Why are 75% of cycling trips made by men?

[Nearholmer]

Oh dear, it’s all degenerated to competitive sports again.

There are many ways of using a bicycle, and many ways of having immense fun on a bicycle, which don’t involve one person trying to prove that they are, in some obscure corner of athleticism, superior to all other people.

Maybe if the messaging was not quite so focused on competition, everyone, of all genders and none (can you be “gender free”?) might be more encouraged to participate . The people who get high on competition will pitch-in with or without encouragement, because it’s in their nature, they can’t help themselves.

[mattheus]

Maybe if the messaging was not quite so focused on competition, everyone, of all genders and none (can you be “gender free”?) might be more encouraged to participate . The people who get high on competition will pitch-in with or without encouragement, because it’s in their nature, they can’t help themselves.

Which messaging are you complaining about?

[Nearholmer]

The messaging which does or doesn’t get people to ride bikes.

[Cugel]

Oh dear, it’s all degenerated to competitive sports again.

There are many ways of using a bicycle, and many ways of having immense fun on a bicycle, which don’t involve one person trying to prove that they are, in some obscure corner of athleticism, superior to all other people.

Maybe if the messaging was not quite so focused on competition, everyone, of all genders and none (can you be “gender free”?) might be more encouraged to participate . The people who get high on competition will pitch-in with or without encouragement, because it’s in their nature, they can’t help themselves.

Not so much "degenerated" but perhaps the sporting stuff does tend to distract from the main issue, which is that women are discouraged by "cultural baggage" that somehow induces feelings that they aren't up to the requirements of road cycling like the men. The sporting thing was just an example of how women are just as capable as men at even the most demanding of cycling skills and abilities.

[pjclinch]

The people who get high on competition will pitch-in with or without encouragement, because it’s in their nature, they can’t help themselves.

Up to a point, Lord Copper...

A lot of sportiness is finding the right sport, and "the right sport" is in significant part about culture. Lizzie Deignan only found out she was good at racing bikes from a school visit by the BC Olympic Talent Team. Emma Pooley didn't get on with sport at school because it was focused on team ball sports, which she was terrible at. It was only when her class had to go cross country running with netball courts out of commission that she found something she enjoyed, and it was only trying out cycling to get over a foot injury needing relative rest from running that she found she was good at that. Both subsequently became world champions, though it was arguably "sliding doors" moments that got them interested in cycling.

Meanwhile, the Dutch women's national championship podiums tend to have a lot in common with world championship podiums because sporty girls in NL have an obvious outlet in competitive cycling and most of them are very familiar with riding bikes.

Pete.

[Nearholmer]

Agree.

I was slightly tweaking noses with that posting.

[mattheus]

Agree.

So are you happy for us to talk about cycle sport now??
_________________________
Meanwhile, back to an earlier post:

Yep, our local club has gone to great lengths, with some considerable success, to get women involved, because there is definitely “a barrier to entry” in terms of perceptions. It’s helped locally that probably the two most influential cycling advocates are women, one a near perpetual (I don’t know how she finds time to do anything else!) ride-leader and now i think chair of the “cycling council”, and one the recently left office mayor.

Of course I don't know your club, so I shouldn't play down what "great lengths" you've gone to, but I would posit that 90% of your considerable success is due to having two influential female advocates, happy to give a lot of time to the venture.
From what I've seen, and from what I've read from advocacy experts, there are few things more encouraging to women than seeing other women already in the group!

[Nearholmer]

Feel free to posit away, or, to use a synonym, guess.

The club was set-up by the founders, blokes as it happens, to be very overtly inclusive from the start, and they managed to get some good women ride-leaders early in the game, with the woman I was referring to becoming prominent, and really working hard on drawing other women in. I actually learned about the group from a woman, one of the mums I was chatting with at the school gate, and was coached in group riding by a 70yo woman. Inclusivity is core to the group.

The Mayor came much later. She has long been a utility cyclist, and used her year in office as “a year of cycling”, fronting a great number of promotional events, family rides etc.

PS: you are of course free to talk about what you like, as much as anyone else is free to tease you about whatever you talk about.

[mattheus]

Feel free to posit away, or, to use a synonym, guess.

I just think it's a really cool word.