'I may not have a ridden a bike, but I’m f*****g strong' - British gravel racer has unusual off-season ahead of Sea Otter Classic

Annabel Fisher tells Cycling Weekly about her ski racing season ahead of returning to gravel

Annabel Fisher
(Image credit: Annabel Fisher)

British gravel racer Annabel Fisher believes she is in the best physical shape possible ahead of the Sea Otter Classic on Thursday, saying that she will be “above and beyond” the rest of the competition despite riding her bike just a handful of times this winter.

Speaking to Cycling Weekly before flying to America for the event, Fisher said her unusual off-season, which consists of regular cross-country skiing competitions, means she is in the shape of her life ahead of the 100km-plus event in California, the first event of the 2025 Life Time Grand Prix.

"Today I did just my sixth bike ride of the year," Fisher said as she recounted her training. "My preparation is not at all the norm, it's just not cycling. In October I put the bikes in the garage and they then don’t get touched for a while. I start skiing in around the second week of December and do a fair bit of ski racing. It's cross-country skiing that I do, not downhill, so I've skied 3,000 kilometres over 178 hours and completed 41,000 metres of elevation gain. That's what my preparation for my gravel season looks like. I may not have ridden a bike but I’m fucking strong."

She said: "I’ll do maybe another two or three rides before the event so Sea Otter will be about my tenth bike ride since last October. Physically I feel I'm above and beyond the rest of the field because cross-country skiers are some of the strongest athletes in the world, no matter where you put them. I guess my preparation has been non-stop, but it's just very different from what you might expect."

"My bike is a brand called Bixs," she said. "It's Swiss designed and I believe the frame is actually welded together in Zurich. The bike was actually designed about four years ago when gravel first started becoming a thing in Europe. I'm super happy with the geometry and how it handles. It's super twitchy, super reactive and really nice to ride. We've done it up with SRAM, it's actually got a mountain bike derailleur on it as it helps it go faster. I’ve got Zipp wheels too."

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Tom Thewlis
News and Features Writer

After previously working in higher education, Tom joined Cycling Weekly in 2022 and hasn't looked back. He's been covering professional cycling ever since; reporting on the ground from some of the sport's biggest races and events, including the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and the World Championships. His earliest memory of a bike race is watching the Tour on holiday in the early 2000's in the south of France - he even made it on to the podium in Pau afterwards. His favourite place that cycling has taken him is Montréal in Canada.

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