On the afternoon of July 27, 2022, SRAM mechanic Anna Greetis was standing by the side of a farm track on the outskirts of Troyes, waiting. It was the fourth stage of the Tour de France Femmes and the women’s WorldTour peloton was racing on chemin blanc (gravel sectors). Greetis took deep breaths and held two Zipp wheels in both of her hands, heart beating, palms clammy.
After what felt like an eternity, she heard the helicopter overhead first, then the peloton came flying past her, throwing up a cloud of dust in their wake. Canyon//SRAM’s Kasia Niewiadoma skidded to a stop directly in front of her with a front wheel puncture. Greetis’ instincts kicked in. It was muscle memory. Crouch down. Remove thru axle. New wheel in. Thru axle tightened again. Big push away. Niewiadoma’s Tour de France Femmes began again. Greetis had saved the Polish rider’s race.
“I remember this cloud of dust just steadily moving closer and this hype and build up,” she recalls. “You’re watching, looking for your jerseys, trying to check the bikes. I’ve done a lot of wheel changes in my life but not under that much stress. I just had to lock in and do it, it was kind of perfect. Afterwards we got back in the car and the adrenaline hit, then you get the shakes and stuff. But I train for those moments so my body can just react.”
(Image credit: Sami Sauri)
This was her job at its most high-profile, but Greetis is a saviour for bike racers every day. She fixes and perfects a riders’ crucial tool, the bicycle, using her skill and knowledge to deal with emergency mechanicals whenever they arise.
At the 2026 edition of the Traka, Greetis is based at the SRAM house and she’s tinkering with the gravel bikes that need to sustain hundreds of kilometres of rough terrain on the weekend. Every few hours, a new rider comes with a bike to build, gears to fix, tyres to change. Greetis has a notebook and writes it all down, working tirelessly with her fellow mechanic to get it all done.
As a race technician for SRAM, this Spanish gravel race will be one of the biggest events of Greetis’ year, but she’s remarkably unfazed. She has the unflappable, calm demeanour of someone who was born to do this, built by years of practice.
“I work with all of our athletes and I am the go-between them and SRAM, making sure they have all the parts they need, any tech support that needs to happen, building bikes, troubleshooting anything. Because a lot of them are privateers, they don’t have the same structured support system as on the road so we try to make sure they don’t get lost in the middle,” Greetis tells me as she adjusts some handlebars.
The American admits that she stands out in her role working as a bike mechanic is a traditionally male-dominated field, but Greetis has long been blazing a trail for other females in her industry.
“I remember telling my dad when I was in high school that I wanted to work on bikes because when I went out for rides and had a flat, someone else would fix it for me. I thought I’d really like to know how to do that,” she says.
“I was lucky to find a bike shop willing to invest and teach me. A lot of the time, women who go for jobs in bike shops get put into sales roles but I was very specific that I wanted to be a mechanic. They trained me and I worked there for a long time, until I was ready for my next challenge. I looked at roles in the industry and saw this one with SRAM and it was perfect. I applied and then somehow got the job, that was almost five years ago now.”
(Image credit: Chiara Redaschi)
Despite her motivation to become a mechanic at the highest level, Greetis believes she has faced additional barriers trying to do so as a woman.
“I go into a lot of situations already in a bit of a defensive state because I’m worried about people’s perceptions of me. I think I’m more feminine for my role as I wear jewellery, have my nails painted, have rings on,” she says.
“A lot of people like to believe those preconceptions aren’t a thing because they don’t see it, but being a woman in the bike industry, we deal with it all the time. In the technical side of things, you feel like you can’t make any mistakes because you lose so much of that credibility. It is exhausting but I’ve had to learn to laugh at those instances because they are ridiculous. There are times when I’m feeling really confident and ready to go, and times when I feel like the worst mechanic in the world, it’s definitely a process.”
Greetis is passionate about helping more women become involved in the technical side of the sport. She regularly hosts workshops showing how to fix and mend common problems and is skilled at giving instructions in a way which is understandable to those who are newer to the sport.
“I really enjoy giving workshops and being able to talk at different levels of technology is really important. I think it goes back to those gender norms as children like girls are encouraged to play with certain toys. I’m lucky I grew up in an engineering family and have that curiosity, and that was the start of it for me. I think bikes are one of those tools that you can learn and mess around with, it’s not as intricate as a car and I think workshops help women feel empowered to try. I love getting questions at these events because it shows people feel like it’s a safe space to ask.”
Whether she is standing roadside at Roubaix, tucked away in an aid zone on the route of the Traka, or hosting workshops to teach new people the basics of mechanics, Greetis is fuelled by a passion for what she does. She’s developed a thick skin finding a path for herself in what she admits is a hard world to break into, and her next mission is inspiring others to do the same.
“For me, listening is the biggest thing. It is important to listen to what women are saying and ask how you can support them. This industry can be very isolating and you have to be passionate to survive, so having someone you can rely on is everything.”
