SHOULDER TO SHOULDER
When I took my first forays into the world of mountain biking on the rocky bridleways of the Peak District in the early 2000s, it was pretty common to be the sole woman in a group of male riders, and fairly rare to see other women out on the trails.
Fast forward a couple of decades and things look very different. On a recent weekend ride out in the Hope Valley, I passed dozens of people, and by my reckoning, almost an equal number of male and female riders of varying ages and abilities. At a personal level I now have just as many female riding friends as I do male. Times have definitely changed.
Or have they? Is my own experience that of others too? Have we really reached a point where there are now as many women out mountain biking as men? Maybe more importantly, what are the experiences of those women?
To try and understand where we are at in the quest for equality in the sport, I wanted to take a snapshot of the current state of women’s mountain biking in the UK, through the eyes of real riders. From current and former professional racers to mechanics, bike industry stalwarts and everyday riders,
