News | VIDA MTB Series – The Ultimate Skills Clinic for Women?
Like the sun rising at the dawn of a new day, Vida mountain bike clinics are striving to illuminate a new path. Embarking on a mission of answering the often asked, but rarely solved, question, of how to get more women into mountain biking. By creating their own playing field, and adjusting the rules as they see fit, it seems as if they’re off to a great start.
Vida mountain bike clinics are a series of “learn to mountain bike” skills clinics founded by Elena Forchielli and Sarah Rawley that emerged from the successful Beti MTB Clinics. But much more than just learning how to ride, they want to guide women in becoming part of the greater mountain bike community. Because, between the riding, the apres ride session, passing along the love of bikes to the next generation, and advocating for incredible trails, is the micro-culture of the mountain biker. They say it great themselves: “Our purpose is to establish bonds among our participants and coaches to engage a lifelong community of riders.”
How to get more women into mountain biking?
Instead of the bike industry asking “How do we engage more women?” in a boring, old-school way, Vida takes a new approach. “We love cycling, we love riding with our friends (many of whom are guys) and we notice that every time we go out on a ride with a new woman, she usually, pretty quickly, becomes a good friend. Since we all love being outside in nature on our bikes, how do we create more women riders, who are likely to become tomorrow’s riding buddies?” Instead of asking, they’re doing. A refreshing way of answering that silly old question. It appears to be working.
Sarah Rawley, at a ripe old age of 29, is a bike industry vet, having spent eight years on the front lines of race promotion working for Mountain States Cup, Yeti Cycles, and Big Mountain Enduro. Elena Forchielli, also 29, is a successful business vet, having owned an international bio-molecular research firm. The two met and became friends, but it was a pivotal backcountry ski hut trip that sealed the deal for taking the next step. Playing in the mountains any time can be dangerous, especially the further away from civilization adventures take you. A weekend of skiing in avalanche prone terrain, and lots of time to talk, formed a deep bond between the two women, who realized that it was time to take the next step. Which, as it turned out, each had been thinking about in their own time. Helping women face their fears, learn to ride, and have lots of fun doing it.
Inspiring women, creating riders for life
Planning kicked into high gear, with the first event scheduled for Sedona, early March 2015. Traveling to sunny, warm, Sedona, AZ for a late winter mountain bike trip sounded like an awesome idea. Many women agreed. A successful first weekend set Vida off on a whirlwind summer of helping to create the next generation of female mountain bikers. Dates were added, women signed up, and the word spread. High-quality coaches, many of them certified through the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) Instructor Certification Program, are on the ground, spreading the gospel of how insanely fun mountain biking can be. Skills are taught and confidence grows. But the fun only begins with the riding. Over and over, I heard about community.
The Vida gals haven’t set out to take over the mountain bike industry, they just want to make it more open to women being part of the community and “empowering women to make decisions for themselves,” as Elena says. “Mountain biking has been the best way (for me) to access this kind of living.” She’s talking about the larger community that surrounds mountain biking. The rush of fresh air and getting your heart pounding is certainly the beginning of the crush. But it’s the riding with a smile through the mountains, forest, and desert that pulls it all together, creating a warm fuzzy feeling in your heart and head when you look back. It’s the music, the bike rack permanently attached to your car, and drinking a certain beer because your new friend recommended it and you know she has good taste in craft beer. It’s appreciating a well-made trail. It’s sitting around the campfire in Fruita, swapping stories of the incredible sunset as if went down over the Colorado River. It’s all of these things and more. It’s identifying as a mountain biker.
People generally like to enjoy themselves. And a lot of the time, they like to also enjoy those special times with other people. The bigger goal of Vida is to help foster that next generation of riding buddies. The thing that excites Sarah the most is hearing from a clinic attendee about how stoked she is on riding right now, because she just did one of her favorite trails, and how absolutely perfect it felt that last time out. The rider goes on to explain how some little tips she picked up at the Duluth clinic helped take her riding up a notch, and now it just all felt wonderful and perfectly natural, like she had been doing it her whole life. Radiating a smile through the phone as she then explains that one of the women she met at the clinic has become her best riding buddy, and they’ve had each other’s families over for dinner, and all they talk about is where the next ride is going to be.
A community of mountain bike freaks
Imagine a community of environmental, nature-loving, mountain bike freaks. They want to be with their family and friends. They’ll all go back to work and grind it out through the week. But they’re all looking forward to the weekend of racing in Mammoth, or the camping in Moab, with their crew. They want that lifestyle, that attraction to living.
That’s what Vida wants to do: create a new segment of the mountain bike population. Some of those women have been riding for a while but are a little burnt out on the scene. Some have never ridden before. And some have had bad experiences with the impatient boyfriend who only shouts “Well, you just…do it!” The Vida gals are simply stepping up and doing it. Creating riders from scratch. Creating a community from scratch. And possibly creating a whole new path, a new way for women to become enthralled with riding mountain bikes.
For further information on VIDA: VIDA MTB Series
Words: Daniel Dunn Photos: Devon Balet, Hardcastle Photography, VIDA Events
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