Claire Sharpe - Women Have Superpowers: Bikes, Confidence and Creating Space in Cycling

Claire Sharpe is a mountain bike guide and coach, trains mountain bike guides, runs the off-road cycling community All Terrain Adventures, and organises the Bristol Rally, a bikepacking rally in the south west of England.

In this conversation, Clare and Claire talk about what stops women and marginalised genders from turning up to rides and events, and what organisers can do to make those spaces feel more welcoming. They discuss confidence, group culture, facilities, representation, and the small signals that tell people whether a space is really for them.

Claire also shares her own route into cycling, from roller derby and giving up smoking, to gravel riding, bikepacking, wild camping and mountain biking. She talks about learning practical skills, managing fear, becoming more confident outdoors, and why sometimes the right group or event can be the thing that helps someone take the next step.

This is a thoughtful conversation about access, adventure, confidence, and the power of creating spaces where more people feel able to begin.

In this episode:
Women and FLINTA riders in cycling
Bikepacking and gravel riding
The Bristol Rally
Confidence, fear and belonging
Wild camping and solo adventure
Guiding, coaching and leadership
Making cycling events more welcoming
Why learning practical skills can extend your reach

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Women have always been powerful. Throughout history, we've been peddling, running, and climbing our way to that unique freedom that only movement outdoors can bring. Let's keep inspiring each other. Join me each month as I talk to inspiring women who quietly get on with their everyday lives whilst doing amazing things in nature. Great. So Claire, thanks for thanks for coming. Thanks for being on the EBR Women podcast. Before we start, I'm guessing some of our followers, followers probably know you and some of them don't. So would you like to introduce yourself and say a little bit about your relationship with endurance sport? Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Yeah, so I'm Claire Sharp. I always find introducing myself really hard because I feel like I do loads of little things, and I'd love to have a succinct way of just pulling it all together. But I think the succinct way is I'm an off-road cycling hypewoman. But what that means in practice is I'm a mountain bike guide and coach. Um I train mountain bike guides, I run an off-road cycling community called All Tear Adventures, and I put on a bikepacking rally uh in the southwest of England called the Bike, the Bristol Rally as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Which is happening soon, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Yeah, solstice weekend, summer solstice. So towards the end of June.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Yeah. So um are there still places? Can people enter if they want to?

SPEAKER_01 1:35

No, no, I'm super lucky. Um the rally sold out in under 12 hours this year. Oh wow. And yeah, each year I ring fence 50% of tickets for Flinter riders. Uh, and this year was the first year that they sold out before the general tickets.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Wow, that's great news. Yeah, yeah, really good. Yeah, that's that says a lot about your reach, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Yeah, I'm super happy. Um, that yeah, I wanted to make sure that I was creating events that women and marginalized genders felt comfortable attending. And yeah, I think this year it's become really clear that people really want to come. So that's lovely.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Yeah, that's great. That's great. Um, and I mean I've I follow you on Instagram, and it is very clear that you are passionate about women in cycling, um, which which is great for us because that's something that we're really keen on as well. We want to encourage more women to to cycle and to get out on their bike and to to do adventures and to have the confidence to do it. Um, what do you think stops women and people from the Flinter community from um from joining in in these events?

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Go, I think it's all sorts of things. Um from like obviously there's like self-belief and confidence um to feel comfortable enough to turn up, but I think that's because traditionally sport has been a space that's been designed for men. Um, and that's something that's gradually changing over time. But if you think about the Tour de France or the Olympics or even mountain biking, like these are all things that were designed in the beginning specifically for men, and so we're just waiting gradually for sport to change to accommodate women, and you know, I've been really lucky. I I turned up to start gravel cycling, instantly felt welcome, threw myself out there. But I actually, my first group ride, I met a bunch of men in a park in the dark on my own, which like to a lot of women sounds like the absolute nightmare, and that's completely reasonable. Um, so I think it's kind of like creating the conditions where women can feel comfortable turning up is really important, and you know, if all of your marketing materials show predominantly men being incredibly fast, like that sends a signal that that ride or that space isn't for you. So I think it kind of starts from the very beginning of like when people are putting things out there, are you making it clear that women are welcome? Um, but then it follows through to things like you know, what facilities are there? Like I remember um I went to Ard Rock a couple of years ago, it's my first ever mountain bike event, and you know, went on my own again, could have been a recipe for disaster. Luckily it wasn't. But the thing that will always sit with me is the event had unisex toilets. Oh unisex portalous, but actually quite a harrowing experience as a woman to share toilets with, you know, I think it was like 95% male, and you know, they've all got nervous bellies and sinking cans of monster at eight in the morning, and you know, the state of that definitely told me that I wasn't being catered for when I was attending that event, you know. That's all sorts of things I think that stop women from wanting to turn up to events from you know, what ifs before you get there? Can I fix my bike? Will I be on my own? Will I be too slow? Um, but then you know how much work are events and people doing to make it clear that that won't be the case when they turn up.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Yeah, yeah. And I know that's something that you do really well with the Bristol rally, and you you know, you have this sort of system in place where women can be in a a group and ride in a group. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Um, well, yeah, I suppose the rally is just implied by the fact that it's 50% of tickets are ring fenced for flinter riders, so there'll be a really great balance of gender just because it's there's a system in place to make sure that happens.

