Girls on Dirt - Training on the Trails

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Written by Liz McNamara

Sunday, 10 May 2009 09:57

Saturday, April 18th, Upstate SORBA's les Femmes de Montagne (Mountain Women) ride group hosted a women’s mountain biking skills clinic. DuPont State Forest was the setting for our second group clinic, with 25 women from North and South Carolina participating. A Fall skills clinic was held November, 2008, at Paris Mountain State Park, Greenville, SC.

Greenville Women’s Cycling Team members Debbie Gillespie, Danna Brown and Liz McNamara organized this event as part of their continued efforts to give women more opportunities to get involved, and build confidence, in the sport of mountain biking.

Upstate SORBA trucked in a variety of wooden obstacles for skills and drills, including ground skinnies, chicken coop ladders and a large 16ft. teeter-totter. DuPont’s own “Kid’s Trail loop & Skills Area”, developed by Trails Dynamics, with elevated boardwalks, log crossings and platform turns was also used to build on-the-bike balance and bike handling skills.

We saw a marked increase in advanced riders participating in this Spring’s clinic. After warming-up on the obstacles and some “wheel-up” drills on the grass at Guion Farm, the group headed out to the trails for more practical application of mountain biking skills. Debbie led the group up the daunting Grassy Mountain trail working on climbing and cornering skills. Danna led the charge on an exhilarating downhill, complete with creek crossings! Trail time during these clinics isn’t about speed or distance. We stop for lots of do-overs, reinforcing bike skills, weighting the bike and walking through how to pick a good line over rough terrain.

Greenville Women’s Cycling Team is South Carolina’s largest women-only cycling team. The team’s mission is to inspire more women to participate in the sport of cycling as part of a healthy, active lifestyle; to encourage and nurture new female cyclists; to motivate each other to grow as athletes and meet our individual cycling goals; to promote and positively represent our partners while excelling in the sport of cycling in the Upstate and the Southeast; and to support our communities through participation in cycling-related charity events. GWCT leads weekly women-only mountain biking rides through Upstate SORBA’s les Femmes de Montagne ride group and seasonal road cycling rides through the Greenville Spinner’s Women-On-Wheel’s program.