Blog

REI Signs on for 2nd year with GGR's Annual Rocktober Festival!

6/25/2017

GGR: Girlz Gone Riding is so very thrilled to announce that REI will be a sponsor for the 2nd year in a row at this year's 7th annual Rocktober Festival & CORBA membership drive, October 29th at beautiful Castaic Lake!
www.girlzgoneriding.com/exhibitors--sponsors.html.

REI will be having 3 booths at this year's festival. At the REI booths, Bike Techs will be available for minor repairs all throughout the day! They will also be bringing a fleet of their demo bikes for you take out on the trails and give them a try! Stop by one of their booths and see what REI is all about! This company supports women's cycling 100% and has been very generous to both GGR and CORBA!

One of the grand prizes this year for the big GGR raffle at the Rocktober festival will be a bike donated by REI!

REI also donates their community room to GGR for all Rocktober pre festivities such as stuffing goodie bags and early packet pick up. REI will also be donating all goodie bags again this year!

GGR is so honored to be part of REI's Force of Nature campaign! For more info, check it out here: www.rei.com/h/force-of-nature. And if you have not been to their host GGR retail store....GO CHECK IT OUT! It's in an outstanding location directly in the heart of Woodland Hills!
www.rei.com/stores/woodland-hills.html

The annual GGR Rocktober festival is a one day FREE mountain biking event October 29th at Castaic Lake. Registration will be open in late August and is cut off at 300 women. The event is open to ALL women of any club to attend! This is NOT a race, but a day to for women mountain bikers of all levels to gather and network, shop women's products, learn some new skills, ride fun trails and be part of something amazing! Beginners are welcomed with open arms!

There are skills clinics, guided rides, raffles, guest speakers, TONS of demo bikes, exhibitors and more! Want to exhibit or become a sponsor? How about bring your demo fleet???
Email us at info@girlzgoneriding.com. It's super easy to become a sponsor or exhibit!

#REI
#forceofnature
#outdoorsports
#outreach
#advocacy
#GGR
#girlzgoneriding
#CORBAMTB
#CORBA
#morewomenonbikes
#womenscycling
#mountainbiking

The World's First Women's-Only Enduro Series (And the 7 Things You Need to Know About It)

6/12/2017

The Sturdy What?

Yeah, we've heard that question before, often accompanied by a quizzical...sometimes concerned look. The Sturdy Dirty Enduro Series is a mouthful, and the enduro race series behind the name is just as fun...and maybe even as ridiculous (in all the good ways) as you think it is.

In the Pacific Northwest, folks know every detail behind this iconic women's-only bike race in Seattle Washington; and now that the Sturdy Dirty is headed down the Pacific Coast to a trail near you (Snow Summit Resort!), here is what you need to know to get in on the party:

( All photos courtesy of the talented Collin Meagher and Chris McFarland - two of our biggest fans!)

1. The Sturdy Dirty Enduro Series is the first of its kind...and there is a kickass crew of ladies behind the scenes.
When the Sturdy Dirty Enduro started in Washington in 2012, it was the first women's-only enduro in the US - and one of only a handful of beginner friendly women's focused mtb races in the world. After three years of consecutive sell-out races, race promoters Katie, Ady, Angela, and Julie (ladies of the Sturdy B Racing team) were ready to take things to the next level. With the help of racers turned promoter Ash (of Roam Events) and Suzie (Snow Summit Resort), the Sturdy Dirty Enduro Series was born! With races in Seattle WA (June 17), Oakridge OR (Aug 19), and Big Bear CA (Oct 14), the Sturdy Dirty Enduro Series (SDES) is the very first women's-only enduro race series in the whole friggin' world.

2. The Sturdy Dirty was created specifically for BEGINNER racers.
Racing in general can be intimidating. Joining in on an often misunderstood race discipline like Enduro can be downright scary. The Sturdy B's fell in love with enduro racing, but recognized there were a lot of unknowns that kept other women from competing. What is an enduro? Are there any other women racing? Do I have to have an "enduro" bike? Do I have to have fancy gear? What if I can't keep up? These were all questions that came up often enough that the Sturdy B's decided it was time to make an event to help introduce beginner racers to Enduro in hopes that the Sturdy Dirty would be a stepping stone for ladies to compete in any enduro race.

3. Expert shredders will have a blast too!
We've had world-class pros race the Sturdy Dirty and the race consistently ranks favorite amongst expert riders. We make sure to kick it up a notch on expert/pro stages to get all the feels throughout the day.

4. The race course is created by women, for women.
The whole damn race is put on by women - why would the course selection be any different? We've got pros racing who can hit jumps with steezy style and flawlessly navigate the most technical terrain...but do we expect beginner racers to ride mandatory drops and sketchy jumps? Absolutely not. Each race category (Juniors, Beginner, Masters Beginner, Sport, Expert, Pro) will have an appropriate race course to ride that is hand-selected and pre-ridden by a crew of ladies to ensure everyone is safe, appropriately challenged, and having fun on course. We even have Red Tent Timing along to make sure the race timing is smooth as butter.

5. There are no secrets here! Racers will have plenty of opportunity to pre-ride and practice the course.
Racing a course blind is fun for some people...but we aren't those kind of people. Because we want racers to feel safe, confident, and relaxed on-course, we release the course details as soon as they are finalized so everyone has a chance to practice every nook and cranny of the race. We even have a mega fun pre-ride practice the day before the race! (Friday, Oct 13 in Big Bear)

6. There will be costumes, cheering, and a heaping dose of revelry.
If you aren't having fun at the Sturdy Dirty, you aren't doing it right.

Volunteers and fans alike are highly encouraged to show up fully decked out in costume. Aid Stations are themed and have hosted treats such as Hooters BBQ chicken wings, s'mores, a taco bar, and bacon. So. much. bacon.

Race promoters work hard to ensure the race is a welcoming experience for riders. Expect encouragement and cheering from fellow racers, friendly pre-stage chatter, and enough smiles and high fives to wear you out - but not so much that you can't hang with us at the After Party.

7. Boys (aka grown men) are welcome too!
Many of us enjoy the support of our male counterparts - and we encourage them to help in a variety of ways! We absolutely love our volunteers (many of whom are fellas), and a cheer squad of costume clad baritone voices is welcome when we need that extra bit of support to hammer out the last few hundred yards. If you can't race with 'em, support 'em! Right fellas?

_____________________________________________________

Ready to Sturdy Dirty? REGISTER HERE for the Big Bear race hosted by Snow Summit Resort or check out www.sturdydirty.com for more race details.

Race promoters Ady (rhymes with eighty), Julie, Suzie, and Ash will all be joining us at the GGR Women's Weekend at Big Bear July 29-31 to answer all your questions in person!

Have more immediate questions? E-mail info@sturdydirty.com or call Ash at 530-521-8913

The Next Chapter.....Canyon USA

2/5/2017

And life changes yet again......

I'm so very thrilled to announce I have accepted a position with
Canyon Bikes USA: www.canyon.com/en/
reviews.mtbr.com/its-official-canyon-is-coming-to-america-in-2017
www.pinkbike.com/news/canyon-preparing-for-us-launch-2017.html

My official title is Team Manager Customer Service.

Canyon has been around for over 30 years. They are based out of Koblenz Germany and will be launching here in the US. I will be heading up customer service for the US effective March 1st. I'll be in Germany for most of March training, then when I come back I'll be moving to the OC to be close to the corporate offices where I will be assigned.

I will continue to run the GGR LA chapter (all other chapters have their own directors) and drive back monthly for the club rides. I will still stay on the CORBA board for now as well as get involved with SHARE, the IMBA chapter for the OC. I will not be opening a GGR chapter in the OC...I will continue to send women living in the OC to our sister club and shop Girls ride 2 and G2 Bikes.
http://www.g2bike.com/

This is an opportunity of a lifetime for me to do what I love & and have so much passion for. I'm so very excited to brand Canyon in the US and be a part of a great company that engineers incredible bikes. I will still be involved as much as I can in the communities as an advocate for women mountain bikers, trail advocacy and riding and racing with all of YOU!

I thank everyone for your constant support, believing in me, my vision of getting more women on bikes and keeping them riding! I thank my inner circle for keeping this quiet and giving me direction and support every step of this process. The adventure is just beginning!

I'm so excited to ride new trails in the OC! So those who live there give me a ring and let's ride!

I will be spending less time with CORBA, so if you ride the Santa Monica Mountains.....CORBA could use you! CORBA is looking for 2017 Board members! corbamtb.com.
For more information, you can email me at wendy@girlzgoneriding.com

I hope all of you will follow me on this amazing journey. See you on the trails!

GGR Girl Wendy E

GGR 2016 Year in Review

12/28/2016

2016 marked a year not only in immense growth in the women's mountain biking movement and GGR, but was a true year in growth for my own adventures on the bike. I can't wait to see what 2017 brings!

Highlights!
GGR added 2 new chapters in 2016 bringing us to 6 chapters!:

Kern County Chapter! This brand new chapter is headed up by Tracy Jones! I had the pleasure of joining them for their 1st chapter ride on the Lehigh trail system in Tehacapi. WHAT a blast! If you live in the Kern County area, please go to their Face Book Page & check out their next all level, ladies only club ride! www.facebook.com/groups/1580508605578956/

Mojave Desert Chapter! I am especially excited for this new GGR chapter in AZ! I had the honor of being their guest for their annual Route 66 Rattler Race this past October and had an absolute blast! These girlz are gonna draw the ladies in! They are so much fun!

GGR Director Wendy Engelberg and Kern County Director Tracy Jones

Mojave Desert Chapter Leadership Team!

Specialized & Cynergy Cycles presents Specialized Expert ERA to Wendy Engelberg for 2016 season!

I had the absolute pleasure of being given the incredible opportunity of riding this machine for the 2016 season. A 2016 Specialized Expert ERA. I raced this bike XC, 6 and 12 hour endurance races, down hilled with it, raced enduro with it and pretty much rode the adventure out of it! This was one of THE best XC bikes I have ever ridden. I thank Specialized & Cynergy Cycles for such a generous gift and perfect bike for me! It was an honor to ride it!

Women's Only Weekend in Big Bear!

Probably my most favorite GGR event every year is the Women's Only Weekend in Big Bear hosted by GGR, Snow Summit, Bear Valley Bikes and Rim Nordic Bike Park. Every August, GGR puts on a no frills, all fun weekend of XC guided rides, DH guided runs, a free DH clinic, a big group dinner, XC in Fawnskin and an intro to Enduro racing. All put on by GGR volunteers! This year was the most intimate I think because we had an abundance of veteran ride leader volunteers that all stepped up to lead, sweep and float the rides and runs. We were able to do a beginner/intro to DH AND a free DH clinic for all levels that booked up in seconds!! We also had the best turn out ever for the intro to enduro day at Rim Nordic Bike park!
Big Bear is one of GGR's favorite hang outs in the summer and you will see our purple jersey's there all the time on both the XC trails and shredding the DH runs too!
Please visit our Big Bear host shop for all your biking needs when you are in town:
Bear Valley Bikes! bvbikes.com/.

Rocktober Festival!
The highlight every year for GGR is of course our annual Rocktober Festival. This year was different....new location....Castaic Lake and POURING rain. We still had well over 200 women that not only showed up but stayed the day. They rode around the lake, demo'd bikes, took a skills clinic and shopped at all the vendors. RST Suspension and REI were the title sponsors for this year's festival. BOTH companies are very involved in their communities and support women's mountain biking.

