This Full-Time Working Woman is Your U.S. National Champ

 As a three-times-a-year racer, that would be awesome!

 Totally agree. Mtb riders are some of the most fit, dedicated, and tough athletes in the world. It's time for this trend of paying them peanuts to end. Honestly this sport is still in the stage that baseball was back in the days when Yogi Berra had to work a full time job in the winter just so he could afford to play for the NYY in the summer! Honestly people it's time for this to end. Everybody makes money except the riders? WTF? Oh and btw this may be controversial but the truth of the matter is the pro athletes in the major sports didn't start getting paid decently until they unionized. That's a fact. I don't ever see bike riders behaving like pampered over the top superstars or getting the salaries of NBA stars and the like, but C'mon bike industry pony up a little!!!

 I dunno, think about it from the sponsor's perspective. They're paying someone for some part-time, low-visibility advertising. Had you ever heard of Erin before? If PB doesn't do this article, would you have heard of her? The economics of being a sports celebrity is extremely top heavy- the people at the top pull a disproportionate amount of attention and therefore a disproportionate amount of the dollars. Seems like it makes sense to me.

 Theres no money to be made in the bike industry

 You must be one of the coworkers who has no idea she races bikes then

 @davidccoleman: if it's a medical device company in Colorado, I'm guessing they have tens of thousands of employees.

 I found her in the company directory, different BU, can't IM her.

 she probably makes more at her day job than she ever could racing. i remember the first time i went to fontana to race. back in the day semipros like me practiced with the pros and a lot of them lived nearby so they drove their personal cars to the race. it was an eye opener to see them in older toyota pickups etc not the sponsor supplied raptor, volvo, etc ... i love seeing mechanical engineers racing. over the years ive met so many - its funny how like minded we all are!

 @meathooker: then of course there is Gwin whos got a GT3 Porsche.

 @meathooker: yea, you're kinda making the point for me. If you're the National champion in America at anything, you should be paid very well for being at the top of your craft or discipline. So being the Women's USA National Champ and also being a factory Cannondale rider (one of the largest American bike brands), she should be in a position that she doesn't have to take leave from her better paying engineer job to go race. I'm sure Cannondale could easily cough up a nice six figure salary for putting their bike on top of the National podiums. Wonder how much they pay their TDF riders (particularly the domestiques) who will never see the podium or yellow jersey...

 @Chadimac22:

i got what you're saying but i look at it this way - aside from the Gwins, Carmichaels, McGraths, etc professional action sports athletes don't make a ton of money. I worked with a guy whose kid was on a satellite factory motocross team and the kid got free bikes/parts/travel to races and a salary of 20-30k/yr. if shes making 100-150k at her day job it wouldn't make sense for her to ride full time and take a pay cut.

 Actually, I think her last name is "Huck" which is a rad last name.

 Huck ya!