Ear to the ground:

“Yeah, the bears got into my neighbor’s garbage, and I called Bryan Peterson, because I’m a narc.”
– Durango’ version of “neighborhood watch”

Back on track

A few weeks ago in a Pole item about the upcoming Todd and Ned’s Dirt Fondo, we only half-jokingly wondered if former Durango resident and downhill legend Missy Giove would be joining her ’90s mtb peers.

Little did we know, at that very moment, Giove, fresh off doing time from her 2009 drug charges, was making time. Good time.

On a loaner carbon downhill bike from YT Industries, Giove came out of retirement (and five years of probation that confined her to her home state of Virginia) to compete in the UCI World Cup in Windham, N.Y., on Aug. 7-8.

Giove, who has been popping up on the US Pro GRT circuit in recent months, told pinkbike.com that she returned to the limelight at the request of her wife, Kristen, who is battling cancer.

“Unfortunately, my girl got cancer. You know that’s a ****ing scary thing,” she told
Pink Bike. “It’s not a small situation, and we’ll get through it. We kinda went through some things that maybe she’d like to do in life, you know, and one was to see me race a World Cup. I was like, ‘really?’ I was like, ‘OK!’”

Admittedly, Giove was pretty much straight off the couch. “I had about six weeks to make this happen. So, I went to a Pro GRT (Snowshoe) on a rental bike and just about killed myself, but I made it,” she said. “I’m here to be brave and be an inspiration to get my wife through what she’s got to get through.”

And inspirational she was. Not only was it Giove’s first time on 27.5” wheels, but the 43-year-old was up against women half her age. After crashing and injuring her arm in the qualifiers on Aug. 7, Giove returned to the finals the next day to lay the third-fastest split – before unfortunately crashing again.  When the dust settled, Giove came in a respectable 16th.

Does this mean we’ll be seeing more of The Missile in the downhill circuit, and maybe even coming to a trail near us? With the former wild child of downhill, anything is possible.

“I want to build trails, train riders, ride selected World Cups, and maybe help on a team,” she told Pink Bike. “I want to take some people on some adventure tours. I’d love to do what I love to do. Maybe give some other kids some inspiration.”

To see Missy’s qualifying video, wearing what appears to be black jeans and – in a complete departure from her mohawk of yore – long, flowing dark locks, go to: www.redbull.com/us/en/bike/stories/1331740040296/missy-giove-windham-world-cup-dh-run-video