STAR LETTER LET US IN

I’m sitting reading the star letter in your last issue and, apart from having a different bike to her, the lady has taken the words right out of my mouth! I’m just over 5ft tall, definitely not ‘off the peg’ in size and have the same issues with MTB clothing as she does. I’m actually going down the route of getting custom-made trousers because every pair I order is way too long.

I rarely see female riders on the trails, which is a real shame, and I absolutely agree that it would be really encouraging to see more average female mountain bikers in MBUK. Having said that, I’m about to go to a ladies’ day at BikePark Wales, so perhaps you could also help to promote these types of events and send your female staff to do a feature on them. It might encourage more of the big bike parks and trail centres to follow suit and get more ladies into the sport.

Jo Wheale, via email

You raise some very good points, Jo. Mountain biking has historically been a male-dominated sport, but we’re really happy to see the scales tipping further and further towards an even split. There are more female riders on the trails than we’ve ever seen before, and our deputy art editor Julia has been attending lots of women’s riding days and even the Gowaan women’s MTB festival. She’s been covering her adventures in her longterm reports, and we’ve just welcomed our new staff writer Rachel into the team, so we’re really looking forward to continuing to promote more diverse content in the mag. We hope this selection of Lezyne kit will help you on your adventures in the new year.