This year's community award went to:
The Squeaky Wheel Bike shop! www.facebook.com/groups/193733867452512/

The most improved rider for 2016 went to Anne Yeoh of the Inland Empire chapter!

Leigh Donovan was back again as head coach leading our skills clinic: ichoosebikes.com/

The date is set for the 2017 Rocktober Festival! October 8th at Castaic Lake! Registration opens August 18th. This is a FREE event for all women mountain bikers! Please enjoy some of my favorite pictures from this past festival! For the event blog, please check it out here: www.girlzgoneriding.com/blog/the-rainy-cold-6th-annual-rocktober-festival-oct-30th-2016-castaic-lake

WHATS up for 2017?

GGR is very excited for the upcoming year. Here are just a few of our events to join in on! Go to our Google Calendar for details: www.girlzgoneriding.com/calendar.html

January 8th Mojave Desert's Inaugural Club Ride
January 15th CORBA's RAM Ride & Pancake Breakfast at Michael's Bicycles in Newbury Park
January 15th: San Diego Chapter's Leadership Meeting 4pm! Wanna be a chapter leader?? Email me for more info: wendy@girlzgoneriding.com
February 20th: Nutrition lecture at All Pro Bikes in Simi: 7pm given by Shannon Howell
Monthly club rides! Check out your chapter page for dates and trail heads
March 24th-25th: Leigh Donovan skills clinic at G2 Bikes/Girls Ride 2
April 20th-April 23rd: SEA OTTER! Come race or hang with us!
April 29th: R50 Charity Endurance Event
August: Date to be determined: GGR's Annual Women's Weekend in Big Bear
June 24th: Skills Clinic at Mt Pino's with Pro Enduro Rider & LIV Ambassador Amy Rambacher
September 30th: Share the Road Event Hosted By All Pro Bicycles: GGR will be hosting an aid station for riders
September 30th: Grizzly 100 in Big Bear: GGR members will be racing
October 8th: GGR Presents the 7th annual Rocktober Festival at Castaic Lake
GGR will be participants in the following races throughout the year: SOCAL Endurance, SOCAL Enduro, Pedalfest, Southridge USA, Kenda Cup, Grizzly 100
Please join the LA Chapter for the monthly CORBA board meetings the last Monday of every month at REI Woodland Hills

And now some thank you's! I could not do what I do without surrounding myself with amazing people. Thank you all for supporting women's cycling, my vision with GGR and women's mountain biking. It definetly takes a VILLAGE!

I would like to personally thank and recognize the following people and companies:
My GGR Directors and Leadership teams:
Jackie Reseigne, Susie Murphy, Ali Hyde, Tracy Jones, The ladies of Kingman, AZ, Desi, Anne, Tam, Sue H, Doris, Liz, Amy R, Lauren, Sylvia, Leah J, Leah D, Marybeth and everyone else who has volunteered to assist with guided rides and everything GGR.

CORBA: Thank you for supporting everything I do & allowing me to just RUN with it!
Specialized: Thank you for inviting our team to SBCU and providing me with the best bike on earth to race! Thank you for the hospitality and giving back!
SBCU: RAD RAD RAD! Thank you for opening up your doors to GGR!
Cynergy Cycles: Thank you for supporting my vision and my race season with the incredible ERA!
Spoke N Wheel: Thank you for always fixing my bikes in a jiffy and making me a priority!
Bear Valley Bikes: Thank you for always supporting GGR, our women's community and just being a great shop!
Michael's Bicycles: Always huge community supporters to both GGR members and CORBA! THANK YOU!
Ali Hyde: How much fun do we have??? Thank you for taking on the Director role in Big Bear for our chapter! Thank you for your friendship and guidance with cycling! O and my graphics absolutely rock!
Derek Hermon: Thanks for always supporting our women's mountain biking community!
Snow Summit: Thank you for hosting our annual women's weekend every August!
Rim Nordic Bike Park: Thank you for your generosity and always encouraging and opening up race cateogories for women over 50! YES YES YES!
Bev Brown: Your races are always so much fun, relaxing and inviting. Thank you for always accomodating us every August for our intro to enduro day!
Jason Ranoa/SoCal Endurance/SoCal Enduro Thank you so very much for encouraging myself and other women to race. I'm so very grateful to you for letting GGR have our booth for race support to assist other women racers! See you in January!
Race Pedalfest: This is where my crazy summer started.....this series changed everything for me and got my fitness to a new level....thank you for being so supportive of women's racing and mountain biking!
Jenson USA: Thank you for year 2 of providing our club members with the most awesome purple tee's and extra tubes!
REI: We at GGR are so stoked and proud to have REI on board! Thank you for the use of your community room ALL YEAR for both CORBA and GGR. The reusable goodie bags absolutely rocked as did your presense at the Rocktober Festival!
Liv: Every single Rocktober Festival Liv is always the 1st company to get on board, the 1st to get in their demo inventory and the 1st to ship us their product donations. Super nice ladies and so very easy to work with. No wonder their bikes are always taken 1st at our demo's!
Mountain Gems Handcrafter Jewelry: Thank you for providing GGR with our own line of jewlery! I'm wearing 4 pieces of it right now while I'm writing this blog!
RST Suspension: WHAT an amazing job you guys did with our trail work for the Rocktober festival this year, setting up the course and taking it down. Thank you so much and thank you for taking care of parking for our participants!
Dilbeck Realtors/Leah Dilbeck: Every year you top the previous year and do something incredible! Thank you for supporting our community and your donation! Thank you for being a part of our leadership team!
CLIF: Thank you for supplying our 2 major events each year with all the bars and hydration we need! Thank you for supporting women's mountain biking!
Kali Protectives, Ryders Eyewear, ZOIC clothing: I thank you so very much for supporting our events and also providing me personally with amazing product!
Jill Hamilton and Ride Petal Power: Thank you for providing me with the best chamois cream on earth! Also, it has been so incredible to have you as one of our vet ride volunteers at our events. Thank you for your generosity with your knowledge and helping us grow as riders!
Forze Tri: Thank you for the absolutely amazing coutour GGR socks! They were probably the biggest product hit this year with GGR! Your support and generosity is very much appreciated. The most comfortable socks on earth!
All our amazing trail males: YOU guys are fast, strong, fun and leave your ego's at the door. I'm so very grateful for your help on our big rides! Thank you!
G2 Bikes/Girls Ride 2/ AJ Sura: Our "sistah" club in the OC! I'm so thankful we share the same vision. Thank you for creating a safe haven for women cyclists and being a partner! I love sending women to Girls Ride 2!
Laura "MEGA" Watts: Thank you for your committee leadership every single year with the Rocktober Festival!
Amy and Thomas Rambacher: You both are always so supportive of everything I do and are such a blast to train and race with! Thank you for being just wonderful and generous people in my life and always encouraging me to race. I'm so very grateful and blessed to call you both my good friends.
Bobby Acuna: So much to say to you...I hope I have already let you know how you have impacted my life this past year in such a positive way. Thank you for being my training partner, thank you for scraping me off the ground, putting up with me when I'm completly out of control, racing with me, sessioning with me, letting me follow you on switchbacks, your endless patience, volunteering for GGR and just being a bestie not to mention the most fun adventure partner EVAH! Thank you.
Cosmo: Thank you for always offering direction with my riding and bikes!
Stephanie Wolf: Thank you for the incredible new website and managing it! We love it!
Photographers: Jesse Ettinger, Graham Martin, Dean Bradley, Pat Carrigan, Steve Clark: Thank you for capturing the moments and giving us so many wonderful memories!
Coaches: Leigh Donovan, Christine Hirst, Kris Gross, Sarah Viggers, Amy Rambacher: Ladies! Thank you so very much for volunteering your time to make sure our amazing women's community of mountain bikers are safer, more skilled riders! I love riding and being coached by all of you!!
My Inner Circle of Friends: Some of you are already mentioned here. You know who you are. YOU are the most important people in my life. You are family. You tell me the truth, watch my back, support my visions, tell me when I'm wrong and don't take any shit from me either. THANK YOU! I count on you, you are my breath, please don't stop! MWAH!

Until next year...........I thank you all for your support, cheering on my vision as well as our women's mountain biking community.
Please reach out to others and grab them to ride! Especially beginners! Always support, encourage and treat all with respect and compassion. It's the GGR way...... it's the only way.

Signing off for 2016....GGR Girl Wendy E!

Rocktober Festival 2017 Date Set!

11/23/2016

I'm very excited to announce that the 2017 GGR Rocktober festival is now booked for October 8th at Castaic Lake. We moved the date up a bit to hopefully prevent any chance of having the rides rained out.

GGR is so very thrilled and grateful to welcome back REI as a sponsor. REI was one of the 2016 festival main sponsors. They donated a bike, 250 goodie bags, a donation to CORBA and allowed GGR to use their community room for goodie bag stuffing and packet pick up. REI will have 3 booths at the 2017 Rocktober festival including demo bikes! REI supports all outdoor activities especially women's mountain biking. Go check out their super store in Woodland HIlls!

Please grab your friends and join in on
#optoutfriday: www.rei.com/opt-outside/pledge/create

This will be GGR's 7th Rocktober festival and 2nd year at Castaic Lake. Its been quite a ride! We now have 6 chapters and looking to add more out of state chapters in 2017. How do you get so many women riding? Make sure everyone always has a great experience every time! It's that simple.

OCTOBER 8TH! Please save the date. Registration will open August 18th. This is a free event for all participants. Want to be on the 2017 committee?
Want to exhibit at the festival or become a sponsor? Please email Wendy Engelberg for more information: wendy@girlzgoneriding.com

The rainy, cold 6th annual Rocktober Festival. Oct 30th, 2016

10/30/2016

Photo credit Jesse Ettinger

Castaic Lake
Well, instead of an event write up…I decided to just say all the thank you’s I couldn’t say due to all the rain we received pretty much all day for this year’s festival. A plethora of pictures will be coming soon!

Where do I begin…I guess with THANK YOU! I know how rough it was at times today, especially this morning…yet 237 riders still showed up!

The rain came down pretty hard most of the morning. It’s difficult to make the morning commencement short when there are so many to acknowledge and thank that make GGR and the Rocktober festival a reality. I’m sorry I had to rush through things towards the end, please know how very grateful I am to all the volunteers, exhibitors and sponsors. Thank you!

I feel very strongly the right decision was made NOT to ride the trails. Myself and many others pour our heart and souls into this event every year, so this decision not to ride was not made lightly…Not only would we destroy the trails, it could have done a lot of damage to your bikes (clay soil sticks to everything) and it would have become dangerous. We respect the trails; we don’t ride in the mud and destroy the land.

Many of you made comments on how relaxed I was this year. It was because I had 55 extremely competent volunteers. Let the people around you do what they do best, and all will benefit in the end. I’d like to recognize and thank these people and companies.

Ride volunteers:
With a new location, we had to have a TON of pre rides. All of you made the effort to come out and learn the new trails and routes and many of you showed up at virtually every pre ride. Thank you for your commitment and dedication.

Doris Dunn: You absolutely ROCK! You handle all the exhibitors now every year and attended every pre ride that you were in town. I can’t do this without you! THANK YOU! You do an amazing job and I’m so very grateful you have become such a huge part of the festival.

