Inside Line with Alexis Alden

Like so many others, Alexis Alden's BMX journey started with a family outing to the BMX track to try out the sport, which became a passion that has continued for over a decade. When she first tried out BMX racing, she just wanted to keep up with her brother John. In today’s world of BMX racing, Alexis Alden is one of the fastest amateurs on the track.

Starting her journey at Whittier Narrows BMX in LA County, Alden has come a long way since her first time touching tires to dirt. As the 2023 national number one amateur girl, she has put herself on the map throughout the BMX world with her speed and off-track persona, giving back to the community she grew up in. Say hello to Double-A, the rising star from a California grom to a household name. 

When talking to Alexis Alden, it’s clear that she knows she’s fortunate for the life she lives. She started the sport of BMX racing at six years old when her brother John and her dad, Big John, took her to the track. She started racing BMX when she saw her brother becoming obsessed, and from that day at Whittier Narrows BMX, she began her journey, met one of her lifelong friends, Keiley Shea, and took the steps that many of you reading this have also taken.

Getting her bearings in the sport as a novice in 2013 and progressing to the next proficiency level, where she made the jump to regional and national levels, Alexis had plenty of role models to look up to at the track. 

“Joris Daudet would come out to Whittier Narrows, and he was so nice, he would ride the track. I had Shane Harlow, Dick Cheeseburger, and Courtney Tomei. Those are the people that we looked up to. We also had Danny George at the time. George was a good person that I looked up to for the majority of my riding at Whittier.”

Often, a BMX racer's ability to win comes from those around them. With a local program at Whittier that combined a fun atmosphere with some of the fastest speeds worldwide, Alexis Alden soon contributed to that winning atmosphere. Earning her first win at the Cajun nationals in 2016, we can follow her career with her wins. Securing eight wins in the 2016 season, the Alden family begin their travels throughout the country. With more and more success, young Alden enjoyed her time traveling to new places and riding her bike at new facilities. With winning comes added pressure for some, but Alexis Alden looks back on that time and remembers the people around her having the most significant impact on her outlook toward racing. 

“I think the people really made you stay, and especially when you're young and going to travel, its an ‘I get to go to this new state. That's super cool.’ And I think that kept me more interested in BMXs, my friends, and riding new tracks I've never ridden before.”

The Alexis Alden of today has a similar outlook on staying grounded with her success but in the reverse perspective. 

“I really like, giving back in the sense that I see, especially my teammates, I see a lot of young riders where I was, and I enjoy mentoring younger riders and giving them what I had when I was younger or giving them more than what I had. But I was pretty fortunate when I was younger, but I really like helping younger riders, and I feel like that motivates me more to keep doing what I enjoy.”

Becoming a role model for the younger generation following her, Alden looks towards her heroes when filling those role model shoes. As the younger sibling in her family, Alexis looked towards her older brother, John Alden. It was through his work ethic, determination, and attitude toward the athletic side of the sport that Alexis pulls her motivation from.

“I really look up to my brother John. he's inspired me in so many ways. He goes to college now, so he doesn't really ride with me anymore, but he helps me get motivated because I've seen everything he's gone through and all he has faced. Him being my brother and having him through this sport, even though he didn't enjoy racing as much. Seeing him ride and wanting to be, that is just someone I really look up to.”

Watching her brother through the sport and into his new college chapter, Alexis also plans to further her education. As a senior in high school, Alden learned to balance her BMX and school, where she became interested in pursuing Chemistry as a Major after high school. That BMX-school balance can get tricky when traveling to races across the country, but coming home from Thanksgiving break with a National No.1 Title opened her classmates' and teachers' eyes to BMX racing. 

Throughout the 2024 season, Alden has come to love and respect running the National No.1 plate. She sees it as a reminder of her accomplishment and as a source of motivation to earn another one. Seeing a reminder of an entire year's worth of training and racing ignites that inner spark every time she gets on her bike. While Alden has God-given talent that helps her on the track, she also has a support system that guides her to success. 

“I like to take it a race at a time. It's really good to visualize your race mentally, and I like to visualize it as just me and the gate. It's just me racing myself, and there are other opponents, but it's just me and my race, and really keeping my mind clear of that really helps me focus and not get too nervous”…. ”That’s what my coach Brandon and my dad tell me and have been telling me, It's just you and the gate.”

On the day of her title-winning lap, Alden ran through that thought process once again, leading to the 15-16x Girls main event on Sunday night. 

“Honestly, I was in another mental. I'm not saying no thoughts were going on, but I had to be confident within myself and Jesus. I know that he's given me talent, and I just had to play it through and literally trust the process. I think that was the main reason I wasn't nervous because it was, ‘Okay, it's just any other race. It's my race, my gate. I gotta get out and don't change a thing,” and that's all I did.”

From a Title contender to a Title winner, Double A has been seen through the 2024 season taking the jump into the Junior Women's ranks. Getting her big hill confidence up to par with a new class and taking her racing skills up to the Championship level, Alden looks forward to next season and beyond. 

“I raced a few UCI races here in America, and they went pretty good. I made my first ever UCI Junior Main, too. I ended up getting seventh, but that's still great, I made it in there, which is pretty good. But I definitely want to do my second-year Junior, and depending on how I feel, I might want to hit some World Cups. I have to figure that out, but that would be really cool if  I can at least do one.”

With a jump into the Junior class and getting her feet wet in the international side of the sport, the looming question is when will the Women Pro class see Double-A join their ranks?

“I'm still deciding. I definitely want to go Pro within the next year and a half or so. I definitely would rather do it sooner than later.” … “I want to become a professional BMX racer, and I'd say my biggest goal is to make the 2028 LA Olympics. That's probably my biggest goal that I'm going to reach for. After that, whatever happens happens, but I'd say Olympics is a dream that I definitely want to see and live out.”

Talent and bike skill aside, Double A Alexis Alden has the work ethic and determination to become a major player in the world of BMX. We have already seen her go from the California grom to the title-winning teen. Now, we watch along with many of you as she leaps into some of the most pivotal years of her future BMX career. With each race being only her and the gate, we foresee many more fast laps from the Georgian who will keep that young girl from Whittier Narrows BMX by her side for years to come. 

“Thank you to my sponsors for supporting me. Thanks to my brother, and thank you, God for giving me this opportunity.”

Volume 14 / Issue 5