Von Cycling: Cyclofemme 2014 and a tiny rant rant

Today is Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.

Today is also CycloFemme day.

What is CycloFemme?

CycloFemme is a socially-driven grass-roots celebration of women on bikes. We are of a growing community, for a growing community, and 100% volunteer-based.

Our annual Mother’s Day ride unites riders, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity or bicycle preference to share in the joy of cycling. Year round, our global community inspires and empowers other women, by making their passion public and the joy in cycling contagious. In our first year, 163 rides were registered in 14 countries with many others joining in to celebrate in their own special way. In our second, we grew to 229 rides in 31 countries. Ride with us as we Honor the Past, Celebrate the Present, Empower the Future of Women in Cycling.

I really wanted to be part of this but wasn't sure if there were any rides near me, so I decided I was going to do my own CycloFemme ride regardless, even if it was a token roll.

Last night, I was checking my Facebook and found Katherine Bates (World Champion & Olympic Cyclist) was running a Cyclofemme ride on behalf of Velocio.

Velocio is a new women’s clothing brand.
Velocio is the brain child of Kristy Scrymgeour, a two-time winner of the Australian national championship, and a 20-year veteran of the cycling world. Today, she’s the team director and owner of leading women’s pro cycling team Specialized-lululemon.

The clothes are pretty nice:

So I joined up and it was super fun.

I'm really enjoying trying different rides with different people.

You get to meet different people and talk about different things.

Being new to cycling, I find this really useful as we come across similar challenges and it's nice to hear other people talk about their experiences of the similar situations.

I pledge:

via CycloFemme

In other news

Some harsh words coming up. I apologise for this turn of tone, but the conversations I find myself in now are getting ridiculous so here are some words about recent conversations I have had.

I'm so over having conversations where people who drive cars think that because I ride a bike, I have no idea what it's like to drive a car and look out for cyclists on the road.

I have been driving for more than 10 years.

I think I'm pretty good at it.

I've maintained my no claim bonus.

I haven't injured any people.

Just because I ride a bike, doesn't mean I've lost all my knowledge of driving a motor vehicle.

To be honest,

if you think you have trouble driving without hitting obstacles,

or, if you struggle to see objects around you while you are sitting in a car,

then, you should have a really good think about whether it's safe for the world to have you on the road moving a tonne of metal around at high speed..