Annabella is another one of the new recruits to the ‘dark side’ of e-racing during the pandemic. Her family definitely appreciated her finding a competitive outlet, so board game nights aren’t her only source of competition (but let's be honest she still will probably take monopoly against her ten-year-old brother way too seriously).
She fell in love with Zwift racing when she did her first women's only stage race, the virtual Joe Martin stage race, where through the three days of competition she slowly started understanding the world of avatars. Annabella is only fresh out of the junior ranks at just 18 years old, so she doesn't have the most race experience, but she is hooked on everything bikes.
She got her start in triathlon then switched to cycling in U17 and never looked back. As a first year junior, she was the BC junior provincial road race and time trial champion. She also represented Canada at junior track worlds. Sadly, the pandemic erased her final year of junior racing but she used the time well, gaining a ton of fitness, which has helped make Zwift racing much more enjoyable.
When she isn't on the bike, she is probably found by her laptop getting the ‘first year university experience’ online at UBC studying International Economics. Since it's all online, it leaves more time for training so it's all good by her!
Interesting facts about Annabella:
Has two gears: either not moving on the couch with a book in one hand and some yummy snacks in the other, or training hard; there's no in-between (this makes recovery rides a real struggle)
Has an irrational fear of daddy-longlegs spiders
Loves doing handstands and walking around her house on her hands
Hates running but randomly ran a marathon at the beginning of the pandemic on her own just because, having run a grand total of zero kilometers in the past two years prio