IMBA launches #womensmtbday to celebrate women who ride

The International Mountain Bicycling Association just announced the creation of International Women’s Mountain Biking Day, which is to be held on the first Saturday of May every year. IMBA will partner with SRAM, PeopleForBikes, Rebecca Rusch
and others to promote the inaugural edition of this event, taking place May 5, 2018.

International Women’s Mountain Biking Day came out of the recent IMBA UPRISING event, IMBA’s first-ever women’s conference, held March 22-25 in Bentonville, Arkansas. Attendees were encouraged to share their best ideas for engaging more women in mountain biking.

The event is meant to be similar to IMBA’s Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day, a social media driven effort that finds its success through local, grassroots efforts such as group rides, festivals and awareness campaigns.

However, a day to celebrate women on bikes is not a new idea. Cyclofemme is a similar event meant to empower women on bikes that has been going on since 2012 and takes place on Mother’s Day weekend (second weekend of May) every year.

Additional event details about IMBA’s International Women’s Mountain Biking Day will be announced during the Sea Otter Classic later this week. For 2018, engagement will be simple. Whether you create formal programming, ride with your friends or introduce another woman to mountain biking, participants are encouraged to share their stories. Send them to [email protected], use #womensmtbday and tag @imba_us. Find out more here.