scene. Hannah was turning heads with her presence on the trails and her speed, skills and personality grabbed the intention of Chain Reaction Cycles Belfast. They reached out and asked Hannah to be part of their new race team for 2019.
Hannah at first thought this was a joke and didn’t take it seriously but she quickly realised they were straight-up and serious about bringing her on as part of their race team. Hannah was stoked and couldn’t believe she was on such a rad race team.
We chat to Hannah about joining the Chain Reaction Cycles Race Team, how she got started in mountain biking, racing, results, motivation and what the future holds for Hannah and her race schedule. Plus much more!
Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the show!
Find Out:
- How Hannah got started in mountain biking
- How she got hooked on mountain biking
- Why Hannah decided to attend a race
- How she got on at her first race
- Why Hannah didn’t race for another two years
- Why Hannah decided to Race the Red Bull Fox Hunt for her first race back
- How Hannah got hooked on mountain biking and racing
- Why Hannah enjoys the Irish race scene so much
- How Hannah got approached by Chain Reaction Cycles Belfast to be part of their race team
- How this made Hannah feel
- Why she likes being part of the CRC team so much
- What her racing buddies are like to ride and race with
- How Hannah’s season has been going for 2019
- How Hannah deals with working full time and getting the motivation to race on a tone of weekends
- What Hannah has planned for her racing future
- How to get in contact and keep up to date with what Hannah has going on
It was great to get Hannah on the show and have a chat. I love what she is doing for both ladies in racing and also for bringing a different look into the scene. Hannah is so down to earth and tells it how it is. I love her honesty and it makes a difference to hear somebody talking from the heart and not just about what their sponsors want to hear. We chat about motivation and how you can balance a full time job with training, competing and having a normal social life. This is a very difficult thing for any privateer racer, you have to give up so much of your spare time and lets face it money to attend these races. You have to pay for travel, fuel, registration and some times accommodation, to name the most obvious. It takes a load of commitment and support to do what these racers do. And what about motivation? You have to have a load of this to do all of the above. When chatting to Hannah about this, it was refreshing to hear that she some times can struggle with this. Its not all Instagram life stories and the perfect dream life. It comes with struggles and difficulties.
We chat about how Hannah sometimes just does not want to ride her bike. She is feed up with it, she just can’t be bothered to go for another ride. I get it. I know where she is coming from. It is super hard to motivate yourself all the time and sometimes you just want to hang the bike up and forget about it for a while. And this must be so much harder when you are racing and competing. People are watching your results and expecting you to always be on top, at your best and competing for the win each and every race. As I said, I get it, I know how you could feel like this. But the beautiful thing that I love about Hannah is, she does it how she wants. She keeping pushing the pedals and keeps going, even when she doesn’t feel like it. This takes a tonne of personal motivation and yes, Hannah has the help around her at these times which means a lot but at the end of the day Hannah still has to get up and get back on the bike. Hannah knows that this is just a social part time activity for her. She is not looking at making this her fulltime job and just really enjoys the scene and the competition side of it. And I feel this is such a good message for anybody looking at getting involved in the race scene, do it for the fun and the love of being involved in this very awesome Irish race scene. And who knows what will come out of it. You may just get a shout out by the Chain Reaction Cycles dudes!
So take an hour and have a listen to how Hannah got involved in the race scene, how she landed a sponsorship deal with Chain Reaction and why she loves mountain biking so much.
Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the show!
To Connect with Hannah:
Instagram: hannah.harvey.22
Facebook: hannah.cranston.52
Hannah’s Sponsor:
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Thanks so much to Hannah for coming on the show and sharing her story.
And thank you once again for Listening. You rock!
Join me next week for another MTB TRIBE Podcast show!