By Steven L. Sheffield — Melisa Rollins has established herself as one of the premier Gravel and MTB riders in the U.S., boasting major victories such as the 2024 Leadville 100 MTB, the 2023 Belgian Waffle Ride in Cedar City, Utah, and consecutive wins at the Wasatch All-Road in 2022 and 2023, while she also competed on the road with the TWENTY24-Virginia’s Blue Ridge team. Rollins is charting her own path in 2025, focusing exclusively on her preferred off-road disciplines. As she prepared for the season ahead, we had the chance to catch up with her.
SLS: I understand that you will be doing the privateer thing, concentrating on MTB and Gravel in 2025. We’ll get to that in a bit, but first I’d like to ask a few quick-fire background questions for our readers.
- Nickname(s): Mel
- Favorite food: A simple Margherita pizza, with that Neapolitan crust. I can also get behind a good Hawaiian pizza. Pineapple is in!
- Favorite coffee/tea beverage: Black coffee, anything from hotel drip to fancy café brews. I prefer a good medium roast, but I’ll drink any coffee.
- Favorite book: I just finished reading “Unbroken” (by Laura Hillenbrand) and loved it!
- Favorite movie: Terminator 2
- Favorite music: Pop-country. I started getting into Taylor Swift as a teenager and realized I liked the genre and kept searching around for more.
- Dream bike: Any kind of e-bike. They are so much fun!
SLS: How did you first get into cycling (for fun, not competition)?
MR: In 2016, I was a junior in college, and I decided to revisit cycling strictly as a hobby and signed up to complete the Leadville 100. I had dabbled as a high school rider (I did one NICA race the day of my senior prom and promptly crashed, leaving me with bloody forearms and a sour taste when it came to two wheels). I changed my mind set and went all in on training for the year. This lit a fire in me and the rest is history!
SLS: I first got to know you through the Utah Cyclocross Series, when you were convinced to come out and race by (I believe) Jeff Bender, your current fiancé. If I recall correctly, you did your first race as a “B” rider (and won) and immediately upgraded to the “A” group for the next race. First, is my memory accurate, and second, is that when you realized that cycling is a sport at which you could truly excel?
MR: The first UTCX race I did was actually in the A field! This was back in 2019, and you’re right, I was definitely encouraged to race by Jeff. He also encouraged me to jump in with two feet and race the A’s for my first outing, and I was lucky enough to come away with 3rd place after what was perhaps the toughest hour of racing I had ever had up to that point. I was immediately hooked!
SLS: Who are your heroes and inspirations as a cyclist?
MR: I’ve always been incredibly inspired by my mom as an athlete, mother, and human. She taught me from an early age how to dedicate myself fully to the things that I love. She also opened my eyes to the world of endurance sport, which I think we both may have a little bit of the same craziness for.
SLS: You will be 30 in 2025, which is when many women really start to see their potential peak, yet you have also only been actively racing at a professional level for 3 years. Where do your strengths lie (climbing, sprinting, etc.), and in what discipline do you think you are most suited to excel?
MR: Yes, I’ve been doing this professionally for just 3 years! I don’t think I’m very specifically good at one thing. I’m a pretty good climber, a decent descender, but I think I’m best at pacing myself over long distances. This seems to make me a pretty good candidate for trying to win by “going long,” and I’m typically pretty good at climbing races at altitude.
SLS: You have some big results both on MTB and Gravel over the past few years; for example, you won Chequamegon in 2021, the Wasatch All-Road in 2022 & 2023, the Belgian Waffle Ride Utah in 2023, and most recently, the Leadville 100 in 2024. Is there a particular race that really stands out against all the others?
MR: Winning the Leadville 100 this year was definitely the pinnacle of my career. The event is obviously big and there are a lot of eyes on it, but for me it is more than just a race. Leadville is where my cycling journey really began in 2016, and to come back 8 years later and win gives me a sense of pride and satisfaction that I don’t think I can properly explain to anyone.
SLS: While competition is obviously important, what is your favorite discipline (not necessarily your best one), and when are you the happiest on your bicycles?
MR: Mountain biking is my favorite discipline! I’m not the most gifted technical rider, but I’m always really motivated by seeing progress in myself ride-to-ride. I love adventuring off the beaten path and on trails that may be more suited to hikers. A little hike-a-bike adds to the adventure and leads to some of my happiest days on the bike!
SLS: Cycling is an expensive sport, not just with equipment, but with travel as well. What kind of support have you had through your career thus far to get you to where you are?
MR: I have been really lucky in my professional career to be a part of Team Twenty24. While they are traditionally a road and track development squad, they picked me up in 2021 knowing I had off-road ambitions and the desire to one day come back to win Leadville. They have supported me for the last 3 years with equipment and travel!
