As a road cycling fan, with a particular focus on the women’s peloton, I was shocked to learn that women’s cycling has not long been part of the Olympic Games. So I thought I’d share some of the rather disappointing history, as well as shamelessly plug the Aussie women riding in Paris 2024.

In fact, women’s road cycling didn’t feature at the Olympic Games until 1984 in Los Angeles. But men’s road cycling was there from the very first modern Olympics in 1896! Albeit the men’s race was then excluded for 40 years, returning in 1936 in Berlin.

And since that time, Australian women have won the race twice – Kathy Watt in 1992 at Barcelona and Sara Carrigan in 2004 at Athens. And guess how many times an Aussie man has won the men’s road race – that’s right – zero.

The individual time trial for women first joined the Games in 1996 in Atlanta and we won our first Gold in that event last week when the fabulous Grace Brown won gold. The men’s time trial was first featured in 1912 at the Stockholm Games. Strangely it disappeared from the program in 1936 and didn’t feature again until 1996 in Atlanta. Like the road race, it’s never been won by an Australian rider either.

Track cycling has had a love/hate relationship…

It is very rare to find a group of recreational road cyclists who ride at the same pace all the time. They’ll be riders who are having a good day, those who are having a bad day, and just those (like me a lot of the time) who are just slower than many of their friends. For me, this is because many of them are men, and in general male riders are stronger than women.

But I don’t let that spoil my enjoyment of riding with friends and my pals are always very kind to me, and wait for me, and encourage me to improve. Likewise, I sometimes ride with others who are slower than me and I’m always kind and patient too.

Many women have commented to me that they don’t want to join a particular group ride because they don’t wish to be the slowest person, and they don’t want to hold others up. The good news is that there are ways to handle the variable speeds of bike riders.

Riding with a friend or a group with varying abilities can be frustrating for everyone. You might share a passion for cycling but your abilities might be mismatched. Whether you want to ride with a slower partner or join a faster group, here are some tips to get you on level ground.

Communicate, communicate,…

When I started road cycling about 16 years ago, I had no idea how to dress the part. I also balked at the price of many road cycling apparel items, so compromised on cheaper stuff and give-aways. Now many years later I’ve found the different items of cycling apparel that work for me. Some of them might also appeal to you, or you may have a completely different top five.

Arm warmers

I have several different pairs of arm warmers but my favourites are my Pearl Azumi sun sleeves that I’ve got in black and white. They are lightweight arm warmers that are designed to keep the sun off your skin but they also work well on those days when it’s a little chilly but not very. I also like my Specialized fleecy-lined black arm warmers which keep the cold morning air at bay. Arm warmers are best paired with a short-sleeved undershirt, where the arm warmers go over the undershirt to create a ‘seal’ and then your jersey goes over the top. Cosy.

Gilet/vest

Like arm warmers, a gilet or wind vest extends your summer cycling wardrobe by creating layers. The best gilets have wind-resistant fabric on the front and mesh or similar on your back. The mesh on the back allows you to…

I often write about the topic of riding in the rain after I’ve been caught in an unavoidable downpour like I did on the weekend during the Mudgee Classic. While I never go out for a ride if it’s already pouring, I have been caught in many downpours like the one on Sunday and had to continue riding. So, whether you are keen to keep riding no matter the conditions, or you occasionally get caught, here are a few tips for riding in the rain:

Increase visibility

Possibly the worst part about riding in the rain is a major decrease in visibility. It is hard for other people to see you, particularly drivers and it’s harder for you to see others.

So turn on your lights to flashing mode, wear bright or light-coloured clothing, and be aware that drivers are going to have even more trouble seeing you. Depending on the conditions you may also need to take off your glasses and put them in your pocket because they will fog up.

Wear appropriate gear

If you go out when it’s already raining, or if you know there’s a high chance of rain wear waterproof, or at least water-resistant gear. In my experience, nothing will keep you dry if it rains hard enough but having things like a good quality rain jacket and…

I’ve written about the topic of when to return to riding after illness a few times before, and I tend to return to it when it’s relevant to me, which is now, unfortunately. Thankfully due to my fairly robust immune system, I don’t often find myself in this quandary, but I recently returned from an overseas trip in the grip of COVID. I was ill for a few days but I now have a lingering chest tightness and cough and am missing my bike and my riding buddies while I take a break.

I’m generally good at listening to my body and usually rest when I’m sick which includes abstaining from bike riding, but I often wonder if I take the rest part too seriously.

It goes without saying that you shouldn’t be riding a bike if you have COVID to avoid passing it on, but do the same rules apply if you have a basic head cold or similar?

With illnesses like colds, you should also be mindful of sharing your germs with your friends but as we all learnt during the pandemic, you are far less likely to spread an illness around when you’re outdoors.

I found a great article published by the ABC which helped satisfy my curiosity on this subject. I’ve plagiarised some of the key points for your enjoyment and education. The full article can be read here.

