US Bicycle Commuting Map

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data visualization is getting pretty sexy these days, no more so than the simple and delightful interactive map available HERE showing you where people in the US are using bicycles as transportation.

It also reads like a ‘best US cities to live’ guide. Data was collected in 2006 and again in 2011 so there’s information on gains+ in the percentages in commuters and overall trips made by bike. One of the biggest, most pleasant surprises I discovered was how many people commute by bike in Arizona – a traditionally republican state with spread out infrastructure and super hot summers – not exactly Portlandia, yet check out those numbers! Sexy!

Women in CX: a New Era

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From SoCal Cross & SSCXWC’12 Los Angeles

Editor’s note: Big thanks to writer and racer Molly Hurford, the author of Mud, Snow and Cyclocross for kindly re-editing her fantastic book into some easy to digest posts designed to help spread the message that bicycle racing is not only wicked fun, but evolving in infinitely more positive ways as more women join the sport. Last month we published a great piece on the issues of equality in cycling (1/2) and today look into the money and politics behind cycling as a professional sport and why there aren’t more women’s pro tours (2/2).

EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK?

“I think it’s growing. I think every promoter in the US is being challenged to have equal payout.”
–Amy Dombroski

 

Promoters struggle with the question of equal pay for male and female racers. In Europe, almost without question, women don’t make as much as the men in prize money. The US has always led the charge in that respect, but at quite a few races across the country, the gender divide still exists.

For this reason, elite racers like Laura Van Gilder believe that women are essentially forced to walk away from the sport eventually. “It’s disappointing to go duke it out with the best riders in the country and walk away with $44 for a fifth place, considering what your equipment cost, or even just the cost of keeping it running. And a lot of us aren’t getting that stuff for free. So at the end of the day, people are making choices. Women have a lot more on their plate, you’re looking at probably an older age profile for most women, and maybe they’re looking at it and realizing they’re not getting much on their return.”

Promoter Murphy Mack is pro-equal pay, and his logic is simple. “I always have equal payouts for men and women. The women must go the same distance and elevation, etc. that the men do. Equal pay for equal work right? If you’re against that maybe you should come into the present century with the rest of us. Beyond that, I see offering equal payouts as a way to get all the women to the race. I guess you could say my equal payout brings all the girls to the yard.”

Promoter Dorothy Wong agrees, saying, “Everyone can say they want equal pay and so do I. Any way we can showcase women, I will. Cyclocross is a great sport for all ages and sizes of women, especially if we can market it, and I feel so strongly about it.”

Dorothy Wong of SoCal Cross

She does, however, admit that there are problems with the concept of equal pay, when field sizes are vastly different and the spectators line up primarily to watch the men. “The challenge for women in sports is that we need an audience. Not that women aren’t fun to watch but it’s exciting when you see 100 guys charging out, and less so when there are only 20 women,” and that, she believes, is where the problem comes in. “Paying 20 deep to women in the race is not helpful, from a promoter’s standpoint.”

That said, Wong is passionate that the women at the top deserve the same as the men at the top of the sport. “I strongly believe the top women should be paid the same as the top men. I’ve thought about putting on just a UCI race for women, instead of for men. I think there’s huge potential we’re not touching by not promoting the women enough.”

However, other promoters disagree. Not because they hate women’s racing, but for practical reasons.

Talking to Adam Myerson, a long time proponent of women’s cycling, raises the two key arguments when it comes to paying women equally in the sport. He claims that the two ways to look at payouts are as pay for entertainment, or pay for work. And depending on how a promoter looks at the situation, the argument can be made in both directions.

“The first,” he says, “is to look at it as entertainment, and entertainers get paid based on the value of the entertainment they return. And it doesn’t matter if you’re male or female, star power pulls in a certain amount of return. So if you’re an actor or actress in Hollywood, what you bring in at the box office determines your pay scale. And I’m sure there’s sexism in Hollywood, but it’s not equal pay for equal work, it’s equal pay for equal value of the work.”

This applies to cyclocross, because, as he explains, “Sports are, in part, entertainment. So if men’s racing is more popular, has more spectators, brings in more sponsors, then of course the athletes would get paid more money because they create more money, because it’s more valued. Now I can say that I don’t think that’s OK, but it is what it is. So in that sense, as it stands, women shouldn’t be paid as much as men.”

