As I pull out the sandy, sweaty, smelly cycling clothes from my bag this morning I start laughing at the chain of events that occurred this past weekend. After sand storms, many mechanicals….bikes (All due to sand) and vehicle (Good thing we were not reviewing Chevy Astro Vans), all the ladies from the Womenspecific.com review team are sadly back home dealing with reality.

Upon arrival in Moab last Thursday we were treated to blue skies, warm temps and great riding. Over five days, with an average of twelve women, products from over 20 companies were tested and reviewed. This was an amazing group of ladies with cycling abilities ranging from beginner to pro riders. We all pooled our strengths together to pull off an amazing weekend. And let me tell you…we had some dramatic forces against us at times.

This test fest started with a blast for sure. Yes, a sand blast! Our camp, bicycles, tents, and clothing all got a blasting with wind and sand all day Friday. After saving our fellow campers from our 10-ft X 20-ft event tent, we had to try and clean out shifters, chamois’, and french presses from layers and layers of sand. Morale stayed high and these great women and oh yeah, two boys (Lance Canfield, our mechanic and Johnny Ziem, our photographer), secured camped quickly and effectively. Time to ride and check out some gear.

The remaining five days were full of smiles, grunts, melt downs, and cheering. Initially the main goal of the test fest was to provide all of you with a guide of the latest cycling products. This goal was accomplished. Aside from the review this weekend also turned into so much more. Though not designed as a biking clinic, it quickly took a small form of one. We had so many women of varying skill that we all learned a ton from each other. Each woman had so much to offer to this event and we all grew quite a bit in various areas. It was amazing to see the mission of womenspecific.com actually taking a life of it’s own. First and foremost our focus was to review as much gear that we could over this weekend. In the end, laughter, skills, and friendship became the prominent result.

We could not help but get into a daily routine of drinking massive amounts of Kinetic Koffee, organizing gear and bicycles, dose ourselves with Sportlegs, ride our faces off, tail gate with Snake River Brewing, take notes on product, cocktail back at camp with margaritas and Redwood Creek Wine, chat and laugh into the night, then crash out exhausted. Yeah…this is my idea of a great ladies cycling weekend. We will be posting our Guide of this event by mid-May. In this guide you will read reviews of various gear ranging from apparel to bicycles, find out the reviewers best of products and read their bios, and check out our photo gallery that will tell the entire story. This will be a great start for many of you who are looking to buy some new cycling gear. This also might inspire you to check out some of the great women’s camps in our directory. Get out and have a blast….hopefully not a sand blast.