TRGR Rider Profile: Shayna Powless
by Marshall Opel
Next year’s Gravel Royale is shaping up to be one of the most exciting races on the (hopefully post COVID19) 2021 calendar. If you’re fast and plan to race rather than merely ride from Panorama to Fernie, you’ll most certainly find the wheel of Shanya Powless. Shayna is a professional cyclist racing for Team Twenty20, one of the most iconic teams in women’s cycling. Her impressive resume of road racing results, combined with experience off-road stage racing and pro mountain biking will surely help her compete for a top spot next August.
In 2019, Powless and a teammate traveled to Cape Town, South Africa for the grueling eight day Cape Epic stage race where they won the time trial in the mixed category and finished third in the general classification. “It was for sure the hardest race I’ve ever done in terms of the volume and intensity.” If eight days of back-to-back racing with big mileage, tons of climbing and a stacked field wasn’t enough to push Powless on her limit, she also got sick midway through the race. “Somehow my legs pushed through and we won the co-ed time trial.” But that’s how Powless does things. “My goal as a professional cyclist is to give 100% everyday, be the best teammate I can be, and inspire others to live healthier, active lives.”
Powless takes her role as a professional athlete beyond racing. Together with her partner, Eli Ankou, she founded Dream Catcher Foundation, a nonprofit aimed at inspiring Native youth to lead healthy lives through sport as well as raising awareness for the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) pandemic.
Both Powless and Ankou are First Nations members. Powless is a member of the Oneida tribe of Indians of Wisconsin and Ankou is a member of the Dokis (Ojibwe) tribe in Ontario, Canada. Ankou plays football in the NFL and last year, hosted the first Dream Catcher youth football camp for 150 kids in his hometown of Ottawa.
The Gravel Royale will be Powless’ first gravel race. For 2021, her team, Twenty20, will expand beyond road racing to add both e-sport and gravel events to their push towards the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. Powless says she’ll be joined by several teammates and they won't be afraid to use tactics. “We’ll definitely try to use some road tactics such as drafting, attacking, and communicating whenever possible.”
As for the gravel genre at large, Powless expects it to keep its upward trajectory. “I think we will continue to see the gravel discipline grow over the coming years as more and more athletes from other disciplines cross-over. I also expect many cyclists from other disciplines will use gravel racing as cross-training or may just switch over to gravel racing altogether.” Powless says the road racing community can learn from gravel to see racing from a different perspective. “When I look at gravel racing, I see it as something fun, different, and new, with so much endless opportunity and room for growth. I also tend to see gravel events having fun, chill, down-to-earth vibes that I don’t always see at professional road events.”
If you’re lucky enough to find Shayna’s wheel at next year’s Gravel Royale, hold on! And say thanks for the important work she’s doing to inspire First Nations kids and raise awareness for MMIWG.