Women's Cycling

[Tony]

To me, ACC appears to be a very broad church, with riders covering a huge range of abilities and cycling-aspirations. It also seems to do pretty well on having a mix of riders from different social and ethnic backgrounds - certainly compared to some clubs anyway. My expectation is that almost anyone should be able to find several riders around the same level as them in ACC - whether young, old, male or female, competitive or non-competitive.

In some ways I would expect this environment to be ideal for female riders - especially aspiring racing ones - as there's so many different levels of riders to ride / train with.

I'm not clear from reading these posts what, if any additional requirements woman riders may have. Maybe someone could throw some ideas on the table for consideration.....

[Michelle]

For info, i did ask around some of the women at the training day on Sunday. Quite a few were already associated with clubs, some were from Wales ( ) and some from North London.

I must admit I didn't put it about very much, was trying to take in a lot of the information.

However I still have to email John Leitch to say thanks, may be able to get some email addresses and see if folks want to come out on a Saturday. There were some strong riders in amongst that lot. They would be a real asset.

[Toks]

Just as a final point its worth remembering that women cyclists like any other monorities (blacks, youth riders, asians, septuagenarians, polish etc) are not one homogenous group. Hence what will attract one woman to ACC may not attract another. I'm sure the gamut of reasons for joining and staying with a club are numerous: are they friendly and accomadating?, do they value women cyclists, if so how?; have they got women cyclists at my level; do they encourage women cyclists to do well; are they respectful to women cyclists; are there many women cyclists at the club and if so are they clearly present; are the women cycists they have at the club friendly ? etc

[Sue R]

Hello

See my posting on the "Mr Average" site. Am I the only female to put their name up for this?? Sounds fab and I'd love to do it - any other women interested?? What a great way to promote the club to women.

[Toks]

[quote="Sue R"]Hello

See my posting on the "Mr Average" site. Am I the only female to put their name up for this?? Sounds fab and I'd love to do it - any other women interested?? What a great way to promote the club to women.

[sid_day]

I have read this thread with interest and have some more thoughts.

Not all club members are interested in racing, though most will be interested in fitness.

Therefore simply looking to attract women racers is not necessarily where were at?

I spent some of my time working in a bike shop trying to translate US "womens" bike marketing into what would be useful over here.

I spent time trying to find womens cycling clothing which I knew my female customer would want. (e.g. not those hyper-short lycra shorts that all the suppliers seem to want to ram down our throats).

Then I would try and find jersey's without flowers or in colours like pastel and pink.

Then I would try to find a clothing brand which went down to a UK size 8 (Endura, a UK based brand don't).

This is all on top of the fact that inexpensive UK clothing brands often don't fit a healthy cyclists slim build whatever the gender.

It is a xxxxing ball ache.

[Toks]

[quote="sid_day"]I have read this thread with interest and have some more thoughts.

Not all club members are interested in racing, though most will be interested in fitness.

Therefore simply looking to attract women racers is not necessarily where were at?

I spent some of my time working in a bike shop trying to translate US "womens" bike marketing into what would be useful over here.

I spent time trying to find womens cycling clothing which I knew my female customer would want. (e.g. not those hyper-short lycra shorts that all the suppliers seem to want to ram down our throats).

Then I would try and find jersey's without flowers or in colours like pastel and pink.

Then I would try to find a clothing brand which went down to a UK size 8 (Endura, a UK based brand don't).

This is all on top of the fact that inexpensive UK clothing brands often don't fit a healthy cyclists slim build whatever the gender.

It is a xxxxing ball ache.

[sid_day]

[quote]what are you saying exactly

[Maria David]

I think it’s fair enough to say that not all women want to race. I don’t imagine that it’s the case. However, as Sid says women want to keep fit – and that sort of thing is generally goal oriented.

Let’s face it cycling, like football, rugby, cricket or motor-racing are very male dominated. (How many of the posts on this very subject are actually from women compared to the number from men??) Just like a woman who joins a football club is not doing it just to pootle around doing a bit of keep-it-uppy, any woman who goes to the trouble of looking for a cycling club to join is not going to be uniquely interested in leisure cycling.

In fact, in the time I was at ACC I can think of very few women who didn’t do any competitive cycling event at all.

Women have done time trials, triathlons, cyclo-sportives, cyclo-cross, mountain bike events, road racing – all sorts of things.
We got women doing the Jack’n’Jill time trial, we had nearly all the ACC women out to do a 2-part cycling event a couple of years ago at Ellens Green - some time trialling in the morning, and others road racing in the afternoon. It was a good day out.

Human nature is such that you will get involved in something regularly if you feel you can be involved in it and it feels like you make a difference. If you want greater involvement from women cyclists there has to be a framework in place whereby they can feel involved and feel they can achieve something. The club needs to be seen to offer something for all abilities of rider – beginners and racers alike.

Getting a load of women to ride together every month or whatever, is all well and good but that model can’t work ad infinitum. Something needs to be done to retain the women that join. Leaving it to one person to move things to the next stage is not enough. If things don’t evolve then the riders just leave – as we have seen a number of times.