However, Myerson doesn’t believe that this is the final word on the issue. “I can say that I want to change that, I would like to affect change in that area and make it so women’s cycling is as interesting, is as valued, as men’s cycling. But what has to happen first?” he asks. “Do we start by giving them more prize money so more show up? So we get more entry fee money? We know that doesn’t work. You can’t throw money at the problem. You put up equal prize money for the women, they won’t always come.”

Promoters in recent years have tried this approach in all disciplines of cycling, with mixed results from race to race. “So many promoters who care, who’ve tried to do something like that and have gotten burned. Because it turns out, the women, while they want equal pay in the symbolic sense of it, really race because they love it,” Myerson says. “And the money doesn’t get them to show up. Even though they want it in principle, we’ve seen that equal prize money is not enough to get women to come.”

If equal prize money won’t get women to show up at the starting line, and women don’t have the same ‘entertainment value’ as the men, it seems like the answer is that women’s payouts don’t need to equal those of the men. However, that’s where Myerson’s second point comes in: cycling is a job. “The other way to look at it is as a job,” he says. “And if it’s a job, then there absolutely has to be equal pay for equal work and it’s absolutely unacceptable that women don’t get paid equal prize money. Because it’s a job and equal pay for
equal work applies.”

At the end of the day, cyclocross has the chance to be the first cycling discipline where men and women are treated equally, and Myerson believes that to be true, saying, “’Cross has an opportunity to show real equality.”

Even women promoters agree that it’s a tough situation. Joan Hanscom of the USGP Series says, “It’s tricky. It’s hard. We want to do the right thing. Women have to fly and pay for travel to races, and they don’t get a discount on flights or hotels just because they’re women and their race is 20 minutes shorter. So we think it’s really important to pay them the same. They’re racing just as hard.”

She adds, “To build a professional class of athletes, you have to pay them professional prize money and I think giving Katie Compton $200 when the male winner is getting $2000, or whatever that discrepancy is, is a shame. We’re fortunate that Exergy is insistent on prize equality. We were already leaning that way when they came on board, but Exergy allowed us to take the prize list all the way, 15 racers deep.”

Team leader Stu Thorne thinks that the future can be bright for women in cyclocross, if the sport can grow, and if women are willing to race for the love of racing before worrying about the money. “I think if some of the other roadie and mountain bike women came over, they could make it,” he says. “You have to create your destiny. If you want to go do it and put the time and energy in and pay your dues, I can’t tell you how many years all of the guys did this for no money. And I know the women are still catching up and it’s not going to
happen overnight.”

He also wants to point out the harsh reality: being a bike racer, male or female, is never going to make someone rich. That said, he believes that, “With being creative and getting results and training, the potential is there.”

But as Thorne asks and answers: “Is it as much as the men? Probably not. Should it be as much as the men? That’s the heated topic. But the reality is that there is no big money.”

 

2/2

Nona Varnado: Bicycle Prints

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Part of the ‘Paper Bike’ commission for Neenah Paper and ARTCRANK LAX required creating two large prints, composed of many different kinds of bikes in silhouettes composed into a kaleidoscope or rorschach pattern, depending on how you look at it. Soon I’ll have a post up on the entire process and finished product, but in creating the finished piece I was able to pull 2 small editions and a few artist prints that are pretty special on their own.

Now they’re up on etsy.

Bicycle Totem is a white on white, large format (26″x40″) screen print on iridescent Neenah paper.

Bicycle Rorschach is a black on black, large format (26″x40″) screen print on black linen Neenah paper.

The artists proofs are on smaller paper (25″x34″) and are a little more quirky – some have hand painting details where the screen didn’t pull properly, or a little texture to the surface where embossing powder heat set into the texture of the print. The response to these have been overwhelmingly positive – so I thought I’d make them available online to people to buy, look at or comment on.

ARTCRANK! interviews Nona Varnado

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Tonight is the night!