Do the neck…

When I started road cycling 15 years ago, I thought I knew it all. After all, I knew I could ride a bike – how hard could it be? Some months after I took up the addictive pastime of road cycling, I realised I had much to learn. So, I thought it might be useful to share my list of top five bike skills you need to master if you want to be a proficient roadie.

On my list in no particular order are cornering, braking, ascending/climbing, descending, and using the gears. There are many other things that you also need to learn like bunch riding skills, bike maintenance, what to wear, and much more.

In my summary below I’ve included the most important thing I’ve learnt about each skill and included links to previous posts with more information.

Cornering

Cornering is one of those fundamental skills you need to perfect if you’re going to be a good bike rider. The most important thing I learnt about cornering is that you ‘go where you look’. That means if you look to your right or left, you’ll head that way, so in cornering you need to look towards the spot where you will exit the corner.

Read here to learn more road bike cornering tips.

Braking

When I first started riding, I had…

I’ve been a lapsed blogger for the last few months. I lost my enthusiasm, or mojo if you will and I’m still struggling to get it back. One of the reasons I think I lost my way is that I’ve focused too much on educating others, and less on sharing my opinions. So, you’ll have to indulge me while I find my way back to blogging and read about my thoughts rather than information that may help you become a better cyclist.

Last year was a tough one for me. I lost my wonderful father who succumbed to heart disease at the age of 85. I’m sure a lot of people think that’s a great age and it most certainly is, but it doesn’t stop the pain and the feeling that a yawning gulf has opened in my life and those of my close family. Dad was one of my biggest fans and often told me that he’d read my latest post.

However, I think I had started to lose my way before that happened. Dad’s death just pushed me over the edge and gave me a ‘better’ excuse for halting my regular blogging. Up until November 2022, I wrote weekly blog posts, that’s 11 years of weekly missives, with a total of around 550 posts! I rehashed many of the same topics over and over and I’m done with that…

Every year I put together a Christmas Gift Guide for Female Road Cyclists, and it’s usually a random collection of things I’d like for Christmas, or sometimes things I already own. This year, I’ve decided to give it a theme, so this year’s guide is for women who like gravel riding. As always, it’s a bit aspirational and I often choose high-end bikes and gear, but most brands also have some cheaper options if you’re more budget-conscious.

Gravel bike

I’m an occasional gravel rider and have an early model Specialized Diverge, but if I was getting more serious about gravel riding, I’d go for something like this gorgeous steed. Meet the Specialized STR Expert Diverge which comes in the lovely traditional Christmas colour of ‘Satin Metallic Pine/Smoke’.

Gravel shoes

Just about any mountain bike shoes are great for gravel riding but if you spend a few extra dollars, you can have these lovely lightweight S-Works Recon Mountain Bike Shoes. Although I’d avoid white shoes for gravel riding because they won’t stay that way!

Utility bib shorts

For gravel riding you can choose between road or mountain bike cycling gear, or something in between like these Velocio Utility Bib Shorts. I have the road version of these bib shorts and…

I’ve been road riding for 15 years now and one thing I’ve noticed is the change in women’s road cycling gear that is marketed specifically for women. Not long after I started riding and buying women’s road cycling gear, I noted the efforts of some of the larger manufacturers like Specialized, Trek and Giant in attracting women to buy women’s specific bikes and gear.

I’m sure if you went back 20 years there was almost no women’s specific road riding bikes or gear, and the products that were offered were made in various shades of pink. Thankfully by the time I came along they had moved past that ‘shrink it and pink it’ era and appeared to be going all in with women’s gear.

However, in the past five years, most of the manufacturers that created all these wonderful women’s specific products have abandoned that idea and moved back to ‘unisex’ products. Specialized and Trek have both made a hasty retreat from their women’s specific bikes, saddles, helmets, shoes, and more. Specialized says that their many years of bike fit data has made them realise that there are fewer differences between the sexes and that the real differences are amongst people in general.

Perhaps they are right,…

I completely understand that it’s really easy to lose your cycling mojo and much harder to get it back, but I’m here to plead to all lapsed road riding women and encourage you to reconsider. I love road cycling so much that my mission in life is to encourage as many women as possible to join me. Here are my top reasons that I ride. So please reconsider and dust your bike off and get back out there.

It’s a great form of exercise

As well as being a cycling enthusiast, I’m also an exercise evangelist. I believe that exercise is the key to a healthy, happy life. And cycling is by far my favourite form of exercise.

I also run (or rather jog very slowly), go to the gym once a week, and enjoy the occasional long walk or very occasional swim. But all of these are much harder than cycling. When you run there are no gears that you can change when you go up a hill, it’s all you!

Cycling is gentle on your joints (unless you fall off!!), but can still provide an excellent workout, particularly if you push yourself and include some hill climbing which is unavoidable if you live in a city like Sydney.

Meet heaps of new people

I’ve met hundreds of new people since I took up cycling 15 years ago, and…