In preparation for the all-female mountain bike race happening in Nanaimo, bikers met for their final training session Saturday, May 13 (Sarah Davidson)

By Nathan Maley

Changing the landscape

Mountain bike race in Nanaimo aims to welcome more women into the sport

May 13, 2024 | 3:03 PM

NANAIMO — An effort to entice more women into mountain biking in the Nanaimo area appears to be paying off.

Sarah Davidson is organizing an all-female mountain biking enduro race on Saturday, May 25, and has been offering bi-weekly training sessions to help racers get prepared.

Davidson said the mountain biking landscape is mainly male dominated, and hopes that these kinds of events can get more women comfortable and involved within the community.

“For a lot of women this will be their first enduro and after understanding that they can do an enduro, which is really physically demanding and requires a fair amount of skill, I think at that point they’ll feel they can maybe take part in the co-ed enduros.”

This will be the third time the all-female enduro race will be held with a record number of over 160 riders already signed up.

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The first year of the race in 2022 saw 111 riders, while last year had 97 bikers.

Davidson has been on the Nanaimo Mountain Bike Club board of directors for three years now, and said for a time she was the only female on the board.

Most co-ed events have less than 30 per cent female participation, with some being drastically lower Davidson said.

Davidson told NanaimoNewsNOW their goal is to create a more welcoming and supportive environment for female riders?

“I think a lot of the time women feel really intimidated to join in those types of events and they worry that they maybe aren’t sufficient enough on the bikes.”

The bi-weekly training sessions in preparation for the race allow riders to come together and get familiar with each other, and allow them to train on their own every other week.

Davidson said she’s hopeful that the co-ed rides can have more female representation in the future.

“There are female only rides that are offered by Aerosmith Cycles and those are really well attended, so I find when there’s female specific opportunities, we get a lot more participants.”

The last organized group training session was held Saturday, May 11, with the event to come on May 25 on the South Benson trail network.

Registration remains open for the event, but will close Wednesday, May 22.

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