RST Suspension:
Mike Dunn and Bobby Acuna: For the last month, RST Suspension was out at Castaic working on cleaning up the trails. This included pulling thorn bushes completely off the trails, (some of the single tracks were completely taken over by the thorn bushes), pulling falling trees, fixing holes, dealing with rattle snakes, doing EVERY pre ride, marking the course, and now…after everyone is gone…the event is over… because it’s still way too muddy… they STILL have to go back and pull all the signs and ribbons from the routes they worked so hard to put up.

I thank you both Mike & Bobby for believing in my vision, for supporting our women’s mountain biking community and for all your direction and wisdom as well. I count on the industry vets like yourselves to guide me and yet still be able to tell me the truth even when you know I don’t want to hear it, but need too. Thank you for that.

Also, participants…. if you were one of the 1st 100 riders to get into the park, RST paid for your parking.

This event could not have been pulled off without you both. Thank you. Respect, Grateful. Job EXTREMELY well done.
Please check out the fine products RST makes here: http://www.rst.com.tw/en/

Leah Jenson:
One of my besties who has believed in me for many, many, many years. You are the one I trust, you are the one who tells me how it is, gives me direction and handles the money. THANK YOU! Every year I count on you and you shine. I never, ever worry about the financial part of the event with you taking care of the raffles and putting the prizes together. Thank you!

Shilo Vigil/Bob Vigil/The Squeaky Wheel Bike Shop:
There was so much I wanted to say, but I had to rush it because of the downpour of rain. Shilo, what you did in the last Pedalfest race for me personally was astounding. Sacrificing your own race so I didn’t finish alone, knowing my spirit was destroyed, just showed me the kind of athlete, sportswoman and leader you truly are. I’m so very proud to have you as a fellow colleague in our amazing community. With having a baby, a business, managing a high school team, racing and leading women’s only rides…wow…YOU are a pillar in our community. I thank you for the amazing example and acknowledge your dedication.

Bob…. you have always given me great advice in such a relaxing, no big deal manner. Thank you for always being so friendly to me, our girlz and all that you contribute. Way to set an exemplary example of community. Congrats on winning the GGR community award this year! www.facebook.com/thesqueakywheelbikeshop/

Anne Yeoh:
Anne, I wish I could have spent some time on all of your accomplishments and I’m so sorry I couldn’t recognize you better with the rain pouring down on us. I’m so very, very proud of how much you have improved because of your dedication to making yourself a stronger, more fit, skilled rider. You always invite others on your rides and this shows you are all about community as well. Great job and congrats on winning the MOST IMPROVED RIDER this year!

Coaches:
Leigh, Christine, Kris, and Sarah: Ladies… I can’t thank you all enough for donating your day to us! Each of you is a part of GGR because of how special you are to our community. I’ve been coached by each of you, so I know 1st hand you are the best at what you do, I trust you…therefor I trust you with our women’s community. All the feedback I heard was CRAZY outstanding. Thank you for staying through the rain and making sure all these ladies had a great time and learned some valuable skills to make their riding more fun and safer.
Leigh Donovan! Thank you for taking charge and handling this part of the festival for me! It was thrilling seeing all the ladies with such big smiles on their faces coming back from the skills clinics! ichoosebikes.com

Liz Kurtz:
Thank you for rounding ladies up and taking them for a lake ride. You spontaneous manner is always such a refreshing charm that always seems to work for all! I thank you for your guidance and being such a supportive, strong woman. You are such an inspiration and wonderful support system to have at events. Your riding experience shines through and benefits us all Thank you!

Desi:
Every year you run check in/registration AND lead a ride! You just make it happen. Each year you practice your ride routes to make sure you know every single inch of the trail to ensure all of your riders have a great experience on your rides. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for putting this amount of energy into everything you do for our women’s mountain biking community!

Marybeth:
I know you stepped in today for sign in and didn’t even get to demo the bikes you wanted too when you have been looking for so long for the right bike. Thank you for making that sacrifice for the benefit of the event. Thank you always for your wisdom and direction you always give me when I need it.

Mega Watts:
Thank you for heading up our exhibitor/sponsorship committee EVERY year! Great job!

Exhibitor/sponsorship committee:
Thank you to all the volunteers who did just an amazing job getting exhibitors and product donations this year!

Sean and Janet Devlin:
Thank you for making the long drive to Castaic to Big Bear. You really made the best of things by keeping your tandem out and letting many of us give it a try. Janet…. I have a whole new respect for you! I cannot believe you DH on that bike! You both are an amazing team. I felt immediately the trust you must have in the captain with me riding stoker.

REI:
Jean and company…thank you for taking the chance this year on GGR! Having the bag stuffing and the early packet pick up at REI was a HUGE success! The support you have given us and CORBA has been incredible. Thank you for believing in GGR and supporting our women’s mountain biking community. www.rei.com

Forze Tri:
Sarah, you REALLY stepped up as an event sponsor with the absolutely beautiful GGR socks for the event. These socks are so incredibly comfortable and supportive! Thank you! www.forzetri.com/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi

Jenson USA:
Thank you so very much for donating extra tubes and the incredible GGR purple tees! This is such a huge hit at the event and our ladies wear these ALL year round. Thank you for being such a great part of our women’s community! www.jensonusa.com

CORBA:
Thank you to my fellow board members Mark, Jen and Steve Messer for supporting EVERYTHING I do and always trying to make it better for me. Thank you Steve for your dedication and hard work 24/7. You are the true definition of community. corbamtb.com

Leah Dilbeck:
Leigh, thank you for your constant compassion, caring, willingness to step up and get it done. I thank you for your enormous donation to GGR and our women’s community. I’m so very bummed that all the kids today didn’t get to ride with you due to the rain. You are truly a remarkable women and I’m so very honored and proud to be associated with you. dilbeck.com

Mojave Desert Chapter:
Ladies! I’m so devastated you made the 5-hour drive one way and couldn’t ride the event. You DID have quite the adventure and great story to tell with a lost wallet, chasing robbers and a lost key! Thank you for your willingness to volunteer and your wonderful, happy smiles even though it poured on you!
I’m looking forward to seeing what you will do in your own community with our precious women riders! www.facebook.com/groups/1876612489234263/

AJ Sura/G2 Bikes/Girls Ride 2: AJ:
You are always so very kind and gracious to me. Thank you! You have become such an incredible success with your shop, your racing, your club. I’m so very proud to call you a friend and colleague. Thank you for always supporting GGR and opening up YOUR local community to OUR local community. Together we are growing our women’s cycling community and keeping women mountain biking. I’m so very proud to always send ladies your way when they live in your hood! Thank you for all that YOU do and helping with us with getting some incredible event sponsors and exhibitors this year! www.g2bike.com

Jose MTB!
Thank you for getting up so early and being at my house at 5am EVERY year! I thank you for the use of your truck, your willingness to just jump in and help wherever needed. Thank you!

Joyce Deprest:
Thank you for getting MBU at the event and having such a friendly, positive presence. Congrats on your 2017 CORBA board membership as well!

Everyone...........
Please check out all the event pictures from our amazing photographers!

To see ALL the photos from our amazing day : www.girlzgoneriding.com/photos-of-the-day

I thank each and every one of you who attended, volunteered, donated product and exhibited. Thank you for supporting our women’s mountain biking community and hearing our voices.
I thank you all for believing in my vision and making it a reality for our community.

Those of you that are closest to me, I especially thank you for your patience, your guidance, scraping me off the ground, removing cacti from me, handling me when I'm out of control and just being my support system and breath. You all know who you are. Luv you and I thank you.

Here are some upcoming events that I am racing and GGR is supporting:

November 5th: 12 hours of Temecula: GGR has a booth for race support all weekend. Wendy racing the 4 person team of: Amy Rambacher, Thomas Rambacher and Bobby Acuna: http://www.socalendurance.net/12--6-hours-of-temecula.html

November 10th:
Cynergy Cycles in Santa Monica: Intro to Cycling 101: Open to newbie roadies and mountain biking women:
Wendy to present everything you need to know and have questions on as a beginner cyclist! https://www.facebook.com/events/1167109186713378/

November 13th:
Ladies only all level club ride: https://www.facebook.com/events/1757806374488307/

November 27th:
CORBA Ram Ride and Pancake Brunch: Sycamore Canyon/Host shop Michael’s Bicycles: https://www.facebook.com/events/142406946210578/

December 3rd:
Santa Claus Grand Prix: Tehachapi:
Wendy Racing co-ed team 6 hour: http://www.racepedalfest.com/events/2016-santa-claus-gran-prix/

December 17th:
GGR holiday ride and luncheon at Cheeseboro and Woodranch BBQ in Agoura Hills: https://www.facebook.com/events/1409533175727880/

Until the next adventure, go grab your bike, a bestie and ride!

MWAH!

GGR Girl Wendy E!

Jenson USA Supports Women's Cycling Community

10/22/2016

For the 2nd year in a row, Jenson USA will be a contributing sponsor at the Girlz Gone Riding annual Rocktober festival at Castaic Lake October 30th. GGR would like to acknowledge and graciously thank Jenson USA for all of their support and community generosity! These are the friendliest and most fun people around!

This year, Jenson USA is donating the GGR tees again! These tees were a HUGE hit at last year's festival so they had them made for us again!!!

The 1st 200 women to get to the Jenson USA booth, will receive a free GGR tee shirt! These tee's are totally rad! Make sure you get there early and get your GGR/Jenson tee!

A new bonus too! Castaic Lake tends to be a very thorny area. If you are not yet tubeless, Jenson USA also donated a bunch of tubes. The floaters of the rides will be carrying these extra tubes to assist anyone that happens to get a flat.

For all your biking needs, please visit the Jenson USA store or go online and shop: www.jensonusa.com

GGR Announces 6th Chapter in Beautiful Kingman, AZ!

10/17/2016

GGR: Girlz Gone Riding, is so very thrilled and proud to announce our 6th chapter! Please welcome the fabulous ladies of Kingman, AZ to the GGR family! This chapter will be known as the Mojave Desert chapter since it encompasses CA, AZ and NV.

I first got to meet some of these shredders at last year's Rocktober festival. They made the 5 hour drive to join in on the fun and discuss possibly having a GGR chapter. Well...its finally a reality! Kingman, AZ is now a GGR chapter!

Last week, I really got to see these ladies in action as well as experience their amazing community and enjoy the true beauty of the area.

Myself and my training partner were invited to their annual race that their local IMBA chapter puts on, CRATA: Colorado River Area Trail Alliance. The Route 66 Rattler race. Denise Barron, who sits on the CRATA board, was our guide and liaison for the trip. Be Tarino of Kingman Fruit Creations welcomed us with her gourmet killer fruit dipped in chocolate!

These ladies put on 1 incredible race! Denise worked her entire schedule around us so she could take us to pre ride the race course both Thursday and Friday. The community had been building a lot of these trails and just got done this summer. Countless volunteer hours this community put in making these trails! Just check out the incredible scenery we got to ride and race in!

One of the evening events was their packet pick up, pasta dinner and meet & greet with Tinker Juarez and ME!
Racers got to come get their goodie bags, race bibs, enter raffles and for $10 got a great pasta dinner and incredible deserts from Kingman Fruit Creations.

