Road cycling's barrier to entry and Women's Tour de France

Barrier to Entry

So, thinking about it, I am very lucky to have followed in my husband's footsteps with road cycling.

One would say that I wouldn't really have done it if my husband hadn't started first and that would be true.

However, on buying one's first road bike on average fitness, there is not much you can do but ride by yourself.

On average fitness, your speed is probably around 20km/hr and a group ride probably starts at around at least 25km/hr.

I say I am lucky because bought my road bike and was quite prepared with realistic ambitions of group road cycling by my husband's stories of riding with the local group and being dropped on the first few times.

Despite being friends with most of the group now, on my husband's first ride, it appeared either no one realised he had dropped or they knew and they kept riding.  No one stopped or tried to help him back on.

(via kwc.org/cycling/photos)

Hence, our advice to anyone doing a group ride is:

1. Know the route
2. Know how to get home

I really wanted to join the group my husband was riding with because it sounded fun.

So, what I did was use Strava to track my average speed and train on the local group ride routes that my husband taught me until I got up to 25km/hr.  

I worked really hard.  I rode by myself for weeks, pushing myself harder and harder.

Looking like a noob.

Then:

This picture inspires me to remember how far I've come since then!

Now:

But at least I had the information about what to aim for.

I feel like there is bit of a barrier to entry for group road cycling.

The only accessible regular group ride for beginners I could find in around Sydney is the Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club (DHBC) who run a Slowies ride.

"Saturday Slowies is our ride for everyone!

Leaving from outside the Marrick Cafe at 6:30am, this low key bunch ride makes its way through Newtown and Redfern to Centennial Park. All you need to ride Saturday Slowies is a roadworthy bike, a helmet and lights. Too easy ;-) 

Once you arrive in the park, go as hard or as easy as you like. Hit the hills or cruise the flats, but be at the Western (Robertson Rd / Horse) gates by 8:00am to return to Marrickville with the bunch for coffee and breakfast at the wonderful Marrick Cafe. Remember that following two or three rides, we ask that you join the club and obtain a 'Silver' license from Cycling Australia. This ensures that our ride leaders have the comfort of knowing that you are insured and helps to build DHBC as a club.

You will never be left behind on Saturday Slowies: someone will always get you back to the starting point of the ride and help you out if you have a flat or a mechanical"

But I still think there is a gap between buying your first road bike and cycling with other road cyclists.

I think women are a bit luckier in this respect.  As a result of being a male dominated sport, there is a bit more effort involved in encouraging women to gain skills and get into cycling.

I always wonder though, what about helping men too.  It can be intimidating for any beginners.

Perhaps once there is a bit more equality in the world for women, the cycling programs can be about helping everyone!

Women and the Tour de France

(via www.bicycling.com)

La Course by Le Tour de France is on Sunday night.

120 women will race a 90km course through Paris on the last day of the Tour de France ahead of the men's race.

You may not realise:

While this year’s La Course features just one stage for the women, the 1984 Tour de France Féminin nearly mirrored the men’s race, with the only notable difference being the distances raced. The women raced the same 21 days and every mountain pass. Each day, the women would finish roughly 30 minutes before the men. The mileage was shortened on the front end (flat, parade pace sections) to comply with UCI rules regarding women’s racing distances.

(via velonews)

I didn't realise until I read this interesting article a few days ago in the Washington Post about "The Tour de France, again, has no women cyclists".

It mentions the history of the Boston Marathon as a similarly prestigious endurance event that did not allow women for a long time.

Women were not allowed to enter the Boston race officially until 1972, but Roberta "Bobbi" Gibb couldn't wait: In 1966, she became the first woman to run the entire Boston Marathon, but had to hide in the bushes near the start until the race began. 

In 1967, Kathrine Switzer, who had registered as "K. V. Switzer", was the first woman to run with a race number. Switzer finished even though officials tried to physically remove her from the race after she was identified as a woman.

(via dingeengoete.blogspot.com.au)

(P.S.  Tip - be careful reading the online comments around these stories.  A number of sexist, narrow minded people commenting..)

