The day has finally arrived….are you ready to fly?

Nothing like 30 mountain bike women doing yoga in the morning to convince a guy that he’s losing his mind.

Exceeding all expectations, the Girls Got Skills Clinic sold out with 25 women showing up to take part.

The first part of the session was spent going over fundamentals on the grass at Mission Park.  I’ve never seen a camp run this way before, but the coaches are old hands at this and ran the program ultra smooth.

All the drills were fun, and totally relevant to riding hard trails.

This of course, is totally irrelevant, but the shuttle driver had difficulty controlling himself around all those amazing ladies on the bikes.

Luckily, no one was totally sickened by my vulgar display, so we went up to the trails to put the new skills to the test.

A brief safety discussion at the top and we were on our way.

First up was a teeter session.  It’s a little bit harder than riding on the grass, but since everyone I saw nailed it, something must have gone right.

Well, almost everyone……

Then, just when things were going so well, a mild disaster.  Ever notice that you always go where you look?   Check out Tatty Cat’s line of sight here (and her rear wheel).

Despite a picture perfect mid air dismount, an unlucky bounce led to a bit of a wrist injury, and Calah is out for a month or so.  That’s mountain biking for you.  At least the rest of the girls weren’t put off by this unhappy turn of events, and our pal Calah is in great spirits.  She should be ready for the road bike in a week or so.

What amazes me about this group is that every single girl had some kind of breakthrough in their riding.  Some of these women have never ridden off road before and here we are SHREDDING Gillard, an area widely regarded as one of the most progressive zones in all of mountain biking.

Dale was even finding ways of rolling down places that have only been aired before.

Well, Day One is finished and even with the casualty I would have to call it a success.  You can see some more pics over in the Girls Got Skills Gallery.