SPEAKER_00 6:19

Yeah, yeah. And it's interesting, isn't it? Because um I've had some really lovely experiences with cycling groups, um, all sometimes all men, sometimes mixed, who've really looked after me. Um, you know, sort of when I did a my first group ride, the you know, the people around me, and they were mostly guys, were just lovely, they were really nice. And you know, there's one person who was saying, oh, you know, maybe maybe don't go behind him because he's a little bit random in the way, in the way cycles, and you know, we'll we'll look after you. And if you drop off the bat, don't worry, someone will come and get you. Um, to other things which have been a bit more of a suffer fest. So I think some of it is is a culture, isn't it? It depends on the culture of the the particular group and how switched on they are.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Yeah, definitely. And I think you know, those random guys that I met in a park in the dark, like six years later, we're all still really great friends, and I couldn't have been luckier with those people. And I was the only woman in that group. Um, but yeah, obviously now, especially living in Bristol, like I've got my pick of groups and also pick of women to ride bikes with as well. So I think I'm always trying to remind myself that I actually live in this magical bubble um with incredibly strong women riders around me all the time. So like I'm always reminding myself this is not normal as well, and not everyone else's experience. But we've got it pretty good here.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Yeah, I mean, hopefully one day it will be normal. But um, yeah, it is it is interesting, isn't it, to to sort of remember that not all places are the same. And I mean, certainly in some countries, women don't it's really difficult for them to even access a bike and get outside, let alone find a group to do it with. The other thing that I was really interested to chat to you about was a little bit more about yourself because you came to cycling relatively late in life, um, but not to sport, you've got quite a strong background in sport.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Yeah, I mean, I had a really strong background in sport in secondary school, and then did the typical thing of being able to go to town, being able to drink and hang out, like everything dropped off. And it wasn't until I was 30 that I then started doing sport again, and I took up roller derby and just completely fell in love with it, and it's actually the reason I gave up smoking as well. So I'd smoked for 15 years at that point, and I remember having so much fun doing it that I was like, Oh, do I want to smoke cigarettes or do I want to be really good at roller derby? And I was like, I want to be really good at roller derby, and then that was it overnight, and I just stopped. Um wow, good feeling. And then, yeah, but I I think I was very highly motivated by how much fun roller derby was, and I think of it as I accidentally got fit because I had so much fun just bumming about the place, knocking into each other, falling on the floor laughing, and then there was this really great byproduct of I became someone that was interested in sport and got healthier. Um so yeah, that that was what I loved for five, six years, and then COVID came. So being indoors, smashing into other people was definitely off the cards. Um, but I'd been playing and coaching for quite a while at that point, and I'd started skating in skate parks, so it took up hours and hours of my time every week, and then suddenly there was this like massive gap, and I was like, Oh my goodness, what am I gonna do with all of this time? So I did a little bit of running, not a fan of running, doesn't do it for me. Um, and I was like, Oh, how can I get this little adrenaline hit as well? Um, so I thought about cycling, and I decided that a road bike wasn't gonna do it for me, but a mountain bike was committing too far another way for something I didn't know anything about yet. So I went in the middle and got a gravel bike, and then just yeah, massively, massively fell in love with it.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Yeah, clearly. Yeah, just all snowballed from there. Yeah, yeah. Um, and I know you've you've done some bike packing, haven't you? Um so what is it about the bike packing that um that you love? Because roller derby, I don't know much about roller derby, but it seems to me that it's uh you train a lot, um, but it's it's like for for events that happen over a period of I don't know, an hour, an hour and a half? Is that is that about right now? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then and then that's it until the next training and event. Whereas bikepacking is it's like this long adventure, isn't it? It's you go out and you well, you choose. You can be out for the day, you could go out for two days, you could be out for two months or two years. It's up to you. So what what is it about that that you like?

