FEMME MATTERS | WOMENS CYCLING VLOG | EPISODE 2 | BIKE PACKING, MOUNTAIN BIKING, GRAVEL RIDING |

Welcome BACK to the second episode of FEMME MATTERS. A new series, shining a light and celebrating incredible women within the cycling space.

This week we interview Claire Sharpe, Mountain Bike Rider, Gravel Rider, Cycling Coach, Ride Leader AND founder of All Terre Adventures. This woman is unstoppable and making waves within the off road space.

A must watch for anyone interested in hearing Claire’s journey, from picking up an entry level gravel bike in lockdown (when Roller Derby stopped) and pushing that bike to the absolute limits, before falling in love with mountain biking.

As ever, we discuss cycling fears, proudest moments, lesson learnt, things we’d love to see more of, top advice for any new female gravel/mtb/bike packing curious riders. And discuss snacks and cucumbers at great length.

If you’re interested, you can find out more about Claire and her incredible work on the following socials and sites:

Claire’s Instagram can be found here:
https://www.instagram.com/clairesharpe/

All Terre Adventures:
https://allterre.net/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/allterre/

Sisters in the Wild:
https://www.instagram.com/sistersinthewilduk/
https://linktr.ee/sistersinthewild

Rapha Pennine Rally
https://events.rapha.cc/pennine-rally-24

Thanks so much for watching.

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Project BOOBS is still very much underway – mentioned in a previous video
(.)(.) Where I am cycling 8008.5KM over Winter to raise awareness of and raise money for Breast Cancer, following my own experience with breast lumps over the last few years.
Small boobs, big dreams, check ’em on the reg.
One More City London info here: https://www.instagram.com/onemorecity_ldn/?hl=en

My instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pelohun/
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A little about me
Thanks for dropping by.
I’m your classic runner turned newbie cyclist.

For years I feared riding a bike – I was afraid of traffic, clipping in, couldn’t get my head around lycra, chamois cream and clambering up hills on a bike.

I didn’t believe that riding a bike would give me the same de-stress, mental download or sense of freedom that life as a long distance runner had given me before my knees ground to dust.

Fast forward to 2021 and picking up a second hand CAAD10 changed my life for the better. Not just physically and mentally. But also providing a sense of community and belonging – which is magic. The cycling community is just magic.

So I’m here. To hopefully inspire others to not fear the bike – the lycra, the clipping in. And come share the passion, freedom and indescribable joy that comes from being on the bike. I truly believe that the bike life is the best life and everyone should be able to enjoy it.

Come with me on some adventures.

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A few items featured in the video are incredibly kindly gifted by some amazing partners (feel so lucky, thank you).

Garmin Edge ( @garminemea )
Garmin Rally Power Pedals ( @GarminInt )

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Because we all love a bit of a bargain, some discount codes from some super lovely partners:

£25 off LAKA bike insurance: https://my.laka.co/WEJ30

Thanks so much for all the support, really appreciate any likes, comments and subscribes ❤

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#cyclingdocumentary #cyclingvlog #womenscycling #cyclinginspiration #cyclist #gravelbike #cyclingadventure #cycling #cyclinguk #vlog #vlogs #interview #mountainbike #offroad #bikepacking #bikepackinglife #femalecyclist #cyclinginspiration #bikepacker #trail #femme #femmes

Hello I’m back in the car with a helmet printed head uh so you can clearly tell I’m doing this in reverse order today but I have just filmed the second episode of fan matters with the incredible CLA sharp who I am so excited to share with you CLA is a completely

Different type of Rider to me which I absolutely love so her whole passion is around mountain biking and gravel riding Claire is just fantastic she’s just fall in love with riding uh and has been doing some exciting stuff and it’s got some exciting things coming up that I

Thought would be super inspirational uh and really cool to share just a different style of riding buzzing they kick off the second episode enjoy what a lovely day for it it’s episode of fan matters the second version with CLA sharp Mountain bike gravel bike ride leader and coach and

Founder of alter Adventures did we nail it there she is look at this on a massively wide handlebar bike slaying it you look so Pro in that jacket mate the jacket’s doing all the heavy lifting oh get lost you’re looking creds CLA how did you first start getting into riding

What’s your story I’m one of those people that started riding in lockdown previous I played in coach roller derby so when we hit lockdown I was like oh my God there’s like 5 to 8 hours of exercise a week I’m not getting what am I going to do and I knew from trying

Skiing that I liked going down beautiful Hills fast nice I wasn’t ready to commit to a mountain bike I knew I didn’t want a road bike so I got a gravel bike amazing and just fell in love like really hard and really fast basically love that where did you get your gravel

Bik from uh so I just got like a pinnacle from EV nice uh critical Aros they really good bikes like not that expensive but really good is that an entry-level gravel bike say like push that to its limits we went everywhere we ride everything um and yeah kind of like

Opened up Bristol like found all these places that I didn’t know existed amazing and yeah the more I discovered and the more time I spent outside the more I fell in love with it really and where’s your favorite place to ride then in Bristol oh I’m Bristol it’s really hard to choose cuz

