ABOUT HVWC
Learn About HVWC
From the time I started riding bikes, I longed for a community of women to train, ride, and race with. In my area, only a few male-dominated cycling groups existed. I wanted to see a change. What is the best way to get something that you don’t have?
BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE.
I wanted to see women racing, taking risks, and encouraging each other. This creates resilience, growth, and self-confidence. Creating HVWC was the way to reach these goals.
After gaining support from Erik Scott, former owner of The Bicycle Shop, Happy Valley Women’s Cycling was founded in 2018. We quickly gained support from other companies like Stahl Sheaffer Engineering, Robin Hood Brewery, and Specialized Bicycles. They believed in our team and our mission.
With support from our community, we started to grow. We were racing as a team and hosting several women-only rides promoting health and wellness through cycling.
HVWC empowers women cyclists and gives them a sense of belonging to something bigger. They say your team becomes your family, we’ve created our own family here in Happy Valley!
– Tanya Campbell
Our Mission
The goals of our team are to promote and encourage more women to ride bikes and build a community of strong women. Our team accomplishes this goal in many different ways.
- Our team trains and participates in cycling races as a team but also individually.
- We have weekly rides for women just getting started in both mountain biking and gravel riding. We invite anyone to join and we offer an atmosphere of acceptance and friendliness.
- Girls Rock is our developmental program for girls ages 10-13. We hope the confidence they gain on the bike spills over to the rest of their life.
- Two girls from Girls Rock are now junior riders on our team and join us for training rides and races. They completed two mountain bike races last year including the Laurel Classic race in Wellsboro.
Off the bike, the team has the opportunity to do cycling-specific strength training with Tom Whipple and Tim Yosca. Several members take advantage of these sessions and they have seen improvements in their riding endurance and everyday life activities. It’s a fun way to get cross-training and stay focused on workouts off the bike too!
Events
Our team members participate in a variety of local and national events. We are lucky to have so many great local events near State College that we don’t need to travel far.
Our gravel events include:
- Iron cross
- Rothrock GRIT Gravel Grinder
- Unpaved
- Monster Cross
Members of our team have recently podiumed at:
- Seasons of Rothrock III & IV
- Transylvania Epic
- Yellow Creek Grass Roots
- Liberty Bike Race
- Laurel Classic
This year we are participating in some new events including:
- Quantico Epic
- The Last Best Ride
- Breck EPIC
- Rasputitsa
We also participate in several cycling initiatives and organizations such as Central Cycling Classic, The Ride of Silence, Center Bike and we are course marshalls for the State College half marathon and various other 5k events as well as bike races.
Our Backyard
We all work, live and play in Central Pennsylvania – in and around State College, home of Penn State University main campus. We do most of our training in Rothrock State Forest, just 6 miles from downtown State College. At just under 97,000 acres, Rothrock offers over 300 miles of non-motorized trails with more than 100 miles open to mountain biking – including two IMBA EPIC rides, plus 190 miles of gravel roads. It’s a beautiful forest with a plethora of challenging climbs and terrain, babbling brooks, rewardingly gorgeous vistas, and natural finds. We’re proud to call it our playground.
Our Races
In addition to racing around the country, we put on our own races called “Seasons of Rothrock.” Four seasonal races – two gravel bike , two mountain bike—held throughout the year, including our flagstone event—”Rothrock Grit Gravel Grinder” each June. Striving for equal representation on the course, the Grit Gravel Grinder reserves half of the spots for women. Find out more about each of the races on our rothrock/hvwcycling.com site.
CONTACT US
Have questions about our community rides or our race team? Use the "General Inquires" form to send us a message. You can also reach out to us about sponsorships, our Get a GRIP Retreat or Girls Rock! program. We'll be in touch as soon as possible.
Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and/or Instagram for up to date information about rides, races and more.
General Inquiries
Sponsorship Inquiries
Get a GRIP Retreat Inquiries
Girls Rock! Inquiries