It may be worth looking into how other clubs have managed it – Agisko Viner, Twickenham CC, London Dynamo, Kingston Phoenix, London Phoenix have a significant number of women. Although there are clear differences in how competitive the women across these clubs are, it is fair to say that all of them have managed to get women involved in cycle sport in one shape or form, doing different types of events.

Hope that clarifies things.

[Toks]

[quote="Maria David"]It may be worth looking into how other clubs have managed it – Agisko Viner, Twickenham CC, London Dynamo, Kingston Phoenix, London Phoenix have a significant number of women.

[Maria David]

I think I've got insomnia !

Fairplay to what you are doing Marco - you can only find out by running with it.
Women are more likely to do triathlon because the spread of abilities is so much wider in these sports, and the swimming and running part are seen as less intimidating than cycling. It's worth noting that quite alot of triathlon clubs have difficulty organising cycle training because of the wide spread of abilities. Also, people do triathlons knowing that even if they don't ride well they can at least be half decent at one of the other disciplines and that gives them a willingness to have a go.

Training for triathlons can be done at a very individual level, even during the group sessions. Bike riding relies on people riding in a group so there is always a worry about not being able to keep up.

By the way, I'd suggest putting something on the "Events and Rides" section of the She Cycles Forum, at around the time when you intend organising women's rides. It's also worth bearing in mind that alot of the readers on this forum are into mtb-ing. There could be a case for promoting the Sunday off-road rides.


Toks, the facts and figures that you were interested in :

London Dynamo women fielded a full team (6 woman team) for a number of the women's National road racing team series last season. They are also currently holding women's skills sessions in Richmond Park on Saturday mornings. (These are open to members and non-members alike.) Apparently they had 15 out a couple of weeks ago. One of their road racers does triathlons too. Another one of their road racers does time trials.

Agisko Viner have around 20 women in their club - several of them do triathlons, though around half of them road race and track race regularly. They also fielded a full team for the women's national team series last season. Agisko Viner have the services of John Percy, a BC registered coach affiliated to their club

Twickenham have a similar number of women to Agisko though they have more women doing cyclosportives and a few doing time trials. Around 4 or 5 of them road race regularly. They fielded a team for the Women's National team series, albeit with one or two guest riders. Their club, in conjunction with Team Quest promote the women's Wednesday night road race series at Hillingdon in the summer.

London Phoenix focus more on off-road riding and cyclosportives. They have a set calendar of events that they promote within the club over the course of the year (consisting of mainly cyclosportive trips abroad and in the UK + mtb events) and organise groups to go to them. Their membership co-ordinator is a woman, so she encourages women to get involved locally. They fielded women's teams in some of the enduro mtb events last season like Mountain Mayhem, the Bonty, and Bristol Bikefest.

Kingston Phoenix club runs are co-ordinated by a womn, so she actively encourages women to join in. They ride at a less competitive pace but they still get women to enter local time trials. They have promoted the women's SE road race champs in the last couple of years.

[Toks]

[quote="Maria David"]I
Toks, the facts and figures that you were interested in :

London Dynamo women fielded a full team (6 woman team) for a number of the women's National road racing team series last season. They are also currently holding women's skills sessions in Richmond Park on Saturday mornings. (These are open to members and non-members alike.) Apparently they had 15 out a couple of weeks ago. One of their road racers does triathlons too. Another one of their road racers does time trials.

Agisko Viner have around 20 women in their club - several of them do triathlons, though around half of them road race and track race regularly. They also fielded a full team for the women's national team series last season. Agisko Viner have the services of John Percy, a BC registered coach affiliated to their club

Twickenham have a similar number of women to Agisko though they have more women doing cyclosportives and a few doing time trials. Around 4 or 5 of them road race regularly. They fielded a team for the Women's National team series, albeit with one or two guest riders. Their club, in conjunction with Team Quest promote the women's Wednesday night road race series at Hillingdon in the summer.

London Phoenix focus more on off-road riding and cyclosportives. They have a set calendar of events that they promote within the club over the course of the year (consisting of mainly cyclosportive trips abroad and in the UK + mtb events) and organise groups to go to them. Their membership co-ordinator is a woman, so she encourages women to get involved locally. They fielded women's teams in some of the enduro mtb events last season like Mountain Mayhem, the Bonty, and Bristol Bikefest.

Kingston Phoenix club runs are co-ordinated by a womn, so she actively encourages women to join in. They ride at a less competitive pace but they still get women to enter local time trials. They have promoted the women's SE road race champs in the last couple of years.

[sid_day]

Another source of members: most of my female MTB riding friends have bought hybrids or road bikes to improve their general fitness for MTBing or snowboarding.

(The groups I guide informally in the surrey hills are usually 50/50 men women.)

[Sue R]

Perhaps I should come on your informal guided rides around Surrey Hills with my MTB and wear a club jersey (which I have not yet purchased).
I can make encouraging noises about how fab ACC are to those women present.....

[Michelle]

To Maria, the question ought to be, do you have a structure in mind? Because you talk about it a lot as if you think it is important, it may be that you have thought about it a bit, so what are your thoughts?