Women overcome fears to revel in riding bicycles

It was probably Lycra that first got me into cycling.

A woman on the road in Fondo cycling gear. Photo: Supplied

It was probably Lycra that first got me into cycling. Or should I say cyclists. Admittedly, I think men on bikes in Lycra look hot. But after dating a few fit Lycra-wearing cyclists, something else hit me. These guys were having an awfully good time on their bikes. They'd head off to the "'Nongs" (Dandenongs) or down Beach Road, covering 50 kilometres-plus, and get home, exhilarated and satisfied, before most of us had opened our eyes. I wanted what they had, so I got it.

If only it was that straightforward. I walked into a bunch of Melbourne's bike shops, and out of them fairly quickly, feeling pretty crap. Sure, I didn't know exactly what I wanted, but the line of commuter bikes that I was being led to (if I was being paid attention to at all) were not doing it for me. I'd heard about carbon bikes, with one (short-lived, for obvious reasons) boyfriend bragging that his bike cost more than my newish car (true, just). I eventually decided that the bike for me had drop handlebars, and at least some carbon in it.

"It's a downward spiral now," Paul Kelly, of North City Cycles, commented as I wheeled my brand-new six-kilogram-ish carbon-frame road bike out the shop door. He's not going to be the last person to mention this "downward spiral".

Women cyclists at Mount Buffalo National Park on a Tribal Cycling ride. Tribal Cycling actively encourages the growth of women's cycling through women-only skills clinics and cycling retreats. Photo: Caz Whitehead

Elite cyclist and editor of year-old women's cycling website Ella ( cyclingtips.com), Anne-Marije Rook, says a recreational event ride ��� cycling 335 kilometres from Seattle to Portland in two days ��� changed her cycling from commuting to racing. "Once you start, it's a weird downhill spiral, or uphill depending how you look at it!" she says.

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But it's a spiral that more women are taking. Stuff the commuter bike. In Melbourne, we're going fast. And we want to look good doing it. "The women's market is the fastest-growing market in the industry," Rook says. "The cycling industry started off making the traditional gear appeal to women ��� they would 'pink it and shrink it' ��� they thought that would do. But now they're spending significant resources developing women's gear that is designed specifically for them, far beyond colour and size."

Three Melbourne women who started cycling together a few years ago noticed the problem with "pink it and shrink it" and joked about making their own kits. Eighteen months ago they launched their first range, and now Fondo is up to their fourth. "It just felt like everything for women was naff!" Fondo co-founder Anna Thomson says. "It wasn't fashion forward. It was like: 'Women want a capped sleeve and they want their shorts a bit shorter. Women don't want to look like a race cyclist.' But that wasn't the case," she says.

Women line up for a Tribal Cycling ride. Photo: Caz Whitehead

The trio Googled up patterns, prints and colours that they liked, found a graphic designer ("A woman, we're about girl power!" Thomson says.) and launched. "It was pretty bold for women's gear," Thomson says. "I don't think there was anyone else doing anything as loud. One of our first jerseys looked like a woollen jumper ��� a Christmas jumper with snowflakes across the front. Not everyone liked it and we got some awful comments on social media, but heaps of people loved it. It set a precedent for where we were heading."

So, do you have to wear Lycra? Yes, Thomson says. "Once you start riding beyond the 20k-ish rides to the shops then you understand why it's so important to wear Lycra. You can imagine sensitive areas on a saddle for extensive periods of time ... you want to be comfortable and able to move as freely as possible. Lycra is the perfect solution."

Melbourne-based Wheel Women started offering rides and cycling education to women keen on recreational cycling three years ago. It caters for beginners up to women who could ride in cycling clubs, but choose not to. Despite the Wheel Women's website declaring "no Lycra necessary", founder Tina McCarthy agrees that Lycra's good. "You can wear what you want [on the rides], but it's a process of education. Before long women realise that Lycra is there for a reason: because it works and it's comfortable and does what it should do."

A woman wearing Fondo cycling gear rides a Kukio bike. Photo: Supplied

So, you've got the bike (Ella ran a "favourite women-friendly bike shops" competition last year and Cycles Galleria QV (CBD) and My Mountain in Brunswick came out tops in Melbourne), you've got the Lycra (thanks Fondo), now it's time to hit the road. Yes, feel the fear and do it anyway. And getting out there is a lot about facing the fear.

Bicycle Network is a self-funded community network keen to get more women riding, and it's been researching why only a third of Melbourne's cyclists are women. Spokeswoman Anthea Hargreaves nails it. "I'm new to road riding myself. I've got the clip-in shoes, I've got the road bike, but I'm a bit of a wuss."

