Katarina Tothova is at bat!

Katarina Tothova may not be a household name, but for those of you that keep an eye on the Girls in Action photo section here on Pinkbike.com, you'll recognize her style right away.

Always top quality pics and clicked moves make her shots stand out. I was able to talk to Katarina briefly about biking and how she's arrived at where she is today. Here is what she had to say.My name is Katarina Tothova, I´m 22 years old and I live in the Czech Republic.

Five or six years ago I earned my first money doing seasonal work and bought a freestyle BMX bike. It was crap, but I rode on it every day at the BMX track. And then that winter I got in contact with the Peter, who took care of a downhill team. He asked me "Do you want to ride downhill? We can lend you a DH bike.“ And I said "Yes!", but at this time I didn't really know what downhill was and it was a hard start. My mum didn't know where I was on the weekends and didn't support me and my bike was terrible...no hydraulic brakes!

One year later my bike was better, fork had 18 cm (that's 7 inches) of travel and I had one hydraulic brake. But somebody stole that bike from me one month before the race season started. Friends helped me out a lot and I was able to built up a hard tail for the season and I began to race fourcross.

Four Cross and DH racing shots

At this point I began to work with a distributor for downhill bikes here in the Czech Republic. First I had a Banshee Scream, then a Morewood Izimu DH and a Morewood Ndiza ST for two years.


I finished my schooling and my mum wanted to send me to university, but I didn't want to go. I wanted ride my bike. I didn't have a job, because it is not easy to find a job that is flexible enough that I could still go to all the events. My mum said that I must go to school. Now I live alone, I have a good job (after one really bad job) and I ride my bike every day. I am able to get to events and ride and nobody says to me "you must make this and this...“ It is my bike paradise, but sometimes I forget to buy some food, or wash my clothes or something like that...

Movie of Kate from 2008:

Now I'm waiting for new frames – Morewood Izimu DH and Ndiza ST. For the 2009 season I would like to ride at the European World Cup, the Czech downhill cup and the Czech 4x cup as well as other smaller bike events. And I would also like to compete in some Slopestyle or freeride competitions, even though there are very little to no girls currently in them.

My best results so far are national downhill champion (twice) and sixth place at the Vallnord World Cup 4X. But my favorite result so far was simply surviving the DH in Switzerland (Champéry), it was my first World Cup race and the track was SO hard. I was like "If I can get down this course without injuring myself, I'll be happy!" I made it down and am excited to return there this year.

Kate at the jumps and freeriding


As for the future I want to keep riding and progressing. I want to be as good as the boys and to be the fastest girl in the World, earning money by riding my bike and enjoying it!

I ride my bike because it is one of the best things to do in this world. It's kinda funny, you can get on your bike every day and go ride everywhere. It is the solution for all my problems, when I'm on a bike, I'm the luckiest person alive. I love when I can ride with only a T-shirt and a helmet on...


I'd like to thank my sponsors that continue to help me out:

Engram Ltd - distributors of Morewood Bikes, Sombrio Clothing
Shamanracing - chainguard
Aspire - distributors Maxxis tyres
DirtyDog - eyewear
Czech Dakine - bags
Wobenzym - nutritional foods for athletes

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-www.madkate.net/profile.htm