At The Clan, we see our job as showing people just how much fun cycling can be for everyone, and to do that we feel it is essential to show a diverse range of riders so people can identify with them as much as possible and hopefully be inspired to get their bikes out and even emulate the stars of our shows.
That is why at Clan shows you won’t just see the ‘crazy boys’ in action, you will see young riders like 8yr old Dougal, and you’ll often see both male and female riders. We’re very proud to be the only team in the UK to have included girl riders in our shows from day 1. Indeed over the past 8 years we’ve had a dozen top female riders as part of our team.
It’s no secret that more boys than girls take up the more extreme side off the sport and finding rad girls can sometimes be more challenging. So when Gillian Walker (14yrs) approached us and asked to ride our ramp we were as keen as her to see it happen.
After sending us some pictures and videos via facebook, Gillian joined us at a show in Glasgow. We put her in touch with another one of our female stars, the one and only Kayley Ashworth!
Gillian and Kayley hatched a plan to meet up at NASS extreme sports festival. We decided to help Gillian with a little bit of sponsorship to enter the girls BMX comp there. Little did we know she would end up sharing the podium (in 3rd) with Kayley (in 2nd), especially as she has only been riding BMX for a year! Check it out:
So obviously after seeing just how rad Gillian was we had to get her in a show! She came along last weekend to a show in Glenrothes and delighted us and the crowd by boosting the box and even throwing in a trick or two:
©Steven Brown / @sbrownphoto / www.sbrownpix.com
Riding aside, Gillian fitted in perfectly with the team and our job of interacting with the public to pass on our enthusiasm for cycling:
So welcome to The Clan Gillian 🙂