So, with the huge increase and interest in women's cycling at the moment, it'll be interesting to see what will happen over the next few years.

I was thinking about it and it's great that there is access to images and information about women's road cycling starting to appear now.

Despite being obsessive about watching the Tour de France and men's road cycling for years, the lack of available images / information about women's road cycling (similar to most women's sports) probably influenced me a little into assuming it was more of a men's sport only and that women didn't really do it.

Images and stories are so important.  It helps inspire you to think about what could be.

Anna Meares on Instagram

(via www.dailymail.co.uk)

Nettie Edmonson on Instagram

& Amy Cure on Instagram

(via www.facebook.com)

Rapha Women's 100

(via facebook)

The Rapha Women's 100 on Sunday went well!

It was a lot of climbing and I was off the back of the group for a lot of it, but I just sat in my pace / rhythm and the group waiting at the top of the climbs.

Our sweeper was lovely and friendly and had a great sense of humour and didn't make me feel at all bad for not being able to stick with the group (or that they were frustrated with me in any way).

My hydration went well - no headache.

However, my eating plan didn't go so well.  I didn't eat as much as I should have.

I started bonking at about 92km in - my bike hit a hole and I started laughing hysterically.

From then I just started shovelling shot blocks and gatorade in until the end.

(via lohisport.wordpress.com

All in all it was a great event to participate in and I'm really glad I did it.

1. It's a great achievement.
2. It kept me cycling through Winter!

It was great looking at all the #womens100 pictures on Instagram.

It's probably best summed up in an article Kath Bicknell wrote for SBS Cycling Central :

"A community builds. And with it, the perception of riding for women undergoes a dramatic shift. 

It’s no longer so hard to seek out role models, to learn from others, to share stories, to ask advice, to ride to participate rather than race, to be supported, to learn about equipment (designed for needs that might be different from a male majority), to look good, to feel good, to click a hashtag and see thousands of images that show that what you’re doing isn’t unusual at all.

Well done, Rapha. While a large part of the cycling industry are still scratching their heads working out how to get more women on board, the ways you have built momentum are empowering indeed. And you have done so by creating a model that’s not just about women’s participation, it’s about participation full stop.

…As I looked around the crowd on Sunday, I suddenly didn’t feel like an odd-ball at all."

http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/kath-bicknell/blog/129176/well-done-rapha

In other news, I'm giving myself a week off road cycling and I'm going to stay up and watch the rest of the Tour de France!!

Favourite moments of the week so far:

(via www.scmp.com)

(via twitter.com/pelotonmagazine)

Now, to find something to sew my #womens100 badge onto...

Never Say Never

Josie from Life On Two Wheels posted an article recently on How Bicycling Healed My Heart.

http://bikeleague.org/content/how-bicycling-healed-my-heart

I can relate to parts of her story.

She ends with:

"Riding was the one way that I could remind myself that I did have a "can do" attitude and that I could indeed accomplish things. 

For so long, I had told myself "you can't ride a bike," but I proved to myself that concept was wrong." 

Every year, watching the Tour de France and seeing other people with their bikes.  I always thought, I will never be a road cyclist.

If you asked me a year ago, do you think by next year you would be a road cyclist and commuting to work every day and road cycling 3-4 times a week (waking up at 5am)?

I would have said NO WAY, NEVER, ARE YOU CRAZY?

And I would have been wrong.

So now, every time I go to use the word "never" - like, "I will never do that", "I'm never doing that", I have to stop myself.

Because I could very well be wrong!

Trispecific: Back To School (Learning The Fundamentals)

When I was researching how to gain Mental Strength, I was recommended trispecific by a friend.

She said they post a number of articles about the mental side to cycling that I might find useful.

Anyway, they posted a good article today that is especially relevant to me (a beginner cyclist).

I often get quite impatient at wanting to ride like the other cyclists around me who have been cycling all their life.

Everything looks so easy when they do it and their bike handling skills look perfect.

No grimacing on coffee rides.

No bad cornering.

Hands off the handlebars easily.

Looking around and behind comfortably.

