About Us
Louise Foulkes
The Women’s MTB Retreat Tasmania is the inspiration of Louise Foulkes. Louise has worked all over the world primarily running adventure racing events in remote regions. She has more recently returned to her Tasmanian roots, working in the emerging MTB industry in Tasmania.
“The more birthdays I have, the more importance I place on spending time outdoors and being active. As humans, I believe the more we play immersed in nature, the happier and healthier we are. The new mountain bike trails in Tasmania take this philosophy to a whole new level. At their heart, these trails are designed and built to have fun. The environment is superb and it brings me pure joy to be there, riding and just living in the moment.
Louise is also a qualified mountain bike coach. “Time and time again I see women give up on riding due to lack of confidence, putting too much pressure on themselves or having one bad experience. I believe riding with a group of supportive women goes a long way to helping this.”
Lisa Albinus
Lisa moved to the Bay of Fires in Tasmania four years ago and is passionate exploring the trails on her bike as well as spending plenty of time in the water. Lisa combines over 20 years of sports coaching, 30 years of cycling (including triathlon, road and mtb) and 30 years of experience working in the disability sector, with a passion for encouraging people to explore new opportunities and achieve their goals in a wide array of recreational pursuits. Lisa has included sports psychology, creating well-being, health and wellness, and personal training along the way.
One of the areas Lisa’s been focusing on recently is supporting people to explore the stories they tell themselves and being open to new stories to help overcome fears and nervousness as a step towards achieving their goals. (And having as much fun as possible along the way!)
Lisa gained mountain bike coaching qualifications to support a growing number of women keen, but nervous, about joining the mountain bike ‘movement’ in Tassie. Lisa’s focus is on enjoying the trails (ie stop and smell the roses), introducing more people to riding and exploring her fantastic backyard.
Katie Lawlor
Katie is a role model for women in the sport. She is an inspirational mountain biker who has represented Australia in down hill racing. Katie is an exceptional coach with a passion for increasing women’s participation in the sport. Katie recently moved to Derby, Tasmania and is excited about introducing people to her local trails. Katie also has a Degree in Exercise Science and Psychology.
Katie recently spoke in an podcast with Purposely Podcast after winning the Tasmania downhill title in December 2021. Take a listen.
“Katie Lawlor is such an inspiration to meet and learn from. Katie is a gun downhill mountain bike rider and in this episode, she tells her story of the ups of downs of reaching nationals in 2016 to crashing right before the big race and then quitting and her come back in Tassie 2021!
Katie shares her 3 life lessons that are, put simply just gold nuggets of wisdom. Riding bikes has taught her how to love and trust herself and things could not be looking better for this champion in the making. She just won the state championships in Tassie and is ready to take on the world. A role model for women in sport she is building an army of women so watch this space.”
Geocentric Pty Ltd
Women’s MTB Retreats Tasmania is a branch of Geocentric Pty Ltd. Geocentric have been an industry leader in the outdoors for 20 years putting on over 100 adventure events around the world.