Meet the Women's Aventon Racing Team

We wanted to share some insight into our Aventon Racing team, and let you have a sneak peak into how they became part of the Aventon Family.

Sammi Runnels

Sammi Runnels, like blues and barbeque, was born in Nashville TN and lives in Austin TX, but if she could she would move to Spain. She started racing at the Driveway series Austin in a women’s cat 4 crit where she came second to Ash Duban. The two still battle today in Red Hook races. From this auspicious start, Sammi went on to ride her first century, which she did on a brakeless fixed gear bike!

When she isn’t racing fixed gears, Sammi loves to race off road in cyclocross and mountain bike events. She also enjoys hanging out with her 6 bikes and her pets: a Ball Python and a Rough Neck Monitor. Perhaps this preference for slippery things is why she says her potluck speciality is Queso, either that or it reminds her of the texture of the mud she comes across in cyclocross races.

Which Game of Thrones character would you be and why? “I don’t watch that show but I would like to be the Major from Ghost in the Shell”

Song you are most likely to be found singing when you think nobody can hear? Money trees by Kendrick Lamar

 Best scar / wound: Impaled my leg on a tree in a mtb race 

 Cheese of Preference: Cheddar

Eleonore Saravia

Eleonore Saravia comes from Verdun, which you might have learned about in history class due to its pivotal role in World War 1. Now, she lives with Olivier in Dijon, which you probably heard about last time you ordered a fancy hot dog. She’s been racing since she was 6, mainly because she won some chocolate in her first ever race and has been motivated by this success ever since.

Her spirit animal is the racoon from Pocahontas, and she shares its sweet tooth. She likes to bring home honey from races and makes some mean French dessert when given the chance. She says she would love to live in Montreal, but her drink of choice is a Mojito, which might be hard to come by in the land of maple syrup and Crown Royal. When nobody is looking, she likes to sing songs by Adele, so do us all a favour and keep your eyes on her at the races this year!

Cheese of Preference: Comté, it is made in the Jura Mountains of France and it comes in flat circular discs making it the most aerodynamic choice for cheese enthusiasts.

Which Game of Thrones character would you be and why? Arya Stark of course! I love her tomboy side and her adventurous, curios character.

Number of Bikes owned: a paltry 5, maybe she can win a few races this year and add to that tally.

Kym Perfetto

Kym is a long term Aventon rider, she’s been with team since the start and embodies a lot of what we love about the fixed gear culture. She got her start racing in the Bronx, taking part in an Alleycat that rewarded her messenger skills and which she only entered to win the new bag that she needed!

Kym is a big fan of “killer box wine” which she feels pairs well with kale. This might explain why her favourite souvenir from a race is reportedly “a terrible hangover”. So if you happen to see her on a plane, it might not be the best time to say hi as she probably wants to remain undisturbed. Kym is so serious about avoiding unnecessary attention that, as a child, she used to change her name every season at school.  She hated Kym and “My parents said I could change it so I did. So in first grade I introduced myself as Autumn. Then at the next school (same year- we moved a lot) I chose Summer. Then Spring, then Winter”. Despite this, Kym doesn’t watch game of thrones, probably because the whole “Winter is coming” thing got a bit much.

Kym splits her time between New York and Cape Town and despite her three cats, eight bikes frequent travels and a scar on her knee that “looks like a mouth” she is “miraculously” not single.

What is your favorite photo of yourself? All of them, I’m adorable.

Which Game of Thrones character would you be and why? “People told me I looked like Kalisi when my hair was white, so her? I don’t really watch it”

Cheese of Preference: Dad jokes

Anissa Cobb

Nissy is a West Coaster for life, she was born in Portland, OR and lives in Seattle. f she could, she would move to Australia, she says the velodromes and cycling community are the best she’s encountered.

Nissy has been racing since she was 12, but since her first race she has learned not to come second because she celebrated before the finish line. These days, she pedals past the line and is working hard on an elite track racing career and being a good mom to her black cat named Eartha Katt. 

If you bump into Nissy at a bar, she says she prefers ginger kombucha. Given that she isn’t boozing you’ll have to use your charm to get her to tell you the hilarious story about her “third eye” scar and how her sister managed to propel a makeshift surfboard into Nissy’s forehead!

NIssy is a hard worker, as you can see form her race results. She does recall missing work one day when she crashed, had road rash all over her ass and took a painkiller to make it through her shift. Next thing she knew she felt even worse and decided to call in “My manager answered the phone and I remember my mind going sort of blank but knowing what I needed to say and I remember my mouth moving but apparently I was speaking in tongues. I later found out that I was super allergic to the pain medication because on top of losing my ability to form words I also broke out into a full body rash. ”

What's your favourite photo of yourself? why? My favorite photo of me is from one of the years that I volunteered at Cycle Oregon, and someone snapped a shot of me as I was getting ready to ride for the day. I had my hair out, no helmet yet, big baggy rain jack and cycling shorts, black hightop/plaid Converse on my feet, and an airsoft gun shotgun cocked to the air. I was mounted on my old neon green Bianchi Campione steel road bike, and on the fork you can see the holster that my friends and I made out of duct tape and whatever else we could find. 

Which Game of Thrones character would you be and why? Daenerys Targaryen, THE MOTHER OF DRAGONS

Cheese of Preference: Daiya Jalapeno 

Esther Walker

Esther Walker lives in San Diego California but hails from North Dakota. It wasn’t until she made it out to the best coast that she started racing bikes. She blames teammate Gretchen for this (and the fact that she now owns 7 bikes). In true Aventon Factory team style they took off on their first race together and crossed the line 2st and second with nobody else in sight. They are both excited to race together again for Aventon this year and would love to repeat that 1-2 perfomance at Red Hook.

Despite her  early showing of climbing prowess, Esther “absolutely loves cheese” and makes a mean vegetarian lasagne. If you run into Esther in a bar, she like to drink gin and tonic perhaps after several of these you might get her to tell you why her spirit animal is an octopus.

Which Game of Thrones character would you be and why? Not Joffrey, I hate Joffrey (Esther admits to not making it past season 1)

Cheese of Preference: “Do I have to pick, cheese is great, there are so many”