Getting out of the saddle comfortably.

But that's the difference between cycling for 7 months vs 20 years..

http://www.trispecific.com/back-to-school/

"If you focus purely on aerobic endurance development and say for a short build period that many athletes do – then you’ll always limit your potential. 

It takes time and effort to lay down effective motorskills. It takes time to recruit as many dormant muscle fibres as possible to help propel you forward quickly and be able to hold that pace as ever increasing levels of fatigue set in.

The key is not to rush the process, focus on the most important things and get bloody consistent.

It’s a long term view!"

I think after the Rapha 100, that will be my goal.  To just keep cycling regularly and form those base skills.

Because I've always loved cycling ever since I was a child, so I believe I'll always enjoy it - regardless of how small or large a role it plays in my life.

So I googled tortoise and rabbit to try and find a picture to round this blog post off and found Oolong the rabbit, who became an internet sensation by balancing things on his head.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/picture-galleries/7147335/Oolong-the-rabbit-that-became-an-internet-hit-by-balancing-things-on-its-head-lives-on.html?image=4 

I love the internet.

My first road race!

Husband: I'm so proud of you jumping in and doing something really hard.
Me: To be honest, I really didn't think it was going to be that hard.

Hehehe.

So today I did my first road race.

Last night we were talking over dinner and I said something along the lines of thinking I'd be in the middle of the pack.

My husband said, I think you should be prepared to come last tomorrow.  The people in the race are a cut above the people we ride with.  Remember that most of the people we ride with (who are stronger cyclists than you) don't even race.

(via www.woodroffe.dorset.sch.uk)

Oh yeah.  Fair point.

I'm really glad he said that because it grounded me and set my expectations a little more realistic.

Comparing yourself to other cyclists' abilities is really dangerous because it's so context specific.  Even if you do the same ride with the same people, it could be completely different due to a variety of factors - weather / how people are feeling / what people want to get out of the ride / etc.

So we woke up around 5am to get ready.

My lovely husband offered to drive me.  He hadn't decided whether to race or not, but was going to pack everything just in case.  He'd planned to ride down to the start with me and then ride up to the finish line and watch me finish.

I was glad because I'm not familiar with the north and can get quite anxious driving up to that area.

Last month, I watched some friends race Cyclocross and found that everyone has a different approach to pre-race jitters.

Today I learnt that I am a whingey, physical pain sort of pre-race jitter person.  Not a hardcore focussed determined person.  Oh well..

(via livingpeacefullywithchildren.com)

As we got closer to Terrey Hills, I just felt so much pain in my stomach.  I ended up clutching my stomach in pain as my husband was driving.

We arrived at Terrey Hills and parked our car.

Me: I think I'm so nervous I'm going to cry.
Husband: Well let's get going so you can cry while you're on your bike. Tears of power.

As a friend commented. "Best. Husband. Ever."

The good thing about getting nervous before a bike ride, I think, is that once you get on the bike, you don't have the energy or mind space to think about anything outside of cycling.

So I was fine once I got on the bike.

We got to the Akuna Bay marina, the start of the race.

It was freezing.

There were about 15 names in Women's C/D grade.  I was first to arrive, so I was given Race number 1.

So the different grades started with a few minutes in between to separate the groups.

We started with the neutralised climb out from Akuna Bay.  The girls at the front said to yell out if the pace needed to be slower.

Going up that first climb was difficult as we were all so cold.  It was definitely not at a comfortable pace for me.

I wasn't sure whether to yell out because I was dropping.  So I didn't.  I thought, if I'm going to drop I'm going to drop and I felt like everyone was more experienced, so perhaps someone else would yell out or notice and slow down.

Me and a few of the other ladies dropped off the back, but Alexi from Manly Warringah who was helping run the race was helping get us back on the group by pushing us back in.

Once we got out of the neutral zone, Alexi spoke to us and said that people were welcome to attack but it might be nice in the interests of being inclusive and being social if they left it until after the turn at West Head.

