Introducing Kathi Krause of Dirt Rock n Root Training

Kathi Krause, owner and head coach of Dirt Rock n Root Training, LLC started her cycling career on the velodrome and worked her way through criteriums, road, cyclocross, and cross country before finding her way to the Pro Downhill circuit where she spent 10 years on various teams. During that time she won three Masters World Downhill Championships, five Masters National Downhill Championships, and many other laurels, including victory in the prestigious Kamikaze Downhill race in 2004 and most recently taking 2nd Overall in the Hawaii Winter Downhill Series.

In 2011, with 25 years of racing behind her, Kathi acquired her instructor certification and started Dirt Rock n Root Training. Since then, she has been involved in training camps up and down the East Coast – including Mountain Creek Bike Park, Beech Mountain, Snowshoe Mountain Bike Park, Whiteface Mountain, Plattekill Bike Park, Highland Mountain Bike Park, and at Cranx, Ray’s and The Wheel Mill Indoor Bike Parks.

Not just a downhiller, Kathi runs a Technical Trails Series in Northern NJ to get folks more comfortable working on rocky technical trails. She is part of the coaching team for the Ladies AllRide Tour, Michaux Mountain Bike School, the Sundance Midwest Women's Mountain Bike Clinic, and conducts local trail clinics for CLIMB and JORBA.

DRRT’s main mission is to help bring more women into mountain biking and to promote mountain biking as a lifetime sport. Kathi has spent the past 10 years helping build the local community of female mountain bikers. One of these goals is to provide these women connections to other like-minded women to ride and train with. 

DRRT clinics help by teaching skills that weren't available during Kathi's race years. She enjoys teaching beginners new skills and finds nothing more satisfying than seeing the look of excitement on a rider’s face as they accomplish those skills for the first time!

Although she retired from racing in 2008, Kathi dipped her toes into some racing at the 2010 Megavalanche in France where she finished 15th in the master women’s race and she also took 2nd overall in the 2014 Hawaii Winter Downhill Series. When not coaching, you can find Kathi out crushing rocks on the rocky NJ trails close to home or shredding the downhill trails at her home mountain - Mountain Creek Bike Park.

Kathi's Racing Highlights

World Masters Downhill Champion (1999, 2001, 2002)
World Masters Downhill Silver Medalist (2000)
NORBA Masters National Downhill Champion (1998-2002)
1st place Kamikazi Downhill, Mammoth Mountain 2004 – Pro Women
2nd OverallGravity East Downhill Series, Pro Women, 2007
2nd Place – US Open of Mountain Biking, Vernon, NJ 2003
2nd Overall – Ironhorse DH Series, Mount Snow, VT 2007
2nd Place Overall — Hawaii Downhill Series 2015
SouthEast Dual Slalom Champion -1997
Plattekill Extreme Downhill Series Champion (1998, 2001, 2002)
8 Times NY/NJ State Track Champion (1986 – 1993)
NJ State Cyclocross Champion (1998)
1994 & 1995- NORBA #1 ranking, North Atlantic Regional Cross Country - Vet Women
1994 NJ and NY State Champion, Cross Country, Senior Women