More women participating in cycling

The face of your typical cyclist is changing, and there’s no better place to see that than at this year’s Sea Otter Classic at Laguna Seca. The event started on Thursday with more women joining the sport.

“I wanted to get more women riding,” Pro cyclist Rebecca Rusch said. “I was intimidated by mountain biking. I’m like, ‘If I’m a pro and I’m intimidated, you know, other people must be too.'”

So Rusch launched the ‘Gold Rusch Tour,’ which empowers female cyclists. The first step is getting past the intimidation.

Woodcrest Christian Cycling Head Coach Gary Messner worked with his now college-aged daughter when she was in high school.

“Once she saw there were other girls,” Messner explained, “And that these were just normal girls just trying to ride, she fell in love with it and raced for three years and is now riding in college on a road team.”

“They love to learn from us so they can go back home to their community and teach what they learn from the pro team,” Katerina Nash, a Luna Pro Team rider said. “Whether it’s mountain bike skills or training, or nutrition or any of those details that will lead to a healthy lifestyle but also to just enjoy the outdoors.”

So far it’s working. For a sport that’s been considered male dominate with a 70 percent male, 30 percent female percentage rate, at this year’s Subaru Sea Otter Classic, the female participation rate is at an all-time high.

And hopefully next year, that number will grow, just like the confidence many of these women get cycling.

“Confidence in sport,” Rusch said. “You can ride down a gnarly mountain bike trail, it just makes you more confidence in the rest of your life.”

If you don’t have access to the Gold Rusch Team clinic or the Luna Team, riders say the easiest way to get into cycling is to get a bunch of friends together and hit up local parks and trails.