Jagadol Ridge descends from the thick jungled slopes of Shivapuri National Park, dissecting the urban sprawl of Kathmandu like a gigantic green tail of a sleeping dragon. Along its dusty spine, racers battled through oppressive humidity for two-wheeled national supremacy.

A tired but elated Usha Khanal walked to the top step of the podium for the second time during the 2023 event. Earning commanding victories in both XCO cross-country and DHI downhill, she made Nepalese history but also international history as the only athlete to ever sweep the podium in a single national championship event. Becoming national champion was a career goal for Khanal but also bittersweet as the reigning national champion was absent from the event and Khanal, a true competitor, yearned to beat the best to prove that the years of training, sacrifice, and dedication were worth the fight.

A basic understanding of Nepalese society is required to grasp some of the immense challenges Khanal overcame to build a life in cycling. Nepal’s graphic history reads like an epic saga of battling dynasties, warlords and rebels, and cultural revolutions set in a mysterious impenetrable mountain kingdom closed to outsiders until the 1950s, remarkably avoiding colonization. Populated by tribes from Pakistan’s Indus Valley, Tibetans from the interior plateau, the Licchhavi Dynasty from northern India, along with later British influence creates the cultural milieu of modern Kathmandu. Known as a fierce, proud, and tough nation, 81 percent of the population identifies as Hindu—its traditional social practices dominate alongside Buddhist, Islamic and local Indigenous beliefs. Khanal’s typical patriarchal Hindu upbringing reinforced traditional gender roles wherein a woman’s focus is around her home and family.

“Nepal is a country where women are not very much active going outdoors, so what families think is going outdoors is risky,” Khanal says. “What families want is for girls to stay at home and do desk job[s] and get married by latest 25.”

But Khanal is not your typical rule follower. “I’ve always been that kind of child that never listens to anybody,” she says. “My brothers, they still take many opinions, whereas I just listen to myself and take my one opinion.”