Eryn and I went to Frick a week before (topography trail map in hand) and scouted out a couple good spots for me to shoot pictures from. Then, on Dec 12th we all meet at Frick Park to lite up the trails. The weather was decent (i.e. no rain); though, it was pretty cold so we only got in two runs down the hill. We had about ten eager riders who split up into two groups for each shot. However, by splitting up the group we didn’t get enough light on the top trails. So, this is a works-in-progress update, because we would like to try this again and get more riders and keep all the riders in one group. Also, we are going to look at other spots to shoot from. We’ll get the photo we want eventually we just may have to have a lot of fun getting there 
. Thanks to all the riders who showed up to help get this project going.
December 07, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PITTSBURGH, PA - Velomuse welcomes new Board members for the Pittsburgh chapter!
As we’ve grown over the years, our purpose has remained unchanged while the regional participation has shifted. One commonality is that while mountain biking issues are shared, new strategies for pulling volunteers and land managers together are frequently required. Further, since the most important thing is riding – we’ve been researching what folks are doing elsewhere, while keeping tabs on what other folks (mtb and non-mtb alike) are doing right here in Pittsburgh.
In leading by example, we have been able to initiate programs and create relationships that didn’t previously exist: getting permits for bike events in City parks, coordinating film premiers for local and international producers, leading a women’s mountain bike skills series and hosting kids mountain bike rodeos with our own fleet of kids’ bikes and features.
Last year, we had so much variety that it was difficult to keep up with the needs in the community, finding new volunteers for every event – it was a full-time and fulfilling job, despite being unpaid. This year, we’ve narrowed the focus to reconnecting with newer still, cross-sections of the community and using the research to understand where we can best put our focus for 2012, and avoid burnout. We’ve decided it is time to make the Pittsburgh (PGH) chapter of Velomuse an official mountain bike development organization, focusing on women’s leadership. As continuing founder and Executive Director, I would like to introduce you to the all-female Board of Directors for the Pittsburgh Chapter of Velomuse:
BOARD OF DIRECTORS - PITTSBURGH CHAPTER
Last winter was my first exposure to indoor mountain biking. As the cold, wet weather creeps in, I will be the first to admit that I can’t wait to go back and continue skills practice on some new features! The website might need to be updated to reflect the new dates for the women’s weekend in 2012, but it should be noted that it is their busiest weekend!
It turns out that I wasn’t the only that decided to register in the opposite gender’s race category this past weekend. A colleague in women’s coaching sent out a survey regarding motivation factors in relation to racing and it left both of us with questions – and a similar plan of action. What might I be missing by racing only with women, specifically, the same handful of women I ride with and see at every local race? I didn’t know, but now after racing with the guys, I only know that I need to do it again.
Definition: Super D
There are some unique qualities in this specific race that lent itself to the decision to change my race category from a combined Women’s category to Sport Men: Super D and downhill racers are timed individually to quantify bike-handling skills. Age, gender or fitness categorization would seem to be futile, at least as far as the start is concerned. As Super D racing includes 80-90% of time spent descending over the course of about 15-20 minutes, it shares some similarities with Downhill in the terrain, but on a smaller scale that doesn’t often engage the fight vs. flight response. Where it parallels cross country is that you have to pedal some, and maybe even climb a bit on a contour line, so you can’t let bike weight get to out of hand in either direction. Everyone rides the same course. It really comes down to skills – a potential game changer for racers.
Theory: Gender Classification in Racing
Here’s where I start to get really experimental with my hypothesis. I considered one of the common reasons for splitting men and women’s categories tends to be difference in physiology – specifically muscle development and oxygen uptake rates, which is a game changer in cross country and road racing. Further, there are also differences in fight vs. flight response in men and women, which could affect performance in a downhill race while scanning extremely technical trails. You have to be very familiar with your capabilities in order to be competitive with Super D, but I don’t think the demands are gender specific. I wondered if having a field of more than a handful of competitors might change my race goal. Would I ride faster, harder, or finish the race in better spirits? Would my female competitors feel snubbed by my decision not to race with them? Would they question their own race goals? Would my boyfriend find it undeserving that I was racing in his category? Would I find out that women are less skilled riders, as a rule? Was this all a very BAD idea?
