Women Take to the Trails

On a glorious Sunday morning, about two dozen women gathered on a popular Woodstock mountain biking complex to learn the intricacies of off-road bicycling.

As the breeze rustled spring leaves, Malanda Murchison of the Off-Road Bicycle Association led her charges in a basic skills clinic, showing them how to ride over bridges, logs and up and down small hills. After the basics were out of the way, Murchison and two volunteers from Free-Flite Bicycles took the group out onto the complex’s easiest trail to try out their skills.

Sunday’s clinic was sponsored by the Woodstock chapter of the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association, Free-Flite Bicycles and Trek, a major U.S. bicycle manufacturer. Women could borrow a top-notch Trek mountain bike from the Trek women’s biking trailer and join trail rides led by SORBA women mountain biking experts. Afterward, Free-Flite treated the women to a free lunch and goodie bags, including a free water bottle and coupons.

Many of the women were riding brand-new mountain bicycles on loan from TrekWomen. The TrekWomen bicycle van, loaded with an assortment of the company’s newest bikes,and operated by Ross Rushin, a part-time Atlantan who drives around the country with the bikes to drum up interest in the company’s products.

“It was fun, so much fun,” said Veronica Mount of southwest Atlanta. She drove more than 40 miles to Sunday’s workshop to find out more about mountain biking. An avid road cyclist, Mount had never mountain biked before.

The Woodstock trail offers “ideal mountain bicycling,” said Dan Thornton, owner of Free-Flite Bicycles in Canton, Marietta and East Cobb. Thornton's shop and Trek will host a similar workshop next Sunday for men featuring Trek men’s bicycles. Thornton, who has been a bike shop owner for 33 years, estimates that mountain bikes make up half his business.

The Blankets Creek Mountain Bike Trail Systemin Cherokee County on Sixes Road, off of I-575, includes five trails: Mosquito Flats, rated for beginners;  Mosquito Bite-beginner plus; Dwelling Loop-intermediate; and South Loop and Van Michael Trail, both advanced.  The trail system is maintained by SORBA Woodstock on land owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

SORBA Woodstock was formed in March 2000 by a group of local mountain bikers after popular trails at Boling Park in Canton were closed to off-road cycling. The group’s primary focus has been advocacy, mountain bike trail development and trail maintenance in Cherokee County. SORBA Woodstock also helps with rides, festivals and other off-road cycling events in the  southeastern United States.  

Angeal Pittenger of Canton rides mountain bikes frequently with her boyfriend, but she was eager to join other women Sunday.

“I was interested to get a woman’s perspective,” Pittenger said. “I wanted to see if there was a difference between women’s riding and men’s riding.”

Pittenger had a mixed verdict. While actual riding techniques were similar, she found women-led rides to be “softer,” with less emphasis on relentlessly going forward.

Dawn Gagne of Smyrna came out Sunday because she “needed to get a little bit of confidence.”

“It felt better riding with a bunch of women who are new to the sport,” said Gagne. “It helped me realize I don’t stink.”