Our Instructors

Professional and passionate about mountain biking AND teaching, we are focused on making your experience great and your skills sharp.  We want learning and practicing skills on the trail to be super fun.

Sandra - Mike - Chris - Marc - Liz

---

Sandra got into mountain biking when she spent a year in Ottawa as a co-op student during University. She fell in love with Gatineau Park and returned after her studies to work as a high-school teacher and decided to stay! That year she started the MTB Chicks, Ottawa-Gatineau’s Women’s MTB group. She has biked all over the world, including North America, New Zealand and Nepal. Teaching and mountain bikes are her two biggest passions and she is super-stoked to bring both together and help other riders to grow their skills and become great riders.
 

---

 

Mike McGuire
Founder & PMBIA Certified Instructor

With over 30 years of mountain bike riding under his jersey, Mike has been around long enough to remember the times before front shocks and clipless mountain bike pedals. A native of Ottawa-Gatineau, he’s been riding the local trails all his life and has travelled across North America to many riding destinations.  Riding the Utah desert is his favourite place to be.  12 months a year he is outdoors on 2 wheels, fatbiking, bike packing and gravel riding if the MTB trails are not yet open, logging hundreds of rides every season.  MTB instruction is his latest passion and you can often find him geeking out with anyone who will listen over important things like whether or not to put your outside foot down, or how to apply more pressure into the front tire in corners.

---

  

 

---

 

We first met Marc at one of our introductory group lessons; his background in road riding gave him a solid fitness foundation for the dirt and he went on to do multiple lessons over several seasons.  He likes to call himself a “Graduate of the RideOttawa way” and now tackles the trails with growing confidence and control. A resident of Chelsea, Quebec, Marc brings passion and his love of bikes to his instructing and enjoys helping others find their own path to transform their riding as he has.
 

---

 

Another Ride Ottawa student and 4-season athlete, Liz has a passion for endurance sports and has triumphed in the Gatineau Loppet and the Quebec Singletrack Experience.   A "light perfectionist" with a dedicated training work ethic, she is climbing the skills pyramid steadily and is excited to share her lifelong love of sport and passion for hard work.