Name: Heather L Johnston (I use my middle initial even though it sounds a little formal because there are a couple of us here in Vancouver.)
Hometown: Miscellaneous, USA. Some combination of New York, Cleveland, and Seattle — though I have lived in Horseshoe Bay, BC for longer than I did in any of those other places, at this point. I lived in New Jersey when I was little and mostly grew up in Cleveland, but went back East the minute I graduated from high school.
How did you get into cycling? I’ve been a bike rider for my whole life, commuting to school or work, and riding for fun — but I guess it really started getting more focused in high school. My friend Lindsay and I would go on epic rides through northwestern Ohio, and we did some century rides together. The terrain is short steep rollers and forest/ farmland — just wonderful riding.
In 1986, I did a six-week tour through New England, with Cannondale panniers on a Miyata Six Ten. In 1996, I walked into a bike shop in Seattle and asked, “Do people race bikes?” I was on a club ride the next morning, and the rest is history. I raced road and off-road pretty seriously for four or five seasons, did a ton of organizing, some coaching, moved to Vancouver, took a break, couldn’t stay away, and got back through a spin class in 2015. That led to training on The Sufferfest and the Tour of Sufferlandria and then Zwift; in October 2024, I finally got to do another big ride, in France and Spain. There will be more.
How many years have you been racing on Zwift? 4
Are you part of a Virtual team? Yes! Westcoast Coalition, based in Vancouver BC.
What do you love most about racing? Oh that’s a tough question. The team energy and the opportunity to really push my own limits. I love the effort and the way it makes me feel, and sharing that with friends is just the best thing ever. As a leader, I also love helping other women discover their power — seeing those lights go on never gets old.
What is your favourite style of race (e.g. points, scratch, iTT, TTT, Chase, duathlon)? TTT without a doubt. Just a great format. I’d also love to see something like velodrome racing on Zwift — 3000m pursuits and things like that. Wouldn’t a virtual Madison be wild?
What is your favourite Zwift women’s race series? WTRL Tuesday Night Racing.
What is your most memorable racing experience, inside or outside or BOTH? Outside. 1998. Getting up to the top of, and subsequently dropped on, Galena Pass in Idaho. I’d put together a composite team to go race the HP Women’s Challenge, and I had managed, somehow, to hang with a small group of riders up to the top of Galena. It’s around 8000’. It was so exciting to make it there, that I looked up at the summit sign for a split second, and they got a 100m gap on me.
I spent the rest of the day chasing six riders into Ketchum. Learning opportunity.
It was an absolutely beautiful race though, end to end. Another day, after the race we were at some tiny restaurant in someone’s house eating pie and watching foxes cross the yard. Race organizer Jim Rabdau told us he thought God lives in Stanley, Idaho. I’m not sure, but he certainly could have been right.
What is your favourite food to eat post-race? A small steak, veg, and an Athletic zero-proof beer. OR my other favourite post-ride food — a messy scramble and toast. The best recovery food ever.
What advice would you give to a woman entering her first Zwift race? First, just go try it and have fun, there’s so little risk. No crashing, you can still talk to / watch your friends even if you’re off the back… go see what you can do and don’t worry if it’s not what you might have expected. THEN…
The most valuable thing I’ve been told is to get in the pens early so you’re near the front at the start. This is a great strategy IRL and it works on Zwift too. A good start gets you into a place in the race where you can hang for as long as you can, but there’s room to drift back through the peloton, too. Be sure you have snacks, a fan, all the tech set up right well before start time so you don’t have to worry about details close to start time. Do some activation and get a decent warmup. On course, find some people close to your pace and ride with them! It’s much more fun and less work to draft and share the pulls than to slug it out alone. You can work with people even without talking — just get there, take your turn, give the people you’re riding with some Ride Ons, it’s pretty cool how that all works.
Any upcoming race you are looking forward to? At the moment I am just enjoying the Tuesday night series. There are some big women’s races on the calendar in the fall that are pretty cool — Fearless and the Iceni stage race come to mind — but I’m happy doing Tuesdays and then getting outside in springtime, though I will say I am one of those riders who’s on Zwift year-round. I love that I can get some miles in even if it’s late in the day or I need to be home for other reasons, or I just feel like exploring the game worlds on my own. I’m not afraid of doing a trainer workout on a sunny day if that’s what fits that day.
Where can people follow your racing adventures? I’m @H.L.Johnston on Instagram, that’s the best place I think.
