Where are all the gay mountain bikers?

Mountain biking has long been celebrated as a welcoming community—one where the shared stoke of riding can break down barriers. But when it comes to visibility for LGBTQ+ riders, the trails remain a bit quieter. Eric Closs, a mountain biker and Cranbrook resident, shed light on what it’s like being a gay rider in Canada, the connections made on the trails and why we still haven’t seen an openly gay pro mountain biker.

The invisible minority

Back in the early 2000s, when Eric Closs first started riding in Minaki, Ontario, the community skewed heavily male. “It was a bit of a sausage fest,” Eric jokes. But he loved the sport. And over the years, he rode all over the country. He eventually move to Whistler. He recalls early statistics estimating there was one woman for every hundred men in the Whistler Bike Park. “And if 10 per cent of the population is LGBTQ+, I figured I couldn’t be the only one in line.”

But the nature of mountain biking—gear-focused and overwhelmingly straight-presenting—meant there weren’t a lot of opportunities to connect with other gay riders. “It’s not like being a visible minority,” Eric said. “You can’t tell who’s gay just by looking at their bike setup.”
To make himself more visible, Eric started putting pride stickers on his bike and helmet. It wasn’t an invitation for conversation so much as a signal to anyone feeling like the only gay on the mountain. They weren’t alone. “I just wanted to let people know I was there. But honestly? It didn’t lead anywhere.”

“I’ve never come across a gay mountain biking club or anything like that,” he says. “God, if there was a gay mountain bike club, I guess I’d go to something like that just because I’d feel obligated.”

From gay friends to mountain biking buddies

Over time, Eric did find his community—friends he could ride with who shared his sexual orientation.

“We may have met on Grindr and that might have been in our interests, but all of a sudden–it’s kind of like–well I don’t care that you’re gay anymore. I care more that you’re a mountain biker. We have that in common. We’re good friends based on that. Once we were riding together, it didn’t really matter that we were gay. They weren’t my gay friends anymore—they were just my mountain biking friends.”
Shared passions like mountain biking have a way of leveling the playing field. “We’d spend the whole day on the trails, but instead of…