Club Profile: Women on Wheels YEG

By Cheryl MacLachlan

“When I started mountain biking, I was terrified,” says Wanda Mauricio. Lucky for Mauricio, her city of Edmonton is home to Women on Wheels YEG, a women’s-only mountain biking club with the goal of creating an encouraging, social environment for women to learn skills and develop confidence in mountain biking.

Though Mauricio had ridden with Dirt Girls, a prominent women’s club in Edmonton that no longer exists, she says there was something about how Women on Wheels (WOW) approached things that helped her. “One thing I really appreciated about WOW was how they broke things down, even to the point that if you did not know how to get on a bike, they’d show you how.”

Club co-founder and president Natalie Rix says WOW began as a way for her and co-founder Amy MacKinnon to build their skills after being unable to get into Dirt Girls, a club she calls groundbreaking. “Amy and I approached shops we knew and affiliated with them to start a group ride for beginners, because we were beginners,” she says. “We didn’t really know how to teach anything, but we thought we could just ride together.”

At first, rides were small with four or five women. With only word of mouth and social media to spread awareness, things felt big when 12 women were showing up. They also started seeing women progress. “We figured it out, and then kind of taught people how to ride,” Rix says, adding jokingly that the teaching “sometimes worked out.”

From a small group to many small groups

Rix, a certified professional mountain bike instructor, says that after a few years, they wanted to forge their own identity and become affiliated with the Alberta Bicycling Association. Today, WOW runs weekly sessions from May to September. The club had to cap its membership at 60 to keep groups small. Sessions start with skill-focused lessons on flat ground followed by group rides on a portion of the Edmonton River Valley Trail to put the skills to use. The club also runs clinics for non-members, including men. In 2020, it added Girls on Wheels, a program for teenage girls.

The ride groups have names such as Gears and Puddle Jumpers. They don’t have graded levels to keep the language welcoming. The various groups require multiple coaches, assistants and sweeps, a need WOW manages by encouraging experienced members to get involved, sometimes even helping them to get certified. The goal, however, isn’t to produce coaches, ride leaders or even women who want to race: it’s to create a welcoming community to help riders develop skills and confidence on mountain bikes.

Sticking with women

For Rix, it’s important to have a women’s-only club for all women. “We really want to welcome all levels, experiences and people from diverse backgrounds whether that’s a cycling background or not,” she says. “It doesn’t matter what you bring in. It matters what you give and what you take away.”

Mauricio, who was terrified to start mountain biking, says she has taken away a love of riding. She now rides as a sweep to give back. “If you’re not scared and you feel confident with the skills you’ve learned, you have way more fun,” she says. “When I really started to enjoy it, I wanted other women to feel the same. Now, when I’m sweeping, if I can help someone and make it a better ride, that means a lot to me.”

PROFILE: Women on Wheels YEG

Location

Edmonton

Established

2013

Members

60 in 2019, 45 in 2020

Website

womenonwheelsyeg.com

This story originally appeared in the February & March issue of Canadian Cycling Magazine