ARTCRANK’s first Los Angeles Show opens in Orange 20 Bike’s new gallery space, Red#5 Yellow#7. The show is hanging and looks amazing. But earlier in the week we took some time to talk about all things BIKE. [reprinted from the original post here]

Nona Varnado and Orange 20 Bring Bikes and Art Together

A quick look at Nona Varnado’s adventures in life to date feels a little bit like channel surfing: A degree in Art from Cooper Union. A job on Wall Street. Her own cycling fashion label. And a cross-country move to Los Angeles to launch a new gallery space at the city’s top bike shop. Oh, and she’s almost single handedly responsible for bringing ARTCRANK to L.A. for our inaugural show, which kicks off on Saturday, December 8. She took a break from manic pre-show preparations to talk to us about where she’s been so far, and what’s next.

Which did you fall in love with first — bikes or fashion?

Definitely bikes. More than 10 years later I realize I had a very typical experience: I was an adult that had fallen out of love with the city I lived in. A loaner bike on Transportation Alternative’s 5 Boro Bike Tour got me excited enough to find club rides, then a cyclocross race, then street racing, then touring. Commuting by bike naturally replaced the misery of a crowded subway, a good messenger bag made shopping a non-issue.

At the time I was working professional jobs in midtown Manhattan and would faithfully ride in to work from Brooklyn – about 6 miles away with a bridge and heavy traffic. So I’d need to hide from all of my co-workers in a bathroom on another floor to change into appropriate work clothes: slacks, a dress shirt and usually small heels. Dressing then was more of a chore than anything else. I had a closet of carefully curated athletic clothes, bike racing or music shirts I loved and another set of work clothes that probably looked pretty awful. I just didn’t really like the “fashion” that I saw available, couldn’t afford what I did like or never imagined that I’d go to an event that would make a floor length gown a reasonable purchase.

What led you to bring the two together in your work?

At that point I was doing what I think a lot of women now are: looking at functional apparel brands to see if there isn’t one piece – a pair of pants, a shirt or jacket – that’s pretty. Something that will do the job: staying warm, wicking sweat, fitting appropriately, comfortable athletic seams, maybe adding some reflective materials for safety; but also look like something you would want to wear or even be excited to wear!

Both of us were at Interbike this year. What did you see that got you excited about where the bike industry is going? 

Industry is a big thing. I’ve been more excited in years past seeing products that I think were more innovative, only to be disappointed that they haven’t been widely adopted, but Interbike was twice as big with an astounding number of new vendors — even as certain big names stay home because they simply don’t need to advertise. And the sheer number of products is astounding. Niche industries are starting to pop-up. People are making accessories for bikes, accessories for people who like bikes, things that are only somewhat bike related. That’s a pretty powerful way of visualizing the growth of cycling in mainstream America.

So where do you think there are unmet needs, or things that need to change?

After 10+ years of being involved in the bike industry in some way, it’s a complicated question. This is well known in the industry: The lack of women and the lack of professional respect shown to us. It’s still a boy’s club with enough history behind it that change is a slow and arduous battle that women have to deal with until there’s a sea change. This last year I saw SpokesWomen, a small ladies cocktail networking party, become an recognized official event with the full encouragement of the show management and coordinated alongside the more established Outdoor Industries Women’s Coalition (OIWC).

Beyond that, cities can’t build bicycling infrastructure until greater numbers of cyclists are already on the road and most people don’t want to ride on roads without those safety measures. In the same way there is a much bigger need to find ways to connect with people about cycling, and the best way to do that is still the local bike shop: From becoming welcoming neighborhood resources with the ability to learn how to fix your own bike, to having dressing rooms so women can try on cycling apparel and acting as a helping hand in getting people on bikes and aware of cycling culture and advocacy. It all comes down to the local bike shop. No matter how many fancy products are created – if people don’t see them, try them out and get to talk to someone friendly about why these things are great – it’s all a moot point.

What spurred you to move from New York to Los Angeles?

With my apparel brand, I’ve come to understand how critical local retail is. It’s an experience that even the greatest website can’t get close to. Creating a retail environment you can really get to know people, understand their needs and desires while being able to educate at a level that’s going to make a difference. From a business perspective: selling clothes at bike shops to women isn’t going to happen. And in traditional fashion retail the functionality and message is totally lost. As I went on tour to various cities doing trunk shows; I realized that my brand needed a physical location, but ask that there’s a huge missing piece in the industry to display innovative products, launch new projects, act as an inspiration though a gallery like environment – something that could be the holy grail of cycling: reaching new people who are not yet in love with bicycles. Orange 20′s new bike gallery, called Red#5 Yellow#7, is exactly that.

