Name: Donna Wilson

Pronouns: she/her

Age: 57

Town: Easthampton

NCC Member Since: 2017

Donna: The History

Where are you from? How did you first get into cycling?

I’m from northern Virginia. My first cycling experience was, like a lot of folks, getting a bike when I was a kid and riding around for fun. I’ve had bikes off and on for many years, sometimes for commuting to work or for fun riding on bike paths. I didn’t get serious about cycling training and racing until 2020.

Why did you join NCC? 

It was a good way to find out about cycling activities and routes.

What type of riding do you do? What got you hooked on hill climbs?

With the harsh weather we have around here for a good part of the year, and my time constraints due to work, I do a majority of my riding in Zwift on my Wahoo cycling trainer haha. When I can ride outdoors I’m usually doing a solo workout on a course/hill that I know well or on a fun longer ride with my husband Chris Armen (who is also a member of NCC). 

Chris introduced me to hillclimb races when we were first dating during the early days of the pandemic and I was immediately hooked. One day he told me that he was going to go ride up Wachusett Mountain as part of a BUMPS virtual race (no in-person races at that time) and I said I wanted to do it too. I had no clue about riding steep (to me at the time) hills so I rode my not very light Giant Defy with totally inappropriate gearing. I had to stop and walk at least 6 times over the short 3 mile course, it took forever! Instead of hating it I was completely committed to being able to actually ride the whole thing someday. This failure-as-motivation scenario repeated itself when I first did Mt Greylock and a number of other hillclimbs. I eventually got physically stronger and was able to get better gearing and lighter bikes and conquer all of the hills without stopping.

Tell us about BUMPS! How did you get involved, and what is NCC’s role in the series?

BUMPS is short for Bike Up Mountains Points Series. It is a yearly series of 9 cycling hill climb events that runs from May-October in locations around the Northeast. Each race is pretty unique with different formats and levels of difficulty. You earn points for each race based on your time in relation to others of your sex and we rank folks within age groups. It is really great to be able to test yourself year over year. There have been years where I’ve gotten very few points for races but I can still enjoy the challenge, the beautiful locations and can measure personal improvement.

NCC puts on the Mt Greylock Hillclimb Time Trial race every year in September and this race is part of BUMPS. Chris and I along with fellow NCC members Chris Laplante and Andy MacDonald are co-directors.

What is your most meaningful cycling accomplishment?

I think helping to save BUMPS from going out of existence. The person who was managing the series until 2021 unfortunately fell very ill shortly after I started doing the races and I, along with another race organizer, stepped in to try and keep the series going. I loved the series and hoped people still wanted to take part. For several years I’ve spent many hours promoting events, answering questions, doing write-ups and wrangling data. I’m very pleased that last year we had another person step in to help organize and he has taken things to a whole new level and I’ve been able to take a step back.

Donna’s Favorites

What’s your favorite place to ride? 

All around Tucson, AZ in their beautiful winter! Chris and I stay there for 2-3 weeks every February and it is so awesome for riding: the Loop, Mt Lemmon, Saguaro East…

Around western MA: riding up the south side of Mt Greylock

Donna Off the Bike

What do you do when not on your bike?

I am a biostatistician and I work in the Office of Research at Baystate Health.

What do you do for fun (besides riding your bike)? 

Spend time with Chris and our dog Sunday, running, bowling, hiking, eating good food.

What cycling goals do you have for this year? 

Currently I have 4 BUMPS races scheduled: High Point, Crank the Kanc, Whiteface and Mt Washington.

What’s on your cycling bucket list? 

Riding some of the iconic mountainous areas outside of the US, mostly in France

How can people connect with you? 

Donna Wilson on Strava

BUMPS:

https://bumpshillclimb.com/

https://bumpshillclimb.substack.com/