Our Goals

In 2012, Fort Follies started when Whitney Allison, who currently races professionally for Bike Sports, saw a huge need in her community for a women’s specific cycling program. She connected with fellow Fort Collins cyclist Christi Leong who is also very active in the Fort Collins cycling community and has put on various endurance events and started cycling clubs in the past. Joining forces, they’ve created the vision and have facilitated what is becoming a huge force in Fort Collins of ladies on bikes! The Fort Follies are housed under the NoCo Cycling Project.

The Fort Follies are a group that seeks to empower women in the Fort Collins area to be active and impactful members of our cycling community through riding, racing, and philanthropy. We strongly believe in a positive, supportive, and inclusive team, suited for women of all abilities and disciplines.

We aim to:

  • Connect Fort Collins women on bikes through group rides, clinics, events, and races.

  • Provide skills clinics and mechanical skills clinics to empower women to start racing and riding more.

  • Be active community members to make women’s voice heard and their participation felt in their cycling community.

  • Hold a strong presence in the grassroots racing series that takes place in the community:

    • Your Group Ride Time Trial Series

    • New Belgium Short Track

    • City Streets Criterium

    • Lory Park Mountain Challenge

    • New Belgium Cyclocross

Our Story

We seek to empower women in the Fort Collins area to be active and impactful members of our cycling community through riding, racing, and philanthropy. We strongly believe in a positive, supportive, and inclusive team, suited for women of all abilities and disciplines.

Why Fort Follies?

Folly is defined as lacking good sense or an act of foolishness. Well, really, what’s more foolish or lacking sense than 5 hour rides in the dead of winter, hucking your MTB off a big drop, racing a criterium at 30 mph, racing through sandpits on your cyclocross bike, or racing a track bike without brakes! You bet we’re lacking some sense to outsiders, but we have a ton of fun doing it together. We encourage and enable women to get into the sport whether for recreation, to get in shape, or to race competitively.

Where will you find Fort Follies members in the future? You’ll find them on the road, on the trails, and on their cyclocross bikes. Abilities range from those who have just started riding to those who compete in the pro ranks. We seek to be all-inclusive with the focus of creating a positive environment where women can try new things, push themselves, or simply enjoy the company of fellow riders. While we do hope to grow the racing scene, we do not force members to race, but rather reduce those intimidation barriers to make that step a little less scary if someone wants to dabble in racing.

In our first year, we hosted the Fort Follies Women’s Grand Prix at the finish of the USA Pro Challenge Stage 6 in August, 2012.

Poke around and learn more about the Follies, follow the Fort Follies fun, and check out our super rad partners. We welcome feedback, questions, words of encouragement and the likes through our contact form.

Thanks for visiting us!