Sarah Caylor

Caledon’s Sarah “Crash’” Caylor thrives on challenge, and last year the 24-hour, solo World Endurance Mountain Bike Organisation Championships provided plenty of that.

The WEMBO course – on Mount Stromlo near Canberra, Australia’s capital – was extremely demanding, with steep inclines and equally steep drops. But Caylor nailed it, emerging at the top of her age group (50 to 54) and adding to Headwaters’ reputation for producing top-notch mountain bikers.

Though plagued this year by a hand injury that required surgery, Caylor still tested herself by entering the Highland Trail 550. This 550-mile bikepacking race through the Scottish Highlands requires riders to carry their own supplies and arrange their own overnight accommodations, which are often trailside bivouacs.

“My first-ever 24-hour race was in Albion Hills in 2001 with a local team called Tree Huggers, organized by Richard Ehrlich and his spouse, Barb Campbell,” says Caylor. “It was during this race that I earned my nickname – ‘Crash’ – by crashing face first into a sand pit. The name stuck.”

The adventure cyclist also competes in eight-hour races, 12-hour races, hundred milers and marathons, as well as short and fast 1.5- to three-hour races.

And she has twice ridden the Tour Divide, an annual 4,345-kilometre, bikepacking race that winds through the passes of the Continental Divide between Banff, Alberta, and Antelope Wells, New Mexico. The rugged course can take anywhere from 13 days to two months to complete. In 2014 Caylor finished in 22 days, a time that earned her second place among solo women competitors. An indication of the significance of this feat is the time of the third-place finisher, who took nearly five more days to cross the finish line.

In Caylor’s youth, her passion was equestrian eventing, but as an adult, she found that she preferred to test herself rather than a horse – and switched to running. She has participated in 12 marathons, including two Boston Marathons, and trained and raced in Ironman and Half Ironman triathlons (endurance races comprising swimming, cycling and running), as well as XTERRA world championship triathlons, placing ninth and 10th in her age category.

But injuries started to plague her. Nerve damage and two separated shoulders made the swimming phase of triathlon impossible. So she shifted her focus to the challenges of mountain biking.

Story Continues Below Advertisements

“The mountain biking community is great,” she says. “There are many popular trails in the area, which accommodate all levels of riders. It’s an inclusive sport, with trails for hand cycles in the development stages at Albion Hills.”

Apart from five years spent in Austin, Texas, when in her 20s, Caylor has always happily called Caledon home. A qualified chef, she spends the winter months working in the food industry and summers as a maintenance gardener.

She belongs to the Caledon Cycling Club and is a regular at the Mansfield Outdoor Centre. This winter, she’s likely to be spotted flying along Headwaters’ snow-covered trails on her fat bike as she prepares to meet the next challenges she has set for herself.