The NSMB Podcast: Kasper Woolley – Coming Of Age

Our guest for the latest NSMB Podcast, and the first of our Coming of Age series, is Kasper Woolley, a young and fast EWS athlete who hails from Squamish, B.C., who is now racing for the Yeti/OneUp Pro EWS team

Kasper first caught the eye of brands as a junior, after his stage results at a local race were faster than the pro men. Since then, Kasper has grown stronger on the bike and in 2020 made heaps of noise showcasing his speed and cornering skills in a series of short videos. His talent and hard work paid off during the 2020 Crankworx Summer Series, where he was a regular on the podium and the top Canadian EWS athlete at the events, whether enduro or downhill. Kasper went on to close the race season with a win at the Big Mountain Enduro in Winter Park, beating Richie Rude in the process.

Now part of the Yeti/OneUp EWS team with Jared Graves, Kasper’s pitting at the races with the Yeti Factory team and getting comfortable with the benefits of race day support. Being young, one might expect Kasper to be all over social media, but he prefers to provide value to his partners through racing, which takes priority over banger video clips. A refreshing perspective, particularly coming from a young athlete.

Topics Discussed:

• Racing in Europe and his success during the first 2021 EWS block of racing
• Bike setup and what works for him
• Getting into bikes and growing up in Squamish
• His focus on ski racing
• Migrating from ski to bike racing
• Injuries and dealing with a prolactinoma brain tumour
• Lessons from ski racing that could benefit bike event organizers/federations
• The pressures of social media
• The smaller number of opportunities to race in MTB
• The importance of skill and technique development as a professional racer
• Remaining races in 2021
• Thoughts on the doubleheader EWS events
• Racing with wrist braces
• Racing World Cup DH and EWS in the same season
• Compact drivetrains for the EWS

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Yeti Cycles
• OneUp Components
• Kasper’s Instagram

The NSMB Podcast: Obsessed with Mountain Biking is available on all of your favourite podcast apps:

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Stitcher
• Overcast
• Google Podcasts