SPEAKER_01 11:32

I think I had a I haven't travelled the world much, and I didn't think of myself as an adventurous person, but I always looked at other people who were and was just like, oh, isn't that amazing? Like, how cool are they? And um then when I started gravel riding, my view of Bristol completely changed. Like I was almost on the verge of thinking about moving somewhere else, I think. But then suddenly all of the countryside surrounding it, and the bridleways, and all these little nooks and crannies I got to go and explore, and that felt great. And then when I discovered bikepacking, like that was my first experience of feeling like a tiny little speck in the middle of nowhere, and just my legs getting me there, and just my legs getting me out again, and I just love that feeling because it's you get to see some really beautiful places, and I've been to places I'd never thought I'd go, but you also get this sense of achievement that I think I haven't had in other ways and other parts of my life to like have travelled to these far-flung places or to have pedaled your way up a mountain on a really heavy bike, and yeah, just that sense of like, oh my, I did that, yeah, and like it's addictive. Um and I love that now I am going to adventurous places and doing stuff that I think a younger version of me didn't think was possible, and not even starting doing any of that until I was like 35, 36.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Yeah, yeah. I like that because I think sometimes um for a lot of women they get to a certain age, I guess, and other commitments take over, um, you know, they become very, maybe very committed to their job, and that then takes up a lot of their time, or you know, they start a family and then the family takes up a lot of time and maybe takes priority. Um, but I think the fact that you know we can become an adventurer at any time in our lives. Yeah, definitely. There isn't a time that you can say I'm too old to start an adventure now.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

