A week of good news for women’s cycling

Brian Cookson has said he is committed to addressing the inequalities faced by female cyclists.

Putting aside for a moment the lamentable media coverage of the Giro Rosa, this week has been a good one for women’s cycling.

In a rather sparse women’s road race calendar, the women’s edition of the Giro d’Italia is the biggest stage race of the year, the only women’s Grand Tour, and the only women’s race that the UCI allows to be more than a week long.

That the Giro continues to exist is itself cause for celebration. Under its previous name the Giro Donne, the race came close to being cancelled for good due to lack of interest from sponsors, before being relaunched just in time by a new organiser.

Given that the race wouldn’t have taken place without them, we’ll also let slide the fact that the new organisers thought it would be a good idea to rename it the “Pink Tour”.

American Mara Abbott was the overall winner by a minute and 33 seconds, despite losing time in the final stage time trial on July 7.

British team Wiggle Honda was unable to make any real progress towards their goal of winning as many stage victories as possible. After early success from Giorgia Bronzini, who won the second stage from the great Marianne Vos in a sprint finish, the team managed just one podium finish: second place for Bronzini in the seventh stage.

But, away from the road, there was more good news.

Last month, I wrote about Half The Road, a documentary by ESPN columnist and professional cyclist Kathryn Bertine.

Bertine has spent the last year interviewing Olympians, world champions, officials and cycling fans alike, and the result is a film “that explores the world of women’s professional cycling, focusing on both the love of sport and the pressing issues of inequality that modern-day female riders face in a male dominated sport.”

Yet for the film to have any impact, Bertine would need funds for rights and distribution. She turned to the sport’s fans for help, fundraising using funding platform indiegogo and publicising Half The Road on Twitter and Facebook.

Bertine secured an investor, who promised to fund the film if it could raise USD40,000 in donations. This week, the campaign smashed the target, ensuring that the film will be released in autumn 2013 as planned.

Money is still coming in; the campaign will stay open for donations until July 14.

As Bertine herself puts it, the support from fans “goes far beyond monetary donations, as each contribution represents a voice saying “We want equality for women’s pro cycling!”.

Tellingly, men and women supported the cause in equal numbers – among them, 2013 Tour de France rider Brent Bookwalter.

But will the cycling establishment listen to the increasingly united calls for change?

The sport’s global governing body, the International Cycling Union (UCI), has so far failed to capitalise on the post-2012 spike in interest in women’s cycling.

UCI president Pat McQuaid has been widely criticised for not doing enough to support the development of women’s cycling, and particularly for comments in 2011 which suggested that women’s racing is “not developed enough” to merit a minimum wage for riders.

But in this week’s third piece of promising news, British Cycling president Brian Cookson has announced that he will challenge McQuaid for the UCI presidency when he stands for re-election in September.

Speaking at the Otley Cycle Races on July 3, Cookson said that he is committed to addressing the inequalities faced by female cyclists.

“British cycling is working hard to develop women’s racing in Great Britain in a way that provides the sport with a solid, self-sufficient platform from which to develop,” he told Road.cc.

If elected president of the UCI, he has pledged to create a women’s cycling commission, to appoint at least one woman to every UCI commission, to create new women’s events, and to guarantee a minimum wage for professional road riders.

“Increasing the number of events on the race calendar and having men’s and women’s major events running alongside each other provides a wider platform for promoting high-level domestic racing, and better leverage when it comes to negotiating with broadcast companies, sponsors and promoters alike.

“It is clear to me that equality should exist between young female riders and their male counterparts and the UCI must do more to provide greater opportunities for female riders to progress.

“It’s no secret that women’s cycling is the poor relation of the men’s sport, but in Britain we are starting to see the first signs of a recovery and although there is a long way to go, I’m very optimistic that the principles introduced are relevant to a wider, global audience via the UCI,” he said.

It’s much too early to say that the tide is turning for women’s cycling, but with such demonstrations of support from all sides, this is certainly a week for optimism.