Ray's Indoor Mountainbike Park

I finally got to visit famous Ray's warehous of fun in cold, friendly Cleveland, OH. Dirt Rag hosted a women's only day at Ray's. This is such a brilliant idea that I can't wait for the next one. 30 or more women showed up from many states and lots of different backgounds and skill levels. I was the token cross country teacher. I was the geek in a lycra racing kit. But cross country skills are the real world and many of these women were trail riders so I could help out a little. After teaching my clinics, I headed over to the pump track to get a lesson from the crazy fast Jill Kitner. She was so fast on the track...so impressive. She is going for the Olympics in BMX so I will be routing for her. Then my buddy, current National Champion in downhill, Ms Kathy Pruitt gave me a personal lesson in tabletoping. I took a little bit to get the consistency down, but by the end I had the baby tabletops pretty dialed. It was so fun!

I got to hang with the WSD wrench, not wench, Chris Garrison. Chris is more than cool and she already had the tabletops down. Check out her page on the WSD section of the Trek website. I also got to meet a future ripper of america, Lindsey. It is so great to see young girls on bikes that smile all the time while they are shreddin!

The next day, I decided to try riding in jeans like the other jumper girls. I noticed that you don't really sit down much while doing the park stuff, so I gave it a go. It wasn't bad at all. One of the cool jumper girls noticed and I think gave her approval.

The vibe at Ray's was very friendly without any of the competitive vibe that can be there at some parks. I highly recommend a visit during these awful cold east coast winters. There is varying degrees of difficulty for the sets of jumps, stunts, vert walls, and pump tracks. It got something for everyone.