I was just reminded by a friend who publishes the newsletter for the Mt Baker Bicycle Club that I have a Ladies Intro to Cyclocross Clinic coming up next month! Oh, goodie!

I started this up last year in response to a relative dearth of ladies racing at my local events. I spread invites around using the ol' word-of-mouth technique, and added the presence of Nicola Mann as an additional hook. Nicola has been racing at a pretty high level for many years, and probably knows more than I do! She also looks really great riding that bike.

This year Nicola is busy teaching A LOT of people about fitness in general by opening an excellent training studio, Trailhead Athletics. Her and her partner, Derek Shiers, are even running a CX Training class of their own this fall! I highly recommend working with these folks to get faster, stronger, and more stable!

Any ways, we had about 8 ladies turn out last year on the first night, and even fewer on the follow-up night, so the instructor/student ratio was really good. We had ladies on full-suspension mountain bikes, and of course most had zero experience with the sport. The upside is we learned a lot each night in 1.5 hours or less!

Kathy of the Fanatik Bike Shop is sponsoring the event. She came out to learn something that night, certain she would be terrible at it, and went on to win a Women's B race at Squalicum Park in November on a mountain bike! We also had a gal with some road racing experience on the Fanatik team take her bike down to Marymoor Park in Redmond just a few days later and take 6th in the stacked Women Cat 3/4 field at StarCrossed!

So, in summary, if you are looking for a new outdoor activity this fall, something to get you out on a rainy, dark day and still come home smiling, allow me to recommend one of the funnest sports I know of! If you have a bike with any reasonable traction, bring it on out to Civic Fields on Thursday at 6 pm in two weeks, and we'll show you the ropes! Then go racing. You won't regret it!