IF IT'S cyclical girl power in business that you are looking for, head for the hills.

Ever since Vicky Griffin and Christine Flintoft took over the Purple Mountain Bike Centre and Caf in Dalby Forest, near Thornton-le-Dale, last April, the place has been booming.

So many mountain bikers have converged on the North Yorkshire beauty spot over the holidays that two things happened.

For one thing, they ran out of milk, such was the demand for tea. In one day they got through 175 pints, and because they could not get a dairy to make a delivery in the forest, they had to make emergency runs for gallons of milk to feed the demand. For another thing, they have not only taken on two full-time staff, but are now looking to take on two more, plus nine part-timers.

Under Vicky, a former teacher and commercial manager for Marks & Spencer, and Christine, a former hill sheep farmer, who used to run a farmhouse bed and breakfast, turnover has doubled.

The two bike fanatics first set up the Purple Mountain bike centre in Rosedale two years ago, as an organiser of mountain bike trips.

Then in January they won the Forestry Commission contract to take over the Dalby Forest venture - and the timing could not have been better.

It was launched at the same time as the unveiling of a £4.5 million investment in the 7,500 acres, which has resulted in a new seven-kilometre swooping track through the forest, part of a new 45km trail programme.

Apart from offering an instruction service for those who want to cycle through the forest, the two women also sell mountain bikes and accessories and offer a bike repair service.

Vicky said: "The caf is a totally new thing for us both. Chris used to run that B & B and I used to run the food hall at M & S Meadowhall, but it is entirely a different kettle of fish when it's all your own."

Updated: 10:02 Friday, May 05, 2006