In mid-July, Ski Hut hosted “Women’s Fundamentals…and Beyond” at Hartley. The first day of the two-day clinic was geared toward critical mountain biking skills. 

“We covered neutral and ready positions, which are the most important positions there are to be safe on your bike, and to be nice and stable,” said instructor Sandra van den Bosse. “We did climbing, we did shifting, we did cadence, we did descending, and we did a lot of cornering.”

Day two involved taking skills to the next level and conquering fears, such as falling off the bike.  

“I have a three-year-old and so I don’t get to just, you know, take a day off, so to speak. So I know I have to go home and roll into that role as well, and I want to be a role model to her as well and help her to have fun on a bike for the rest of her life too,” said participant Niki Kolodge. “The more skills I have to know how to do what on the trail, I think the safer I’ll be and then the more fun I’ll have too.” 

Talking about obstacles beforehand eases the fear. 

“We’re basically gonna do anything that is slightly intimidating and break it down and make it not intimidating at all, hopefully,” said van den Bosse. “So, for example, with bridges, it’s very important that you just kind of look where you want to go. It’s kind of like on a highway, you know, when there’s big trucks on the highway, you’re kind of like, “There’s big trucks on the highway.” Just ignore the big trucks. Just go where you want to go. So same for bridges. Ignore this, ignore that. Go where you want to go.”

Although there were only four participants, each woman rode away feeling more confident in her skills. 

“I think mountain biking is so fun and so empowering,” said Kolodge. “I think my experience growing up with biking, I came into it with a lot of fear, and learning about skills and how to approach different things on the trail helps me to feel like it’s more fun and I can just kind of flow with the trail and I just love learning with other women.”