A year ago I came to LA out of curiosity and had an experience that seems more like a novel than real life: I immediately met a great DJ and cycling advocate named Patrick Miller, (through friends on Facebook!) who took me on an epic tour of the entire city from a cyclists perspective. I got the historical background, cultural highlights and became very inspired by the rapid progress cycling the city is making thanks to a local government that’s pretty cooperative. As we set out he told me the absolute first place we had to go was Orange 20 Bikes, in LA’s Bicycle District. I was familiar with that name because I had met the owner, TJ Flexer, at interbike several years ago when he was first starting the shop. It’s a really small world, sometimes. TJ and I immediately began talking about how to save the world through bicycle retail. A little while later a new space next door to Orange 20 opened up and we saw an opportunity to unite our ideas and resources into something new. We’ve been renovating the space for a while, working on identity and a schedule of show concepts.

Tell us more about Red#5 Yellow#7…

Red#5 Yellow#7 is Orange 20′s project space. It’s part bike gallery, part pop-up shop. Red#5 Yellow#7 is huge, because the cycling community is passionate, creative and composed of people who are about action! I see it as a solution to some of the biggest problems in cycling: new lifestyle products are almost impossible to sell in a traditional bike shop, while at the same time people who don’t bike or aren’t part of the ‘cult’ can be introduced to the beauty, history and design inspired by the bicycle. Red#5 Yellow#7 can be anything: it can be an educational museum, a launchpad for the most interesting new products, a fine art gallery with a singular obsession and a resource for connecting people to new ideas. We’re super excited about ARTCRANK Los Angeles, not only because it’s a fantastic time and way to discover local artists, but in helping us reach out to the art and design community.

I’m thrilled to be able to put together shows at Red#5 Yellow#7 that show the most innovative women’s cycling products, cargo bikes and art. We’re not really selling anything so we’re free to display things for aesthetic or educational reasons. It’s so hard to pay rent and stay afloat as a business that you never get the opportunity to just showcase something because it’s wonderful. We believe that by creating a space that’s as entertaining as a new show at a modern art museum, that we’ll be able to advance cycling in ways the shop can’t.

 

For those who haven’t been there, describe Orange 20 Bikes. 

Orange 20 is a special place. It was in a tiny one room building next door to the current shop for the first three years. The newer location is not only several times larger, it’s like candy land. There are toe clips that even industry veterans have never seen, lust-worthy specialty components, a library of the best in category bags and bike shoes. They specialize in steel bikes and American made whenever possible. Yet the focus is on “the everyday rider” and that often means the person who is getting their first bike, or a durable city commuter, which is often seen as less sexy.

The mechanics in the back are heavy hitters from USA Olympic Cycling , specialists in mountain, road, track, kids bikes. Most people who work at Orange 20 have been volunteers with the Bike Kitchen or group ride leaders who are extremely passionate about making cycling a positive and ultimately world changing experience. It’s also a homegrown business that’s almost seven years old, so there’s been changes, new people, but the result is a fire tested group of people who really care about people and bikes. It’s also an extremely creative environment: our lead mechanic is the famous Cache responsible for the amazing cicLAvia ‘chicken’ murals all over LA, which can also be seen outside the shop on Heliotrope. Almost everyone on staff is an artist of some kind —cartoonist, painter, graphic designer, fashion designer, painter. You can see it in the space: the way the walls are painted, how the products are arranged.

New York and Los Angeles are the two biggest cities in the U.S. Until recently, neither had a reputation for being especially bike-friendly. But both cities are making substantial investments in cycling infrastructure to address both traffic congestion and quality of life.

How would you compare and contrast the changes you saw in New York with what you’ve seen thus far in Los Angeles?

In many ways, LA is like NYC was 10+ years ago. There’s a lot of change happening, but the streets in NYC are relatively tiny, particularly with the density of people and buildings. Los Angeles some times feels like a giant freeway with some buildings here and there. Drivers rule the streets in a way that’s assumed from an early age: that you absolutely have to have a car to get anywhere, that only losers walk or take public transportation, all the ways that people learn to identify with their cars and fear traffic.

