Thank You For Everything, Pinkbike

Words: Alicia Leggett


Hello everyone,

We're due for another of my semi-regular check-in articles. This time, I'm here with the practicality of an update, the rosy lens of a love letter, and the sweet nostalgia of a goodbye.

I'll be leaving Pinkbike, and today is my last day. I just wanted to write a note to all of you to thank you for being you.

I found my way to Pinkbike as a natural but lucky transition into writing alongside riding. I'd been focusing on enduro racing, but realized over time that it made sense to do other things, too. The Pinkbike crew took a risk on me when my resume didn't include much beyond riding bikes and skiing. Since then, I've gone to all kinds of cool bike places, met countless people I've looked up to in the bike world, started testing bikes, and lucked out in getting to spend my days riding with my coworker-friends. I'll always consider this Pinkbike job to be one of the best things that's ever happened to me.





Mountain biking, too, has given me the world. The sport taught me a type of hard work I hadn't experienced before. It gave me the chance to learn the process of progressing at something and continuing to be motivated by that progression. It took me from being a self-hating kid to someone who had learned how to be scared and keep moving forward anyway. Learning to mountain bike changed my life completely because of how it changed me as a person. It's also what made me confident enough to now move on.

September 30, 2022, an injury interrupted all of that, and my last year and a half has been largely about head injury recovery. (For more words about that, find updates here, here, and here.) The experience has been colored by the way people have had my back. From everything I've heard about the time after I was injured, the Pinkbike community wanted to know what had happened and wanted to support my recovery. Many of you donated to my GoFundMe, and I truly appreciate that. It was mindblowing to reconnect to the outside world and realize how many people I had in my corner. You all made some pretty grim days a little more hopeful.

Now, it's time for another life pivot. (Thank you for being patient with me while I worked my way to this point.) I'm not quite ready to tell the world what I'm planning to do next, but I can say that I think it'll be positive - both for me and for the people around me. The future feels extremely unknown, but it's a brighter unknown than a lot of the last chapter.

I'll probably drop in occasionally for an article here and there. You also may see another straggler article or two go up from me in the next bunch of days.

Anyway, that's all for now. I just wanted to write something on here before I disappear again. (I promise this disappearance is a whole lot more positive than the last one.)






Thanks for all the kind words - it does make a difference. Thanks even to the critics for keeping me detail-oriented. Readers, you're the ones who keep this ship afloat. Thanks for believing in me, even sometimes when doubt would have been pretty warranted. Thanks for your patience when I make mistakes, and thanks for motivating me to learn how to make fewer. Pinkbike and Outside staff, too, have been incredibly supportive in world-changing ways. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Honestly, a big part of my decision to leave is to save some of the love of the sport for myself. I remember how much pure joy this sport has brought me over the last decade. Even though riding feels more complicated post-injury with most of my ability gone, I remember how it used to feel. Once in a while, now, I get giddy moments of being astonished at all of this. From lost kid to bike racer to bike writer to coma to now. I sometimes find myself laughing in disbelief, looking around wide-eyed, wondering how all of this happened. And now, I get to pedal slowly through the woods, feel the sunshine, and learn a different kind of progress. My love of the sport is a little wounded and needs care. Now, I can take the pressure off (self-imposed pressure, that is) and focus my riding energy on the days when things feel extra sparkly and extra full of possibility.





Until next time, take care. I hope to see you out on the trails.

Lots of love, as always.

Alicia

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