I started Cycling in Bahrain 16 years ago and got my first bike (Trek discovery channel edition) back then.

Back then cycling was NOT popular at all and was certainly not popular between local girls. I was actually the first local girl to walk into Trek shop dealer (Skate shack) and buy a road bike and I got to know years later that the sales team were amazed!

I started riding with a group of expats as riding for local girls used to be considered to be sort of forbidden and bizarre. I got stopped several times and passing by drivers would take a picture of me when they notice me.

After a while my expat group left the country and back then I had the courage and joined a group of local boys and started training properly and went into racing! Once I started racing I realized I can be very competitive and enjoy racing! After local races I did a couple of international races and unique ones. Some examples of interesting races/rides:

- GBI ( global biking initiative ) where I cycled from Budapest to Munich doing 850 km and was the only girl from the GCC to do it

- Maratona Dolomites, and be the first arab girl to do it

- Did Spinneys 92 in Dubai 4 times and got qualified for World championships Grandfondo in Italy too!

Sarah Al-Sammak, Cycling Coach and Founder of Cycling Bees

However after pregnancy and coming back to cycling I got a back injury and started cycling at different times than the boys and I used to take loads of pictures while cycling with my friend. More girls started approaching me asking if they can join our rides! We started with 5 girls only and started to grow more and more! I decided to keep the rides for girls only as there is nothing for girls only in the country and I wanted to encourage more girls to come and ride girls in a comfortable environment without feeling the urge to compete against boys. After seeing the rides are getting very popular between all sorts of girls especially locals who don’t work out and started to cycle for fun but then got addicted to cycling! Seeing more girls pushed me to go get British Cycling Coaching Certification as I saw a good percentage of girls who can’t even ride a bike! So I started coaching Bike ability Classes for adults and haven’t stopped until now! I get to coach at least 15 girls every month to ride a bike and get ready for a road and I have been doing it for 3 years! And that’s why our regular weekly ride can easily go to 50 riders!

If you ever wondered, Cycling Bees is called after my bright yellow and black madone! The queen bee!

Sarah Al-Sammak

Cycling Coach

+973 39777464

Founder of Cycling Bees

Insta: @Sarahcyclist @cyclingbees

www.cyclingbees.com