But the amount of pavement here is huge! So it’s a really good thing that Californians are famous for being progressive and sporty, because it’s a more complicated social and tactical problem to solve. The good thing is that there’s also a long history of taking lessons learned in NYC and applying the “best case scenario” that rapidly speeds up the trial and error stage and allows locals to develop and refine how they approach things. I’m really here to help facilitate that through Orange 20′s project space Red#5 Yellow#7, but also through local advocacy and community work.

What’s the biggest misperception or flawed stereotype about cycling in Los Angeles?

That it’s impossible. For the last cicLAvia I personally transported 650+ pounds of free oranges that we gave away at our booth in Mariachi Plaza, which is halfway across the city from the shop, on a bike with a cargo trailer that in total retails for less than $1,000. It took two trips and I worked up a good appetite. But it was a great way to physically show that bicycling for transportation in LA is not only possible, it’s affordable and way more fun than sitting in traffic. I’ve also learned that people generally aren’t yet aware that a bike should cost more than $100 and that a bicycle is an investment that requires other stuff like locks, lights and a helmet, in the same way that a car is. People spend obscene amounts on cars here but balk at the idea of what a bike costs.

Like many businesses, bike shops have been losing customers to online retailers. Why do you think neighborhood bike shops are still important?

I feel incredibly lucky to be friends with some of the most brilliant individuals in bicycling retail and across the board you see some key lessons. The local bike shop has to be all the things you can’t get online: Trusted advice on something that isn’t found without experience and dedication, access to unique and superior products, the ability to physically interact with the items you’ll be trusting your life to. Sadly, many people don’t value that enough and are happier to buy something super cheap and potentially dangerous online. It’s a modern addiction to want more at impossibly low internet only prices and it’s not just bicycle shops that have that problem.

How do you think the neighborhood bike shop model needs to change to stay relevant and start to thrive again?

I think the absolute key to survival is the local cycling culture. Culture is incredibly powerful and it can be created by having super hot custom branded products or providing workshops, group rides and mentorship. You can probably survive being really cool or being really well intentioned, but it’s about creating a unique balance that is a reflection of what your local community needs. I’d point to 718 Cyclery and Red Lantern Bicycles in Brooklyn as shops who are defining what that means in NYC.

Nurturing the growth of cycling by being the greatest champions of developing new riders, making women feel comfortable and pretty riding bikes, showing people how to be knowledgeable and have fun. There’s often a big gap in bike shops between the dudes who just want to have fun and the guys who try really hard but don’t step back enough to innovate.

If bike shops ran more like dot-coms, there’d be a lot more to talk about. I’d like to see that level of entrepreneurial seriousness – but a big part of that is money. No one bank rolls a bike shop expecting to get fabulously wealthy, but consequentially shops can’t afford to pay professional wages or have the resources to dream big. When I say big I mean projects that could rapidly change the face of cycling in years, rather than decades. Right now bike share is the closest anyone has come to that. It’s depressing to me to see national reports that are deemed hugely optimistic to say that 5% of urban transportation trips will be by bike by… 2030. That doesn’t mean people are working hard or lack for brilliance, but I’d love it if the cycling industry could reclaim Los Angeles the way the auto industry once did.

ARTCRANK was born out of a love for bikes and art, and creative people in general seem to have a deep-seated affinity for bicycles. What do you think is behind that?

After spending a ridiculous number of hours putting together my paper bike piece for the show, I might be a little biased. But I think that bicycles have such intensely beautiful shapes — perfect wheels, straight lines and dynamic curves. They are in a way an absolute triumph of human engineering balancing the complexity of industry by creating these specialized mechanical parts, yet so perfectly simple. Because they connect with our bodies, we can form emotional attachments to our experience with them. So really, they assault all of our senses with their wonderfulness. Then, there’s the fact that they’re shape shifters. The elegant and lust worthy objects of beauty that I adore don’t get a second glance from the mountain bikers at the shop who have fits of joy looking at the latest 29er with alien spaceship-looking suspension.