Fondo's Thomson says it too. "Women are not as fearless as men as we've got more self-preservation," she says. "My default is scaredy-cat!"

Brydie Clark at the Brunswick Velodrome. She has already cycled more than 2000 kilometres this year. Photo: Simon Schluter

Bicycle Network's research proves it. "Women have a greater awareness of the risk, or being unsure, or lacking that confidence," Hargreaves reports.

Yes, we're scared. "Fear!" says 28-year-old photographer Caz Whitehead, founder of the popular GirlRide! Facebook page, and teacher of newbies. "I think everyone goes through it. Guys and girls alike have fear but guys get it over with and girls focus on it more. I heard a quote that no one was born fearless. It's so true. You just have to do something a few times for your brain to realise that it's all OK."

Whitehead takes women on informal trail and velodrome sessions ��� and many are first-timers. While riding "track" might seem completely out of bounds, it is actually very, very fun. Sarah Knights started the group Melburn Hurt with Tina Thorburn and they ran their second casual "come and try day" last Good Friday (called Hot Cross Butts on Bikes, no less). It attracted more than 40 women to Brunswick Velodrome (some of whom were wearing school dresses to raise money to educate girls in Africa #doitinadress). Many had never hit the track before. "We started wanting to get more women into track cycling, basically because it's awesome fun. But it's evolved from that to 'we just want more women on bikes!'" Knights says.

Women like Whitehead, McCarthy and the Melburn Hurt duo are passing on their skills to would-be riders. "I want to build someone to the point where they can go out and do the things themselves," Whitehead says. "It can be a whole new thing at the start where you don't know how to do something, so you don't do it. Anyone I've taken on the velodrome on road bikes now has the skills to go and learn it on a track bike."

Skilling women up and offering women-specific events and training is how Bicycle Network is trying to even things out. "We've been treating bike riders the same for years. But we're still only seeing women make up less than a third of our event participants. You can't fix imbalance with balance. So that's why we're running the RACV Ascent." The inaugural ride, to be held next Sunday, has two parts: months of free training followed by the 100/65 kilometre event itself. Women who don't like cycling alongside cars are in luck: there will be full road closures on the Yarra Ranges route, including the 1-in-20 (up Mountain Highway from The Basin to Sassafras) which is one of Victoria's most famous climbs.

According to the Bicycle Network, women are being held back from riding by a lack of infrastructure and concerns about mixing with traffic. The "Super Tuesday" survey (a visual check of the movements, numbers and gender of cyclists) shows that more women ride if the right infrastructure is there. "We see a more equal gender split on areas where there are protected bike lanes," Hargreaves says.

Cycling comedian Catherine Deveny��� also calls for decent infrastructure. She's well known for riding around Melbourne on her Lekker��� (helmet-less ��� she has an exemption) and for the past eight years has curated "Pushy Women" for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (it's on at Trades Hall at 2pm on Sunday, April 10) ��� where "awesome" women spend eight minutes each talking about bikes. Deveny doesn't seem to do Lycra, but she does dress up ��� you might find her "wearing a frock and high heels riding at about 14km/h through the backstreets".

Most spectacularly, Deveny arrived at her recent "love ceremony" with her beau on matching black Amsterdam-style Lekkers. ("We had a love party ��� basically a wedding, no marriage, no god, no government. We had a sit-down dinner for 100 and two celebrants, neither of whom were qualified.") The couple's arrival by bike made for beautiful photos, and it made sense. "There was never any question on how we were going to arrive, never," she says. "It was always going to be on bikes. Because that's how we get around most places. That's what we do." Deveny has some great tips for women cyclists: "Own the road, maintain the line, be predictable, assume you're invisible and look hot." Things that stop women cycling? "Fear, family, fashion and fitness," she says.

Well, after three sessions of drills on Brunswick Velodrome with Whitehead and one with Melburn Hurt I realise that I'm no longer afraid that I'll smash into the person in front of me. Or fall off. I hit the trails alongside the Yarra with Whitehead on a different bike and get flashbacks to when I was a fearless kid flying over the handlebars. But I go back the next day and don't feel the fear. I join two 40/50km "shop" rides and love every minute of them, though I'm surprised when a car passenger screams at us for cycling on the road. It's certainly an interesting and exciting spiral. As Anne-Marije Rook also says: "Be warned! It's so addictive, and freeing and you'll fall madly in love!"

Watch out Beach Road and the 'Nongs, here I come.

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