When people say, Oh, I'm too old, if they're younger than me, then I'm like, nah. Um, but then there is like I always use this film that Patagonia made called North Shore Betty. I don't know if you've seen it. It's about this woman um who didn't start mountain biking until she was 44 and you know, just turned into this amazing ripper on you know North Shore trails. But it's a really great story about like her discovering mountain biking, mountain biking with her son, and how she's like navigated her body getting older so that she can still do this thing that she loves. You know, I was just like Betty didn't start until she was 44. People, come on, and she's doing way gnarlier stuff than I can.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, if she I'm gonna have to uh watch that film, it sounds amazing. Yeah, it's great. So to go back to the roller derby, um um and that sport, there's a couple of things that I'm really interested in. I'm fascinated in the smoking story because that is very similar to me. I I smoked and then started running and had a similar thing. Do you want to run or do you want to smoke? Because every time I smoked a cigarette, I felt like I wanted to die. Sorry, every time I ran when I was smoking, I felt like I wanted to die. Um, probably more so than with cycling, because I was cycling and smoking, and that that was alright. For what I wanted to do, that was alright. Um but I think certainly for me, that was a big culture change as well. Because there's the people you hang about with when you smoke are not the same people necessarily that you hang about with or choose to spend time with when you're cycling or running.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yeah. I think roller derby is a pretty all-encompassing sport, so you very quickly just go all in, and your teammates are your friends, or you know, if you're going to training like three times a week, and then you need some rest, like then your social life quickly becomes that small circle of people. So I think that helped. Um, but yeah, I just think the the want to be better at roller derby was so much stronger, and um and also because I was 30 and I'd started smoking when I was 15, I had I was at this tipping point where I was like, if you keep on smoking now, you will always have smoked for more than half your life. And um, yeah, I was just like, that's a pretty scary thought as well. But I always enjoyed it, and then I'd seen so many people struggle trying to give up, and I was just like, here we go. Like, am I gonna be is this gonna be really, really hard? Am I just gonna be a part-time smoker for years and years now, just relapsing? But it was just like a switch went on in my head, and I was like, nah, don't want it.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Yeah, that's the amazing that did not happen for me. I can tell you that for nothing. I was able to do less and curve, cry my eyes out, and went and bought a cigarette that night. So, so yeah, I guess um that that is definitely inspiring that you can be so focused on the next thing and think, no, this is what I want, this is what I'm committed to. I'm 100% committed to this. So that is going, that is out of the window, that is impressive. Um I guess that there may be some genetic involvement in there as well, um, from what we know now, but um, even so.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Or it could be an addictive personality that just got addicted to roller derby instead.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Switching the addiction. Um maybe, yeah. I uh I mean I think I switched it. I definitely think I switched smoking for running. Um but not not quite as easily as you were.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Yeah, I think I've I definitely dodged a bullet.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Yeah, yeah. But um and a great bullet to dodge in so many ways, because um yeah the health, the health benefits, just you know, even if you were doing nothing now, the health benefits of not smoking are enormous. So for anyone wanting to give up smoking, it is possible. Just switch the addiction. Um so that was one thing that fascinated me. Um the other thing that fascinated me was whether you see that time doing the roller derby as contributing to your skill as a mountain biker and bikepacker now. Sorry, yeah, travel rider and bikepacker now.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Yeah, and I'm mounted biking, like all of it. I think um doing a full contact sport where you are trying to hit each other to the ground all the time gives you a different relationship with falling. Um and with ramp skating, like I'd fallen off 10-foot ramps and things. So I think I'd already had a lot of reinforcement of how much my body could bounce rather than how much it can break, which I think is what you think about if you haven't fallen over for a long time. But yeah, if you fall a lot, it just gets normalized and it's not this scary thing. So yeah, I think that really helped, like in the sense that you don't fear everything. Like I managed to get past a lot of fear barriers because I'm like, oh, the worst thing that happens is I fall off. Okay, cool. Um then you know, balance that really helped. It was a totally transferable skill, being aware of where my body weight is and where my center is, and just being able to manipulate that a lot was really transferable. And then to start off with, like I just had like massively overdeveloped quads as well, um, which was really helpful. Like my quads were giant, um, to the point, actually, when I went for my first ever bike fit, he raised my saddle by four centimetres and couldn't believe that I didn't already have an injury. Um I was like, Oh no, I've just got these ridiculous quads, so I didn't even notice. And then went riding on my first ever 100-mile bike ride the next day, which he was like, You should definitely not do that after a bike fit. And I was like, I'm locked in, I'm going. Um yeah, and was just felt like I was flying the whole way. I was like, Oh my god, this is so efficient being all the way up here on this saddle, which probably would have gotten me in more trouble if I didn't have legs that could already mask it. And then I think the flexibility, like I already had that from the skate park, but not from roller derby of like doing the thing I loved relied on a huge group of other people also being present to do it. And now suddenly I was doing this thing that just whenever I felt like I wanted to do it, I could just go and do it.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think the um there's a lot of transferable skills out there there with the skating. Um always trying to Delara and not so long since she was saying a similar thing with the speed skating. Um, but also the mindset, I think, of just um being committed to doing something. Um, I mean, it sounds like you trained a lot for the roller derby. You were, you know, you weren't just rocking up at a match once a week. There was a lot of training involved as well.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

Yeah, I was fully in um like the physical side of it, but also the the strategy as well. Because there's a lot of rules. You have God, I can't remember now. I think seven referees for every game. Really? Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, there's a whole bunch of rules, but I was really into that as well of like the strategy and how can you trick the other team into one of them being sent off to make your day easier and all of that kind of stuff, too?

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Oh wow. So, because I mean strategy isn't really a massive part of bikepacking and um in some gravel races, yeah, definitely strategy I think plays a part. Um, do you think you use those strategy skills at all in your cycling?

SPEAKER_01 22:32

I think it's just turned into geeking out on routes instead. Um so I love route planning, I love looking at maps. Um, I think also with guiding and coaching, it's kind of like being aware of what people need in the moment and being flexible with changing your plans so that you still get the same outcomes or that everyone has a lovely time. So I really I think I get to use it but in a different way.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Yeah, I mean, I think the flexibility is a big thing in long bike events. That the people who seem to do well, in our experience, the people who seem to do well are good at being flexible, they have a plan, but they can be flexible with it. They're not they're not too attached to it, and they're not gonna fall apart if the plan, if it doesn't go to plan, they'll just be flexible and think, oh well, that stop's not gonna work, so I'll stop here, or um you know, this bit of the bike's broken, so I kind of need to sort of that before I can do anything else. Um what about confidence then? Because I think confidence is a big thing, isn't it? And you mentioned before about fear uh and the thing that often stops people from doing stuff is fear, fear of falling off, or fear of not being good enough, or fear of not being fast enough, or fear sometimes just of not belonging, um, as well. So um where do you sit with that?

