Even-though this quote is one that my least favorite bikeperson Steve Romaniuk made in Kranked 6, it was so appropriate yesterday. Seven women defy-ed the bad weather predictions and got rewarded with nothing but sunshine!
One thread on the Mountainbike.nl forum got hijacked when we got sidetracked about doing a girls only clinic on the Filthy Trails. Eventually 11 women joined in and only a few skipped due to the weather. Most of them had no freeride experience or even the full intention to start with it. But skills for faster downhills, corners and drop-off’s was a common request I received from them.
Introducing the pump, the “poephouding” and “kijken”
(Sorry this subtitel contains dutch inside jokes).
I started off with some basic body position exercises and how to analyze corners and multiple corners. The Filthy Trails recently added a beginners trail, that features 3 sizes of drop-off’s, a seesaw, bit’s of northshore, roots and corners. Followed by a track with small bumps that invite ‘coasting and pumping. We chopped this track in pieces and eventually rode it in one breath and the spirit was the same for everyone: all smiles and even some air-miles!
It was a day cramped full with tips and tricks. Not all will land in the same tempo, but I’m sure in the next weeks they’ll find out riding xc has become more fun and dismounting the bike is not neccesary in tricky situations anymore. All but one btw, one sprained her ankle pretty badly so I wish her a speedy recovery!
Photo’s here on Flickr.com and some more taken by trailbuilder and owner Styles.
You can find a dutch report on another girls only clinic here (at the bottom), this time in Winterberg (2007).
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