I tried to stay on, but I lost the group at the Willunga climb about 8km into the race.  (4km after the neutral zone).  Alexi suggested the pivotal point was when everyone got out of the saddle to get that extra power up the climb and I stayed sitting in the saddle.

So there were 2 major things I noticed today that I was lacking skills in that I think are definitely things to work on if I wish to race in the future:

1.  Climbing out of the saddle.

(via www.gettyimages.in)

I only learnt this 2 weeks ago so am still pretty beginner at this.

You get a lot of power, but you also have to know how to transition in and out of this action and which gear to be in.

2.  Climbing hills in the big ring (the front gears).

I'm still not 100% on changing across all my different gears, but am getting more familiar with them.

Because I tend to prepare my gears when I know something is coming up to prevent getting caught in the wrong gear and I also tend to sit in the small ring just in case, my husband suggested that I practice changing gears as much as I can so I can become more familiar with them.

Which is a fair point.

Climbing in the small ring means that you're getting more distance for each pedal stroke.

You have to have the power to be able to turn the pedals in the big ring, but it does keep your momentum up more effectively.


So it was suggested that I don't go all the way to West Head and just turn around to try and catch the group (as there was no point me cycling majority of the full course by myself).

However, when I went to turn and catch the group, another group came up from behind me so it wasn't safe to turn and once I turned, there was a very strong headwind / crosswind.

I ended up just cycling the rest of the way by myself, but I kept reminding myself I was in a race so I should keep pushing.

So I pushed so I felt the burn in my thighs the whole time.

It was interesting seeing the other group pass - the other grades do more laps.

All in all, despite not finishing the course and dropping off the group quite early, it was a great experience, and I was proud and happy to have done it.

I'm not sure if I'll race again.  I feel like it's definitely flagged areas of improvement for me and made me want to train West Head and try and improve my average speed.  As this women's only race was a once off, I'm also not too excited about racing co-ed with much faster D grade riders.

(My average was about 21 km/hr and the group was about 25 km/hr so I'm still a while off, even when taking the speed increase when cycling in a group into account.  I think the mens D grade was about 28 km/hr.)

Thank you to Manly Warringah Cycling Club for organising women's only grades and the Sydney Women's Cycling facebook page for their encouragement.

I saw that my friend had posted a jumping photo after completing a 10km run this morning, and I wanted to do something similar but this was all I could manage:

P.S.  The ride back to the car Terrey Hills was quite tiring!  I chose to go NOT via Akuna Bay, but there was still quite a long climb.

Me: Are you sure this is the easy way out?
Husband: There's no easy way out.

What a life lesson.  :p

There's lots to write but I've been too tired to blog.. (Goals, Mental Strength, First 100km, First road race)

So much stuff has happened recently, but I have been too tired to blog!  Too much cycling - teehee...

So, a warning that this one is a long one!

What are my goals?  Why am I frustrated?

A few weeks ago, I did the usual Saturday ride with the local bike shop.

Over the previous weeks, the ride was getting quite comfortable for me and I was quite enjoying having a fun, actual "coffee ride" as the cyclists say, where you go for a roll with some familiar people to have coffee afterwards.

I knew the pace of the ride and I knew it was comfortable and I didn't need to push very hard.

Except this ride was a bit different.  

Due to situation and dynamics of the group, there was quite a lot of acceleration and deceleration.

As a result, I found it quite a challenging ride.

So challenging that I actually cried most of the way through it.

(via blogs.villagevoice.com)

A lot of it was me getting upset at getting upset.  (Silly, I know).

Anyway, I realised I was frustrated because my expectation of what the ride was changed and my goal had been "to do the Saturday ride comfortably" which wasn't a very effective goal.

I really believe in S.M.A.R.T. goals:

1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Achievable
4. Relevant
5. Time-bound

I first learnt about them in corporate work, and I don't believe everything I learnt in my corporate jobs but I think it's a really good thing and the things that I've felt most satisfied about achieving have involved goals that fit this criteria.

Eg.  "I'm going to ride 60km Sunday morning."

So, after a day of debriefing with my husband as my counsellor, I realised that I was feeling frustration because I wasn't clear on what I was trying to achieve, and therefore I wasn't clear on how to achieve it.