SPEAKER_01 24:01

I think for me, fear is like an integral part of it. Um whether it's racing, which I hope to do more of this year, or bikepacking. Um I think if everything's good, just consistently good all the way through, then you don't appreciate it. No, it just becomes normalized. Whereas I think for something to feel really good, this kind of gets balanced out. You kind of need a struggle to then make something really good feel amazing. Like a great trip is like all of these ups and downs. And then I think the sense of accomplishment is so much greater if you've had to overcome something. Um so I think you know, jumping into something that you've got a bit of fear of like means you're gonna gain like so much from it. Whereas if I suppose is the situation I found mine myself in is like I've been in a lot of situations over the past couple of years that I now feel very comfortable in, and I've been operating in this safe space, but that means that sense of accomplishment has diminished. So, like this year, and kind of wanting to put myself out there and do things that scare me because I know that like on the other side of it, I'll have grown or changed, and like this feeling at the end of it is gonna be far greater.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So you've talked about this year, you mentioned this year. Um, so what what you what are your plans for this year?

SPEAKER_01 25:48

My my main plan, I suppose, is um snowboard to say the least, um, and I've entered the Taurus Mountain Race. Um, so it's a new race in the mountain race series, already really well established with like Silk Road and Atlas and Hellenic, but they've added a new one in Turkey, which is happening in October. Um, very out of character and definitely massive for me. Um but it's scary, so hopefully I will also be feeling very accomplished on the other side of it.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

Yeah, yeah. I mean he designs those races to be. I think I listened to him chatting to somebody and he said he he he loves the concept of getting you bike where it's sort of really improbable that you would be able to get a bike. That's kind of the design, I think, of his races. And he's a mountaineer as well, isn't he? So um yeah, um I'm trying to remember his name. Nelson Trees. Nelson Trees. I was thinking Josh Green, so the trees a little bit. Nelson Trees, but um, yeah, um, interesting guy. Yeah, that will be exciting. You've got plenty of time, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

And I think I looked at so many other races, and I was looking to do something under 1,000 kilometres, and here I am doing something that's 1400, which is considerably more. Um, but what I was looking for is also something that gave me that sense of adventure and technical riding, because I know that's what will interest me. If it was Princess Gravel the whole way round, I think for me, I may as well be on a road ride because I wouldn't be as engaged with the riding that I'm doing as well. Um so yeah, it ended up being that race because the the photos and the videos just completely captured my imagination instantly, and every big pan, like drone shot of a little tiny track, like this vast, vast mountain range, I was just like kept on coming back to them and just being like, I want to be there. Yeah. So that's that's how it snowballed.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

And I think um, you know, from my point of view as a as a coach, I you know, when people say, Oh, what should I do? What should I enter? I usually say, enter the thing you're most excited about, um, you know, within reason of what you can afford and get to and stuff, um, and have the time to train for. Because if you're excited about it, you will be 100% in. Although I don't think being 100% in is necessarily your problem. You seem to be pretty good being 100% in.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm going to the start line and I'm excited, but I'm also like sick to my stomach, terrified currently, but I think I can like chip away at some of the things that are making me feel that way between now and October.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

Because the other thing you mentioned is you worked quite hard on yourself on sort of building up your own confidence. So, how have you done that? I realise it's not a secret, sort of, I just did this and I felt amazing, because it's not like that, is it?

SPEAKER_01 29:22

But I've built up confidence in some areas and then I completely lack it in others. Um I think it's kind of encounter a problem, try to fix it. So I remember on not long after I got my gravel bike, I went on a bike ride, and I got a thorn in my tire, and I was like, Oh, I don't actually know what to do about this. And so I called an Uber and went home in a taxi. And I was like, Oh, I can't really go far from home then because it's gonna get really expensive getting back again. So I'm gonna have to figure out how to do this. Uh so asked some friends to show me, then ended up feeling really comfortable fixing a puncture.

unknown 30:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

And then later on, that became like, oh, I've got tubeless now, but I want to know how it works because if I'm in the middle of some like nowhere on my own, how do I get back out again? So things like that where there was like a practical, really clear this is the next step, then that's what I've tried to learn. Um then I guess with bikepacking and things, I just started to put myself out there and try to like ride the excitement rather than the fear. So I went to the Cangorms and decided I want to do the Cangorms loop on my gravel bike, which now and actually at the time was hideous. Like some loads of it is lovely on a gravel bike, but the middle where you cut back through again, it's just relentless. And a guy just came swanning past me on a hardtail, and I was like, okay, this is this is why, this is why people have suspension. I see. Um, but it was an amazing trip. But the one thing I was worried about before I went was I'd done lots of wild camping, but never on my own. So I planned a trip to the New Forest to ride with a friend who lived there, and then she left to go home, and I wild camped, and it was terrifying, and I barely slept at all. But I'd managed to like keep rationalizing my situation to myself, and then when it came to going to Scotland, I was like, Well, I've done it, I can do it again. I might not sleep much, but I've done it. Um so yeah, I think there's just been situations where I've been like, what is this thing that's stopping me or scaring me? Right, I need to go and do a bit of that or learn how to do it.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

