As a real life example of being a female cyclist:
When I ride with my local road club, I am the only woman, in a group of 30-40 guys. They’re all great, but it’s pretty intimidating to begin with, and even though I’m now comfortable with holding my own in the group, sometimes I feel self-conscious and that I stick out like a sore thumb.
So every month I organise a ‘women’s ride’ for the club, and because they didn’t feel like they’d be the only one, quite a few women come along. To be honest, it’s great to have other girls to ride with occassionally, we talk about stuff that wouldn’t be relevant to guys, and it gives us a more level playing field to compare our relative abilities. Plus it acts as an ‘icebreaker’ for the main club.
So, no I don’t see ‘women only’ cycling events as discrimination – maybe you guys just don’t really understand what it’s like being a woman who rides bikes (and often the only one in the group!). And yes, they do help to encourage more women to get into cycling, so hopefully in the future they’ll be an equal proportion of girls taking part and there’ll be no need for women only cycling events.