'I don't feel done' - Ellen Noble returns to elite cyclocross competition to prove she is still 'tough, capable, powerful'

After a six-year absence from a full cyclocross campaign, Ellen Noble makes her return to Rochester Cyclocross this weekend for two days of UCI races that are part of the US Cyclocross Series (USCX).

It's been a steady reconnection to cycling, through gravel, mountain and 'cross, for the two-time US U23 cyclocross national champion since illness and injuries left her struggling.

"I came out of retirement, or whatever you want to call it, because I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I wanted to prove that I was still tough and capable and powerful. And I have this belief in myself again that I maybe have never had," Noble told Cyclingnews.

"So I realized recently that I already accomplished the thing that I came here to do, but I don't feel done. I feel like I'm just getting started. So I guess the goal is to take it as far as I can go, but with my time off and the healing and growth that I did in the interim, there's part of me that wonders if I can be the best I've ever been."

As a junior and under-23 rider, Noble hit the spotlight as a rising talent during eight seasons on the cyclocross circuit in the US and then in international competition. By 2013, she had won her first junior national title at in cyclocross and the next year won mountain bike titles in Super Downhill and short track cross-country, before winning her first elite women's UCI races as a junior.

After back-to-back US U23 national titles in 2016 and 2017, plus her first of two Pan-American Cyclocross wins, she then earned a silver medal for U23 women at the World Championships in Bieles, Luxembourg. She was set to make waves as an elite rider, or so it seemed.

In 2018 she earned a bronze medal in XCO at US MTB Nationals and then lined up for the 2018-2019 'cross season, taking eight wins and six more podiums before some tough rounds at World Cup races. However, after finishing outside the top 20 at Cyclocross Worlds in February 2019, she was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and told Cyclingnews previously that her "drive to win was gone, my energy was gone".

"When I was super young, I always raced mountain [bikes]. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I started doing 'cross. I was really just starting to do what I wanted to do when I stopped racing."

She continued with some mountain bike events and in the spring of 2021 she crashed in a US Pro Cup mountain bike race in Arkansas, suffering three fractures in her spine. She announced several months later that it was time for an "indefinite" break from racing. That break lasted three long years, when she made a return at a couple of US cyclocross races on the east coast last year.

"It feels crazy to say, I'm almost 30 and I didn't race for three years. But I don't know what's stopping me," she declared. "At the moment, I feel like I've found a lot of strategies that are working for me to keep it at bay.

"I'm so in awe of the sport as a whole. But during my hiatus, I started doing enduro and downhill racing, so it's really helped the confidence factor, wow. So maybe that's the New England mountain bike tie, that is the gravity component."

She's also mixed gravel into her repertoire. She began her full-time job as a digital specialist with marketing agency Q+M at the start of 2025, which included client work for SBT GRVL. In June, Noble completed the 79-mile SBT GRVL amateur race while serving as a mentor with the GRVL Femmes Team Challenge.

"When the Gravel Femmes started, obviously Q+M part of that process, I was asked if I want to do [ride] the event, and I said the only way that I would really want to do it would be if I could lead a team. That's where the mentorship component started," Noble told Cyclingnews in June at SBT GRVL.

"It's been cool to see the Gravel Femme initiative evolve, from how do we get more women on the start line all the way to where we are now."

Gravel Femmes teams included three or more riders, opening registrations to an otherwise sold out event, and providing captains - Noble, former pros Alison Tetrick and Christie Tracy among them - to nurture a new experience of building to complete a gravel race. Noble said her team had riders doing their longest ride ever as well as making comebacks from injuries, so their goal was to "finish and be happy".

Based in Massachusetts, Noble spent much of her summer on long gravel rides in New England, and supporting the JAM Fund with their Grand Fundo Charity Gravel Bike Ride. She stepped into 'cross racing for just four races last year, but now has made the switch back for a dedicated fall campaign.

She last won the C1 race in Rochester in 2017, finishing that season as the elite women's silver medalist at CX nationals in Reno, Nevada. She'll line up with new sponsor Salsa Cycles on Saturday at Rochester Cyclocross, a course at Genesee Valley Park packed with obstacles, include a modified cobbled section and technical climbing features at Double-Trouble and The Wall.

Lining up in Rochester alongside Noble are four riders at the top of the USCX standings after the opening C1/C2 weekend at GO Cross - Maghalie Rochette (SRAM-Seeker), Manon Bakker (Crelan-Corendon), Sidney McGill (Lastig Off-road Racing) and Caroline Mani (Velomafia).

On a recent Instagram post, she emphasised that the feeling she gets at the start line makes her happy to race again: "Racing has always been the reward. Love the opportunity to play and let the hard work run wild. I love to remind myself that I choose to do this. I’m grateful for every opportunity to go deep in this wonderful sport."