Yeah, yeah. So very I think practical approaches are are often the best. You know, what can I do about this? Is this a real is this real fear or is it imagined? If it's a real fear with a practical solution, let's work on a practical solution. Um, I love your story about the fawn. I'm thinking, I'm just gonna get an Uber. Um because you know, ultimately it's still a solution, isn't it? You know, yeah, it worked at the time. It worked, that was the solution for you, but it also kicks that in another that's not actually a solution I want to rely on. So, you know, let me find a better way of doing this. And that, you know, and that led you to to getting some bike mechanical skills, which are obviously really helpful, um, and build confidence in in themselves, I think. If you can get to the start of something, whether it's a solo bikepacking adventure or a planned event, and you know that if you know you can fix basic things on your bike, then it makes a big difference for sure.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Yeah, I think of like bike mechanics as like extending your reach of like, okay, I can do this thing, so I feel happier going further from civilization, or I know how to do this thing now, so I feel happier going a little bit further. So, like every time I learnt to do something to my bike, I kind of felt like okay, so this is no longer a ride ender. So I can go to more wild places.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

The wild camping is interesting because I think that does put a lot of people off. And I think possibly specifically women, in that I think sometimes we feel a little bit more vulnerable, um, or maybe we're told to feel a bit more vulnerable for various reasons. So I I mean I love the fact that you you got over that. How comfortable are you with wild camping now then? Are you sleeping in the tent or are you still listening to every movement?

SPEAKER_01 33:50

It changes depending on where I am and what I can hear, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Scotland, sleeping like a baby, because I'm just like, oh, I'm allowed to be here, it's fine. Um, and actually, the less I know about the rules of a place, the better I the better I sleep. So I actually try not to find out what certain country's views are on wild camping and just be like, just gonna leave no trace, I'm gonna set up camp late, leave early, no one will ever know. And that makes me feel a lot more comfortable. And if I do start stressing that I just keep on reminding myself that actually potential issues or danger are where the people are, and I'm not where the people are, like when I'm doing this, so it's just like actually I'm in the safest place I can be. But yeah, I think it's totally right. It's it's a different experience for women, but it's because of like what we're told from a very young age, and actually, even as adults, people's reactions to oh, I'm gonna go do this thing, or I'm gonna wild camp, and people like, do you feel safe? Like more often than not, that's the first response, and even that, like those little those are little messages telling you you shouldn't feel safe or you shouldn't be doing that, but masked a lot of the times I think when people say things that they genuinely think they're trying to be kind or trying to look out for you, but they're also just saying, like, women probably shouldn't be doing that. And there's like a little bit of that behind those comments, whether they're intended or not. So I think it makes it twice as hard a lot of the time for a woman to make the decision of no, I'm gonna go and do that on my own. And yes, I am gonna sleep in the middle of nowhere in a glorified bin bag.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

Yeah, I mean, I think I think there's a a history of culture which is is definitely changing about violence against women, um, and which infiltrated infiltrated infiltrated into even the legal system, you know, in terms of you know what was classified as a sexual assault on a woman and you know, whether she was asking for it um or not behaving in a way that a woman should. Um, so I think I mean I think we've we've come a long way from there, but I think there is still a little bit of a culture there.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

I also think there's like women being a woman is a bit like a superpower as well when you're traveling alone because there that is also the thing of like you don't instantly appear dangerous or like a threat. So people will engage with you. Or like you know, I remember I did like Sahara Gravel last year, and I didn't think twice about chatting to groups of kids and like high-fiving them and stuff, and I'm just like, well, actually, if I was a bloke, this could be read differently, like people could be having a little think about what's happening here. But I've I think like as women, like once you start moving through the world solo, you can actually, or as a group, like, but you could start to use that as your superpower to like interact with people because there isn't this like you are a threat barrier, it's just like you're instantly able to build a rapport with people, so that's really cool as well. Rather than worrying about like the fear of doing things all the time, it's like also what's your ability to like engage with people without all this other stuff ruining it?