I thought that the goal of "cycling with the Saturday group comfortably" was good enough but now I realise how vague and ineffective that goal is.

It is completely not S.M.A.R.T.!

And the goalposts will change depending on various factors.

My husband also explained that with group riding, the leader has the responsibility to keep the group together.  

But, as a member of that group, I have the responsibility to try and stay with the group, but if the pace is too hard, I have the option to drop off.

It isn't my responsibility to crack myself trying to stay on a group that is too fast for me.

What I should have done is stay at a pace that I could do, and then either the leader will decide that the group will slow down and keep me on, or they will ride off.

Either way, it's not a big deal as I was familiar with the route and as an adult I am responsible for getting myself home from wherever I am.

Also, I learnt when there is acceleration and deceleration, it can be easier to just stick to your regular pace rather than adjusting speed with the group every time it changes.  If the group is accelerating and decelerating, on average, you should be ok.

Mental strength

As it felt so silly to be crying over a weekend casual ride, I decided I needed some tips on how to get stronger mentally.

I asked every cyclist I knew and I got amazing tips from everyone.

The ones that stood out to me and that I found relevant to my way of thinking were:

1.  Focus on what you've done, not what you have left to go.

(via www.dreamstime.com)

If you focus on what you have left to go, you'll likely feel crap because you're not there yet, and you won't be until right at the end.

So you might as well focus and be happy about what you've achieved so far.

I used this one in my first 100km and it really worked.

"Hey, I've done 10km, I'm 10% of the way there, that's awesome."

"Hey, we're 25km in, we're a quarter of the way there, that wasn't too bad."

(Thanks Tsz!)

2.  Believe in yourself.

This one's pretty obvious.

I have found that sometimes I find it easier to believe in someone else believing in me.

My favourite saying was James from MC Cyclery on my first group ride, at the top of the hill, he said "You've got this".

At the time I thought it was odd as people don't often say those types of statements to me.

I often hear more reassuring statements aimed at making me feel better.

But "you've got this" is a great phrase because it's true and sometimes you need someone else to break through your self talk to prompt you with some friendly, encouraging dialog.

When I think I have no more to give, I often repeat James' words to myself.

(Thanks James!)

3.  Find your rhythm / zone.

(via thefixedgear.wordpress.com)

As a dancer, I am quite good at hooking my physical movements in with rhythms.

My zoning strategy for getting through physical hardship is to count to 4 over and over again.

I discovered this when I started walking / jogging / running.

I found there were certain songs that felt more comfortable to listen to when running.

And then I found when I was struggling, I would just count to 4 rather than listening to the song.

I realised that I had found my tactic for pushing through the pain.

I use this strategy for all sorts of physical hardship - boxing / situps / etc.

It comes in very handy for my hill climbing and I hook my cadence and breath to the rhythm and then I have something to focus on and then it becomes a repetitive motion that I can hook into and zone out, rather than focussing on the pain / hardship of the activity.

(Thanks Josh!)

How funny, I just realised all those 3 tips were from my local bike shop!  And that's why I love MC Cyclery so much!

Rapha Women's 100km / My first 100km

In anticipation of the Rapha Women's 100km, a bunch of my cycling friends decided to arrange a 100km ride so I could do my 100km before the event and be less nervous on the day.

I wasn't sure about it as in my head I was all built up to the Rapha event as my FIRST 100km.

But after talking to my husband, I realised (a good life lesson in general) that sometimes (or maybe most or all of the time) it's more about the journey than the destination.

(via audreywilsen.wordpress.com)

It's not necessarily about enjoying just the event, but also enjoying what I do in the leadup, the preparation and training as well.

It's like the purpose of the event is to give me an excuse / a direction to head in.

We rode down to Royal National Park and Waterfall and Sutherland before returning.

I managed it quite well, sticking to a manageable pace (slowing down when I could feel myself going close to the red zone).

[fyi - I'd been focussing doing road rides 4 times a week - varying from 30km to 60km - leading up to the Rapha event.]