You can like get out of the city in like 15 minutes in any direction it’s not very big and then whichever way you go like all the off-road riding slightly different uh we’re probably East Bristol very nice so you head out through Ashton cour estate and then you can go to the

Seaside and get ice cream but there’s loads of like really good fun stuff and then you get into Somerset and there’s all the drove roads look that so yeah a hat to pick probably East completely the wrong way seaside’s west what do you mean

Oh so you got a Seaside I’m so bad at Direction She’s meant to be a ride guide so we can change that do you want to say it again yeah I probably should tonight head out west and then the mountain biking we know that you went from gravel into

Mountain bike badass tell me about that I just like going really fast downhill it it’s pretty natural for that to turn into getting a bigger bounce of your bike and doing more silly stuff on Hills basically what’s the marest thing you’ve done on a mountain bike um oh no it’s really hard there’s

Plenty of garly things I haven’t done with the mountain bike but you will that I’ve tried haven’t completed yet go on yay oh oh that you Locker I can just want ride with one hand if you had any advice for anyone who’s maybe thinking about riding a gravel bike or getting

Into mountain biking what advice would you give don’t listen to the Bros they’re normally wrong okay don’t listen to the Bros love that H if you want Tu by get Tu by tuby is great yes uh but I think just have fun like don’t get caught up in what everyone else is doing

And what you think you should be doing yeah just because you’ve decided you wanted to ride off road it doesn’t mean you need to become an old endurance Rider do what you want to do and whatever makes you happy whatever brings you Joy yeah and then you’ll do it more

And don’t feed the fear yeah do it you’ve obviously done some amazing things you’ve started to be qualified as like a ride leader and like a course leader tell me more about that how did you get into it what what did you do where did you do it why was really lucky

New Forest of Ro Club we’re putting their ride leaders through ride leader training and then reached out to me and mem from ra good and paid for us to do our level two guiding qualification withd them nice uh which we just absolutely love and then me and mem

Actually both wanted to carry on yeah and became really great friends out of that so then we progressed and did our level three nice and that’s the highest level you can get so now we can guide wherever we want which is pretty cool amazing uh but it’s just yeah it just

Means that I can guide groups of people like out on their bikes and really fun places like love when you got into gravel and mountain bike in when you first started were you nervous yeah but I think I think rer Derby helped a lot yeah so like I was

Used to like falling over and like playing a sport where people are try and hit you or like knocking my own cup out yeah I think like and then ramp skating like you’re constantly changing where your center of gravity is yeah so I think all that stuff like really helped

Definitely so it’s like some things that maybe other people would be worried about I was less worried about yeah and same with the mountain biking is there any part of that that you were like oh this is a bit nerve-wracking that you’re kind of coaching and guiding kind of

Helps anyone who might be having any kind of nerves or with I think it’s just like to remember you’re doing it to have fun yeah like if I get stressed like I get nervous all the time cuz I do stuff that scares me all the time but um yeah so

Like not lock up when that happens cuz the more worried you are the weirder the stuff you do is so being like right why am I here is it to have fun like let’s have some fun then and what do you love about s CL oh so much that feeling

When you finished a ride that you did that all under your own steam yeah like your little legs did that really cool thing yeah like such a good feeling if you finish like a bike packing trip or something I don’t look at the numbers at the beginning cuz they’re scary and

Massive yeah but then at the end you can look at them and be like I did that I did that so tell me more about bike packing what’s your story with the bike packing I think it just came about with the gravel riding as like something that

People who were riding off road were doing and I was Keen to give it a g so yeah I got myself some kit packed myself off and did some like little overnighters and things and then an opportunity came up to go ride in Scotland amazing so I was like I’m going

To do the K’s loop on a gravel bike go on which is nuts and then in the middle of nowhere I was like you probably shouldn’t be doing this on your own you by yourself yeah I didn’t finish it but I did realize that I had the best time

And loved being in the middle of nowhere and being able to sleep there and wake up there is pretty cool while you were on the K Go’s Loop by yourself what was your most valuable player item that you had was it the baby wipes oh no so I got

Some great advice from someone to like pack a up luxury item for when everything goes PE Tong oh what did your have well hers was chocolate okay I was like I’m going to eat that in the first 10 minutes so it’s not going to help me in an

Emergency so mine’s um a face mask hello you bougie thing face got a bik back into it then like when everything goes wrong set up camp put your face mask on love that have a big reset and then the next day start again you did the car space self uh which is very

Badass very brave lots of Lessons Learned would you recommend any bike packing kind of companies or people to go with I’d really recommend sisters in the wild massive disclaimer also guide for them obviously they wonderful but yeah like sisters in the world make such amazing trips for people like you don’t

Need to be worried about going on your own they’ve got kit for you to borrow so you don’t need a nav device you don’t need bags like yeah if you’re just starting out and you don’t want to do it on your own it’s a really good way to do

It and then I think if you’re not looking to like go on an organized trips then the Kimo rallies and the Rafa penine rally are like really great events to sign up to any site and advice that you could go back and give yourself when you first started eat even more

