In spite of the weather forecast including the possibility of Biblical amounts of rain, around 14 of us enjoyed near perfect riding weather for the Girls weekend at the beginning of May. I’m not sure what the other women thought they were letting themselves in for, but I was bracing for a weekend of bruises, gravel rash, dry mouthed fear descending and near heart failure ascending.

Instead I found myself swinging around the berms, bouncing over logs ( ok maybe too much bounce) and merrily rolling over the rocks at the entirely fun and manageable Blores Hill MTB park. I’m planning on going back, soon, with husband. And checking out some of the closer MTB parks to me that I haven’t felt courageous enough to tackle: although I regard myself as an experienced back road tourer, I hadn’t previously had a lot of exposure to more ‘technical’ riding.

The sheer bliss of an extended technical downhill run on Petes Track on Sunday morning was a real highlight for me. After a fairly apprehensive first run, the second and third runs were a joy as my confidence in what both I and my bike were capable of took a great leap forward. Tackling the rock face descent remains on my to do list but then its good to have something to aim for….

So much of the credit for such a fun rewarding weekend goes to Jacinta and Kirstin (and the other behind the scenes folk) who generously gave up their weekend, and with patience and good humour led us through the technical skills we needed to go and have a blast. Everyone was considerately catered for regardless of their previous experience so that no one felt ‘left behind’. And of course without Mick the shuttle driver we would have spent a great deal of time slogging uphill on Sunday.

A few of the things I learnt when riding with other women:

1. You can tell there is something of interest on the trail ahead by the squeals and shrieks coming through the scrub.
2. Discussions about what makes for a comfortable womens bike seat are open, honest and explicit.
3. If the chick in front of me managed to ride through/ over/ around something, I know I will be able to do so too. Whereas if it was my husband I was following….well, it could just be him being crazy.

Thanks again to Gippsland MTB club for putting on such a great weekend. I plan to be back.