My host Specialized shop was: Bicycle Outfitters. Adolfo Rodriguez, owner, put up their booth, the Specialized booth and DJ'd some RAD rock n roll all night! Adolfo also took a ton of video logging the adventure! Then I got to take pictures with everyone, sign jerseys and talk about women's mountain biking!

I thank the community of Kingman, CRATA, Bicycle Outfitters, Denise Barron and all the volunteers for your hospitality, generosity, enthusiasm and making our visit one amazing adventure. The Route 66 Rattler Race is an XC race NOT to be missed!

Keep an eye out at all the bike shops in Kingman and the surrounding areas for GGR flyers. We will be asking the shops all around to host clinics such as suspension set up, flat repair and more. Maybe even a ride and pancake breakfast?? Do we have an amazing flap jack flipper at one of the shops??? I can smell the maple syrup now!

The 1st chapter ride will be announced soon! Please support our women's mountain biking communities and be part of this enormous movement to grow our incredible sport!

GGR's mission is to grow women's mountain biking and keep women cycling. We offer all level no drop rides, skills clinics, repair clinics, road trips and free membership! We are a non dues club and operate by all volunteers.

GGR is about community and club. This is why each chapter partners up with their local IMBA chapter. I'm so proud and excited that Kingman, a new favorite place of mine is now a GGR chapter!

If you are a female mountain biker and live in the Kingman, AZ and surrounding areas, please join up on the Face book page here: www.facebook.com/groups/1876612489234263/

Want to start your own chapter? It's easy! Contact me at wendy@girlzgoneriding.com

GGR Girl Wendy E

RST North America gives back to their cycling community

10/12/2016

RST North America, a GGR Rocktober Festival lead sponsor, took time out of their day to work on the trails in Castaic Lake for the upcoming festival.

The Rocktober Festival is being held at beautiful Lake Castaic this year October 30th. One of the trails on the guided rides known as the "GRAPEVINE" trail, is everyone's favorite descent. However.......when not taken care of....this trail gets taken over by bushes that are so sharp, well...it leaves your legs burning and bloody!

RST went out to the trails today with their tools and removed and cut back all of these sharp, nasty bushes. Now we will not have to reroute the the guided rides to avoid this trail and riders can yet again enjoy this super fun descent!

I'd like to thank RST North America on behalf of everyone at GGR for putting on the muscles and giving back to your community! A special huge shout out and thank you to volunteers extraordinaire Mike Dunn and Bobby Acuna who have been such an enormous help with our pre rides and getting this handled. We are very grateful and appreciative! Thank you for your generosity and just getting it done!

Please check out RST products including their seat dropper and forks which you can purchase at your favorite bike shop.
www.rst.com.tw/en/

Rocktober Festival Guest Speakers! Tandemonium!

9/2/2016

GGR is so very thrilled to have Janet and Shaun Devlin of Big Bear come all the way to Castaic for the Rocktober Festival October 30th! They will be riding their tandem mountain bike and talking about this very unique discipline of riding! They will be speaking early in the afternoon!

Why we got started: Shaun and Janet were at such different riding levels. Shaun thought that if he got Janet to agree to a tandem, it would allow her to increase her experience and ride road/trails that on her single bike would have not been possible for some time and even possibly dangerous. Being the “Stoker” would allow her to learn more rapidly. More importantly, Shaun wanted her to ride with him so this would allow them to be together doing something really fun.

How we got started: We started with a used road tandem (Burley) we bought off Craigslist in 2010. We swapped out components as we got better and things started to break. In one year, we rode over 2000 miles. Shaun came home one afternoon with a YouTube video of a MTB Tandem and told Janet he had found a used Full Suspension MTB Ventana that two guys from the LA area were selling. The next day we bought it (2012). The Ventana – El Conquistador weighed 58lbs with 26 inch wheels. We came up to Big Bear and raced the US Cup Kenda series – we were hooked! We quickly realized the bike was too heavy and started to search for a lighter (carbon) tandem. We were still learning, but having a blast! We had early success and started riding more difficult trails within the California, Colorado and Utah.

Tandem biking – Captain/Stoker
Role of the Captain: The Captain manages the steering, breaking and guiding of the bike. This is the front seated person. Many years of motorcycling helped Shaun learn quickly how to guide and steer the longer wheel base.
Role of the Stoker: The stoker is “Power,” balance, provides traction when needed at the back and is all about anticipating what’s to come. On long trail rides/races acts as the key person to monitor hydration, provide fuel and most importantly keep the Captain calm. No, the Stoker is not allowed to put their feet up, or “Not peddle.”
Our Bike: We purchased a custom Calfee – Carbon Tetra 29’r / Hard Tail. The build took approximately 5 months and we were able to custom all components. It weighs 34lbs.

Visit their Face Book page here: www.facebook.com/tandemoniumbikes/?fref=ts

GGR Opens it's 5th chapter! Kern County!

8/29/2016

GGR: Girlz Gone Riding is so very excited to announce our 5th chapter! Please visit the new Kern County GGR chapter on their Face Book page here:
www.facebook.com/groups/1580508605578956/

Their 1st ladies only ride is scheduled for September 24th in Tehachapi! To sign up, please visit the event on their FB page here: www.facebook.com/events/1015840101860621/

The Kern County chapter is headed up by new GGR Director Tracy Jones! I had the pleasure of racing with Tracy at this year's Pedalfest in Castaic Lake. She is super fun, friendly and very supportive of other women cyclists! She will be a great asset to our new chapter!

Tracy Jones started mountain biking 2 years ago. During her first month of riding, she thought she could really ride and did some crazy things on the bike which resulted in her breaking her hip. After a long recovery period, Tracy was finally was able to get back to riding.

Now she is racing and actually winning! Tracy moved up to sport division and took the overall win at this year's Pedalfest! She hopes to keep improving too move up to Expert.

Tracy's background is in horse racing. "I used to exercise race horses. Professionally for about 15 years. Had many injuries in that sport, such as broken ribs, concussions and the one that ended my riding career was a severely broken arm which required the insertion of a titanium rod. In that profession, you must be very strong, and my arm never quite healed properly, so was not able to pursue my dream of becoming a jockey.

I've had several physical injuries that I am a miracle to be alive. About 12 years ago I had a brain hemorrhage. The doctor told me I should have died. However I am doing very well. Lost some control of speech, balance, and memory.

7 years ago doctors found a tumor in my brain. Not cancerous, thank goodness! Had radiation therapy on it and has not grown. Yeah!!

I've always been very shy. Since I started mountain biking I've made so many awesome friends and become part of a group that has made my life complete. Loving the sport and loving the community of fellow mountain bikers has changed my life. I can talk to people now and ... really.. am no longer shy!!

The women I've become friends with through mountain biking are life long!! I love them all!

Girlz Gone Riding has truly brought so many women into mountain biking that would never of even thought of trying it."

If you are interested in starting your own GGR chapter, please contact Wendy Engelberg at: wendy@girlzgoneriding.com

Forze Socks Gets on board with the Rocktober Festival!

8/14/2016

GGR is so very excited to welcome Forze socks: forzetri.com to this year's Rocktober Festival October 30th at beautiful Castaic Lake, CA. (registration goes up August 31st, so keep an eye out for the announcement on www.girlzgoneriding.com)

Forze is now in production on these very special GGR socks just for this year's Rocktober Festival. EVERY attendee will receive a pair of these socks free! Forze will be a highlighted exhibitor this year. Visit their booth for the most comfortable cycling socks around! They will have lots to choose from for purchase.
Forze socks offer a comfortable, light compression. You can ride ALL day in these socks! Feel the Forze.....

GGR would also like to thank our sister club Girls Ride 2 out of G2 bikes in the OC for putting GGR and Forze together! www.g2bike.com/pages/girls-ride-2 If you live in the OC, please visit G2 Bikes for all your cycling needs and ladies only rides! www.g2bike.com

Another adventure outside the box.....SOCAL Endurance Weekend in Temecula

6/24/2016

Another new adventure on two wheels................
This is the start of a 3 day/4 night adventure with one of my besties and team mate, Bobby Acuna of RST Suspension. RST Suspension is one of the GGR Rocktober festival sponsors this year October 30th at Castaic Lake: www.rst.com.tw/en/
http://www.girlzgoneriding.com/2016-rocktober-info.html

Some herstory/history.........
About 4 months ago...March 8th to be exact....I reached out to an industry acquaintance (Bobby), that had exhibited in the past at GGR's annual Rocktober Festival through another company to see if they would like to be an exhibitor at this year's festival. Come to find out he was transitioning into a new position and now also had some free time to join some of our co ed rides and help with learning the trails at the new location for this year's festival, Castaic. Well, we immediately hit it off as riding buddies and friends. I found that when I rode with him, just to keep up while he was chatting with me was a challenge that kept producing PR'S every time I rode with him. ( PR= Personal Record: this is a term used on Strava, a cycling app for anyone that does not know: https://www.strava.com/).
THIS was a great thing! Riding with super fast riders can either break you or force you to step up and work harder. I chose the latter...I excepted the challenge and his direction. Little did I know what adventures I was about to get myself into!

Racing a few of the Pedalfest races in Castaic: http://www.racepedalfest.com/ an Enduro at Rim Nordic: http://rimnordic.com/2016-racing-schedule and a bunch of hammer rides...........I started to get faster. I am also on a new bike this year, a Specialized Expert ERA 2016. My confidence was rising not to mention the fun factor grew with my increased speed. We were joking around one night about entering the 6 hours of Temecula race/endurance event and how we should get a team together. Well, pretty much in the next 24 hours we were signed up for the 2 person team.

So let the adventure begin..........Thursday night..........
Jason, the race promoter of SoCal Endurance/Enduro: http://www.socalendurance.net/12--6-hours-of-temecula.html and general super great guy, racer, shredder, single speed crazy, promoter of women's sports, wife of an epic rider Heather, and much more, invited GGR to have a booth at the event as well. So now with all the GGR booth items, 4 bikes between us (xc & enduro bikes), food, tons of water and our personal things...we needed two cars for everything we were taking for the 3 days. (my 1st idea was to camp to save money, thank goodness we didn't because we would have had to rent a toy hauler with everything we had to bring!). So we packed up everything in the 2 cars to make the 3 hour drive to Temecula. The plan was to pre ride both courses on Friday, get the booth set up, then go get our hotel and relax for the remainder of the day/evening in preparation of the 6 hour event.

Friday:
On the road at 6:30am........
So running a wee bit late....yes...my fault....I just needed a wee bit more sleep.....5 more minutes right??? We were on the road around 6:30am to make the long drive to Temecula. We arrived at Vail Lake around 9:30am and went to greet Jason and find out the skinny. The course was already marked, so we broke out our XC bikes to pre ride the 6 hour endurance course. I am racing a Specialized 2016 Expert ERA and Bobby is racing a 2013 Specialized EPIC.

Now, the forecast for Temecula for the next 3 days was ugly...hot hot hot...triple digits....so we wanted to get pre riding done and rest up. We already had made a pact that if the heat got too bad, we would not risk our health and would just stop riding. We each set personal goals. I really wanted to go 3 laps, however, with the heat, I knew I would suffer a great deal so I wanted to be realistic and go for 2 laps while Bobby went for 3 laps. We were both there for the adventure....and that it was!
During the pre ride, we took our time and discussed lines, corners, descents, the gnarly climbs, everything I really needed to discuss and session we did. Everything we did on the pre ride was critical with how confident I rode during the actual event.