At about 95km I started to develop a headache which I suspect was from not drinking enough water.

All in all, I was quite happy and very proud with that result.

It was actually quite lovely riding a challenge with people that I knew and was comfortable with and trusted.

It was a touching gesture and much appreciated.

As you can tell by my smile.  :)

My first road race

So, someone posted about the Manly Warringah Cycle Club's Women's Road Race on the Sydney Women's Cycling facebook group.

Usually the women race with the men but this weekend to celebrate La Course by Le Tour de France (1 day women's race on the last stage of the main race) they've decided to have a dedicated women's race.

I decided to take advantage of this opportunity and commit to entering.

This is despite adamantly saying I'm not planning to race because I am a sore loser.

(via www.thedesertreview.com)

But, I felt like I should take advantage of a women's only opportunity that was set up to encourage women in cycling.

I'm trying to decide my goal for the day.

The race is a neutralised (the group stays together) on the climb up from Akuna Bay and then a run to West Head and back.  (Kuringai National Park).

We looked back on Strava and my average for my one and only West Head ride was about 21 km/hr so that gives me at least a benchmark.

If the group starts going at 25 km/hr then at least I know I'm in for some pain.  :)

I am trying really hard not to place to much expectation on myself, because I have no idea about the ability level and dynamics of a road race.

So I think my goal will be to finish with the pack if I can and to have used up most of my energy to the best of my gauge at the time.

It's tricky because I won't know how much energy to save for the end.

It'll be a good experience anyway, after all these years of road race watching, to actually participate in one!

I am a little scared of touching wheels or not holding my line, simple beginners mistakes, but I just need to be careful and it's good that I am already aware of these.

I definitely don't want to be the Gerro to any Talanksy's tomorrow!  (Stage 7, TDF 2014)

(via www.sportal.com.au)

I have to go to sleep now so I can wake up for the race but I will try and post about my experience tomorrow!

Chamois Cream

I did it.

I went over to the...... whatever side this is....

I am currently preparing for the Rapha Women's 100 (km) ride on 20 July.  (It's an international event).

I have never ridden 100km.  My current maximum is 80km.

As 100km is just a long time to be spending on the bike,

I thought, I should probably have a look at what this anti-chafing thing is that everyone keeps raving on about...

So my husband had a tube of Aussie butt cream (yep, that's what it's called - us Aussies don't beat around the bush.. hahaha).

The local bike shop dude recommended it and said they pretty much use it every time they get on a bike..

I thought, I'd better start getting used to it - I don't want to be halfway through my 100km and be like oh this is wrong.

So I wish I'd had these instructions:

(via Bicycle Jockey's experience)

But I didn't.

I just had my husband.

And the internet.

But who uses the internet, when you have your very own Encyclopedia Brown.

And so I squeeze out like 1cm of a tiny thread and I'm like is this enough?

And husband is like, no! you want 10 times that!

And I make it 2 times that and used that.

Afterwards, I realised husband was right.  I could have used 10 times that amount.

It was weird at first, like squishy.

But it did really prevent any rubbing of the fabric on my skin.

It was just like a bit of extra moisturiser on my skin.

So it was good.

And now I wear it every time I wear lycra.


It's funny, so many things I was EW at first and now I'm "BEST THINGS EVER"!

1.  padded lycra shorts
2.  clipless pedals
3.  chamois cream

Here is a good article on how to (politely) use chamois cream.

http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/injury-prevention/how-politely-use-chamois-cream

Includes - Avoid Eye Contact while you're applying it....

Haha.

By the way, chamois creams have some of the best names..

He. He. He. 

Inferiority Complex + Discipline = athlete

So today I asked my husband, are my cycling activities really unusual?  It seems like everyone's talking about it all the time.

And my husband was telling me how he was actually discussing it earlier today with 2 friends.

They were discussing how my inferiority complex and discipline is very conducive to making me an athlete.

I thought that was pretty funny.

I have other blog post ideas to write about, but I'm just so tired!

I think it's that point in Winter where we're all just cold and want to sleep.

Wake us up when it's Spring.