Missy ‘Missile’ Giove Returns To Racing

Those of you of a certain age or those who follow the history of mountain biking will be familiar with the name Missy Giove, and some of you will also be familiar with her unfortunate descent from one time top DH champ to inmate following her incarceration in the US for possession with intent to supply marijuana.

Missy – real name Melissa – retired from top flight racing in 2003 and then popped back into the spotlight when she was arrested in 2009 in possession of 175kg of marijuana, drug packaging materials, a money counting machine and $1m in cash. She pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced in 2011 to time served plus 6 months followed by 5 years of supervised release.

At the time of Missy’s arrest DEA Special Agent in Charge John P. Gilbride was clearly looking to make a name for himself in the art of cunning puns when he said, “Drug trafficking can lead you downhill fast. From championship mountain biking to street level drug dealing, the only reason people turn to drug trafficking is to make a profit from the sale of illicit narcotics. DEA and our law enforcement partners successfully put the brakes on this drug trafficking organization and put them out of business.”

Caught, sentenced, imprisoned and finally released under supervision in New York state the conditions of her sentence dictate that until her supervision period is up in 2016 she cannot leave the state of New York. Which all goes a long way to explaining her surprising reappearance and emergence from retirement at the age 43 at the New York state round of the UCI World Cup DH in Windam. It was clearly an opportunity that the geographically challenged rider didn’t want to miss. Just don’t expect to see her at any none New York based races until the end of next year.

So, she’s been out of prison since 2011 but restricted to the state of New York. She’s now 43 years old. The question is can she still hold her own among the current crop of world standard female riders that she’s old enough to be the mother of?

Well, she’s just completed her qualifying run and you can see for yourself here on the Redbull.tv website.

Mark Alker

Singletrack Owner/Publisher

Mark has been riding mountain bikes for over 30 years and co-owns Singletrack, where he's been publisher for 25 years. While his official title might be Managing Director, his actual job description is "whatever needs doing" – from wrangling finances and keeping the lights on to occasionally remembering to ride bikes for fun rather than just work. He's seen the sport evolve from rigid forks to whatever madness the industry dreams up next, and he's still not entirely sure what "gravel" is. When he's not buried in spreadsheets or chasing late invoices, he's probably thinking about his next ride.

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