Jessica Cerra has a lot on her plate, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. Especially when it comes to giving back through a sport that gave her so much.
Cerra, 40, a former professional cyclist turned chef and entrepreneur, hails from the picturesque ski-resort town of Whitefish, Montana. Amid the backdrop of rolling mountains, rivers, and streams, Cerra’s humble beginnings in Montana—a contrast to this destination town—helped to shape her life, expectations, and dreams for the future.
Her desire to give back through the sport of cycling is motivated by a mentor who left an indelible mark on her life—her high school guidance counselor, Barbara Mansfield. Thinking back to the time when Cerra learned how expensive college could be, she said it was Mansfield who helped her take the necessary first steps to get on the right path for college. “I had a meltdown because I didn’t think I was going to go to college, and it was something I really wanted to do,” Cerra told Bicycling.
Mansfield helped Cerra complete scholarship and college applications and that along with strong community support paved the way for Cerra to complete her undergraduate degree in Exercise Science at the University of Montana debt-free. Her mentor’s influence led her to establish a scholarship as a part of her homegrown gravel event: The Last Best Ride (TLBR)—a gravel ride that takes place amid the very same backdrop that saw her humble beginnings many years back.
The Last Best Ride and The Barbara Mansfield Champion Scholar Award
TLBR offers two stellar courses—The Big Horn Sheep at 91 miles and the Mountain Goat at 48 miles—that take riders through National Forest lands, followed by the backroads of the Big Mountain Ski Resort, and back into town descending alongside vistas of Whitefish Lake. Cerra, also a chef and entrepreneur, cofounded the event with her partner, Sam Boardman, after moving back from San Diego to Whitefish during the pandemic in 2020.
In the first edition of The Last Best Ride in August 2021, Cerra raised $10,000 at the event’s welcome party and donated an additional $11,000 from race registration to create The Barbara Mansfield Champion Scholar Award—a scholarship that provides post-secondary education funding for young women in Whitefish.
In 2022, The Last Best Ride hosted more than 550 riders; Cerra raised almost $40,000 and awarded six scholarships to young women from three local high schools, including one Native American school. The scholarships range from $2,500-$7,500 and are based on the financial needs of the students and other factors.
The Road to Building Community
After completing her bachelor’s, Cerra moved west to California, where she pursued a master’s in exercise physiology at San Diego State University. There, her research focused on elite male cyclists and how calcium lost through sweat impacted bone density and bone health. Cerra’s role in the study and California’s bustling cycling scene piqued her interest in all things bikes. Soon after, a professor introduced Cerra to mountain biking. She was a natural, and Cerra landed on the podium at her first mountain bike race: the California Mountain Bike Series at Bonelli Park in San Dimas, California.
Always active but a relative novice to endurance sports, triathlons also became intriguing to Cerra. “If I went on a run or a hike, it gave me a feeling that I really liked,” Cerra said. As a triathlete, she felt she “was very good at cycling, below average in swimming, and probably below average in running.” Committed to improving, Cerra went from doggy paddling to learning to swim competitively in a relatively short period. She competed in her first XTERRA Off-Road Triathlon in 2008, and three years later, she won the female amateur national championship. By 2011, Cerra raced the XTERRA America Tour professionally and was ranked 6th in the professional women’s division.
When Cerra wasn’t applying pressure to her competitors, she was busy creating recipes in the kitchen. To supplement her pro-cycling salary, Cerra became a private chef. She started her catering company, “Fit Food by Jess,” and created Harmony Energy Bar, popularly known today as JoJé Bar.
“She wanted people to think differently about how they can eat healthily,” says fellow mountain biker Jené Shaw. Shaw added that if she couldn’t afford to buy a person a gift, she would cook an insanely good meal to thank them for something or to celebrate an achievement.
Outside of the kitchen, Cerra continued to dominate the mountain bike scene. She got her pro card, and in 2012 and 2013, she raced the Ultra Endurance Tour and was ranked second overall for both seasons.
Over the next two years, she traded her mountain bike for a road bike and won professional races as an amateur. Cerra became a professional road cyclist in 2015. Over the next five years, she raced for UCI Continental road teams Twenty16 (now Twenty24) and Hagens Berman Supermint.
Bringing It Home
After dabbling in gravel racing while living in San Diego, moving back home to Montana helped Cerra’s cycling endeavors take on a new shape. “I decided to become a gravel privateer [to] focus more on mentorship and help women get into the sport. And also [focus] on my business,” shared Cerra. It wasn’t long before giving back became the force driving her desire to succeed, mentor fellow cyclists, and aid young women pursuing higher educational endeavors.
Her graveling initiatives grew by leaps and bounds when she joined the Scuderia Pinarello team as a community leader and created her own gravel event. In this position, Cerra aims to highlight the importance of inclusion and community building. “You can be winning races or be where I am [as a] mentor, and it’s equally important.”
As Cerra works to motivate women to crush gravel, she tests her own limits from time to time. Earlier this year, she took third place in the Unbound Gravel 100 miler. One of a flurry of top 10 podiums in gravel events across the country.
From the podium, she wants to give a hand up to female-identifying athletes from financially challenged and marginalized communities. “I hope that, especially for people who may come from a place with fewer resources, like where I came from, I can connect with those people and help them [to] feel welcomed and supported,” Cerra said. “Many people invested in me to help me pursue something so fulfilling—and I want the opportunity to give back.”
When looking ahead at the future of TLBR, Cerra and Boardman are prioritizing sustainability. This year’s gravel event aimed for zero waste—meaning they “incorporated direct composting into our waste program, all utensils, plates, and cups were compostable,” says Boardman. They also started an endowment fund to make The Scholarship sustainable for years to come.
In 2023, The Last Best Ride will be held on August 6 to ensure all scholarship recipients can volunteer and engage with the community before embarking on their collegiate journeys. As the ride grows in popularity, Cerra wants to nurture the authentic small-town vibe while helping as many women as possible to use education to build a better future.
Taneika is a Jamaica native, a runner and a gravel cyclist who resides in Virginia. Passionate about cycling, she aims to get more people, of all abilities, to ride the less beaten path.
