This July, I’m riding the Tour de France. That’s right, this
beer-swilling, tater tot-eating, Cat 2 racer with a full-time job and at least
a few spare pounds is riding the world’s biggest bike race. All 2,162 miles of
it.
Five other amazing women—including moms and women who work
40+ hours a week like me—are joining me in the Rêve Tour. We’re tackling all
21 stages of the 2012 Tour de France, one day ahead of the racers.
The goals of the ride are three-fold: 1) finish the damn thing, 2) fundraise for Bikes Belong, the national bike non-profit (and my employer), and
3) encourage more women to bicycle, for any reason.
Increasing women’s bicycling participation is a longstanding
interest of mine, both personally and professionally. At Bikes Belong, we work
to make bicycling safer and stress-free, a proven way of getting more women to
ride bikes. In the U.S., where many communities do not yet have safe,
connected, and well-designed bicycle facilities, only one-quarter of all bicycling is done by women.
Compare that to bike-friendly countries like Germany, Denmark, and the
Netherlands, where an equal
number of men and women ride bikes.
When bicycling conditions aren't good, women are reluctant to ride. And
so are most people. (In the U.S., just 1% of
all trips are made by bike.) Advocates and researchers often posit that
women are the “indicator species” for good bicycling. If bicycling isn’t convenient,
attractive, and safe, few people (and even fewer women) will ride. Build those nice
places to ride, and you’ll see both sexes take to it equally. If women
are comfortable riding, that means many people are too—enough to make a major
dent in societal issues like obesity, traffic congestion, and pollution.
The gender divide is even more noticeable when it comes to
competitive cycling. Just 13% of all USA Cycling
members are women. While a decent amount of professional research exists on
what women want when it comes to transportation riding, researchers haven’t
fully tackled the question of why women lag behind in competitive and
recreational bicycling participation. Many options exist, and a lot of them
come down to support.
While generalizing about the sexes is often a recipe for
disaster and confusion, I believe there’s a common truth in the statement that
women need even more support than men when it comes to riding a bike. (Not
saying that men don’t need support—they do very much so. But most women need
more.)
This support comes mainly in the form of separated
infrastructure
in regards to bicycling for transportation. For competitive and recreational
bicycling? Perhaps the support comes from good teammates, loyal riding
partners, a friendly local bike shop, or thoughtfully designed bikes,
components, apparel, and accessories. Of course, safe roads and readily
available places to ride are hugely important on the recreational side too.
So why am I riding the Tour de France? To support more women
riding bikes in the U.S. To prove to any woman that no matter how daunting the
trip—whether it’s a Grand Tour, a century ride, a steep hill out of town, or a
riding to work for the first time—it can be done. So long as long as you have
the proper support, and you believe in yourself.
Follow me on this journey of a lifetime here and on my Strava and Twitter pages. I’ll be writing
about the amazing support team we have for this ride and my preparations for
this daunting undertaking. No doubt it’s going to be the most painful,
stressful, and arduous thing I’ve ever done. But I know the suffering will be
well worth it, for me personally and, most importantly, for the state of
women’s bicycling.
