One hot day last November, Sarah Aiken, accompanied by 50 other women on bicycles, shoved off from Rillito Park Horse Racetrack heading east on the Loop.
It was the first day of the Komoot Women’s Arizona Rally 2024, a 400-plus mile weeklong bike-packing experience. It was an exciting day.
The next day, however, was something else.
Heading up Control Road, Aiken alternated between riding and walking her bicycle up the unimaginably steep Mount Lemmon. Things went downhill from there.
“For me it was practically unrideable,” she said. “It was a lot of hike-a-bike and I was riding a hard tail and it was pretty heavy so by the time I got finished it wasn’t just my legs (that hurt. It was also) my upper body.”
She also crashed into another rider.
“It was a comedy of errors going up and up and up,” Aiken added. “It took 11 hours to get from Mel’s (Diner) to Summerhaven.”
She was one of the last in the group to make it to the end-of-the-day stopping point. And that was but one day in a week full of life-changing experiences.
For those 50 women this truly was a special rally.
Organized by ultra-endurance bike rider and racer Lael Wilcox, and project manager Calixta von Feilitzsch of the route planning app company Komoot, the rally is meant to be a space of challenge, safety and support.
According to Wilcox, the event an opportunity for women, trans and non-binary cyclists “to ride without the competition that inevitably springs up between men.
“I’m an ultra-endurance racer, I’ve raced all around the world and I’ve been doing that for about 10 years,” Wilcox said.
“I would show up to the start of races and I would be the only woman or one of a group of five out of maybe up to 200 riders. I noticed there weren’t a lot of other women, and I don’t know exactly why they aren’t there, so I thought, instead, what if we created an event specifically for women to go do something challenging and adventurous and fun?”
Thus, the Women’s Bike-packing Rally was born.
The twice-yearly event in various U.S. locations attracts women bicyclists from all around the world and is loosely organized, leaving many of the decisions up to the individual participants.
“We encourage a route, a start point, and the only goal is to make it to a finishers party days later,” Wilcox said.
“Along the way women decide what pace they want to go, where they want to sleep and eat and mix it up between groups and if they need to they make short cuts or alternatives to the route, then make it to the end to celebrate.”
It sounds simple enough, but it is so much more than just a ride and camping trip. The most recent rally took place in November. It began and ended in Tucson but over the course of the week the participants camped and pedaled throughout southern Arizona, passing through locations such as Rio Rico, San Manuel, Arivaca, Patagonia and Parker Canyon Lake. The riders camped as far south as the U.S.-Mexico border and rode back again.
“It was incredible, and to do it all on a bike” rider Kate van Roebel said.
No one who finished the ride was left unchanged.
“I’m not the same person I was when I left that Saturday to when I came back the following Saturday,” Aiken said.
“For me it was the empowerment of knowing I could do it. Now I live car-free. There are a lot of naysayers who think you can’t do what you do in a car on a bike and I’ve proved to everybody and myself that I can do those things.”
Equally important is how Aiken looks at others now. She talked about one of those important moments.
“I saw something that changed my life,” she said. “(I saw) an immigrant and I was alone, and it scared me. I saw her and she saw me and she ran away. I knew in that moment it was a moment in my life where I was like, ‘Wait a minute. What am I afraid of?’ This woman was in flip flops, and she was by herself. I could not imagine a scarier situation to be in. I came back with a lot of gratitude for what I have and a different outlook on what other people go through and the harsh conditions to go through to get here.”
Though also changed, van Roekel had a different take.
“That was my first time in such a female space,” she said. “Especially with cycling I have always ridden with men because there aren’t all that many women who ride. This was so great. Everyone was cheering each other on. However, you felt was fine. We were crying, we were laughing. It was just so supportive. . . . It was a totally safe space, and I want that in my life.”
To join a rally requires an application, and von Feilitzsch helps with the process. For each rally, organizers receive hundreds of applications, but that number has to be whittled down to between 50 and 75 depending on the route. As project manager, von Feilitzsch looks at several factors in the applications with an aim toward putting together a diverse group of people.
“We ask a couple of questions,” she said from her home in Germany. “Basically, like what’s the age and where are they coming from? What’s the background of bike (experience)? Are they beginners? Are they already experienced? And then we want to give spots to underrepresented groups, so we ask these kinds of questions. We want to make sure that 60% of the spots are for underrepresented groups. We want to have a good mix of people with different backgrounds and different ages and different experiences.”
Case in point: van Roebel has been a rider for almost two decades while Aiken has been on two wheels for less than three years.
There is no fee to apply nor to participate. However, riders must provide their own bikes and fund their own food and overnight accommodations. They also must carry all their own gear. A car with support staff follows along so there’s help should anything happen.
Before the rally, von Feilitzsch organizes webinars to answer questions.
Von Feilitzsch and Wilcox try to encourage those who are hesitant.
“I would say, ‘Do it, we'll be there to support you and celebrate the rally together,’” von Feilitzsch said.
“Of course, the rally is challenging. The routes usually cover around 600 to 700 kilometers (400 miles) with different meters of elevation gain depending on the region. The participants have eight days to cover this distance.”
Said Wilcox, “These events are designed to be inclusive, catering to a wide range of cycling abilities, from casual riders to more advanced cyclists.
“The age range of the participants so far was from around 20 to around 65. This inclusive approach makes cycling more accessible and appealing to women who might otherwise feel excluded from more competitive or male-dominated cycling events. The Komoot Women's Rallies have played a significant role in connecting and supporting women in cycling by creating a welcoming, inclusive space for women of all cycling levels to come together, share experiences, and build community. These events have helped foster a sense of camaraderie and empowerment among female cyclists.”
Komoot Women’s Rally
For information about Komoot, visit komoot.com