SPEAKER_00 37:40

Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think there's um engaging and leaning into the the femininity of something can be can be really helpful. Um I think sometimes it's about um having the choice to pick the bits of femininity that you want to embrace uh and the bits that you don't, um, and that's different for different people, obviously. Um and I think sometimes we we have bits of sort of like femininity or an idea of what feminine should be sort of almost imposed on us, um, rather than as choosing now. This is the bit of being a woman that I want to embrace and lean into and enjoy. Um, and this bit about being a woman, not so much, that's not so much for me. Good for you. I like that women as a superpower. So the other thing that I was really interested to chat to you about was um your role as a a guide and a coach and a um trainer of other coaches and leaders, um, because I think historically most coaches have been men. Um and I think there's certainly there's been a little bit of a push, I think, in UK athletics in the run-in side of things to get more women involved, um, with some success, um, not as much success as we'd like, but some. So, how do you see your role in in that environment and how did you come into it?

SPEAKER_01 39:17

Oh, yeah, I came into it by pure luck, really. Yeah. Um, so my friends over at the New Forest Off Road Club wanted to get qualifications for leading their rides, and then they invited me and another person along to fill out the course numbers. So that's how I got my level two guiding qualification, and I just loved it. Like, really loved every bit of it, loved the riding, loved all of the theory, loved learning about reading maps and navigating with them, looking after groups, and yeah, so after that, I was just like, I want to do level three, and a year later I was back again to do that, um, which is like the highest level that British cycling do. Um, and it was like a shift up in the technicality of the riding, but managing people in remote conditions, starting to understand mountain like weather charts and reading pressure. And I just loved all of it, and it was so great. So I think I just got addicted to the knowledge, like I loved learning new things, um, and really enjoyed that, and then it just kind of opened up this door of this thing that was still relatively new to me and still is really like I can get paid work to like see that moment where someone else falls in love with cycling, and that's just magic. Like, how could you not be addicted to that? Um, so I absolutely love being able to do it, and I suppose it's there's two different ways, like in guiding, you just get to show people really beautiful places and see them start to like be like, Oh, okay, when I go home, I want to do more of this, or that kind of thing. And then with coaching, I really like the idea that especially with mountain biking, people have this idea of mountain biking of like it's road gaps, it's gnar, it's steep, it's tech. And then just having the opportunity to show someone, you know, do this with the bike that's a little bit different, or adjust your body position, or put your weight here, and then suddenly they start being able to do things that they didn't think they could do. And road gaps are like out of their brain completely, and they're just having the best time ever. And you can like, guess what? This is also mountain biking. Yeah, like, do you want to do more of this? Um, yeah, so I think getting the qualifications was so much fun because I was learning all this information that I can use bikepacking as well. Um, but then continually doing it because you get to see people fall in love with it, which is just great. And then training guides is like, whoa, it's like being it's just like being in a flywheel of like there's gonna be more and more people, and then specifically this year, I started putting on courses to train people, but they're only open for women and marginalized genders because our course, the one with New Forest of Road Club, that was just a group of people who already knew each other, and that created an atmosphere where we felt comfortable enough to turn up, and I think there's one school of thought of like, well, if you're gonna lead a group, you should feel comfortable anywhere, and it's like, well, if you know what groups you want to lead, and this is the environment you want to learn in, and at the end of it, you're a perfectly capable leader. Like, what's wrong with creating the right environment that enables someone to turn up? And the first group I ran, every woman on that group said they wouldn't have like even entertained the idea of getting that qualification had it have been a mixed course. And they were fabulous, like so accomplished, already had so many skills already. But it's like, what's I think it's you know, what's wrong with creating the environment that enables those women to turn up and then go out into the world and guide other people and create the experiences that they're hungry for.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

Absolutely, absolutely, I agree, definitely. I think um, you know, learning should be an environment where you feel obviously challenge, but the challenge should be what you're learning. It shouldn't be having to cope with you know the other interactions. And and we know that interactions change in mixed groups. Um completely. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. One of the first um camps John and I ran, we we actually decided let's just make it all women. It'll just be in that just be a be a different camp. It'll be um, you know, there won't be so much trying to win the camp because you know, yeah, generalizing here, but women tend to look after each other more than um, you know, men sort of seem to assume. Oh no, that's your problem, I'm gonna get on, do my thing. Not all men, I'm I am generalizing.