After pre riding the almost 9 mile course, it was time to switch to the big bikes, pads and pre ride the enduro. I rode my Canfield Balance...better known as Taylor. And Bobby rode his Rocky Mountain....of course known as Rocky. We started to ride up the long fire road to get to the 1st timed stage. About 3/4 of the way up, we ran into Jason on his ATV. Him and Bobby talked shop and Jason gave me some pointers on the top gnarly section. At this point, it was triple digits and I was feeling it big time. I felt like I was melting, I was dizzy and it just seemed like a truck hit me, the heat was so dry I could barely breathe. I didn't even know if I could finish the climb to get to the top, but of course didn't want to let Bobby down or tell him how badly I really felt, so I sucked it up and kept riding.

We climbed to the top and then it showed its ugly face.....the top section of the climb was pretty much straight up...Bobby rode up it. (yes..he's a beast). I just remember pushing my bike and trying to lift my own spirits thinking cool thoughts when I totally wanted to vomit and was fighting the tears..........I didn't want my new team mate to think I was a girlie girl who couldn't handle it when the going got tough.....and then..... he was just there. He walked back down the hill, took my bike, pushed it up the 1st steep climb to where his bike was. Then took both big bikes and pushed them both up to the very top. He was my hero and knight in shining armor at that moment. This is something I normally would never allow because I'm such a feminist and insist on sucking it up and doing things for myself. (I'm working on letting some of this go). This I welcomed. I couldn't have been more grateful that my friend did this for me. I never asked for help and I don't think we even said anything..... somehow he just knew.......I'd had enough and needed his help.

So now at the top, getting ready to ride the gnar. I put my pads on. We took a brief look at the top section and discussed the lines. At this point, I just wanted to get down the trail and didn't even care about sessioning...I was done....Bobby went 1st and went super slow so I could follow his lines. I dabbed my way through parts of it, then just walked other parts. I was so disappointed at this point because I knew if I couldn't session it, I couldn't race it and then of course I would beat myself up because I would feel like I failed. Another thing I'm working on getting over....we are all our own worst enemies I guess.

So we got through the first few trail sections and came back on the fire road. I told Bobby to keep going, I'm getting back on the fire road and riding back to the cars. It was over for me and I didn't want to prevent him from pre riding the rest of stage 1.
He got back to the cars right after I did. I was so discouraged and disappointed in myself at this point I really had nothing to say, I didn't want to look him in the face feeling I was letting him down. He worked really hard to get us both there so my disappointment in myself was pretty unbearable at the time. I was just glad to be done pre riding and wanted to get the GGR booth set up. It was time for me to change my tude and focus on a positive Saturday event and holding up my part of the team.
After we set up as much as we could and anchored everything down, we had some lunch and checked into our hotel and called it a night.

Saturday....Race day...The 6 hours of Temecula!
This was it....we left the hotel early to get to the race pits were the GGR booth was. Many were already there and we still had a lot to set up. We finished setting up and got checked in. Now it was getting real. Time to put on our race faces, get on our bikes and warm up. Since it was a mass start, Bobby being the Veteran racer and more skilled, faster rider was going to ride the 1st lap. This way when it was time for me to ride, the course would be much more cleared and spread out. With the heat, we had to be realistic & safe so we kept our lap goals at Bobby 3 laps and myself 2 laps.

I went to the start line with Bobby and kept spritzing him with cold water until it was time for me to get out of the way. I also had ice packs ready for his jersey to keep his core body temperature down. I was very excited for my friend, but also wondered how he was really feeling. I don't think he would let me know if he was ever nervous or uncomfortable until the end as to not freak me out as any good team leader would do.
I stood at the start line excited to watch him and the other hundreds of riders fly by. Jason counted down and everyone was off for a parade lap to spread riders out.

It didn't take long for the riders to get to the other side. I ran over to get more pictures and cheer on my team mate. He looked strong, focused and very intense as he always does when riding hard with a purpose. Now I was getting excited!

I estimated it would take him about 50 minutes and myself about an hour and 20 minutes per lap in the heat. (I was way off, took me an hour and 5 minutes!). He was able to ride up all the climbs, I was not. I had to run my bike up a few sections that were steep & gnarly, so that would significantly slow my time down. However, we already made our goals and it was all about the adventure today and living this amazing opportunity we were given. I had visualized the course over and over again the night before. I barely slept at all thinking about every inch of the course and making mental notes.

Well I was ready to take the baton from him. I was stoked to do my part of our team. He came in super strong yet looking very over heated. So I was immediately concerned and very worried for him but tried not to let him know that. I'm a worrier...there's nothing I can do about it...I just worry about the people in my life I care about. I also worry a great deal about myself in these situations and try to hide it as best I can. He shrugged it off like the pro, vet rider he is, focused on putting the baton quickly in my jersey and gave me some quick direction/instructions for my 1st lap.

I was off. I had to let my concerns for him go. He had an hour to cool off and I needed to focus. I had my music on just loud enough to relax me and make me feel committed yet I could still hear the riders around me. I also carried my radio on my pack so he could give me some encouraging words while I was riding which I desperately needed to hear.

I felt strong right away. I was relaxed and ready to tackle the 1st lap. The course was still super busy. I thought it would have thinned out more than it did, but there were still many riders all around me. I held my line and tried to move to the side when it was safe. I was feeling confident and focused until we got to Marine Hill. The day before we talked about which line to take and how to ride it. It was super loose, rocky and a wee bit steep at the top. I had already ridden it, but not with a bunch of riders all around me at the same time. So this was scary, but I held my line and let them ride around me. Wish I had done this later in the lap....

Moving on past the gate to a super sandy, steep section with a steep left hand switch back. I had to run my bike up it. When I got to the top I was like....O my god just running my bike in the heat was brutal! I took a few seconds to get my heart rate down and drink a few sips of water then jumped back on my bike and continued to just keep a steady pace throughout the lap.

The switchback climb was brutal. I had to push up this, but so did others, so when I saw this, I was like...OK...this is OK....others are struggling too. I always think it's just me that struggles.
The other enormous, steep climb I had to push up as well and just talked to the others that joined me for the push.
Now it was time to ride the flowey, super fun stuff. This is where I can fly, am the most confident and have a blast. That and the flats. We had ridden all of this the day before so I knew all my lines, where I could crank and where I needed to be a wee bit more conservative.

I then started another single track climb and here comes all the hammerheads. They were so aggressive and just would not wait for me to pull over. I held my line at 1st...then they kept saying passing so I felt I had no choice but to try and ride to the left side a bit. BIG mistake. I lost my balance, put out my left hand on what I thought was a small tree/bush and it ended up being cactus. It had to be the ONLY cactus on the entire course and sure enough...I found it. I bounced off it with my hand thank goodness because if I fell into it, I would have been on my way to the ER. Immediately I felt sharp pains in my left hand. I couldn't move it to use my front brake and could barely rest it on the handle bar. Geesh....really??? What a bonehead mistake I just made in the very 1st lap. Sooooo, I'm trying to grin and bear it and just kept pedaling trying to hold on. Then I got stopped. A rider was waving us to slow down because a girl was down. I radio'd in and told Bobby to let Jason know a girl was hurt and needed help. I briefly looked down at her and my heart just sank knowing the pain she was in and how hot it was. She was also covered in sand. I badly wanted to stop and just stay with her, but there were already a bunch of people there so I kept going. I had a mission and I really needed to get these cactus needles out of my hand if I was going to be able to use my front brake at all on lap 2.

I radio'd in and let Bobby know I was getting close. This way he knew to grab his bike and be at the transfer area for the hand off. I was still trying to ride as fast as I could in the last section holding on and feeling the cactus needles just going deeper in my hand.

I got into the pit area and just held my hand up telling him I had cactus needles in them and needed to see the medic right away. At this point I was nauseous, super over heated and shaking. He took my bike from me instead of leaving for the next lap. I've never seen Bobby worry. He is always so cool and calming. Probably because I can be a handful and he has to be chill to deal with my overwhelming self. He actually looked concerned, but I really didn't think too much about it except that it was odd that he looked worried. Guess I must have looked worse than I thought! I needed to focus on getting the cactus out and cooling down for the next lap. So onward I go.

Off he went for another lap. I went right to the medic. When she started to peel my glove off, many of the cactus needles came out with the glove. I thought I was going to vomit, then pass out, but was thrilled a lot of them came out. I knew I only had about 45 minutes or so until it was my turn to go again, and I needed time to get cool and relax, so I wanted this part over with already.
Well, there were no tweezers anywhere to be found. The needles looked like tiny hairs. How could something so tiny be so painful?? So another medic came by and they started taking duck tape to my hand to pull them out. Kind of like when you go to the salon and get waxed. They pretty much got all of them out. It felt like someone took sand paper to my hand. But amazingly it looked good. No blood and most important I could move it which meant I can now use my front brake again!

After cooling off, I went to the transfer area to wait for Bobby to ride through and hand me the baton. He looked over heated again but very relaxed. I was so stoked. I just needed to go 1 more lap and I was done. It was already triple digits, but we did have a bit of a breeze in some areas. I remember taking off and him yelling to me if I was OK and I was more than OK. I felt strong immediately and so excited knowing this was it. At this point, the riders were super spread out and I had TONS of room so I relaxed even more. I had a ton of fun on the 1st flowey section and kept a strong, steady pace going into the rest of the lap. I saw the cactus coming and moved my handle bars to the right. I walked the same climbs again, but had a lot more fun on the flowey sections because the other racers were so spread out it was not as intense and I could really enjoy the flow of the trails.
Now the last few miles I was really feeling the heat. I was thinking to myself...can I do another lap?? I know I'm reaching my goal..but what about another?? I kept thinking about it the last few miles. When I got closer to the transfer area, the heat was just coming at me like a furnace. It was hard to just breathe. I decided that was it. No more laps for me. I was done. Well....I think...I was still contemplating until the very last minute.

I came into the pit and Bobby was there waiting. I expected him to race out and he was totally chill, took my bike and we both agreed I was done at that point. He said this next lap for him he was just going to go out and enjoy the trail and ride. I could tell the heat was weighing heavy on him as well, but no way was he quitting at that point. I knew he would be OK even though I was concerned for him, I also know he is an absolute beast and would suck it up and finish another lap.
And that he did......we were both done. We finished 13th with a respective 5 laps and approximately 54 miles total in absolutely brutal conditions. We completed the adventure and met our goals. Now it was time to celebrate!

We decided to go to the Italian restaurant near our hotel. So we got all gussied up and started out with a favorite Chianti of mine.
We were having some great conversations about vino and ale. One of the Ale names mentioned during this conversation happened to attract the lovely couple next to us. We all ended up having a super evening of wine tasting, desert tasting and even the owners came over. It was truly a blast and a great way to celebrate our achievement.

Sunday...Enduro Day
One more day of racing at the Socal Enduro. This was an individual event, not a team event, so there was no need for me to race the Enduro. I really needed to session the top gnarly parts and it was just too hot for me to do so. Instead, Bobby decided to race it. He had only pre rode stage one, so he was racing the other 2 stages blind. Yikes...I have complete confidence in his skills...but it was again triple digits...even higher temps than Saturday...109 in the heat of the day and riders had to make this one grueling climb 3 times...so needless to say I was concerned and worried for my teammate and friend.