Other than ARTCRANK LAX, what upcoming events and happenings are you excited about?

The following Friday, December 15, we’re participating in a holiday party with a few other galleries and businesses on Melrose. Which is to say that there is suddenly something of a gallery district happening here! I’m also excited about bringing Bike Trains to LA and other cities in cooperation with my friends who just launched Bikeapolis.us as an intermediary to advocates and organizations in California. On a personal level I’m finally getting to the point of being able to design and relaunch a collection of lifestyle cycling apparel that integrates all the lessons I’ve learned from bike retail, advocacy and experience into something that will hopefully resonate with people.

 

ARTCRANK Los Angeles Details

Opening Night Party: Saturday, December 8 – 5:00pm – 11:00pm

Orange 20 Bikes
4351 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA

Show continues through Monday, December 17 at Orange 20

Original, limited edition prints by 30 local artists – all sold for $40

Custom pint glasses and beer specials by Widmer Brothers Brewing to benefit L.A. Streetsblog

Neenah Paper will donate proceeds from the ARTCRANK LAX show poster to L.A. Streetsblog

Extra bike parking and tasty snacks, courtesy of Clif Bar

Debut of a new Neenah Paper Paper Bike Sculpture by Nona Varnado

 

Women in CX: Getting into it

By On · 1 Comment · In Womens Cycling

 

Editor’s note: Big thanks to writer and racer Molly Hurford, the author of Mud, Snow and Cyclocross for kindly re-editing her fantastic book into some easy to digest posts designed to help spread the message that bicycle racing is not only wicked fun, but evolving in infinitely more positive ways as more women join the sport. We start with a great piece on the issues of equality in cycling (1/2) and a fascinating look into the money and politics behind cycling as a professional sport and why there aren’t more women’s pro tours (2/2).

 

From Molly:

Why Women Matter Most in Cyclocross: Excerpts from Mud, Snow and Cyclocross When I started working on my book on US cyclocross, I immediately knew that I wanted to not just have a chapter on the ‘who’s who’ of women’s cyclocross, but also a chapter on how cyclocross, since it’s such a new form of cycling, has offered unprecedented opportunities for equality in women’s cycling, though obviously it still has a long way to go. But we’re making progress more and more, and it’s a super exciting time to be in the sport, both as a racer and a journalist. Check out what I found out about women’s cyclocross, from a racer and promoter standpoint, and if you want to find out more about cyclocross in the US, check out Mud, Snow and Cyclocross and Cyclocross Magazine.

 

LOOKING FOR EQUALITY—HOW CYCLOCROSS IS CHANGING WOMEN’S CYCLING

“If you look at the performance of US racers at Worlds in the past five years, our women are getting on the podium.”
–Joan Hanscom

How has cyclocross changed for women over the years? “Well, first of all, there are women’s fields,” Mark Vareschi laughs. “When I started racing in New York, there were one or two women and no women’s field. Then, when I started racing in New England, there were 15 to 20 women in one field. And now we’re getting 40 or more in each of the two women’s fields. I think some of the fastest growth we’ve seen has been in women’s cyclocross.”

When you talk about women in cycling, gender issues of equal payouts, equal sponsorships, difficulties in women’s equipment, and lack of respect for women as professional cyclists inevitably have to be included in the discussion. Cyclocross has proven to be one of the most equality-driven forms of competitive cycling, with many US races offering equal payouts and races immediately before the elite men’s race, rules that require any UCI C1 race to have a women’s field, and the big name teams like Rapha-Focus, Cannondale, CyclocrossWorld.com and Raleigh all working to add more women to their rosters. Additionally, since cyclocross grew organically and with such small women’s fields until only recent years, the friendships and bonds formed between the elite women, regardless of team loyalties, have led to a more welcoming scene for women at all levels. The approachability of the elite racers has also allowed the sport to grow more for amateur women than it has in other disciplines.

In fact, elite racer Mary McConneloug thinks that this growth is simply attributable to the nature of ‘cross. “I feel like this sport can appeal to those tough individuals who like to work hard and push personal limits,” she says, adding, “It’s also a great feeling to get super fit, improve skills, and meet other cool people … It is not just a man’s sport. There are so many incredibly talented athletic women and the stereotype of hard women racing bikes is changing—we can be soft, beautiful and charge on the bike.” She laughs and adds, “Plus, we’re probably much more fun to watch racing than men.”