Analyses: Race preparation
I decided not to talk about it before the race, to protect others from all the questions that did, in fact, haunt me throughout the race. As I suffered through a harsh warm up and some significant breathing problems, I realized that pre-ride would have helped me to understand that more than half of my time would be spent climbing, and I actually needed a warm-up and/or some kind of mountain biking in the weeks before. The lag gave me plenty of time to curse my lungs and watch as the female competitors passed me by. I was also gifted a handful of trailside mechanicals (chain drop 3x and packed down/no rebound suspension fork), and to offset the time I lacked in preparation. Still, I managed to finish the descent with what I thought was a respectable pace.
Observation: Trail/Course Design
My thoughts drifted to trail design at this time, since I didn’t know what to expect with the 3 technical alternate routes that would be coming, I knew that there weren’t a lot of mountain bike trails in the area to begin with and Month of Mud‘s first “Super D” style race. This solo time on the trail allowed me to quit thinking about gender politics and imagine a sharp and steep ladder-bridge drop with a transition landing full of hungry piranha rocks. I probably would’ve ridden it if I’d had the chance to look at it, but I didn’t hesitate to ride the long go-around which is where I managed to throw and twist my chain in some fluke double shift uphill fenango. After looking at photos, I don’t think the go-around options planned as options to the “skull and crossbones” sections were really necessary, after all. I also think the grassy vs. gravel access roads could be much more limited. READ: swoopy, fast Star Wars style trails are my favorite. Overall, I think the course could be much shorter and later in the day to accommodate out-of-town racers in pre-ride opportunity. Upon racing the course, I think it ended up more like a point-to-point cross country race than the Super D races I am familiar with. Not that it wasn’t fun, but it wasn’t exactly what I was prepared for, with what little preparation I did have.
Conclusion:
One of the things I am learning as a result of this experiment is how different women’s goals for racing can be. My experiment is a philosophical one : I really feel that the institution of racing is built with a framework catering to the status quo, male-dominant psyche that do not necessarily apply to everyone’s needs – and might actually be intimidating women from riding, racing and even vocalizing their needs. I plan to continue my research. Race preparation for myself and the bike is mandatory, regardless of gender – and I fell short here. The amount of apparent work and planning that went into the race that carried on without a hitch spoke to the potential of more trails and better riding opportunities close to home. That’s enough reason to have my support and I really hope that others appreciate it as much as I did. The great crowd, fall colors and warming temperature really made for a special race day near the river in Ohiopyle.
If you found this article compelling, you might also like to read:
All kinds of bike riding and racing are great, which is why I’ve never ruled anything out. When my sweet boyfriend took note of this women’s camp posted on the ridemonkey forum, on the same date as the Single Speed World Championship race in Ireland which I could no longer afford to attend, I was intrigued.
Photograph by Mark Poore
The CAMP Curriculum: Being a professional mountain bike coach, I value curriculum a great deal and made a point to check in with promoters that there would be challenge for all skill levels. I was looking for advanced skills practice, along the lines of tailwhips, and big drops. I considered my ambitions fair, because I had been riding and racing cross country, dh and super D in addition to other non-mtb events like adventure racing and triathlon. I knew the basics in bike-handling well enough to teach others but was not afraid to humble myself and admit that there’s always more to learn. Still, when given the option to choose which group I wanted to ride with, I chose advanced.
Angie’s a certified International MountainBike Instructor Certification coach, which landed on my coaching radar a couple years ago as something potentially useful to compliment my USA Cycling Coach certification. I was glad to meet a handful of people with some experience from IMIC, and just sat back and took it all in. I liked the coaching style performed by Angie, who seems naturally to be a good listener and enthusiastic about sharing skills. There were also a handful of skills demonstrations which seemed to fit into a more formal program, that I would anticipate the other groups also shared. I really liked the practicality of some of the practice skill sessions (manual, bunny hop, and drops/jumps), although it seemed time-consuming at the time to watch everyone and wait my turn. I learned more in watching and listening than in doing and talking, although I don’t think one can exist without the other. In the end, I learned some things I didn’t know that I didn’t know.
The Bike Park: Finally, the organizers of the event put together such a great package deal, that it couldn’t be passed up. $109 for 2 days of dh bike and armor rentals, lift tickets, accommodations AND lunch! Snowshoe offers a majority of advanced trails on both sides of the mountain, with lots of rocks and drops alternating between man-made and natural features. Trails that gave some challenge to my head were on the Western side with Ninja Bob, Missing Link, Ball & Jack and Pro DH. Trails were designed and maintained beautifully, especially when it was possible to place singletrack right off of the lift. What we didn’t plan for was the extra bonus of Go Pro HD footage recorded to help us review our techniques – this was priceless!
