The festival getting women on their mountain bikes
- Published
A mountain bike and gravel festival for women held in the Trossachs over the weekend is believed to be the first of its kind in Scotland.
The three-day event in Aberfoyle was organised by a not-for-profit group wanting to increase the number of women riding bikes and getting outdoors.
More than 100 women signed up for the festival.
It offered coaching in mountain biking skills, guided gravel rides and lessons in bike mechanics.
Leanne Whitehead, of organisers Dirt Divas Scotland, said she had been "blown away" by the number of women taking part.
She said the idea came about after she put a message on social media to see who would be interested in a women only MTB and gravel festival and "within a week 200 people said they'd be interested."
Leanne Whitehead helped organise the festival while Kerry MacPhee coached the women taking part
Commonwealth Games and champion cyclist Kerry MacPhee coached women at the festival and said the event was really important because of the "collective energy amongst women that really pushes you and encourages you".
"You have to give people the opportunity to grow within their sport and that's what's beautiful about cycling and gravel riding and mountain biking is that you never stop learning and you never stop acquiring skills, and that's a really powerful tool, for women, and people in general just to feel like they are achieving."
Cycling is a male dominated sport which is something Scottish Cycling, the sport's governing body, say they want to address.
"We have strong ambitions to create more gender balance in the sport, and across our community," they said.
According to figures from Scottish Cycling there are 383 cycling coaches in Scotland, of which just 85 are female. The number of women becoming mountain bike leaders is even lower - about 12% of those who complete highest level award are women.
It comes as an inquiry is launched by the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee at Holyrood into female participation in sport.
The convenor, Gillian Martin MSP, said during their inquiry into the health and wellbeing of children and young people they heard evidence of what was described as a "significant decline in participation in sport and physical activity by adolescent girls".
Ms Martin said: "This prompted the committee to launch a dedicated investigation into the barriers to female participation in sport and physical activity and how these might be overcome."
She added: "Statistics show that female participation in sport and physical activity in Scotland is lower than that of males from the age of 11 years old, with typically a 10% gender gap in participation."
Both Leanne Whitehead and Kerry MacPhee teach children mountain biking skills and have both noticed there are more young boys than young girls taking part.
Leanne said: "The massive majority are guys.. I don't know if girls are put off getting wet, getting muddy.
"Especially we'll have maybe a little bit more girls at the younger age up to 10 or 11 then they'll drop off once they get into their teenage years."
Kerry MacPhee believes there are not many female role models in the sport for young girls. "So it's not seen as so normal to jump on your bike and get really muddy," she said.
She believes organised sport might be a barrier for young girls so instead they should see cycling as something they can incorporate into their daily routine through "active travel" by cycling to school, something she described as "little pockets of exercise."
She says the women at the festival can be empowered by learning new skills which are "transferrable to your everyday life", and it doesn't have to be about "winning a medal."
More stories from Tayside and Central