fucking… giro donne event management, UCI, the absolute slapstick comedy of how poorly women’s cycling is STILL BEING HANDLED
if anyone wonders why, as a woman road cyclist and former elite racer I don’t engage much with women’s cycling beyond just watching what coverage is available, it’s because it’s too fucking enraging and exhausting to see the same bullshit attitudes perpetuated by the media and the establishment for the last forty years. and yes there’s been progress over the past two decades but a lot of it still feels like window dressing.
don’t get me wrong I am SO PROUD of how far the sport has come since my peak when women racers were effectively unpaid amateurs and a UCI professional women’s license didn’t even exist. we had to change under blanket tents in parking lots and pee in hidden corners behind bushes because women’s facilities didn’t exist. women’s elite events were dominated by one or two outliers (several of whom were ultimately proven to be doped off their asses) and the rest of us were just pack fill. after I put in those killing turns in the mountains for my leader I got left to fall behind the rolling enclosure and find my way back to the finish as best as possible on open roads. the vast majority of us had to pay for our own equipment, entry fees and travel, some of us were trying to manage a family or university or both on top of that.
fortunately a lot of this has improved for the very top of the sport however there’s still so much work yet to be done and I am so so very tired
