Female, sportswoman, bold, beautiful, fighter, feisty, creative, fun, … We’re running out of adjectives for this girl named Juliet and passionate for cycling. A girl who isn’t willing to waste a moment of her life, and choose to make the most of it doing what she likes.

1. Who is Juliet Elliott?

I’m a woman who loves bikes, and that’s about it.

2. We see your signature on some articles of COVEN MAG, what is this project for you?

Coven Magazine set out to be the kind of magazine that I’d want to read, so it’s all about inspiring, creative women who totally kick ass yet don’t get enough attention. I think it’s really important to present an alternative to what’s already out there already; there’s an overwhelming abundance of shit served up to women.

I do the bulk of the work myself – editing, design, marketing, production, etc. and I also work with various contributors including my friends Hannah Bailey and Nathan Gallagher.

It’s a huge amount of work and sometimes I wonder why I’m doing. It’s certainly not for the money…

3. The bikes in your life. What’s the magic between you and bike? What makes you like so much this magic “object”?

I’ve written extensively about my love affair with the bicycle, but here’s the short version; a few reasons why I like bikes so much.

• Bikes are just fun – like most sports, cycling is pointless really; the only reason to do it is for pleasure. It’s a game and bikes are my toys.
• I love being outside
• I love exploring and seeing as much of the world as I can, whether that’s tiny old backstreets in London or the vast, openness of Dartmoor, and on a bike I’m able to greedily drink in more than on foot. Walking is so slow; you don’t get to cover much distance on foot… bikes are so much better.
• I like to be challenged. I push myself to ride faster, to learn new tricks or refine my technique, and the sense of accomplishment is pretty awesome.
• I really like going fast.
• I can’t get enough of doing jumps; being airborne is probably my favorite thing in the world. I guess that’s why I like snowboarding so much too.
• I like to focus all my energy and attention on one thing, to the exclusion of everything else. I am a real worrier and unfortunately I’ve a tendency to become quite down sometimes, so I really need activities such as cycling that focus my attention away from whatever stupid thing is bothering me.
• Cycling just makes me feel good. It’s the endorphins no doubt.

4. Favorite kind of cycling?

My favorite kind of cycling – well that changes all the time. I’ll go through phases of wanting to ride BMX every day, or sometimes it’s mountain bikes or road bikes. But on the whole, I enjoy all of it, just anything with wheels and pedals.

5. Your best place to ride?

The best place I’ve been riding… well it depends on what bike. Riding fixed gear in New York was so much fun, I really loved that. As for mountain biking, well my trip to The Mountain Bike Chalet in Les Arcs last year was up there with the best riding experiences ever.

6. What do you think about the wave of fixed gear?

I’m not totally sure what you mean… are you talking about the growing number of fixed gear cyclists who are starting to race either seriously or professionally? If that’s what you mean, well I think it totally makes sense. It’s a natural progression I’d say – for me fixed gear was like a ‘gateway drug;’ it sparked my interest in cycling and everything else grew from there.

7. The video We’re italians with Dave Noaks is incredible. It’s a great job. What can you tell us about the “behind the sceens”?

Hey thanks, glad you liked it. Dave and I were flown out to Italy by Met Helmets to make that video, which was a fantastic experience. Previously, neither of us had ridden road bikes in the Alps, so we were blown away by the scenery – that road, the Splugen Pass got me really excited when I first saw it. I couldn’t wait to ride up it! You know you’re a cycle geek when you get excited by a road!

When Met asked us both to come to Italy for the video, Dave and I were actually kind of worried that the video might be a bit cheesy; we were really hoping there wouldn’t be shots of us gazing longingly at each other or cycling along holding hands, haha. Thankfully, it wasn’t like that at all, it just showed two cyclists riding about in a beautiful place, and if you didn’t know us, I don’t think you’d necessarily guess we are together.

After filming the video, we went to Florence for a couple of days then on to Eroica. It was such a great trip. I love Italy!

8. London is your city right? What can you tell us about being a cyclist in such a huge city?

Nope, I don’t live in London anymore and haven’t for about two years. I actually live in a small town in Devon, near the sea and the hills. It’s a very beautiful area and so good for cycling.

9. What you most like about London basically.

Well even though I don’t live there anymore, I still love London. Riding fixed gear in London is the shit, I bloody love it. I know the city so well after being a messenger there.

The thing I like most about London is my friends, but after that I really like the parks, the river, the food, the galleries and the museums. I really like the pace of London, it’s still exciting to me. There’s always something going on and I love people watching.

10. RAD RACE Berlin. We saw you in action in this race. What do you think about this new kind of races? And how was the event in general in your opinion?

I loved Rad Race! I really enjoyed the event; I just thought it was so much fun. I much preferred this format as opposed to the longer crits where everyone goes at once and you ride for about 40 minutes. It felt like skill was really important, not just fitness, whereas with some of the bigger, longer crits, you have to be pro racer who trains 5 million hours a week and races every weekend to even stand a chance…

11. What about Juliet outside bike world?

Hmm, I don’t know that I have any juicy secrets that I can share, sorry to disappoint!

If I’m not cycling, I’m normally cooking or eating. I love food and there aren’t any good restaurants where I live so Dave and I learnt to cook instead. Other than that, well I adore animals, can’t get enough of reading, I play guitar and banjo… I used to be a session guitarist and played to 20,000 people when in a pop band, that was pretty nuts. I love camping, surfing, snowboarding, climbing. I love beer but get drunk really easily.

12. What can you suggest to all the girls who want to enter the world of bikes?

What would I suggest to all the girls that want to get into the world of bikes? Well, just get a bike and ride it, stop overthinking everything! I don’t know why people don’t just do stuff – the amount of times I hear, ‘oh, I wish I did that.’… it’s just silly, just bloody do it, everyone has to start somewhere and it’s never too late.

Being a girl in the world of bikes is pretty awesome, because being a girl is rad, even more so now that a lot of events have finally had enough sense to include a women’s category.

13. Thanks to…

My sponsors Charge Bikes, Met Helmets and Vans.