Pro Cyclist Ambassadors Join Forces to Get More Young Girls Mountain Biking
No matter how old you are, breaking into mountain biking can be intimidating. The rugged terrain-full of climbs, downhills, and potentially dangerous rocks and ridges-requires a certain level of confidence and dare-devil attitude that’s not necessarily needed in other sports.
And that may be part of the reason why there are far fewer young girls riding mountain bikes than boys.
But Sabra Davison and her sister, two-time Olympic mountain biker Lea Davison, are on mission to change that with Little Bellas, an organization aiming to encourage girls to get on some wheels.
Growing up in a small town in Vermont, the siblings were obsessed with the outdoors, spending much of their time cross-country skiing, running, and cycling both on and off the road. In their teens, they started competing on the junior mountain bike circuit, getting muddy in meets across the country. They began noticing a trend: There were hardly any girls at the starting lines of these races.
Then one year at the Eastern Cup race in New Jersey, they met fellow mountain biker Angela Irvine, who would later join them in founding Little Bellas. Irvine commiserated with the sisters over the lack of female competition in cycling races, and they brainstormed a way to make the sport more accessible to young girls.
A few years later, in 2007, Little Bellas was born. Since then, the mountain bike-mentorship program has continued to grow: In fact, 15 states now offer group rides, gear tutorials, and skill-building sessions for girls ages 7 to 16.
“One reason for founding Little Bellas was to give young girls role models who were alternatives to famous pop culture icons,” Lea Davison said in an email to Bicycling. “We also wanted to create a tribe for the girls who are not engaging with soccer and traditional sports, and give them a different type of team.”
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While cycling remains its main focus, Little Bellas also wants to encourage girls in all sports. Since its launch, the program has been promoted by the likes of pro mountain biker and cyclocross cyclist Maghalie Rochette, nordic skier Katharine Ogden, and pro surfer Zoë McDougall.
And starting this month, the organization welcomes an all-star crew of representatives, dubbed the Little Bellas Ambassadors. The 16-person freshman class includes three-time Olympic mountain biker Catharine Pendrel, Olympic triathletes Sarah True and Flora Duffy, and five-time Olympic cyclist Katerina Nash.
“The girls get to have some of the best athletes in the world to look up to, and they get to call Olympians, World Cup winners, and World Champions part of their tribe,” Lea Davison said. “When the pros visit their local Little Bellas chapter, they become real people. They face the same challenges out on the World Cup course every day as the Little Bellas face on the trail.”
Nash agrees, and adds that another important role of Little Bellas is to create a fun, outdoor environment for girls to encourage them to spend time outside.
“Mountain biking isn’t the easiest sport to get into, and not all parents are able to show their kids the beauty of riding a bike in the woods,” Nash wrote in an email to Bicycling.
Having badass role models will undoubtedly encourage more girls to hit the dirt, too. Another Little Bellas ambassador, four-time U.S. Junior National Championship winner and 2017 U23 National champion Haley Batten, wants to serve that role for younger generations in the same way older cyclists were for her.
“When I was a young girl, having strong female role models really inspired me to chase my dreams,” she wrote in an email to Bicycling. “I idolized those women and wanted to have the same passion and adventurous spirit that they embodied. I am so humbled to be involved with the ambassador program because I know exactly how meaningful that position can be for empowering younger women.”
While the focus of Little Bellas is introducing girls to mountain biking, ambassador Sarah True said in an email to Bicycling that it teaches them more than just that.
“If I had grown up with a program like this, it would have made my life much easier as an athlete and a woman,” she said.
And if all goes according to plan, the ability of the program to reach more and more girls will only be growing: The founders have a goal of offering 60 programs across 25 different states by 2020, their press release says.
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