Cyclocross might be bigger in Europe than it is in the US, but for the women, there’s no place like home. This is a great time for women in the sport, and a great time for women to get involved in the sport. Duke says, “I’m really impressed with women’s cyclocross in the US, as far as media attention, personalities, respect levels. I think cyclocross is doing a lot for women’s cycling at this point. In Europe, the sport is more popular but I feel like women in the States get more respect and I think it’s just a difference between personalities in the different countries. It’s a really exciting time to be a woman in cyclocross in the US and there’s a lot of movement happening. It’s nice to be a part of it.”

reprinted from mtbr.com

It has come a long way, and even in New England, one of the first places where racing was popular, women’s cycling wasn’t a big priority. Mo Bruno Roy recalls, “In my first race, there was a women’s category—women’s open—and there were 10 to 15 women, so now to see a Cat 3/4 field with over 100 riders is a phenomenal difference in a short amount of time.”

To that end, while there are problems within women’s cycling, the overall growth is positive. Bruno Roy adds, “The participation, especially in women’s racing, is really encouraging more and more people to try it out. Cyclocross is pretty welcoming. There’s a social aspect to it, a duration aspect to it which is manageable, and I think it’s a lot less scary than road or mountain bike racing if you’re just getting into it.”

With women’s cycling seeing such huge growth in the US and in Europe, it’s interesting to watch as the two continents struggle to make sense of women’s racing. While Europe may have deeper fields for the pro women, and arguably better opportunities for women at the very top to land on good teams (Compton herself is on a Euro team now, Rabobank), the US has something that Europe hasn’t gotten to yet: often, races have equal prize money for men and women, and at nearly every race, elite men and elite women race back-to-back. In Europe, women’s races tend to be shunted to wee hours of the morning, leaving spectators underwhelmed.

In fact, Marc Gullickson is quick to note that for women, “It’s tough because there’s no World Championships for junior or U23 women.” He suggests that the problem lies in the European model of cyclocross, which is outdated and tends toward a sexist slant emphasizing men’s cycling. “The UCI cyclocross commission makes a lot of those rules, and it’s tough because it’s sort of an old boy’s club, it’s pretty much dictated by the heart of Belgian ‘cross.”

For Gullickson though, that just leaves more opportunity to work on women’s racing in the US, and he believes that “we have better women racing in the States than they do over there.”

If cyclocross is such a welcoming sport, then why are more women racing in the US than in Europe? The question goes back to the participant versus spectator nature of the sport, but also the level of difficulty on the courses. In Europe, usually only twenty or thirty women take to the start line, nearly half of the total of racers in the men’s field. Antonneau suggests that “maybe it’s because the courses over here are more geared towards B women—it’s still really challenging, but in their own different way. It’s welcoming to people, to lower
categories. It’s not as intense, you can do it for fun.”

And while the US women’s fields may not be quite as deep as the men’s fields just yet, they are coming out in record numbers, and race promoters are starting to question whether two women’s fields (an elite field and an amateur field) are enough.

“When I was a downhiller and first heard about it, it was such a fringe sport and of course, it still is, but it seemed like only a few people were doing it. And just in the time I’ve been doing it, in four years time, racer participation has doubled, and it’s the new exciting sport in cycling. It’s dynamic, spectator-friendly and it’s kind of a circus,” Nicole Duke says. “There’s such a great culture around it and I think people are really catching on. It seems like there’s been a huge amount of growth. I don’t think we’ve even begun to peak, so I’m very thankful to be in the sport at this moment in time. I’m thinking, is this just because I’m in it and around it all the time? But I talk to other people and people in the industry are like, ‘no, this is big.’”

That rapid growth that we’ve seen among the women should be embraced and promoted, and now is the time to do it. Mary McConneloug adds, “Let’s keep it rolling! We need to continue to support women’s racing and aim to reach the females out there that might be interested and get them involved. This sport has taught me so much, I feel many would like it and benefit from it, if they gave it a shot.”