Some of the other girlz from GGR were also racing the enduro, so it was pretty cool seeing them at the GGR and Jensen booth after every stage. I had my cold water spritzer bottle and Sport Beans ready for everyone. Today I was the Booth Be-atch and was happy to help! Every stage the riders came back looking like they were suffering badly....I really felt for them. Such tough athletes all of them are. Bobby showed his strength, endurance and super happy, positive tude all throughout.

Well, the enduro was thankfully only 3 stages, so after the award ceremonies and the patches, we packed up the GGR booth and headed home. For competing both days, Bobby received an Iron Butt Warriors patch! Soooo awesome and he deserved it!

I had such an epic and amazing experience being part of a team, training for this event, racing the event and learning so much from my teammate. It was like having a personal coach a lot of the time. I can't wait to race this event again in November. This time with MUCH cooler temps so we can ride more laps!

I have to give recognition, kudos and enormous thanks to the following companies and people for all of their support and making this adventure just outstanding!

Jason and Heather Ranoa of So Cal Endurance/Enduro: http://www.socalendurance.net/
Thank you for inviting us and the opportunity for GGR to represent at the event all weekend. Thank you for always being so encouraging, positive and supportive as well as providing women mountain bikers wonderful opportunities at your events. Thank you!

Specialized bikes: https://www.specialized.com/us/en/
Cynergy Cycles: http://www.cynergycycles.com/
Thank you for providing me my Specialized ERA for 2016. This bike has completely moved my XC riding to a new, stronger, faster and more powerful level. It's changed everything for me. I've never wanted to ride and train so hard until I started riding the ERA. I'm having so much fun and my confidence has soared as an athlete because of this very special bike.

Jenson USA: http://www.jensonusa.com/ Thanks for being so much fun to have the GGR booth next too!

Zoic Clothing: http://zoic.com/ Thank you so very much for providing us with jerseys, shorts and socks! Loved them!

Kali Protectives: https://kaliprotectives.com/ My long time supporter. What would I do without you?? Thank you for the ultra protective helmets and pads!

Petal Power: http://www.petal-power.com/ I can't ride without you. Literally! The best chamois cream in the entire world! Thank goodness for the Joy Ride cream! Thank you! This cream allows me to ride for hours and hours and hours comfortably.

To all my friends for all your encouragement, support and being so concerned for me in the heat.

And lastly....Bobby Acuna... for being the best team leader, team mate and bestie ever. Thank you for absolutely everything! Bringing my riding to a new level, keeping me calm, and just handling everything. Thank you my friend. You are so freegin rad! I am so very grateful for you! You are truly a gift!

Until the next adventure..........challenge yourself.....ride with faster riders.......enter an event that is outside your comfort zone....and most importantly........grab a friend and experience the adventure together!

GGR welcomes new sponsor RST Suspension to Rocktober!

4/15/2016

GGR is so thrilled to announce and welcome RST Suspension as a 2016 Roctober Festival sponsor! RST will be paying the $11 parking fee for the 1st 100 cars that get to the Rocktober Festival first on October 30th at Castaic! The gates open at 7:15am, so I highly suggest getting there by 7am to get your comped entry fee from RST Tuning! www.RST.com

RST Suspension was established in 1972 as Dah Ken Industrial Co., Ltd. It was initially set up to produce car, motorcycle brakes and suspension components. It wasn't until 1990 that the company decided to focus on the production of front suspension forks for bicycles and the RST brand was born. With almost twenty years of experience and technical expertise in manufacturing suspension systems under its belt in other products, the company quickly established itself as a leader in the bicycle industry.

RST has produced bicycle products for nearly 30 years that has been speced by most bicycle manufacturers. The brand is being relaunched for the aftermarket in the US this year, to bring high performance suspension products at market friendly prices.

GGR would personally like to thank Mr. Mike Dunn, US Brand Manager for RST's sponsorship as well as Mike and Doris Dunn's help in learning the trail system in their area for the festival.

Support Your Local Bike Shop!

3/7/2016

Last week, a very special lady told me her LBS (Local Bike Shop) just closed. It’s a sad reality and even more so for someone like me who is a shop owner. Maybe your thinking this article will be bias written by a shop owner and this is a platform for me to vent about my daily struggles as a small business. I look at it as an opportunity to have a voice to a very influential group of Cyclists in hopes of helping the public understand just how important your LBS is to you, the community, and our parks.

By definition the LBS is a small bicycle shop rather than a large chain or online vendor. One could go on for pages about why you should shop local as these points apply to just about every small business in America but I’ll stick to the subject at hand, bikes.

Here is a very common scenario. A customer comes in to purchase a new saddle. This person has tried three demo saddles all of which were taken off and put on by their LBS and fitted to their specific needs with care and attention from the mechanics. After weeks go by they decide on their perfect saddle. Awesome. Here’s the catch, the saddle is available for less money online. Which begs the question, does the online retailer offer demos? Can you drive over to Amazon.com to adjust the fit? Will their website take the time to explain the different models for you? Why one model may be better for you and your riding style than another?

Another scenario, a customer comes in with a seat dropper that is broken and typically carries a 2-5 year warranty. However the customer is not the original owner as the seat post was purchased second hand. Unfortunately, the customer is told there is no warranty if they aren’t the original owner but the repair would be about $80 dollars. The customer is then frustrated to spend more money to service the seat post when an original purchase from the LBS would have maintain the warranty and they would merely incur a shipping cost to have the post replaced or repaired.

Possibly the most frustrating scenario is the price matcher. The person who will without hesitation look up a product online or on eBay while standing in the LBS. Some “price matchers” will go so far as to ask for a consult with the mechanic so they can be sure that they order the proper discounted product online. Spoiler alert, the discount you are seeing is afforded by online retailers because they don’t have employees answering your questions. Maybe On-Line retailers host group rides in your city but I have never seen one in Southern California. Maybe we will be able to have an Amazon drone fix our chain at a local race or change a flat at a trail head. I’m sure that day is coming but for now the LBS is hosting rides or setting up a tent at a local race, providing shelter, a place for you to sit, drinks and nutrition.

Your LBS provides a key link in the consumer process that has been designed by bicycle and components manufacturers over the last several decades. We are willing to invest time to understand you goals and help you reach them through proper equipment choice and maintenance. The simple convenience of air in your tires or a quick derailleur adjustment is the reason we can’t let the LBS be replaced by online resources. By supporting the LBS with your purchases you can rest assured that your cycling community will stay strong and you will always have a place to sit and chat about your next new bike, an upgrade or just to complain about that last flat tire.

Many LBS’s provide support to local parks for trail maintenance to protect and preserve our trails, raise money for organizations such as CORBA/IMBA, support local high school race teams, support grass root events, and most importantly the Rocktober Festival!

So next time your clicking away at your computer or shopping at a big box store, think about who your supporting and think about who is supporting you and what you love to do. This nice lady has to find a new LBS. I hope she finds a shop that can weather the storm and be there for her with as much passion as she has for us!

Please support women's mountain biking and especially support your Local Bike Shop! THEY SUPPORT US!

Written by guest blogger AJ Sura from G2 bikes: www.g2bike.com

Clif signs on again for the GGR Rocktober Festival!

3/3/2016

GGR is so very proud to announce that Clif will be supplying all the nutritional and hydration needs again at this year's GGR Rocktober Festival October 30th at its new location in beautiful Castaic Lake. www.clifbar.com/find-your-favorite. This is Clif's 3rd year with GGR, supplying both our annual Rocktober event and our women's weekend in Big Bear with everything we need.

My favorite Clif product is the: Iced Gingerbread bar

To learn more about Clif's sustainable efforts & key environment issues, please read all about it here: www.clifbar.com/article/sustainability-newsletters

GGR Director Wendy Engelberg Becomes Specialized Ambassador

2/23/2016

GGR is so thrilled to announce that Director Wendy Engelberg will be riding as an ambassador for Specialized Bicycles in 2016. Wendy will be riding the 2016 ERA Expert, a women's specific XC bike. Wendy has been riding a Specialized Epic for the last 3 years so she is super excited to ride the ERA for 2016. Look for her racing her new ERA at this summer's Rim Nordic Enduro Series in Running Springs, CA.

The new bike was presented to Wendy at Cynergy Cycles Saturday evening February 20th which is a Specialized Concept store in Santa Monica. The crew at Cynergy Cycles including GM Lisa Joaquim and Events Director Clara Dryden, put on a fabulous ladies night that consisted of a slide show and videos of GGR's time at Specialized headquarters, vino, appetizers, deserts, TONS of enormous sales, raffles and lots of socializing!

Lisa at Cynergy Cycles reached out to Wendy and GGR immediately when she came on board to get Cynergy and Specialized more involved in the women's community. Starting late in March, Wendy will be at Cynergy Cycles once a month taking women on demo rides and helping ladies in the shop with any guidance they may need in their new mountain biking journey. Specialized has opened their doors to GGR, which you can read all about in another blog here: http://www.girlzgoneriding.com/blog/ggr-leadership-team-visits-specialized-kali-protectives.

Specialized will have a dirt demo for GGR and ladies at Cheeseboro in Agoura Hills Sunday, April 24th. Wendy will be at the Specialized truck all day offering guided rides for all levels to demo these awesome bikes! Look for an announcement coming soon to reserve your demo bike. Also, look for Specialized at GGR's annual Rocktober Festival. This year at a new location, Castaic Lake, October 30th.

Rocktober Festival Date & New Location Announcment!

2/19/2016

Girlz Gone Riding is so very, very excited to announce the date and new location of the 2016 GGR Rocktober Festival!

The date is now confirmed for October 30th, Sunday at Lake Castaic: www.castaiclake.com

An EVENT BRITE page will go up August 31st to register for this event. If you have never been to the Rocktober Festival, well....let me run you through this epic day!

This is GGR's annual festival...a celebration of women mountain biking for the day!

Goodie bags for all!
Guided XC rides
Skills Clinics headed up by Leigh Donovan: www.ichoosebikes.com
TONS of demo bikes to take out on the trails ALL DAY for free
Exhibitors
Amazing huge raffle
Guest speakers

Last year we had over 300 women participants!

Already committed to the festival:
Specialized: www.specialized.com
Liv: www.liv-cycling.com
Turner Bikes: www.turnerbikes.com
Orbea: www.orbea.com
REI: www.rei.com
Bulls Bikes USA: www.bullsbikesusa.com
G2 Bikes: www.g2-bike.com
CORBA: www.corbamtb.com

This event is also a CORBA membership drive!

Want to exhibit at the largest all female bike festival in the US?? It's EASY! For a media kit and details, mail us at: wendy@girlzgoneriding.com

GGR Leadership Team Visits Specialized & Kali Protectives

2/14/2016

The leadership team of GGR: Girlz Gone Riding, was honored to be invited to Specialized in Morgan Hill, CA as guests. This trip was also a team-building trip for our leadership team to kick off 2016. Let the adventure begin!

Wednesday January 27th
Our adventure starts here….
We rented a huge van and were to meet at the Van Nuys Fly Away to make the 5-hour drive up. GGR ride leader volunteer Liz Kurtz was our happy and amazing driver for the entire trip.
Once we got on the road, we played a couple of fun van games to get the team building & camaraderie going to set the tone of the trip.

