Durango’s Ellen Campbell saw a need in the local community. The professional off-road bicycle racer was inspired to create a mountain biking workshop through the need in the community and her past experience living in Missoula, Montana.
While living in Missoula, Campbell helped out with a women’s mountain biking club called MT Alpha. She coached and helped out with the workshops, she really enjoyed the atmosphere and how many women showed up for those workshops.
“I thought Durango doesn't even have that,” Campbell said. “We have Durango Devo, we have EveryPedal and we have a lot of younger development programs, but we don't really have a very casual way for recreational adult female riders that want to get out and just socialize and mountain bike.”
As someone who grew up here, Campbell realizes competitiveness in the mountain biking space has always had a heavy presence in Durango going back to the 1990s. She knows there are a lot of very talented athletes here which can intimidate people and make people feel like they have to ride at a certain level to ride with others.
Campbell wanted to create a space for people who don’t want to race and aren’t going all out up super steep climbs.
“For me, that was important to try to bring together a lot of the community that are out there riding and potentially riding alone,” Campbell said. “There are riders here that don't want to race, they don't want to be competitive. Or maybe their husband or their spouse or their kid is racing or more competitive, or they do Devo. I wanted it to be a space for the moms that drop their kid off at Devo and want to go on a ride but don’t know if they want to go on that ride by themselves.”
Normally Campbell isn’t an exclusive person, but she wanted to create a space only for women, femme, transgender women and non-binary people. She said the mountain biking space has been a space with a heavy male presence which can be overpowering at times so she wanted to create a safe, healthy space for those who have been marginalized in the sport.
“You can look at any start line, you can look at a lot of things in the industry and women, the proportions with men, they're not equal,” Campbell said. “So I think that just opened up limiting to no people identifying as male allowed.”
Campbell said it’s powerful for these women to realize there are other women in this area or areas with not a lot of cyclists to know there are other people they can ride with.
The workshop has helped a lot of women become self-sufficient doing things like pumping tires, checking tire pressure or how to go down a certain line on a trail.
Campbell had her first workshop in Durango two years ago and it was a trailside repair workshop to empower people to know what to carry in their saddlebag or backpack and how to use it.
It was a big hit with some of Campbell’s mom’s friends showing up and some of Campbell’s friends showing up. Last year, Campbell gave it the name Ride Dirt. She had a mountain bike workshop, a gravel workshop and a trailside repair workshop.
The mountain bike workshop was the biggest hit and it went longer than expected with the women riding until dark. After that success, Campbell realized she should do two separate mountain bike workshops because there are so many skills women can learn on a mountain bike.
On June 12, the first workshop of the year took place and it was on mountain bike foundations, specifically body position, braking and trail scanning. The second workshop is scheduled for June 26 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. and the location is still to be announced but Campbell will be covering corners, body movement and techy bits and climbs.
Campbell said almost all of the women who signed up for the first workshop signed up for the second one.
The third workshop is on gravel skills and long-ride tips on July 10 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. with the meeting spot at Lightner Creek Rd and CR 208 Intersection parking lot. The focus of that workshop will be descending and cornering on skinny gravel tires, riding in a group, nutrition for long rides and navigating and route planning.
On Aug. 28, the trail-side repairs workshop will happen from 5:30-7 with the meeting spot at Falls Creek Trailhead. This workshop will cover flat fixes and tire repair, tire plugs, cockpit adjustments and wheel removal.
The final workshop will take place on Sept. 18 or Oct. 5 and will cover chain lube, sealant top off, washing bikes and other questions.
Campbell said she came up with the dates and the subjects of the workshops through a survey she sent out last year and asked what people liked and wanted to learn more about. She said it’s important to her to help women become more intimate with their bikes and to save some money by fixing problems themselves.
A good mix of 20-30-year-old women and middle-aged women have shown up which she loves. Campbell also loves seeing mothers and daughters showing up. She said it’s open to all ages. Campbell suggests the women have some experience on dirt but it’s not a requirement.
Campbell has gotten her sponsors involved at these workshops. Local brand Tailwind Nutrition has contributed ice water and other nutrition. Campbell has also given out Rapha cycling bags.
“It feels good to have brands that also really care about racing, also really care about people getting into the sport at the other level,” Campbell said. “So it's cool to see a brand that supports me at races and at the race level, but they're also really stoked to help me get more women riding bikes at the more entry-level. That means a lot and I think it means a lot to me, but it also means a lot to the participants that show up.”
To sign up for Ride Dirt visit Campbell’s website.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
