Women’s cycling group strikes a chord

SHELDON BIRNIE

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/east/2023/08/21/exceeding-...

When Sarah Gravelle-MacKenzie set out to start a bi-weekly guided bike ride for mature women around northeast Winnipeg this spring, she knew there’d be interest. Even so, the response has surprised her.

“It has been phenomenal,” Gravelle-MacKenzie, 68, said. “I don’t think I could have dreamt it would be this successful.”

Cycling with Sarah launched in May. Following three introductory rides in the spring, Gravelle-MacKenzie ran two group rides per week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. A total of 53 women registered, with more than 40 on the waiting list.

“We were at the max,” she said. “The goal is for next year, if we want to try to grow it, we’ll have to get more ride leads and sweeps.”

This summer’s rides wrap up with group rides on Aug. 29, Sept. 7 and 14. There will also be a wind-up party at Bikes & Beyond (227 Henderson Hwy.) on Tuesday, Sept. 19.

“Once formal rides end, we can still ride. People have made friendships, which is something special,” Gravelle-MacKenzie said. “The bonds that have been created are pretty special.”

Sponsored by Liv Canada, Bikes & Beyond, and the Manitoba Cycling Association, Gravelle-MacKenzie is planning to extend a series of events into the fall and, hopefully, the winter as well, to keep the group together and stay active.

“Fall, pre-snow, we’re doing hiking groups and going to different places. We’ll set up a schedule and women can sign up,“ she said. “Once the snow comes we’re going to do snowshoeing and cross-country skiing and I want to do tobogganing at Silver Springs here in East St. Paul. It’s a good workout and it makes you feel like a kid again.”

Gravelle-MacKenzie, who started cycling seriously when she retired a few years ago, is also keen to introduce more women to winter cycling, if informally at first.

“I love winter cycling,” she said. “I have talked about winter cycling and there are some women who want to try it.”

Gravelle-MacKenzie believes part of the success of the group has been that it serves an under-represented demographic. “A lot of the women, as older women in their sixties and seventies, said they felt invisible,” Gravelle-MacKenzie said. “So for a group to be formed just for them is really powerful. It’s been neat to watch it all develop and everyone being so enthusiastic about it. Come spring, we’ve got so many people who want to ride. It’s evolving really nicely.”

For more information, follow @CyclingWithSarah on Instagram or email cyclingwithsarah@gmail.com