We checked into our hotel in Gilroy and then drove over to our group dinner to kick off our adventure. Joining us were a few others that drove up separately, Lisa Thomas and Samantha who are part of the Specialized retailers from Michaels Bicycles in Newbury Park. Lisa Joaquim from Cynergy Cycles in Santa Monica. (Clara from Cynergy rode up with us in the van, Lisa was already at Specialized taking classes) and of course our own new ride leader Leah Dilbeck, who was a major sponsor of the 2015 Rocktober festival. Leah Dilbeck is with Dilbeck Realtors. We used this kick off dinner to learn what each other’s accomplishments were for 2015 and how they planned on taking an active role for 2016 in our women’s mountain biking community.

Thursday January 28th
We were welcomed with open arms by Seth, Amy and a few others at the entrance of Specialized. We got signed in and immediately went to the museum to get some history on Specialized.

Now it was time for the famous Win Tunnel! We were all especially stoked for this! There were other groups at SBCU during our visit, so we got to meet some of them as well checking out the win tunnel. We all got to go into the tunnel while they turned it on to just over 55 mile an hour winds. You were required to wear safety glasses and not have anything loose on! All types of bikes are tested in the win tunnel and so is apparel! They explained how a bubble machine helps them too inside the win tunnel.

After the fun experience in the win tunnel, we were presented with some absolutely incredible swag from Specialized! Custom GGR helmets, jackets, a bmx/enduro jersey, water bottles and more.
Now onto a suspension and tuning class! We joined this class already in progress. You see, SBCU: Specialized Bicycle Components University holds all sorts of classes at Specialized head quarters for their retailers.

Ride Time!
We all changed for our mountain bike ride in Fort Ord then went into their famous CAGE to pick up our assigned bikes and get our suspension set up for us.

Now onto to Fort Ord. Seth was our ride leader, van driver and all around Bad Ass leader. He is one of the professors at SBCU. Amy from the women’s product division joined us from the start of our trip as well. I was assigned the Specialized Rhyme. A 1x11 trail bike. Some of the girlz had the same bike but with some variations like Desi had a Rhyme FATTY and Tam had a Rhyme 2x10.

We dropped into a super fun single-track. There was hero dirt on this trail since it had been raining a lot lucky for us!! After a fun single track descent leading onto the main fire road. We climbed up to start a 3 run loop. We climbed a bit to get to the top where the views were purely green and spectacular. Then we all dropped into the super fun, flowey, single-track descent. At the bottom, I asked Desi if we could switch bikes so I could try the Fatty. The Fatty was definitely more difficult to climb with, however the descents were super smooth & utter fun! I just went right through the middle of the ruts. Lines didn’t matter with the fatty tires!

Moving on to what turned out to be the 1st part of my favorite part of the trip (besides the riding of course). The women’s focus group!

We went into one of the boardrooms at Specialized and met with the women’s product managers and held an open forum. What I have learned most about the team at Specialized is that they listen. We shared stories and gave them feedback on many women’s cycling issues, bikes, components, saddles, all sorts of things. Everything that mattered in women's mountain biking we discussed.

After this super productive focus group, we all walked over to Bocca’s for dinner. There I got to chat with bike shop owners across the country, have some chow and enjoy some vino of course! We collected everyone and headed back to the hotel. I was so energized I wasn’t ready to shut it down, so I walked over to Chevy’s for a margarita and keep the positive energy flowing with a few of the other team leaders.

Continuing the women's focus group & open forum, Amy, the women’s product manager had us go to the huge wall of white board and list under many different categories everything from what bikes we ride, components we use, things we changed on our bikes, pet peeves, shoes, and so much more. Giving our input for future product was the most important part of this trip for me. We want to make women’s products better and what better way than get the feed back from the women’s community who ride their brains out!

We then changed into our road bike clothes and went into the body geometry room to get fitted for our road bikes. Now I have an entry level, super heavy road bike, so I just don’t ride it much except after work for a quickie workout in the summer. I’m not used to the typical geometry of a road bike which is your body being pretty low in an attack position. I was put on the Amira. A super fast, high performance race bike with a steep attack position. I was not comfortable at all on this. Seth to the rescue. He brought out a Diverge. A carbon gravel grinder bike. It looked like it was set up much more upright like a mountain bike and had bigger tires too. Apparently it’s the road bike for mountain bikers. YES IT WAS! I absolutely loved it! It was fast, solid and comfortable. I also loved the saddle, the POWER saddle. My new favorite saddle. We went on a 21-mile, absolutely beautiful road ride. The ride was just like GGR’s rides, no drop, ride leader, floaters, sweepers and regrouping. We all really appreciated that!

After a wonderful late lunch, we went to the helmet lab and ended the day at Specialized with the Apparel lab. We then said our thank you’s and goodbyes and went onto the next part of our adventure at Kali Protectives for a tour then our final dinner of our adventure.

Kali Protectives opened their doors to us for a wonderful Q&A and factory tour. Kali has been supporting the GGR Rocktober festivals since day one. I am a proud ambassador of their products and especially love their pads because they don't move on me. I was wearing their DH helmet the Avatar ll when I hit a tree in 2013 cracking the helmet. I didn't even have a headache, the helmet probably saved my life. It was really awesome getting to spend some time there and we are very grateful for their hospitality!

In closing, I ended our adventure by reminding my leadership team we create our own opportunities and have the ability too not only share these opportunities, but also inspire other women. What better feeling is there to inspire others and lead by example?? It does wonders for your soul! As veteran women of the mountain biking community I feel very strongly that we owe this to others. To guide them, to always make sure they have a great experience so they can then lead others one day.... to be the unselfish ones.....

Specialized and their team of outstanding people not only listen, but they really want to make a difference. I am so very honored that they invited our GGR leadership team to headquarters and gave us a jammed packed schedule of learning, experiencing, adventure and just rad times!

Thank you's!
I thank everyone at Specialized that made this happen and was there for us guiding, assisting and teaching. A HUGE shout out to Seth Rand who is da man! You made this happen, you allowed us to give critical feedback as well as show us a great time & open the doors to Specialized. I know it's not always easy dealing with 13 strong minded women! Well done! Thank you! Thank you to all that took time out of their busy day to show my team what you do best!

Thank you to Kali Protectives who opened their doors to us late on a Friday night! Thank you for the tees and always providing me with the best protective products on the planet! Thank you to my rep Jon Sacks who always provides me with what I need and supports our annual Rocktober Festival!

Thank you ZOIC Clothing for providing our leadership team with socks for the trip and always providing me with the greatest shorts out there!

Thank you GGR Girl Liz Kurtz for handling ALL of the driving!

Thank you GGR Girl Ali Hyde for agreeing to start a new chapter! Big Bear!

And last but not least, I would like to thank my leadership team. With 4 chapters of GGR, we have a pretty big team so not everyone was able to join us. I thank each and everyone of you for your dedication and generoisty in leading our community. I thank you for being the heart of GGR and seeing my vision through. YOU make it happen. Together, we will all make our women's mountain biking community a better place.

Until the next adventure.........a big MWAH to all of you!

Wendy Engelberg, Director, GGR: Girlz Gone Riding

GGR Opens 4th Chapter in Big Bear! Lead By New Director Ali Hyde

2/6/2016

I am so very thrilled to announce the long awaited 4th chapter of GGR: Girlz Gone Riding! Please welcome the Big Bear GGR Chapter! Our new Big Bear chapter will be lead by Director and all around bad ass Ali Hyde.

I am personally over joyed by this because I spend so much time in Big Bear in the summers and Ali has been there leading our rides every year. She is so much fun to ride with and has the strength of a goddess yet is very kind and sweet too. I love riding with her and I am proud to also call her my good friend. She is going to get more women on bikes in Big Bear! Please support Ali, her leadership team and women's mountain biking in Big Bear. Ali manages Bear Valley Bikes in Big Bear. Make sure to give them a visit. They are a Specialized store!

Here is Ali's story!

Racing: XC, XC Endurance, Enduro, DH
Riding Style: Cautious and methodical, getting the job done!
Favorite trail: The Tunnel of Love at Vail Lake
Hobbies: All types of cycling, Bicycle junk art, graphic design, playing with her kids, hiking, paddle boarding.
Ali studied Leisure and Recreational management in college with a specialty in outdoor activity leadership and has been teaching for over 10 years. Born and raised in England, She moved to the U.S. in 2006, settling in Big Bear, CA. After finding a job managing her local bike shop; Bear Valley Bikes, she quickly became obsessed with all types of cycling. She began racing XC and XC endurance but quickly branched off into enduro and downhill, but has most recently been back to racing XC on a single speed! Also passionate about road cycling, she can often be seen towing her kids in long distance events, or solo on rides like the Peak 2 Peak from Mammoth to Big Bear or the breathless Agony Century.

Her passion for teaching, patience as a mom of 3 and ‘shop Mom’, make her an ideal ride leader for Girlz Gone Riding. Her enthusiasm for education and community in women’s cycling is both undeniable and contagious and as Director of the GGR chapter in Big Bear, she will strive to support the women’s community and to continue to ‘Spread the Love’ of cycling!

New GGR San Diego Chapter Director!

1/18/2016

I am so thrilled and proud to announce that we now have a Director for the GGR San Diego Chapter! Please congratulate and welcome Susie Murphy!

Susie is currently the Executive Director of the San Diego Mountain Biking Association, so GGR is absolutely thrilled she has accepted the volunteer position of being our new GGR San Diego Chapter Director. Susie is an outstanding community leader who will now take the new SD chapter to new levels! Each chapter needs a leader to stay on track, develop leaders and integrate the club with her IMBA chapter......Susie is that leader.

Susie started riding mountain bikes in the early 1990’s in order to follow her husband who had started to ride with their young daughter in a backpack. She just needed to keep an eye on them, but discovered a family pass time that took them all on many adventures. Some of their best times were camping at Sea Otter, or going to 24 Hour Races with all of our friends.

Her first race was at 1995 at Callaway Vineyards in Temecula. She threw up in the first quarter mile, came in third, and won a Rock Shox hat! Her last race was in 2005 and won the Am Cup Series Super D State Championship for Women over 40 while her daughter won the same title for Women Under 18. In between, she entered a lot of sports division races in California, Arizona, and Baja California and occasionally brought home some hardware.

Susie has volunteered in the cycling community for many years and she is so happy to have landed her dream job as the Executive Director of the San Diego Mountain Biking Association. Meeting and learning from all the dedicated volunteers has been amazing so far she states. "I learn new things every day about San Diego that I never knew, and I was born here!"

Her goal for 2016 is to work everyday to create, enhance, and preserve great mountain biking experiences, not only for members, but all trail users of San Diego County. Susie states: "One of the best parts of this gig is that I can ride trails in San Diego County that I have never ridden before and investigate some places to get some new ones built! I get to ride with friends I have known for years and ride with brand new friends almost every week! What could be better!
The best advice I ever got about riding was to keep my chin up, literally and figuratively. When the going gets technical, this is best thing to get your eyes down the trail where you want to go! Your body and your bike will follow!"

Each GGR chapter partners with their local IMBA chapter. GGR is a NON DUES club, so please become a member of the San Diego Mountain Bike Association here. Susie is looking for committed volunteers to join her leadership team. If you are in the San Diego area, please email us to get involved: info@girlzgoneriding.com

Welcome aboard Susie!

Welcome REI to the 2016 GGR Rocktober Festival!

12/9/2015

GGR is so very thrilled to welcome REI to the 2016 Rocktober Festival!

REI has supported our community the last few years as well as always supporting CORBA. We have the same core values and that is to “educate for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship.”

