Name: Jillian Howland (McGee) or Jillibean (Zwift, Strava, ZwiftPower)
Hometown: Kalamazoo, Michigan, currently in Madison, Wisconsin
How did you get into cycling? My twin brother was a high school cyclist, while I was an equestrian athlete. Unfortunately, I lost my equine teammate to a neurodegenerative infection just before my brother transitioned out of competitive cycling, and when he went away to college, I began commuting to community college on his race bike – a bike that I raced on up until I broke the frame during my 2023 season. The only thing I learned was how much I actually hated bike saddles, in comparison with real saddles. Eventually, I also went away to college, and had reinvested myself into running and swimming, having also been a cross-country runner with one brother, and a swimmer with another brother, while in high school. Following college graduation, unlucky experimentation with a mountain bike, a busted helmet, and a torn quad muscle, put running on the shelf for me. Toward the end of my crash recovery, I found my twin’s bike in my parent’s garage and resurrected my fitness by agreeing to accompany my mom on the 500mi, 45th annual RAGBRAI, with a total of three rides, post-crash, under my belt. It wasn’t until the following year, in 2019, with much more training and another agreement to accompany my mom on the 46th annual RAGBRAI, that the sport finally struck gold.
I can confidently credit the strangers (now friends) I shared tandem bikes with during that week in Iowa for my confidence on two wheels and the nudge I needed to begin my racing career, just as the season ended in 2019. As everyone knows, 2020 proved to be a worthless year of racing IRL, so it wasn’t until 2021 that I began what I consider to be my “actual racing career.” I briefly raced the outdoor gravel series in Michigan before I fell head over heels (literally at times) for criterium and stage racing, although you will still find me at a local Dirty Donut gravel race defending my title for fastest female in the donut division when the stars align in my favor.
How many years have you been racing on Zwift? Three. I jumped on the Zwift wagon at the end of 2019 to learn how to train for races, but it wasn’t until the end of 2020 that I joined my first e-sports team. I’ve raced fairly consistently for the past three years, as my outdoor season and other platforms have allowed.
Are you part of a virtual team? Used to be, yes. I was an original member of the Finesse Wahoo women’s team back in 2020 when an IRL friend connected me to local Zwifties. Then Agowatt was born in 2021, I helped build a women’s-only squad with friends I made during my first ZRL season. Agowatt is where I also began building my skills for becoming a Directeur Sportif (DS) and race/course/strategy analyst, and bike guru. Eventually, I went on to build out the lower category women’s teams of Absque Fines p/b Wolfe; again with more wonderful friends from adjacent teams. Having recently parted ways with AF p/b Wolfe, I currently guest ride and DS for a few teams where I have friends: BMTR and Coalition to name a couple.
What do you love most about racing? Selfishly, the adrenaline, and non-selfishly, the teamwork. I go into a race with expectations and a goal—sometimes it’s to win, sometimes it’s to create chaos and test out tactics. I build relationships with each of my teammates so we can play to the riders’ strengths and come out with positive experiences, even if the goal is simply being a menace to boring racing. I firmly believe that everyone is good at something, but you have to be willing to get uncomfortable and figure it out. The best part about racing Cat B and lower is that the breadth of talent widens, so the strengths become more diverse. Higher diversity means more cards to play with, and for a strategist, this means more unexpected outcomes for our competitors.
What is your favourite style of race (e.g. points, scratch, iTT, TTT, Chase, duathlon)? The Team Time Trials will always have a special place in my heart since some of my most fond memories with teammates and friends have been our “Sip ’n Pull” social WTRL time trials. Grab a snack and a beverage (usually wine or margaritas) and let’s noodle around the Greater London Flat while socializing.
For pure racing, give me a scratch race any day! I love driving my sprint home.
What is your favourite Zwift women’s race series? Hands down, it is the Tour de Boudicca Stage Race the Warrior Games hosts each year. As an IRL stage racer, TdB is the top event for women to experience stage racing from the comfort (and discomfort) of their own homes. It is scored as a true stage race, and it is the same event across the categories (the race category A races is the race category D will race).
What is your most memorable racing experience, inside or outside or BOTH? Inside: Winning the Queen’s Stage of TdB in 2022 will always be a very bright, glimmering memory because I’m not a climber by physique, only by heart. It was neat to experience my heart win.
Outside: Setting the world records for fastest female relay team across (and back) my home state of Michigan, with two of my closest friends and our wonderful record officer, will always be a beacon of light in my memory. There is nothing that brings friends closer than suffering toward a common goal.
What is your favourite food to eat post-race? If I’m coming from a cold race, a big bowl of Pho, but if it’s hot outside (or inside), a popsicle or ice slushie! I’m not really a foodie, so if I could figure out how to eat the feeling of “laying down with my knees up,” I’d choose that.
What advice would you give to a woman entering her first Zwift race? I would begin with a few questions, then some advice.
- Are you comfortable with being uncomfortable, or are you ready to learn how to operate when uncomfortable? Discomfort is an unmentioned part of racing, yet one of the more frequent feelings during an event. Be ready for it, or how to learn through it. Dissociate from the feeling and you will be pleasantly surprised how far your body will take you.
- Do you know the game? Zwift is a video game; you are the controller. If you want to become good at playing, you need to practice the gaming aspects of the platform. Learn how to move through pelotons or play with positioning around corners so you avoid experiencing new game-related nuances during the race. Practice riding rollers (rolling hills) and understand the aspects of the draft so you don’t waste energy in events. Learn what a powerup is and when to use it. It also helps to know what type of race you are signing up for… do some background research – so much information can be found with quick Internet searches.
- What happens when you have a bad race? What happens when you fail, or you have technical/mechanical failures? Will you give up, or will you give yourself grace, get back on the horse, and try again? You will have a bad race, eventually. Sometimes, like for me, it was my first one, and second one… 7th, and 8th one… I was terrible when I first began, but that didn’t mean I always would be. Unfortunately, as breathing bags of biochemistry, we will have our off days even when we come in prepared – especially individuals with menstrual cycles. Discouragement is meant to pass, but you have to let it pass.
- Why are you racing? List as many reasons as you like, but one of them must be “for fun.” Those who race for the fun of it have already earned a step up in the game.
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