It’s International Women’s Day, which means many things to many people. Here are some different perspectives from around the web, on women in cycling, and on the issues that people are thinking about.
SRAM – Four Essays
SRAM has published four essays from four of its riders, each bringing a different perspective to what bikes mean to them. Whether each touches you, or what each brings to your own thought processes may depend on your own perspective, what you find motivating, and the role bikes play in your life. But they’re all worth a read.
Ayesha McGowan: Heroes
“In recent years, there has been a movement to show the bike community that women are just as capable, athletic, and interested in bikes as men. Unfortunately, this movement has been lacking in and struggling with intersectionality.”
Ayesha McGowan
Renee Hutchens: Restoring Mutuality with Mother Earth
Indigenous women are leading change towards reconnecting to a reality that our communities once knew – where land stewardship lived unhindered. Renee Hutchens challenges us to consider what it means to have a connection with the land that is based on reciprocity.
Renee Hutchens
Of the four essays, this is my personal favourite. Renee talks passionately and compellingly about the land and our relationship with it. This speaks to much of what I get from mountain biking, and the experience of being outdoors. I want to ride through landscapes and appreciate them as more than just a trail, and to be a respectful visitor. Which essay will you find most powerful?
Lael Wilcox: Racing The Entire Field
In 2016, Lael Wilcox won the 4,300-mile Trans Am Bike Race. Now she’s inviting women, in competition or not, to redefine limits and categories.
Isabeau Courdurier: Moving Forward
After her own experience with healing through the power of sport, EWS Champion Isabeau Courdurier set out to create safe space for domestic violence survivors through the Fifty Fifty project in her home country.
Derailed Podcast
The Derailed Podcast aims to look at why the guests ride. For this edition, Jen Price co-hosts the podcast, with a number of great guests:
- Aneela McKenna – a guide and co-owner of GoWhere Scotland
- Anna Riddell – coach and owner of Ride Out and co-founder of FNY collective
- Jules MacLean – a World Cup suspension technician for Fox
- Mikayla Parton – World Cup downhill rider
- Katy Winton – an EWS rider
- Jen Price – mountain-bike enthusiast, friend of the Contour Collective, and our co-host for this special edition.
Spindrift Podcast
Not International Women’s Day specific, but Aoife Glass has recently launched a new venture, the Spindrift Podcast, and as a mountain biking woman with many interesting things to say, we’re looking forward to new editions of this podcast.
Here at Singletrack we’re proud to produce stories by women, for everyone. If you want to read words by any of our female contributors, check out Singletrack Women.
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I really enjoyed Renee’s take on the connection to place while riding. I think I see a lot of riders disengaged with the place they ride in – ecologically and socially. It is something I enjoy reflecting on while riding.
@matt_outandabout Yes! I’d really like to explore the background to some of those places we think of as mountain bike destinations. I wrote about it a little bit here https://singletrackworld.com/2020/06/diversion-diary-know-your-place/ but I think there’s an awful lot more to learn.
I didn’t know anything about Isabeau Courdurier beyond racing, but having read her story, I now have a lot of respect for her, battling her own demons then using her experience to help others. The world is a better place with people like her in it.