Mountain biking: more than just adventure
Posted on
Many people think mountain biking is crazy, dangerous, and way too extreme, but it’s more than just an adventure – it’s also a healthy escape.
Here, professional mountain bike instructor and founder of Dirt Maidens, Claire McDonnell, shares why more women are giving it a go. Because, as she says, from community to mindfulness, movement, connection to nature, and a little adrenaline thrown in, once you get on your bike, you won’t want to stop.
More than ever, we need immersion in nature to offset the chaos of our modern lives and biking is the perfect way to explore the great outdoors.
Many women have also realised that if they want their kids to be outside more, off their devices, healthy, and connected, then role-modeling is a key to opening that door and demonstrating what an active lifestyle can look like, particularly for women and girls. Mountain biking for women has reached a tipping point. Women are no longer content with sitting on the sidelines, so they’re getting involved.
Over the past few years, hundreds of Canberra women have signed up to learn the fundamental skills for mountain biking and there are more women out on the trails than ever before. With the addition of gravel riding to the spectrum of biking disciplines, there is something for everyone. Canberra boasts an extensive cycle path network, plenty of road cycling routes, gravel riding, fire trails, and mountain bike trails, which gives options for every style of riding including road, bike path, gravel, and mountain biking.
Mountain biking has traditionally been viewed as a dangerous adventure sport and with the coverage in the media, it is no wonder. The focus has been on covering the extreme, adrenaline-seeking, bone-breaking aspects of downhill and enduro mountain biking, with little to no coverage of the less dramatic, but just as enthralling scenic, nature-exploring, cross-country mountain biking.
This discipline of cross-country mountain biking is by far the most popular with women. Women are often more drawn to exploring quieter, less technical trails, which allows time and space for deep connection with nature, and with the people they ride with. Building confidence on these quieter trails and finding friendships with other women who ride have opened up a world that many of these women hadn’t even dreamt of. A world of adventure, exploration, and personal growth that comes with stretching comfort zones.
Challenges are still plentiful with this kind of mountain biking, and with these come the rewards. The views, the adventure, the journey, the increase in fitness, social connection, mental health benefits, but most of all, the feeling of flow that comes together when skills begin to consolidate, and riding becomes second nature.
These women are telling their friends, and other women are realising that they’re missing out and thinking “if she can do it, then maybe I can too”. All you need to get started is a willingness to learn, a bike and a helmet. Most people learned how to ride a bike as a child, and it usually comes back easily. And then with some coaching on the fundamental skills, you’ll be ready to ride.
Canberra has the perfect facilities and opportunities for mountain biking, and more development is on the horizon. The tipping point has been reached. Mountain biking for women in Canberra is moving to the next level and there is no time better to start than now. You just need to get on the bike.
For more information visit dirtmaidens.com.au
Photography: Alexandra Orme.
