THE MAIN ISSUE

Edie Bloomfield

Women in cycling. Well, there aren’t many women in cycling, and why is that? Many of the different aspects of women’s cycling; recreational, competitive, and even the sports media representation are all at a disadvantage due to the overshadowing done by the men. This great sport is growing, but it needs all the help it can get.

Recreational Cycling

Being a part of this sport doesn’t necessarily mean racing competitively, it could just simply be commuting to school or work. Many women are scared of the competitive nature of cycling, but it isn’t all about competition; this sport is what you make of it. Alison McGregor started a cycling shop called Chainsmith in Sydney’s Surry Hills, where she is trying to make her shop a safe space for women cyclists. She encourages women of all ages to get on the bike and comforts them about all the scary aspects of this sport. After working in the cycling industry for a few years she now knows that "The concerns that women have are not really that different from the concerns that men have." This is interesting as a decade ago women's main concerns may have been being intimidated by the male riders but today it can be as simple as just getting the wrong bike. But again this sport is what you make of it, and I for one know that cycling is an amazing sport that all girls should be welcome to be a part of except the parity between the men and the women is another factor that stops girls coming into the sport in a competitive way.  

Equality between Men’s and Women’s Cycling

On the competitive side of the sport, it is not even close to equitable. According to Australian professional cyclist, Tiffany Cromwell, “we’ve always been overshadowed by the men, we’ve always had to push twice as hard, three times as hard to get, you know, a small percentage of the exposure the men get.” This statement is an example that despite the high skill level of women cyclists, their poor representation is their downfall.

For the past four years, a high-level amateur cycling group called Donnons des Elles au Velo Jour -1 which means “let the girls ride the day before,” has been riding all the Tour de France stages the day before the men. They are peacefully protesting for the same. And this year in their fourth stage they were joined by a Paralympic gold medal cyclist named Dame Sarah Storey, and she certainly has some strong opinions about women’s and paraplegic cycling. She was asked what she would do if she was the president of cycling’s governing body, the UCI, this is her answer:

“I would look at making an investment from what we know the UCI has in reserve. I wouldn’t just make it in women’s cycling but in all different parts of cycling because I am also a paracyclist and there are so many inequalities with that as well. I would make the investment and say, ‘Let’s invest in each [area]’ – because it might not be a lucrative thing now, but you have to speculate to accumulate. Although it might cost more now, because you are trying to build something, I would create equality in everything. I would pay for the coverage, pay for everything and make it completely equal. We would see it as a major statement in cycling [and] to the whole world.”

This year the Tour de France winner, Geraint Thomas, won around EU500000. Compare this to the total prize money on offer for the inaugural women’s version of the race, La Course, which was just to EU22,500. The Tour is 21 days, La Course is 1 day. Why is this the case? The women do the same amount of training, they put the same amount of effort in, and their races are actually more exciting due to there shorter length. Another Australian pro cyclist, Brodie Chapman says that “it is just as exciting and aggressive and dynamic as men’s racing.” Which again shows the poor representation and perception of the sport. But this is the problem, people can’t watch the races so their skewered opinion of the sport can’t be made truthful and the actual reality of how aggressive and tense the women’s races are.  

Media Coverage

For these girls to be able to train hard, and podium in the races, they need to have the money to do that and that money comes from sponsors. But most sponsors are attracted because they get media coverage. Here is where the problem arises - because women’s cycling doesn’t actually have any media coverage. Sure, there are highlights packages but they’re delayed and don’t show all the action. According to Mari Holden, a team director for an American women’s team, “equal prize money is great, but I think in order to grow the sport we need more media coverage.” Mari would know this because their team, Team Twenty20, is currently looking for a sponsor and this is near impossible thanks to the lack of media coverage.

Irish sports journalist, Orla Chennaoui, started a podcast called The Cycling Podcast Féminin because she wanted “to find out the stories behind the results.” This idea to start a podcast purely about women’s cycling was new and hadn’t been done before and there were “not enough ways to follow women’s cycling and give it a platform. This podcast has led to many more about women’s cycling and shows that the coverage is coming, the sport is developing and there is momentum in the sport.

Conclusion

Overall, it can be concluded that women’s cycling has the potential, and the athletes have the skill, but it is only the sports poor representation in the media that is its downfall. But from this research, we can also see that the challenges the recreational side of the sport face exist mainly in the minds of those who hold them.