{"id":355519,"date":"2025-08-19T00:59:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T00:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/355519\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T00:59:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T00:59:17","slug":"it-can-be-intimidating-but-once-everyones-gotten-the-macho-posturing-out-the-way-its-welcoming-how-it-feels-as-a-female-journalist-in-the-bike-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/355519\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt can be intimidating, but once everyone\u2019s gotten the macho posturing out the way it\u2019s welcoming\u201d – how it feels as a female journalist in the bike industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mountain biking is still a male-dominated sport, but I mostly get the respect I deserve from the mountain bike community where MTB riders are quite simply, the best humans<\/strong><\/p>\n

It will come as no surprise to many of you that I find mountain bikers to be one of the most welcoming and considerate community I\u2019ve encountered. As someone who has ridden bikes as soon as her little legs could reach the pedals of her hand-me-down red Puma bicycle with white-walled tyres, I\u2019ve always been \u2018into\u2019 bikes, and I\u2019ve always preferred a bit of off-road adventuring to anything else.<\/p>\n

Now, as a grown woman (physically, not mentally), I still prefer to ride my bike to participating in real life, and I still prefer to ride off-road when I can. There\u2019s something sacred about being away from traffic, from the glare of the laptop, and being with likeminded people at a bike park or just the local bridleways. We share a knowing nod as we pass on the moors, a thumbs up or a quick hello and a chat at the top of a trail about what awaits below.<\/p>\n

\"Rebecca<\/p>\n

Although Rebecca\u2019s fashion sense has somewhat improved since her childhood, her riding ability is still questionable<\/p>\n

Now having grown up riding bikes, I feel fairly comfortable in this still male-dominated sport. When I\u2019ve done events, yes, there are shortcomings about being among the smaller group of participants, but outside of the bike industry, I\u2019ve only ever had good experiences with fellow riders.<\/p>\n

When I walk into a bike shop, I feel pretty confident. In fact it\u2019s reminiscent of the scene in Parks and Recreation when Ron Swanson walks into a DIY store and says to the assistant that he knows more than him. I\u2019m not that boastful, but I don\u2019t feel intimidated \u2013 which sadly isn\u2019t an experience shared by many woman or even many newbies to the sport.<\/p>\n

Why am I blathering on about this, you ask? A colleague asked how it felt to be a woman in a male-dominated sport, and whether I felt like I got the respect I deserved at events or races. And to be blatantly honest, yes, I have. The only time I\u2019ve felt a little out of place has been at industry events, when people have asked to talk to my male colleagues rather than myself about technical topics or seem genuinely surprised when I tell them I\u2019m there to talk about mountain bikes.<\/p>\n

\"Trail<\/p>\n

Mila the trail dog loves to keep Rebecca on her toes in the winter, and rarely asks questions like \u201cdo you know what you\u2019re doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

But in the real world? Mountain biking is pretty damn awesome. And so are the people.<\/p>\n

I can guarantee if I\u2019m out riding and I see someone else on a MTB they\u2019ll strike up a non-condescending conversation or even, heaven forbid, ask me a bike-related question. In fact just the other week I headed to the local jumps to see if anything Editor Danny had been telling me to do on the bike had actually stuck (reader: it hadn\u2019t), and after a while a bunch of kids appeared with their bikes, ready to hand my arse to me.<\/p>\n

And they were so polite and chatted to me like a real person, and I was annoyed at myself for feeling like that was a rare occurence. When in reality, people on bikes are generally, in my anecdotal experience, pretty damn nice. Sure there\u2019s the odd douche on two wheels but there are idiots in all walks of life. But in every event I\u2019ve done and everytime I\u2019ve ridden with friends, I\u2019ve always been made to feel welcome.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year I rode an Enduro-style event at Coed y Brenin. It was my first of the kind, and it\u2019s one of the best days I\u2019ve had on the bike. Everyone was lovely, the sausage rolls were spot on, and I made some new friends from it, too. Plus everyone enjoyed fussing my dog, who was being kindly looked after by a spectator after my friend who was originally going to watch her couldn\u2019t make the event \u2013 see what I mean? MTB people are awesome.<\/p>\n

\"Coed<\/p>\n

Coed y Brenin \u2018Fox Antifreeze\u2019 event earlier this year \u2013 a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere with likeminded folk<\/p>\n

Where are the women?<\/p>\n

As part of my job I get to go on the occasional press trips. It\u2019s not uncommon to be the only woman on the trip, and that can feel a little intimidating at first. But generally, once everyone\u2019s gotten the macho posturing out the way and we all know where we stand ability wise, everyone is welcoming and accommodating to the different needs of the riders \u2013 male and female. Of course, I do wish there were more female MTB journalists heading on these trips, but for reasons I won\u2019t go into here, it\u2019s not that straightforward.<\/p>\n

Alas, it\u2019s these types of experiences that give me hope for the mountain bike community and how welcoming a bunch we are. It doesn\u2019t matter if you ride a Carrera or an S-Works, or if you\u2019re from a marginalised group or a white male, everyone is welcome \u2013 and yes, evidently there is a problem with the lack of diversity across mountain biking and I\u2019m not trying to minimise that \u2013 Ollie Cain highlighted just that in his article a few months ago, saying, \u201cthe mountain bike media uses \u201cclass-based stereotypes and elitism\u201d to put down new riders down\u201d<\/a> and he\u2019s not wrong, but I do think there is hope for the future of our sport.<\/p>\n

\"Coed<\/p>\n

Bikespotting at the Fox Antifreeze enduro at Coed y Brenin<\/p>\n

I\u2019m lucky enough to work across different cycling disciplines, so yes, I do dabble occasionally in the world of drop bars and skinny tyres. Anecdotally, I haven\u2019t had as good an experience with this discipline than I have with off-road and MTB. Not just because I don\u2019t really spend much time matching outfits or worrying about whether my socks are the right height, although admittedly that doesn\u2019t help when trying to hit it off with the road crowd. But there\u2019s something that feels a bit more serious about road cycling, particularly in a group.<\/p>\n

Mountain biking feels more like you turn up on whatever bike you have, with whatever components you have and you have fun. For me, road cycling just feels a little bit nit pickier. Maybe I need to find different people to ride with \u2013 although I\u2019m not exactly given a choice on a press trip.<\/p>\n

But I digress. If you\u2019re thinking about trying MTB for the first time, just get on any old bike and ride. It\u2019s so much fun, and I guarantee the people you meet will restore your faith in humanity just a little bit \u2013 and they probably won\u2019t rib you for wearing weird socks that don\u2019t match your jersey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mountain biking is still a male-dominated sport, but I mostly get the respect I deserve from the mountain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-355519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115052725276835278","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}