Cycling dismay as women's events frozen out for London 2012

so I'm planning to write off the summer, blitz the winter training and go from there.

me too we should join forces! it is better if it is with someone else. even though you have Rob

me too we should join forces! it is better if it is with someone else. even though you have Rob

Pfft, he spends more time dossing about 'saving energy for sprint efforts' than he does riding! ;D

Definately, I was vaguely thinking that when the track closes for winter we should loosely organise a regular womens Richmond Park training ride on a Saturday or Sunday morning or something? Nothing too formal, but with a definitie aim for gradual improvment.

I've spent most of my afternoon reading this thread. I would definitely like to do more training but the idea of racing scares me. Marie, Tika, count me in for RP.

Re the HH Friday evening trainings. RPM told me as well that it was mainly for children (although it says Womens and children). Are any of you ladies interested in going? If a few of us turn up then we can train. I found Saturdays a bit too busy (and scary) and found myself preferring to be on my own than in a group.

:( I've started smoking again a couple of months ago now, training should give me the motivation to stop again.

I'd be up for some training too, definitely. Richmond Park on a weekend morning sounds great.

Vee - Re: Friday at HH, I think the womens thing is totally dead, from what I've seen there's barely kids there, let alone ladies, which is a shame because I find the Saturday session pretty off-putting too (the pace is fine, its just the amount of kicking back in the group riding that scares me).

Rob's women-only sessions sound a lot more promising.

tika you don't need to write off this year - you've improved massively already throughout the summer!

I think that Dulwich Paragon have a women's training evening on a weeknight, get you used to riding in a bunch & learning the joys of rotation. I've never been but I hear it's quite popular.

I'm also feeling inspired by all this chat and I'm thinking that I will pop my Palace cherry on the 25th also. So Tricity/anyone else if you want to come PM me. I'm sure RP will be there too.

Seldom Killer thanks for the cyclocross info. Bike options are limited at the moment but it's always good to remember n+1

What have you got at the moment?

I iz Paragon. A few of us go down on Tuesday evenings for road bike night and have a bit of a spin round - means that you don't get dispirited with the crazy pace of some of the guys and you do get a chance at a bit of rotation. I don't think many of us get out the track bikes these days though.

What have you got at the moment?

My road bike is an alu Bianchi Via Nirone. Nothing special by any means but wouldn't stand up to cyclocross. Track bike = no no no, daily bike = fixed so no to that too. Hmm.

Time for a new bike Stelle. :-)

Generous man Andy, what are you buying the lady?

Dual down-tubed Colnago?

If any ladies plan to come along to the track on a Tuesday evening give me a shout.

I'm selling a Trek X0 frameset (52cm) which I must get around to sticking it on the classifieds forum. Though early expressions of interest welcomed ;)

Dual down-tubed Colnago?

well, since you're all offering it would be rude to refuse!

well, since you're all offering it would be rude to refuse!

I can't believe it Stelle, like buses, all the wait and then 2 offers!

knew I was waiting for something...must have been a bus!

Herne Hill velodrome: Saturday training - a handful of women.

Absolutely true. I've made it down to HH on a few Saturdays to find myself the only woman there, got dropped immediately and spent the rest of the time cycling around alone. Totally demoralising!

I have loads of people pestering me to set up a blog on feminism and cycling

+1 Brilliant - consider this another pester! :)

If you advertise them properly then probably... I was well up for doing the women's sessions at HH till someone told me I shouldn't bother because they were for kids.

Yep - I emailed VCL to check, and it's for mums who want to ride with their kids.

I would be so well up for training and heading down to the track, if I knew I'd find some more ladies down there to keep me company.

I found this article about womens racing at Palace just now, thought it was useful & encouraging (Chole also rides track at HH):
http://www.ananichoola.co.uk/articles_100498.html

Edit - the rest of the site is worth a look too.

tika you don't need to write off this year - you've improved massively already throughout the summer!

I think that Dulwich Paragon have a women's training evening on a weeknight, get you used to riding in a bunch & learning the joys of rotation. I've never been but I hear it's quite popular.

I'm also feeling inspired by all this chat and I'm thinking that I will pop my Palace cherry on the 25th also. So Tricity/anyone else if you want to come PM me. I'm sure RP will be there too.

Seldom Killer thanks for the cyclocross info. Bike options are limited at the moment but it's always good to remember n+1

The Wednesday Chaingang with Dulwich Paragon was originally the Ladies chaingang but I think its now more mixed and mostly men. There has been a few weeks when theres been loads of women down but that is rare. Get on the Dulwich forum and ask about it there and you should be able to get a few out. It is very good training though so I would definately recomend it and everyone is really friendly and happy to help people new to chaingangs.

John from Surrey League is doing two women's intro to road racing days at Hillingdon this autumn - think he's still gauging interest but he's sent me the draft copy which has the dates (presumably tbc) as Sunday 11th October and Sunday 22nd November. I'm hoping to make both.

Thanks to Stelle for mentioning last year's day and prompting me to email him :)

Also there's a women's race at Hillingdon on Oct 3rd... if I can get my BC licence sorted by then I might give that a go.

I found this article about womens racing at Palace just now, thought it was useful & encouraging (Chole also rides track at HH):
http://www.ananichoola.co.uk/articles_100498.html

Edit - the rest of the site is worth a look too.

Just seen this - thanks for the link, good to read an account.

I think I might join the London Dynamos despite being on the wrong side of London. They have a whole Ladies section on their forum. Neat.

Just followed a link to a separate thread on here from another forum then ended up wandering round the site and stumbled across this thread...

Shecycles does still exist, just not in it's old form. Go to www.shecycles.net

Road racing for women: you're right, the BC site isn't the worlds most intuitive but there's a LOT of info on there. Someone was asking about categories, basically it refers to the distance of an event and the class of rider eligible to ride in it and also the number of rankings points available. Women can ride in anything from National B downwards (National A being the Elite and 1st cat mens races). You can enter pretty much any race on the line and pay £10 for a day licence (plus the race entry cost), if you want to get more into it you'll need BC Silver or Gold membership and the racing licence (extra cost) but it's well worth it.

London Dynamo is an excellent club, loads of women in it, same with London Phoenix.

Women only track session coming up in september, date TBC!