I never thought it was possible to be so passionate about a sport until I started cycling.
What is cycling? It involves a bike, not just any bike, but a road bike. Ranging in price from $700 to $15,000+, weighing anywhere from 24 lbs to <13 lbs. You wear tight clothing, often with flashy colors, and the rednecks driving by in their car will scream insults at you about your tight clothes and "superman" suit. Usually, if you really get into the sport, your helmet matches your bike and is about the weight of a styrofoam cup along with your matching carbon soled shoes. The bike you ride is fast, really fast as you pedal your heart out racing the cars blitzing by you, getting up to 90km/hr on a steep decent. The risk of crashing or getting hit by a car is always very high but it never crosses your mind any more. The sport can become so addicting you sacrifice friendships, earning extra income, having errands done like clean laundry or food in the house. If you start the sport before you have a well established income, most likely you are living below the poverty level and you have no way of getting above that line anytime soon. If you are a cyclist in your mind it is all worth it because the moment you get on that bike you become free. Somehow the world and all of its troubles just disappear into the abyss as you glide over the pavement with ease. You search for steepest hills you can find to climb only to experience a burning pain in your legs, so intense that it is probably close to some form of inhumane torture, all for the satisfaction of having a better time that your fellow cyclists or beating your last “Strava” time. You have cycling friends, but you never really know what the level of friendship because socializing is done while pedaling at 25km + on the roads and you are always in competition with each other. A cyclist has found their youth once again; they have found inner peace and joy after thousands of kilometers on the road in all weather conditions, all year around. How is Women’s Cycling still stuck in the 70’s?
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/exergy-tour-cancellation-leaves-usa-without-womens-uci-events
If you are a female cyclist, looking to race, looking to become professional then you might as well be prepared for a trip to the 70’s. When was the last time you saw women’s cycling on TV besides the Olympics? Have you ever read about women’s cycling and the lack of funding? I wonder exactly how many professional women’s cyclists aren’t getting paid in North America. When was the last time you even heard of a women’s only cycling race in Western Canada? I could complain for days about how much money is in men’s cycling, including all the financing for doping, that has always been a part of the sport. What would be the point though, it goes back to the days where women were fighting to vote, this seems ridiculous. How does the Giro D’Italia have millions of dollars in funding while the women’s Exergy Tour in the U.S. is cancelled for 2013 due to lack of funding? I know they are different countries, but seriously. Even the men’s Tour of California, comparable to the Exergy Tour in Idaho runs every year with full sponsorship. The comparison of women’s verses men’s cycling is disgusting to say the least. Even if you try to google pro women’s cyclist, what comes up is “9 sexiest women’s cyclist” what a disgrace.
It has been awesome to see athletes like Clara Hughes and Catherine Pendral despite all obstacles, overcome and become world champions. The are examples to women all over the world in overcoming, tackling challenges and pressing forward no matter what. If you really are a cyclist it isn’t about the money it is about the sport and what it can do to help others, to inspire others, to be all that they can be. Maybe that is why women’s cycling has been able to keep a certain level of “innocence” in the sport, I am sure there is still doping one way or another, but it does not seem nearly as prevalent as the men’s, using the Lance Armstrong legacy as the prime example. I would like to do what I can to move women’s cycling forward in the small circle of influence that I have and I was reminded my passion for this yet again the other day.
How is wearing a kit that looks like Grandma’s Curtains going to help our Sport?
It is great the companies like Lululemon and Specialized are stepping up and sponsoring our local female athletes however I do have one complaint, one in which I need to make a personal commitment to help change. The women’s cycling kit that was designed for this team last year wasn’t great, it looked like a zebra that forgot half it’s strips, and it was mostly black, very warm in the summer heat. If the pro women wore the one you could buy in the store then I have 100 times more respect for them, the seams are horrible and would easily cut into your leg, the chamois was a disgrace and even if it provided decent comfort it looks like it would be packed down in 60km. But the kit was livable, I would never wear it, but it was unique. Now I walked into Lululemon in Downtown Vancouver this week and I never in my world of cycling have ever been so disgusted in my life. The women’s cycling kit I saw in there with “UCI” tacked on the shoulder was by far the absolute worst outfit I have ever seen. As a female cyclist fighting to bring the sport out of the 70’s I could not have been more appalled. The new cycling kit is a complete disgrace. Who decided that wearing the curtains from my Grandma’s living room in the 70’s would help to move the sport towards equivalency for women? This has set a fire in my heart to not sit here and complain, but to find a way to stop women’s cycling from being a joke and help it to become a well respected career for women all over the world. It is horrible that women have take whatever has been given to them, including wearing Grandma’s curtains to try and gain more sponsorship, brutal. I may have found a place to start, STOP cycling kits like the new Lululemon from ever being made! How un-believably upsetting and yes the quality of the kit is absolute garbage. I do however suppose that if I really want to help, money is the root issue, along with lack of interest in watching the sport. I do apologize for insulting somebody’s hard work of designing that kit, but it truly is a disgrace to the sport in my mind. Yes, I do realize that posting pictures of this kit is still advertising for them, but at least it's advertising for the sport.
I find myself so passionate about a great sport and looking forward to helping bring change.
No comments:
Post a Comment