Photograph by Justin Scheifflee
Equipment: The 2011 Kona (A blue, size small, Kona Operator Freeride) DH bike had Boxxer’s 8 inches of full-suspension travel, Minion tires, and sram x9 shifting, so I felt right at home in no time. The bike’s wheelbase felt manageable – even flickable – despite being close to 40 pounds. It took some getting used to the super-slack headtube angle (64deg) since I’ve only ridden my Banshee Pyre (all mountain mtb w/68deg HTA) on DH trails before. As it turns out they will be selling it with the rest of this years’ demo fleet, soon. If you call Snowshoe’s Mountain Adventure Center, be sure to ask Ethan about the demo fleet sale and then give one a try.
1) Let the woman (your girl friend, wife, friend, family member, etc.) express enthusiasm for the sport before telling her that she’ll like it. Same goes with trying other new things.
2) Offer NO unsolicited feedback, unless there is a safety concern. I think this one applies to both genders. She’ll ask for help when she needs it, and self-sufficient cycling requires this attribute.
3) Support women’s rides, by helping promote to other women, and respect women-only attendance. I don’t understand exactly why, but women-only forums have shown to increase the receptiveness of women participation in a number of ways (ex: Co-ed vs. Girls School: http://www.girlslearndifferently.com/classroombias.php)
4) Anticipate that women riding with other women may ride more, faster, with greater skill and your coed rides together will be more fun. They probably won’t drop you, but maybe they could? When in doubt, let the woman lead and set the pace.
5) Find women role models for yourself. Who has inspired you or supported your hobbies?
6) Encourage your female riding partner to find and develop her own riding style, without comparison to other people.
7) Encourage off-the-bike activities to include women in the bike community: bike films, repair classes, trail maintenance, leadership in advocacy.
8 ) Provide similar opportunities for women if you plan/organize races. If combined fields are a necessity due to low attendance, perhaps find ways to split other fields, combine and make a regular rotation of field combinations. Have an equal payout/prize for top placing women.
9) Think things out twice and do share your opinions. Try to respond to situations before reacting.
10) Share your goals. Be positive and encouraging, for when goals are achieved. Avoid taking credit for their success or over-emphasizing small goals.
Here are some additional notes on the sessions from attendee Justin Scheifflee:
Session 2 – Land Manager Round Table
Major take home points:
- It takes years to approve trails in National Forests and Parks, if at all, due to all of the
necessary studies and procedures
- Before going to land managers/park staff, be prepared with full plan of proposed trail
design and work involved
- Input from all user groups is important for project success
Session 3 – Trail Successes in the Mid-Atlantic
Raystown Lake
- Project was a bit of “leap of faith” given there are no other MTB trails around the area
- Accessing funds from grants turned out to be a sizeable issue and caused delays
- 13 contractors had to be hired to complete rough trail build in final 3 months
Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC)
- Awarded $100,000 grant for trails; proposed 12 projects, completed 8 of them
- All projects are multi-use trails
- Grant used for mostly smaller projects like re-routes of long fall line sections (see video clip, below) but no totally new trail construction
- SVBC had to front up to $50,000 of club money before getting reimbursed from grant
In the IMBA Summit’s final block of sessions, SORBA‘s regional director, Tom Sauret, shared his experiences with establishing a regional conglomeration of local clubs in the late 90s to provide greater resources to locals and act as a liaison to bicycle industry vendors. They merged with IMBA to manage the Southern region of the US, which I speculate might have possibly influenced the creation of IMBA regional directors and leadership committees, as opposed to numerous salaried state representatives.
Some ideas that were shared by the various club representatives at the summit, included:
- Create a map including parks, trailheads and local bike shops, printed by the club.
- Have a Board of Directors at various locations, if expanding regionally
- Include land managers, local businesses, lbs, race promoters, schools in your pool of Directors
- Commit to a monthly trail day, if weather permits
- Advertise your club at the trailhead, not just in your current email lists
- Use IMBA.com: Club Development for resources, membership benefits, guidelines
- Have a volunteer service trade in lieu of money donations, as long as it doesn’t cost you extra in insurance
- Get the free Clif Bars for Trail Days through IMBA
- Have a prizetable for volunteer service hours (any service)
After lunch, I grew quite nervous since the nature of the session had changed several times over and hadn’t really settled into a solid focus nor had time to prepare a power point presentation – and I had doubts that I was the right person to be leading the charge. Leading the “Diversity Builds Strength: Women and Mountain Biking” session on behalf of Velomuse, I was thankfully joined by such strong, experienced panelists as Morgan Lommele from the IMBA Trail Care Crew and professional mountain biker Sue Haywood.
