It's already travelled through 55 countries, touched thousands of hands and on Saturday, a wooden baton will begin making its away from Vancouver, B.C. to the opposite corner of the country.

The baton is part of the Women Riders World Relay, an initiative that aims to bring female motorcyclists together to show the motorsport industry just how many of them there are.

"This is not a man's sport, this is an everybody sport," said Teresa Udell, an organizer for B.C.'s portion of the relay. "It explodes my heart to see all these women here – to support each other, really, that's what it is about: it is supporting each other in such a male-dominated sport."

The relay was started by a woman in the United Kingdom, who was fed up by the lack of choice when she would go into motorcycle stores.

"Being told, 'There just isn't the market for women,' highlighted to me just one small element of a much bigger picture around women in motorsports," founder Haley Bell wrote on the relay's website.

It's a sentiment echoed by local riders.

"I have men's chaps on, they're way too long. There's not form-fitting gear for us ladies," said Carrie Gaudette.

"Men's clothing is straight down; women are curvy. We want clothes that fit our hips and our butt," said Shannon Levinsky. "While we're raising awareness, we're all uniting together as women."

The relay started in Feb 2019 in Scotland, before making its way through the rest of Europe, into Asia and Australia.

Colette Tindall Edling brought the baton from New Zealand to Vancouver earlier in the week.

The Australian rider has participated in most of the relay and is one of the only riders to do so.

"I thought it was an opportunity to go around the world, meet all the girls and get to know all the different cultures and know all the ways that biking is done throughout the world," she said.

Tindall Edling has been to 39 European countries, three countries in Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of the relay.

She said despite the many different places she's seen, there’s been one common experience.

"A lot of the girls will start their ride a bit nervous but when they leave the ride, they've learned so much, their skills have improved," she said.

Canada's portion of the relay will last 11 days, ending St. Stephen, N.B. before it heads south to the United States, Mexico, and Latin America.

The last destination is the United Arab Emirates, which is anticipated in Jan. 2020, marking the end of the one-year relay.