Hey Neighbour – Elladee Brown ft. Tara Llanes

Back when mountain biking hadn’t even been elevated to Fringe, Elladee Brown was pretty much a teen idol.

Every month we’d all get our fix on what was happening in mountain biking, and when I was at my peak of fanboi-dom, the young, fresh-faced British Columbian girl was starting to make an impression with her race results, and with those of us in search of our first celebrity crush.

I was pre-riding the Mount Snow Nationals course in 1991 and was passed by a gaggle of Pro Women. Being 19 at the time, I accelerated to see if I could catch up. Just as I reconnected toward the bottom of the roughest descent, a bottle jettisoned from Elladee’s bike.

I stuck it in my jersey pocket, and pedaled as fast as I could for a good 20 minutes. I tasted blood in my throat, and was destroyed, but I did finally catch up when the ladies paused at the side of the trail. I bashfully approached Elladee, interrupting her with a “hey, you dropped this…” That’s all I could muster, trying to mask my intimidation and exhaustion.

“That’s Rad! Thanks!” she said, as she dropped the bottle into her cage and took off with her friends.

Our paths crossed again in 2001 and I’d moved out west to work with Norco’s marketing department. My desk happened to be next to Elladee’s, who was the Team Coordinator and I soon learned about her quick wit.

One day, in response to Camelbak releasing a women’s specific model, someone said, incredulously “What’s can be so different about a women’s Camelbak?” Elladee immediately shouted “Smaller Bladder” and continued typing away at her sponsorship proposal.

Because we were both at Norco in 2001, it’s not surprising that my 9-11 memory includes Elladee.

A bunch of us from work had decided to head up to the Whistler Bike Park before it closed for the season. Elladee spent the entire drive talking on the phone with a close friend whose family was from New York. While there was still riding to be done that day, there was a black cloud over us all. What has stuck with me about that day is Elladee’s compassion; a friend needed her and her support was given without question.

Every chance I’ve had to ride with her, she never had anything to prove, never had to make excuses, and never talked about how awesome she was. She just rode – and she rode awesome.

Because the 80’s and early 90’s provided no real way to connect with your idols, it was easy to be disappointed if you got to meet them in person.

After meeting her, and getting to know her – seeing her ability as a rider, her quick wit, and her capacity to care for the people around her – I have to say that Elladee Brown surpassed the person even the 19-year-old fanboi imagined her to be.

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Who’s cutting onions?