Than you think you need to and I love food I eat for fun not for fuel but like I think yeah if you’re like doing something day after day like especially on your first bike packing trip yeah like you really can’t eat enough and it will like immensely improve your

Experience Fair yeah what are your favorite foods on bik bu and treat dry roasted peanuts love uh peanut butter and Hot Cross Buns yes anything made by harabo oh yeah um oh licorice all sorts mixed in with salted peanuts no you’ve lost me cucumber just cucumber cucumber do

You me so off you know as it is like it’s a MB oh I’m sorry who Do You Think You Are the cucumber is good for pet fatigue AG with you if you having too many dry Roost and peanuts you know if you just have like loads of salt or

Loads of sugar and that’s all the flavors you’ve got so then like you’re just like I don’t want to eat anymore so if you can eat something that’s just like mixing it up yeah just to like keep yourself eating keeping it fresh yeah I lost my cucumber on the penine

Rally and then some other Riders started doing a bit of a cucumber relay to get it back to me oh my God and did you it back no I didn’t it was a valiant effort so what I’m learning here is you have called yourself off camera to me a sand

Rat and you know a bit of a dirty Rider but the actual reality is you love a face mask and a cucumber as a pallette cleanser yeah I think I don’t think bike packing can be bougie but it really can what a sight what the plan then to obviously

You’ve got your qualifications what are you going to do lead more rides get more girls out with you what’s the plan yes so definitely do more guiding like since guided with ride High MTB and sisters in the wild and the plan is to start some

Of my own stuff as well just CU it’s really fun to like take people out on bikes and just see them fall in love with the thing that you love and then yeah same with the coaching like now I’ve got a coaching qualification it just means that I can

Help people legitimately build up their confidence on a bike as well which is pretty rad the cycling world is there anything that you wish would be would change or was a little bit different yeah I’d love to see and I don’t think it’s like non-existent but I’d love to see more

Women in like leadership roles and making decisions yeah I think there’s really great things happening so like Rachel burn siiz uplift program yes like that’s fantastic like I just think it needs more stuff like that and for women to be taken more seriously when they are being

Interviewed for roles but yeah I think yeah seeing women in more leadership across the industry alter Adventures yeah talk to me what is that about she’s that this woman is not stuff so alter Adventures started as a way to kind of like share rides and experience with people who

Were Keen to start adventuring Offroad as well now I’ve got my qualifications is going to start encompassing like guided rides and coaching but yeah it’s been going for a couple of years is we’ve done rides workshops film screenings and then this year I decided to do something big and scary and

Started the Bristal rally which is inspired by like the K rallies the penon rally and T so it’s a 3-day rally around well the surrounding Bristol it’s sold out you can’t come oh is actually sold out yeah yeah go on girl but yeah we’ve got tailin giv bike packing bags for

People that don’t have them there trashy trails credited event supporting it it’s going to be really good fun amazing so what are you most proud of I think I’m most proud of getting my level three guiding qualification and probably like the trail side repair part of it especially

Yeah like the thought of Trail repairs are fine the thought of doing it while it’s being watched by someone terrifi and with the trail repair what does that mean that you can do so you have to demonstrate that you can fix certain things yeah on a bike to like Trailside

Level so not as beautiful as in a bike shop okay enough to get someone home for level three it was to do things like get a cassette on and off uh replace a spoke and reach through a wheel yeah which I’m hoping I never have

To do I just GA to another anytime I’ve seen Jenny gram she’s like fixing stuff with like I don’t know paper clips and hair ties yeah and greasing things with sardine oil yeah yeah a better like she’s real like that’s the levels I aspire to is there anyone that you really

Admire in the cyclan world I think Evee Richards is amazing yeah uh and like not only because she’s amazing but like I think she just looks like she’s having fun on her bike yeah like she just looks like she’s really in love with it which is the most important thing yeah like I

Watch her compete and it makes me want to ride my bike more I love that yeah but then also like all of the women at Red Bull Rampage right now what is coming up for you in 2024 you’ve made some big moves in the last few years what’s coming up

In March I’m going to go bike packing uh in Greece with some friends they made on the kute women’s rallies um mega Avalanche what do uh it’s a yeah it’s a mountain bike race that uh goes from the top to the the bottom of alw so you

Start up in the glacier in the snow try and stay near to your bike W probably not going to stay on it oh my goodness and then yeah you eventually like hit trails and then it’s a race all the way down heed uh terrified at the moment I

Reckon once I’ve started practicing on the course then I’ll get excited you’ll smash that really good fun that’s awesome that’s absolutely awesome and it is it’s it’s a steep one yeah it’s a steep lad must be even more steep when you’re going off road as well I suppose yeah

I’ve heard like there’s one bit when you like start coming off the top and then you head down on a slope but it’s literally like you’re right at the edge of a ski slope and you have that like over the edge moment I feel like you’re

Going to love that that is surely that’s it surely that’s the buzz yeah hopefully it’s that or like crap myself and go over it anyway don’t crap the m and then everything else just kind of Wai and see what comes up love it