Raised in the Green Mountain State, Greta Kilburn is a multi-sport athlete on the rise as she enters her senior year at the University of Vermont. A collegiate nordic skier in the winter, she’s now in the midst of the summer mountain bike season where she successfully took home two national titles in the cross-country short track (XCC) and cross-country olympic (XCO) disciplines at the recent US national championships! With those results as well as a promising block of European racing already under her belt, she earned a spot at the World Championships in Val di Sole, Italy in late August. We recently caught up with Greta before her late summer return to Europe.

We’re proud to have you onboard as an UnTapped athlete as fueling is such a huge part of performance. What’s your go-to nutrition strategy on race day?

UnTapped products have worked so well for me over the years for racing and training. I love the Gels, Waffles, and Mapleaid, and now the new Recovery Drink Mix too has been a game changer! 

For an XCO race day, I’ve refined my UnTapped nutrition routine. I eat a carb-intensive breakfast two to three hours before the start – I either do oatmeal with peanut butter or pancakes and yogurt (Salted Cocoa or Maple UnTapped goes great with both). 

About an hour out from the race I have a waffle, probably Lemon or Raspberry which are my favorites. During the race, I shoot for 120 grams of carbs for the race which is an hour and 15 to 20 minutes.

I’ll take one gel 15 minutes before the start (26 g) and two more during the race (52 g). I like the Coffee best but I’ll also use the Salted Cocoa or Salter Citrus to keep up sodium intake if it’s hot. I use Ginger or Lemon Tea MapleAid in five pre-made half bottles as well as a warm-up/start bottle. I’ll end up drinking about one full bottle (21 g) plus four half bottles (42 g).

That adds up to about 140 g of carbs so the plan has some room for error. As soon as I’m done racing, I drink a bottle of Cocoa Recovery Drink Mix to replenish my system with more carbs and protein. I love the maple syrup products since I can get all the carbs I need and they’re easy on my stomach while racing.

It almost goes without saying, but congratulations on a great season Greta! Going from winning nationals to the World Cups and World Championships, does anything change for you, or does it still feel like you’re just the same athlete chasing the next start line?

Thank you very much! Having my first experience of racing European World Cups earlier this summer definitely boosted my confidence going into nationals. I learned so much about race preparation, tactics, skill application, and overall professionalism from travelling with the USA Cycling national team.

The courses in Europe were much more technically and physically demanding than the UCI courses I’m used to racing in the US and Canada, and to adapt to this, I’ve improved my approach and become more professional with race preparation.

I’ve also found it still important not to lose sight of the way the actual exertion and process of racing is largely the same no matter the level of prestige associated with a certain race. The environment is different in Europe, so the approach changes, but the actual race battle remains the same. Carrying new knowledge and experience with me back into US racing has given me not only a new perspective, but also a new skillset for adapting to challenges and preparing for different conditions. Going into nationals, I found myself feeling more prepared, more collected, and overall more inspired.

Racing World Cup and the World Championships means lining up against the fastest riders on the planet. What’s been the biggest surprise — whether it’s the speed, the courses, the atmosphere, or something else entirely?

The national team’s approach to World Cup racing is to foresee and prepare for all surprises. Getting to experience European racing through their program helped eliminate the chaos of getting thrown into the unknown. All of the staff and athletes receive and create detailed plans throughout the trip that lay out each step of the process from preparation through to final execution so any time a challenge arises it can be addressed efficiently.

In working through this process, I was surprised, or maybe just interested in the way achieving professionalism in the sport seemed to require the same things associated with success in most other areas of life and career: taking responsibility, utilizing resources, following the advice of people with more experience, and advocating for myself were some of the skills I found most valuable throughout the process. 

In reflection, this approach has been instrumental to my season. Even in early March while I was still in the midst of ski racing, I was filling out a USAC performance plan spreadsheet to lay out my entire season plan and pinpoint the elements of racing most holding me back from excelling on the World Cup.

What I learned in Europe is that these skills and strategies are easier to employ with an incredibly dedicated and kind support team of staff like the ones who were with me on the trip. In the past, the aspects of sport I most focused on were physical – training, nutrition, sleep, and fatigue management. These are all still super important, but now, bike racing also has this more strategic, professional side for me, which although it requires more work, I think ultimately helps eliminate stress.

What’s one aspect of your riding or racing that you’ve worked the hardest to improve, and how has that changed the way you race?

One big improvement I made this season was learning how to break down a course tactically. The World Cup schedule allows for limited track preview and practice times, so it becomes all the more important to be super intentional with course analysis.

During a World Cup weekend, we usually see the course at three different times. First, there’s a course walk Wednesday which has no time constraints. Then, there are about two hours to get on course Thursday and again on Saturday which falls between Friday’s short track and Sunday’s XCO. Since the course practice times are so close to the actual races and the courses themselves are physically taxing, it’s critical to find a balance between limiting exertion and gaining proficiency on the most challenging parts of the course. 

The national team again approaches this by creating plans. The night before each practice day, we have a meeting and go over our ride plans which incorporate our training needs with what we need to do in order to ride the course confidently. We coordinate this with our professional skills coach who will stay on course through both the men’s and women’s practice times to ride lap after lap with us. Our team director also blows up our WhatsApp feeds with images of the course marked-up with red, green, and sometimes yellow lines drawn in to show us where and where not to ride. These are great since they offer a way to analyze the course outside of just the allotted practice slots. 

The whole track-preview agenda was a learning curve, but after gaining comfort with the process, I was able to start adding finer details that would pay dividends. Significantly, I learned what parts of a course my power will be used most efficiently on, so I can now be more strategic about making passes and finding places to recover or draft.

I also now plan ahead for the exact spots on the course I can drink in order to finish a half bottle each lap. I claim this as an improvement, but by no means have I mastered it. I think course breakdown and analysis are aspects of racing I’ll be working on for many seasons to come, but it’s been exciting to start seeing some benefits of my progress.

You balance a competitive varsity nordic ski season at the University of Vermont with a full cross-country mountain bike season. What are the ways you rest, relax, and reset?

I’ve been a competitive athlete for as long as I can remember, but I’ve also always loved art and usually bring a creative hobby with me on all my race trips. I have a minor in studio art, so some projects I take more seriously and devote real passion to, but I also love to have a mindless project where I can tune into a podcast or audiobook and let hours pass by.

Recently I got inspired to make little beaded fish keychains out of seed beads and metal wire and I brought a set of watercolor pencils to Europe and painted some of the local scenery. I also play fiddle as a casual, more social hobby. My brother and I host jams at our house every week and the group has grown pretty big with a Whatsapp chat of more than 70 members.

Having chill hobbies and activities helps offset the focus and rigor that high-level sports can demand and always helps me embrace and relax into a rest period.

1. Valid through 8/31/26. Can’t be combined with other offers. ↩︎
2. Valid through 8/31/26. Can’t be combined with other offers. ↩︎