SPEAKER_01 44:37

Yeah, but it happens and it happens, those those characters are out there time and time again. Now I remember on the level three course, my good friend Em did it with me. We were the two who were like, we want to carry on with this. And we were on you do a weekend of learning, and then you come back when you're ready for your assessment. And on our learning weekend, as you know, it was our assessment weekend. Um so we each took it in turns to ride down this quite technical, rocky section, and the men in the group went first, all fine, but all wanted to show how fine they were. And then I went, and Em's quite a lot smaller than me, and they came down, and I remembered they didn't break at all, and everyone was just the blokes started sketching out and being like, Oh my goodness, they're gonna crash into us, they're gonna crash into us because they'd already they hadn't asked anything about their experience, and then they just casually just did a little plant, like wool plant on a big rock, and then came to a stop right next to me. You could see them all be like, oh my goodness, yeah. It's like, yes, may I introduce you to the best rider in the group? So it's kind of I really liked that subtle way of like they're not a big personality, but they kind of just like came down and were like, Hi, I'm here, I'm good at bikes.

SPEAKER_00 46:06

You've got an exciting year ahead, some new stuff in there, which I'm really excited to see. I can't wait to see how you do. Um one of the final things I just wanted to ask you was um just about for women and girls out there who are thinking that they might want to try a bike but might feel a bit scared, or might want to try an event, but might feel a bit too scared, or feel like it might not be for them, or it might not be good enough. What what message would you would you give to people?

SPEAKER_01 46:38

I mean, I don't want to like reduce it down to like just get out there and do it, because that is really hard. Like, there's so many things, like you know, see if you can find a group that are doing something that you like the sound of. Like if you can make it social, that can be really helpful, even if it means traveling somewhere to do it. Like, if you're not lucky enough to have something locally, maybe it could be a really nice trip to go and ride with some people that you think they look like my kind of people, and that could be like the confidence boost you're looking for. Um, and the same with events like don't feel like you can't message the event organizer and ask questions because a lot of the times they do have the answers, but maybe they're really good at putting on events, but they're not a marketer, so they just didn't realise that not everyone else knows what they already know. Um, and the way they respond will tell you very quickly if it's an event you want to go to or not, but also that's not gonna get rid of every barrier and it's not gonna like make the situation completely free from fear, so then there is that thing of like if you've still got that little lingering doubt, just remember that like if you push through that and have the best time ever, like it'll be amazing. Whereas if everything's perfect and you push through, it'll be alright because everything was fine all the time, anyway. But yeah, if you can overcome a little bit of fear along the way, then you'll feel amazing on the other side of it.

SPEAKER_00 48:20

Yeah, absolutely. Um, I think that um messaging organizers is a really good core because I think it's something people don't necessarily think to do. Um, and actually the reason why people put on these events is because they love cycling and they they want to share that passion with people. And as you say, they're not always the best at advertising everything that might the event might might be given or might might be putting on. Um, so that's always a good call. And as you say, you very quickly get get to get a feel, don't you, for whether, oh, this will be for me or this won't be for me. And that I mean there are flinter groups popping up, just cycling groups popping up um in towns throughout the world now, and that was certainly something when we did the EBR scholarship drive. A lot of people were saying, Um, you know, I've started a Flinter group or I've you know got inspired because I joined the Flinter group of cyclists, and that made me gave me confidence to get out there. So I think if you find the right group of people, um, it will be a safe place for you to start and challenge yourself for sure. Claire, thanks so much for coming on and for sharing your experience. You don't I don't think you realise how inspiring you are in what you do. Um you know, you introduced yourself by saying that you do lots of little things. Um from where I'm sat, what you're doing is quite big stuff. Um, and it's it's having a massive impact on people on so many levels. Um not just by what you're doing, but because you're so active in what you do. Um you're not just going out and riding your bike, you're actually actively trying to get other people to do the same and to have the confidence. So thank you for that, really, because I think that that is that is a special thing. It's a special skill that you've got and that you're sharing with the world. Thanks very much. Having someone who's in it with you can make a real big difference to how consistent you are with your training and also to how you complete your event. Endurance bike and run. We've got years of experience of working with women, helping them to achieve that big idea. So if you'd like some help and support, you can contact me at Claire at endurancebike and run.com. That's C-L-A-R-E at endurancebike and run dot com, or you can check out our coaching services at endurancebike and run dot com. We have group training programmes as well as one-to-one coaching options.