Morgan put me at ease, by suggesting that we pose some workshop questions and share everyone’s experiences in break out groups, after priming the audience with examples and success stories. The primary questions were “What is diversity?”, “How can your club benefit from it?” and “What are your success stories, ideas or plans to support diversity and inclusion of women in your club?”.
Diversity was defined as inclusion of extremes; different levels of skill, non-cyclists, age, ethnicity, and different types of riding/mountain bikers.
Clubs benefit from diversity because it makes the club more politically powerful, represents the mountain bike community better, defies stereotypes, increases club membership, builds trust in the club, allows it to reach wider audiences, and ultimately builds capacity to change the community for the better.
Success Stories, Ideas and Plans for increasing women in mountain biking clubs:
- More women on Board of Directors (and not just administrative roles) – trickle down effect.
- MTB gear/repair clinic for women
- Women-only events (ex: Sue’s Wine and Cheese ride)
- Take a Woman Mountain Biking Day
- Bring a woman/girl-friend to a non-riding social event
- Reach women in non-cycling, familiar settings (e.g. church)
- Reach out to women who don’t consider themselves athletes
- Meetup.com (type) groups
- Join races together, emphasizing social aspect
- Trips to bike parks (ex: Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park)
- What you don’t want your husband/boyfriend/dudefriend to tell you/duo women’s instructional video
- Women “ride free” days at mountains or resort parks
- Women teachers for skills clinic, repair and gear clinics
- Bob trailer demo days
- Baby-sitting co-ops, switch off/group parenting at rides
- Fun for the whole family trails and events
- Emphasizing gender-specific technique (“Chick-technique”)
- Weekly women’s rides
- “Log-therapy” session/make obstacles entertaining not intimidating.
- Chicks-only race (ex: Little Red Riding Hood)
- Advertise in Women’s publications
- Better signage on trails, for solo exploration and independence
- Foster future women ride leaders
- Promote group ride guidelines (Morgan also provided a take home handout: Organizing Women’s Riding Groups)
- Inclusive marketing language (don’t assume women=beginner)
- Partnering with recreation centers
- More women at public meetings
The second timeslot afforded me to attend the Youth Mountain Biking Opportunities, which I have vested interest in – as I have been trying to fulfill the past experience I had coaching with the NorCal High School Mountain Bike Racing League, and have been trying to foster momentum in Pittsburgh for a similar program. One of our obstacles has been outreach paired with infrastructure support – namely, finding a way to get young riders that are interested, physically on bikes, and then trails, while navigating “the complicated minefield that is public academia.” as one friend put it. If there was one consistent theme amongst the speakers, it was that all the youth cycling organizations have some kind of parent organization which provides structure, insurance or other resources to accommodate necessary logistics. I’ll add that liability insurance is almost as volatile, and the speakers offered a temporary solution of using local advocacy club insurance’s umbrella to get things under way while a local bike shop organizes and supports the logistics (bikes, helmets, leadership).
Ann Meder spoke to her experience as a bike shop owner and group ride leader that providing a pro rider as an additional mentor brought further expertise and legitimacy for the expanding group, while another facilitator added that older youth who leveraged their experience got the most respect from the youngest riders. Julie Childers and her partner Patrick Childers, started a Trips for Kids chapter in DC which branched out into Trails for Youth. Julie’s take on youth mountain biking, was to make rides to the trails happen regularly, taking the trails to the kids whenever possible. The local Parks and Rec in Harrisonburg also had a program for youth mountain biking, which includes a growing fleet of bikes and older helmets, with professional staff. Certifications ranged from Physical Education degrees to CPR/First Aid and IMBA Bike Patrol and background checks; however, none mentioned coach licensing, which is promoted by NICA, which is the new NorCal for the rest of the country. I have often (and especially recently) pondered whether my coach education was being put to good use, or even necessary – and I considered a primary difference between these programs and NICA/NorCal was the race series. Is NICA a race organization, in its ultimate definition? As a former coach for the League, I think it is a valid question (rhetorical, unless you’re NICA staff and want to comment). It remains clear that NorCal/NICA offers the most extensive training and education for leadership in the youth mountain biking community. An additional community-oriented aspect of NorCal I appreciated and brought up as an example that I felt was relevant to IMBA, was having required trail maintenance (“Environmental Stewardship”) hours of the young riders. After all, wasn’t this summit about bringing more volunteers into the fold?