 

Part 2 /2 will be online next week after results and more from SSWCX2012 in LA.

Big Bike Weekend

By On · Add Comment · In Events

First a shout out to my ladies in SF who are holding it down with their version of Cranksgiving: The SF Street Sweep. If you’re in Northern California – this is the place to be. The ride is always super fun for everyone and designed to encourage everyone from the fastest racers, to cargo bike haulers and weirdos in amazing costumes. Plus, check out that sponsor list: it’s INCREDIBLE. If you’ve ever wanted to get killer swag while having a great time for a good cause… this is it.

If you’re in Los Angeles, you’re probably not going to be able to escape the Single Speed Cyclocross World Championships… or you know the OTHER event, the UCI sanctioned Cyclocross Los Angeles event. In any case it’s going to be a non-stop racing, partying, riding, spectating kinda weekend.

#RidePretty :: Celebrate Your Style & Transportation

By On · 1 Comment · In D.I.Y., Womens Cycling

Admit it, you’re pretty. Your mom thinks so and those people sitting in traffic secretly do too. You often hear people exclaim, “you rode your Bike here?!?”

Yeah, you’re pretty awesome.

But we need to show other women how it’s done. By taking a picture and uploading it to ANY online social service that you participate in with the hashtag #RidePretty you can let people see your genius style, how you managed to look fantastic AND ride a bike to where ever it is you go. Here in #BikeLA I’m pretty fond of riding my bike to fancy restaurants and bypassing the (usually) astounded valet parking. If you’re already riding a bike regularly for transportation – you know how great it is. But for a lot of women it seems confusing and how to handle pants, skirts, shoes, helmets (hair?) to say nothing of what bike to ride, how to lock it up (without embarrassing yourself in front of the concierge!) And what better way than to learn through the inspiration of fancy ladies already doing it?

Where do I wanna see your lovely faces? EVERYWHERE. On instagram, facebook, twitter, flickr and if you’re so connected: submit to the tumblr page.

Gorgeous, wears heels, performs extreme stunts & looks amazing.

#RidePretty

in Urban Velo

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It was fun today  to walk into the shop and have Cecilio point out that the “I <3 Riding in the City” profile on me was in the current issue of Urban Velo that just got delivered into the shop!

It’s pretty rad to be in a magazine you dig. Hopefully there will be another shout out in 2013 with a greater focus on Los Angeles and (shh!) a re-launched line of riding apparel.

 

Thanks Urban Velo!

 

#BikeSandy NYC’s Cycling Renaissance

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Even from LA I keep getting encouraging messages from all quarters in NYC that the Hurricane Sandy disaster is being turned into a positive for massive social change. A girlfriend who has never owned a bike enjoyed getting caught in an Amsterdam style bike traffic jam, Time’s Up! broke out the bike generators to help power cell phones in the Lower East Side, thousands of new commuters are discovering biking and cyclists are using their unique ability to get around to go help where it’s most needed.

Want to know more? Look at pictures? The best resource for cycling post hurricane Sandy is definitely Bike Blog NYC. Mike Green’s passion for being a journalistic resource is doubly impressive given the fact that he’s actively working overtime, taking care of family & friends and doesn’t make money off the blog. If Bike Bloggers got things like Pulitzer prizes, I’d say Mr. Green would be the obvious choice.

 

WE BIKE – Liz Jose’s female specific cycling group also did a bang up job of rounding up useful biking resources post-Sandy.

Hurricane Resources:

http://bikeapolis.us/- Bike train locations (think “carpool” for cyclists) and rental info

http://bikenyc.org/resources- Citywide cycling resource from Transportation Alternatives

http://brooklynspoke.com/2012/10/31/list-of-open-bike-shops-sandy-edition/- List of open Bike Shops

http://www.streetsblog.org/- General info about the streets, transit, cycling and walking

http://bicycling.com/blogs/ramblingman/2012/10/30/cycling-in-the-aftermath-of-hurricane-sandy/- Important post-hurricane cycling tips

http://bikenyc.org/event/3772- Transportation Alternatives post-Sandy commuter supports

http://go.bloomberg.com/hurricane-sandy/2012/10/31/advice-for-post-sandy-new-york-traffic-take-the-bike/- WE just love this article!