This past week was spent on the couch with a brutal cold and I was unable to ride so I decided to see just what is out there for women mountain bikers. In some ways we’ve come so far and in others…
So I started off with a basic google search for women mountain bikers and came across a mountainbiking.about.com site. When I clicked on the links within I found a calendar of events for 2005, another one for 2006 on a different site along with a website that was abandoned in 2006. I was not off to a good start. However I did find a few websites that are worth noting and thought I’d share:
Dirt Series by Rocky Mountain Bikes - The Dirt Series is women’s only instruction camps and as explained on their website “The Dirt Series began in 2000 as a BC provincial development initiative, an effort both to bring more women into the sport and to fuel the passion of those already committed to it.” Clinics are held across BC & AB, as well as the West Coast of the US from WA to CA.
Women’s Mountain Bike and Tea Society (WOMBATS) - I could be wrong, but I think this is the premier site for women’s mountain biking. It was created 20 yrs ago by Jacquie Phelan and started off in San Francisco but is now grown to have international chapters. Her links page has lots of great stuff for those of you in the US…
MTBChick - Tonya Bray turned pro in 2001 and this is her site. She’s in the process of updating her site and moving it to another domain, however she has a great page (I linked to it) about getting starting and finding gear that fits. She’s also joined forces with mbaction.com as their female voice.
Everything else seemed to be gear reviews, press releases for women’s specific bikes, and the like.
Then I started to wonder if I was going about this all wrong. Are women being respresented out there and I’m just not seeing it? mbaction.com had someone respresenting so I started a search of some of the bigger mountain biking sites and was disappointed again.
Pinkbike - They recently got a gang together and did the Hurtin’ for Vert tour of the Kootenays. No females here… However, they do have the Girl’s Clubhouse in their forum…
NSMB - None here either. Surely there has to be good female riders on the North Shore able to make the team? A Ladies Only thread is found in their forum.
mtbr - Okay, they don’t really have a team so I can’t say much, but I had to check to make sure they had a women’s section…. They do.
Bikerumor - This site made me very happy! I clicked on their interviews link and the first article I found was called “Ride Like A Girl…or, What it’s Like to Chick and be Chicked”. Nice! So I scrolled down and saw more articles on some great women riders. Women are definitely represented here.
I live in an area where there are lots of women riders and more learning everyday. Why do we have more women riding here? And what can be done to attract more in other areas?
Thoughts?
For a lot of women, it can be intimidating to get into riding. That comes down to both the gear and the guys selling it at the bike shop. The gear’s tricky - you have to learn a new vocabulary, often on your own. And bike shop geeks don’t help much. Most of them have a hard time communicating with new riders of either gender.
Now, if there’s already a strong base of female riders, that automatically makes it easier for new women to get involved. From my observation, women seem more into the experience of riding, not into the gadgets. And they seem to talk about riding less and just do it more.
Good points! That’s one of the big differences I’ve found since I live in a big mountain biking community, we ride with the guys from our local bike shops as well as their wives. One of the local shops actually has one of the top female single speed pros on staff which helps as well. I’ll be the first to admit that the Comox Valley, actually make that BC in general, is one of the best places for women to get into mountain biking.
What really got me thinking was the Sept issue of Bike Mag. While I think it’s great an entire issue was dedicated to the women in the sport, I realized that we don’t often hear about us on a regular basis. And I know some awesome women riders. NWD 9 was the first video I remember seeing a female being in the spotlight (Rachel Atherton) which is a big step forward. Then I realized I could name the top male mountain bikers, but really didn’t know who the top female riders were. Just one of those things that made me go hmmmm…
It’s been over 3 years since I wrote this post, and not much has changed. So instead of griping about it, I decided to take matters into my own hands… Come check out mtb4her.com for great coverage for women mountain bikers!