SLS: Your parents (mother and stepfather) are Lisa “The Hammer” Nelson and Elden “Fatty” Nelson, of Fat Cycling fame, both of whom are strong cyclists in their own right. How was it growing up in a household with competitors that strong? Did they put any pressure on you to ride and/or race while you were growing up?
MR: I think initially they exposed me to cycling, but they never put any specific pressure on me to pursue it. They were really happy to support me in anything that made me feel fulfilled. However, when I came to them in early 2016 with a hare-brained idea to train for and compete in my first Leadville 100, they were all for it.
SLS: What other sports (if any) did you participate in while you were growing up, either just with the family, or in school and college?
MR: Growing up I was a competitive high school swimmer and soccer player, but when I made it to college, I decided to fully immerse myself in academics. Instead of spending my afternoons at the pool or out on the soccer field, I spent any moment I wasn’t in class volunteering in a synthetic chemistry lab, fully convinced that that was how I’d spend the rest of my life.
SLS: After three years racing primarily on the road with the TWENTY24-Virginia Blue Ridge team, I understand that you are going to be racing as an MTB & gravel privateer in 2025. What made you decide to leave the “safety/comfort” of being on a supported team to go it alone?
MR: I have had SO many great and formative experiences during my time on Twenty24. I’ve had the opportunity to race in all of the major road stage races in the country, as well as criteriums and time trials. Being exposed to so many different types of races has really helped me narrow down what I love the most though–which is gravel and off-road racing. As the team enters into a new cycle of Olympic development and a name change to Twenty28, we are amicably splitting ways as I focus on gravel, and they focus on creating pathways for road and track cyclists to get to the Olympics in LA.
SLS: Who are your sponsors for 2025, and what kind of support will they be giving you?
MR: My 2025 sponsors include Liv, The Feed, SRAM, ZIPP, Hammerhead, Time, Kenda, Assos, and Silca. With the combination of all of these sponsors I’ll have technical support at the races, nutritional and equipment support to train and financial support to be able to focus on cycling full time. It’s going to be a great year!
SLS: Is your support enough that you can concentrate on cycling as a full-time job, or like many women cyclists, do you have to work an outside job as well to pay the bills?
MR: As of this year (2024) I actually have not had to have a full-time job to support me while cycling. In April of this year, I took a step back from my job as a chemist to focus more “full-time” on cycling. This was obviously a kind of scary financial decision for me as I wasn’t making nearly the same amount from my cycling ambitions, but in the end, I actually believe this decision gave me the freedom and capability to step it up to the next level.
SLS: I understand that Sarah Kaufmann (K Cycling Coaching) has been your main coach for the past few years. What makes her such a great coach for you, and how has she helped you progress? Do you feel that you are close to reaching your maximum potential, or is there still more development and fine-tuning that can be done to really dial in your peak performance?
MR: Sarah is actually not my current coach, but she was my first coach in 2019, and she played a really formative and impactful role in my cycling career. She helped develop me into a confident rider who could excel in both training and racing. She taught me how to take cues from my body to know when to push and when to rest. She also was a great listening ear to all of the problems that arose in both life and cycling, and to this day she is still one of my best friends.
SLS: Have you figured out your program for 2025 yet? Where will we first see you racing next year, and what are your biggest goals for the season?
MR: I have pretty much figured out my program for 2025! I’ll be participating in the Lifetime Grand Prix again and will be focusing on defending my title at the Leadville 100 in the Fall. I’m excited to also be able to throw in some newer (to me) spring races, as up until this point in my cycling career the spring has been pretty booked out with a full road calendar.
SLS: Finally, when are we going to see you back destroying the field at Utah Cyclocross?
MR: Haha. I was actually envious to watch how many strong ladies were out racing the A’s this year in UTCX. The Life Time Gran Prix is demanding and already requires riders to have a long season. Pushing the season further into the winter to pursue cyclocross could be a little bit too much for me, I think.
I have to admit that 45-60 min races do sound like a nice change compared to the standard 6- or 7-hour gravel race! If it works out with my schedule, I’d love to throw down with the girls in a few local races, but I don’t think I have the capacity to incorporate a full season.
In 2025, Melisa Rollins will be competing under the banner of the Liv Racing Collective. The Collective is Liv Cycling’s syndicate of privateer athletes who compete across multiple disciplines around the world, at national, continental and international road, triathlon, gravel, cyclocross, and mountain bike races. Privateers are athletes who do not race for a team in the traditional sense, but rather put together their own list of sponsors and individual programs. For more information on the Liv Racing Collective, see https://www.liv-cycling.com/us/teams-and-riders/liv-racing-collective/133
Since this interview was conducted, Rollins competed in her first race as a Liv privateer, jump-starting her season by finishing second just 5 seconds behind favorite Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon/SRAM) at the RADL GRVL in McLaren Vale, South Australia, near Cromwell’s hometown of Adelaide.
Go Melisa!! Hope you have a great 2025!