Barbara Perigard, of the Florida Women's Cycling Network, just emailed information on an upcoming advanced skills mountain biking clinic for women. Here are the details from the Florida Women's Cycling Network website.

Florida Women’s Cycling Network Swamp and Bent's Cycling and Fitness present Advanced Skills Mountain Bike Clinic for Women Date: Saturday, January 31, 2009 Location: Alafia State Park Clinic Start: 9 am (Meet 8:45 am) Deadline for registration, January 28, 2008

This clinic will be instructed by Shelly Allen (UCI World Master’s Champion and Multiple Florida State Champion) and Barbara Shircliffe Perigard (Expert Level Mountain Biker).

Clinic Topics • Bike fit/bike setup for technical trails (suspension, tire pressure) • The importance of looking down the trail • Body position for confidence on difficult trails • Shifting and gear choice • Braking skills, smoothness and control: sometimes less is better • Cornering skills on tight and fast trails • Descending skills • Climbing skills, including switchbacks, and slow speed balance.

Plus Comaradie, fun, and gifts from Bent's Cycling and Fitiness!

Clinic Format: Topic coverage time will be allocated based on participants’ needs and interests. After an overview of the above topics, participants will complete a structured warm up which will include a ride through Bridges.  Following skills demonstration, we will ride several trails based on participant interest, including Rock Garden and Roller-Coaster with on-the-bike instruction to help you tackle the more technical sections. Time permitting, those who want to ride Moonscape and Gatorback will have the opportunity to do so.

This clinic is designed for women who have mountain biking experience and who are comfortable riding intermediate level trails such as Roller Coaster and Bridges. The ideal candidate is a woman who can handle sand, mud, roots, rocks, climbs, and downhills, but has trouble “cleaning” (i.e. completing an entire trail clipped in the pedals) with multiple technical challenges in a row.

Women who have just started riding, and have limited experience, are encouraged to take the “Introduction to Mountain Biking Training Class” offered by Swamp first as they will get much more out of this clinic once they have the basics and some group riding experience.  For more information about Swamp and the training classes, go to www.swampclub.org. The cost of this clinic is $10 for club members and $15 for non-members. We need 6 women to hold a class. Class size is limited to 12 women. Deadline for registration is Janurary 28, 2009..

To register, email with your name and contact information (phone number). In your email, we ask that you provide brief answers to the three questions below so we can best meet your needs. 1. What do you hope to get out of this clinic? 2. How would you describe your current skill level (with respect to cornering, drops, climbing etc). 3. List trails at Alafia you have trouble riding?

Take care,
Lynn Smythe AKA the Bike Diva

Hi,

I wanted to draw your attention to this important petition that I recently signed: "Save the Fort Pierce Mountain Bike Trail" http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/SaveFtPierce?e

I really think this is an important cause, and I'd like to encourage you to add your signature, too. It's free and takes less than a minute of your time. Thanks!

Take care,

Lynn Smythe AKA the Bike Diva