REI will have a major presence at this year’s Rocktober. Having 3 booths, a Ghost bike demo fleet, bike maintenance available with 2 bike techs and an outreach tent!

REI is donating water bottles and reusable bags for our swag bags we give away and will be hosting the goodie bag stuffing party this year at their beautiful brand new Woodland Hills location at 6220 Topanga Canyon Blvd, Woodland Hills, CA 91367.

For the 3rd year in a row, REI will be donating a grand prize of a Women’s Novara Madrona Mountain Bike retail valued at $849.00

They will also have a Booth Raffle Prize of a – Novara Dutchtown Bike Backpack retail valued at $129.00

“At Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), we love to get outside and play, and we know first-hand the importance of quality outdoor gear. We stand behind all our products with a 100% satisfaction guarantee, and we design our own line of award-winning REI brand gear and clothing. Whether you're new to outdoor adventure or a seasoned pro, we gladly share our enthusiasm for our products—and the trails, slopes and waterways where we play.

Each year, REI donates millions of dollars to support conservation efforts nationwide and sends dedicated teams of volunteers—members, customers and REI employees—to build trails, clean up beaches, restore local habitats and more.... Through responsible business practices across the company, we strive to reduce our environmental footprint.

What began as a group of 23 mountain climbing buddies is now the nation's largest consumer cooperative. But no matter how large we grow, our roots remain firmly planted in the outdoors. Our passion for outdoor adventure is clear, whether you visit any of our stores across the country, phone us, or interact with us online.

By staying true to our roots, we've earned a place on FORTUNE magazine's list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" every year since the rankings began in 1998. We work hard to earn our reputation for quality and integrity every day. Our core purpose guides everything we do: we all work to inspire, educate and outfit for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship.”

GGR Welcomes Gaerne Shoes as a Year Round Supporter!

11/16/2015

GGR welcomes Gaerne Shoes as a year round club supporter!

“Whoever wears my shoes, should be proud every day as the Gaerne name stands for quality without compromise”
Founded in 1962 by Ernesto Gazzola, one of the masters of sports footwear and from whom the namesake Gaerne is derived. Gaerne is still an example of excellence, of "Made in Italy" and is exported worldwide.

Skills and tradition of expert craftsmen, rigorous selection of materials, uncompromising pursuit of quality, innovation and design to new and original solutions: this is the philosophy of a brand which has, in its own history, the basis for a continuous momentum and innovation for the international success of its products and its Italian style.

Gaerne shoes is offering all GGR club members a HUGE discount on all shoes MTB or Road! Please go check out their shoes here: www.gaerneshoes.com. For the discount code, please check out the FB page file under year round supporters.

It's a Wrap...GGR Rocktober Festival & CORBA Membership Drive

11/2/2015

This year's GGR Rocktober festival & CORBA Membership Drive was by far the largest to date! Held October 18th at Malibu Creek State Park. With 37 exhibitors and over 300 in attendance, our expectations were far exceeded!
The event started out on Saturday with our pre ride for our ride volunteers. We had 34 ride volunteers pre riding all routes for the guided rides. We ran into the mounted patrol all day too! Great way to start the weekend of epicness!

Saturday evening was our traditional goodie bag stuffing party and raffle tagging. This year Cycle World Chatsworth hosted and in a few hours many volunteers got 250 goodie bags stuffed and over $20K of raffle items tagged! And of course we had pizza, cake and vino! This year, thanks to Leah Dilbeck and Dilbeck Realtors we had the MOST amazing goodie bags! They are knap sacks with the GGR and Dilbeck logo’s.

So now it was time to pack everything up, go home and try to figure out my speech, sort the gift certs and try and get some rest. Julie B was staying at my house for the event and worked all night on the gift certs while I was working on my speech. This is such a difficult task for me. Once a year, I get a huge audience, so I don’t want to forget anything, yet it can’t be too long either. I thought I covered everything I wanted too, but there was a section I was unsure about if it belonged there. Let’s just say I went a little NORMA RAY in this section. I had Julie read my speech at this point and she agreed I needed to cut that section out. I shortened the speech by a page and it was still way too long. Announcing every single supporter and exhibitor takes a very long time, but I felt they should have received a verbal mention.

The morning of the Rocktober festival, the ranger at MCSP was kind enough to have the gate open at 6am this year!! This allowed our demo trucks to get there in plenty of time to set up and get the bikes ready to go for our lady shredders.

It was still dark in the morning AND it was raining a wee bit...so I was just a bit concerned that the rain would stick. The trails were mostly clay, so they don't hold any rain well at all. Lucky for us, it cleared up for a beautiful day!

Since I had announced the gates were going to be open early, everyone seemed to take advantage of it and get there super early. Registration didn't open until 8am, but at 6:30amish, we already had a ton of riders and the parking lot was half full. Lots of anxious ladies eager to start the festival and the exhibitors were already starting to set up!

Once everyone was signed in, got their goodie bags and demo bikes, it was time for the morning commencement. Next year I promise it will be much shorter so you can spend more time riding!

I introduced each chapter and the chapter leaders. I talked about the two C'S which I live by. Community and Club. All supporters and exhibitors at the event received a verbal mention. Then I went on to intro our 4 amazing volunteer skills coaches this year. Returning head coach Leigh Donovan, returning GGR coach Christine Hirst, (Christine has been a volunteer coach for GGR since day one!!! Thank you Christine!), new GGR coaches Kris Gross and Erica Phillips. A HUGE thank you to these ladies for sharing your knowledge with our beginner riders!

This year's community award went to G2 Bikes and Girls Ride 2! This award is given to the shop that shows the most community involvement in women's cycling, has a great women's section and has shop rides. G2 and Girls Ride 2 earned this award hands down. I affectionately call them our "sister club" because we are all on the same page when it comes to community. There ride leaders spend the entire weekend with us volunteering too! Check Girls Ride 2 out here: www.girlsride2.bike

Last but not least, Steve Messer, our CORBA President spoke about trail etiquette. Every Rocktober event is also a CORBA membership drive. Each GGR chapter partners up with their local IMBA chapter.

After the huge group photo, riders split up into their guided ride groups and skills clinics. We had guided rides for all levels and beginner skills clinics running all morning. Rides were all through the park including the famous MASH site, Grasslands and Little Bulldog. Many of these rides went through the super fun creek bed where we had photographers stationed to capture the excitement!

This year we invited a few of our GGR Littles too! We love that they got to see us grown up ladies doing some major shredding! Thank you to the Squeaky Wheel Bike shop in Palmdale who brought the young ones and have also supported the GGR Rocktober events since day one!

When riders came back after their guided rides, they enjoyed an afternoon of tons of exhibitors, more demo bikes, lunch, catching up and just enjoying the day. We ended the day with over
$20K of raffle prizes including grand prizes from REI, Specialized, Sacred Rides and San Juan Huts.

We thank all the bike companies that came out to Rocktober. We had over 100 demo bikes for ladies to demo! Huge shouts out and thank you's to: Liv, Bulls Bikes USA, Specialized, Trek, Turner and Rocky Mountain. We also want to thank Clif who for the 2nd year sponsored the Clif Fuel station and provided the Rocktober event with all of our hydration and nutrition as well as plenty of goodies for the goodie bags!

I personally would like to give a huge shout out and thank you to the companies who provide me with product all year round and take very good care of me personally as an athlete: Bulls Bikes USA, Kali Protectives, ZOIC and Petal Power. All 4 companies exhibited at Rocktober as well!

Please enjoy some of my favorite pictures of the day!

The Rocktober festival is so much bigger than GGR. It's truly a celebration of women's mountain biking and bringing our community together! Next year we will open up the event to ladies and littles of ALL ages!

Enjoy all of the thousands of pictures here:
www.girlzgoneriding.shutterfly.com

And course on the CORBA website here:
http://corbamtb.com/Photos/Misc2015-10-18GGR/_Page.shtml

I thank everyone who volunteered and worked so hard to make this happen. I'm so very grateful to our amazing community of women as well as our supportive and incredible trail males who are an important part of GGR as well. Thank you to all of our volunteer ride leaders, floaters and sweepers. Many of you drove hours to get to this event just to volunteer for the weekend and I personally thank you for that! All of our volunteers make this event possible!

Until next year's Rocktober.....I bid you an epic winter of super long rides, practicing your skills (check out GGR Head Coach Leigh Donovan's instructional video's here: www.ichoosebikes.com/how-tos/improve-skills/) making new friends, challenging each other's inner much-ness, and enjoying life to its fullest! Be the best you can be on and off the bike and remember to give more...your soul will be content when you do so.

GGR Girl Wendy E!
Mwah!

Specialized & Michaels Bicycles Team up for GGR's Rocktober Event!

10/15/2015

Specialized has really stepped up their community involvement in the last few years. I'm so thrilled to see this and hope to see the rest of the bike companies doing the same thing! With their reps and women's product managers stepping up and getting involved with the women's community, they are setting a great example for bike companies getting involved in the communities. We look forward to giving them our feedback to help make better products for the future and we thank them.

This is Specialized 1st year at GGR's Rocktober event. They are bringing a demo fleet of their awesome bikes. To reserve one of their demo bike's for Sunday's Rocktober event, please check out their inventory here: www.girlzgoneriding.com/demo-bikes.html. One of the bikes I ride is a Specialized Epic which I really enjoy and have taken it on everything from XC, endurance riding to DH. It's an incredible bike.

I personally had an amazing Specialized adventure this past summer being invited to SBCU. Specialized has also invited the GGR Leadership team to SBCU in December. We are VERY stoked to be a part of this!

Specialized will not only have a huge demo fleet at this Sunday's GGR Rocktober event, they are donating one of their bikes for the GGR raffle as well in conjunction with Michael's Bicycles in Newbury Park!

A Jet 29r! And in PURPLE no less!
BIKE SPECS...
FRAME - Specialized A1 Premium Aluminum, Women's XC 29er Geometry
FORK - Custom SR Suntour XCT 29, w/ custom Multi-Circuit Damping
HANDLEBARS - Specialized flat, 6061 double butted alloy, 10-degree backsweep, 4-degree upsweep, 31.8mm
FRONT BRAKE - Tektro Auriga, hydraulic disc, resin/metallic pads, tooled women's reach adjust
REAR BRAKE - Tektro Auriga, hydraulic disc, resin/metallic pads, tooled women's reach adjust
BRAKE LEVERS - Tektro Auriga, hydraulic, women's short reach
FRONT DERAILLEUR - Shimano Altus, high mount, bottom swing, dual-pull
REAR DERAILLEUR - Shimano Acera, 8-speed, SGS cage
SHIFT LEVERS - Shimano Altus Rapidfire Plus, SL type, w/ optical display
CASSETTE - Sunrace, 8-speed, 11-34
CHAIN - KMC X8, 8-speed, reusable Missing Link
CRANKSET - Specialized Stout, forged alloy, 8-speed, square taper spindle
WHEELS – Specialized Stout Rims, 29” Disc, Alloy, Hi Lo Disc Hubs
FRONT TIRE - Specialized Ground Control Sport, 60TPI, wire bead, 29x2.1"
REAR TIRE - Specialized Ground Control Sport, 60TPI, wire bead, 29x2.1"
INNER TUBES

See everyone Sunday at this year's GGR Rocktober event at Malibu Creek State Park!
GGR Director Wendy Engelberg

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