This piece is a part of Biking Weekly’s particular Worldwide Girls’s Day concern, which you should buy in retailer for £3.25, or on-line for £4.50, together with supply.
For the primary time ever, there are six British ladies’s groups racing at UCI Continental degree, pointing to a growth in British biking. Alba Growth Highway Crew, DAS-Handsling, Doltcini O’Shea, Hess, Lifeplus Wahoo, and Professional-Noctis-200° Espresso-Hargreaves Contracting are all flying the Union Flag on the second-highest degree, however there’s extra to ladies’s racing than this.
Whereas there was a lot discuss in regards to the peril that the lads’s home scene is dealing with, with British Biking going to lengths to try to repair the state of affairs, three ladies’s crew managers spoke to Biking Weekly to debate their realities.
Jen Lemen – PDQ Property Elite
PDQ Property Elite have solely been round since August 2023, and have been arrange within the South-West of England to arrange ladies on their racing journey, as their captain and co-owner, Jen Lemen, defined.
“What I realised was wanted was a regional growth crew, which was actually centered on simply giving ladies the boldness to get on the beginning line,” she stated. “We’re funding entries to the British Crew Cup for the riders, and we simply need folks to get to the beginning line of races and know another person there.
“We had far more curiosity than we ever thought,” Lemen continued. “Now we have a roster about 27/28 riders, a few of whom have by no means raced earlier than, a few of whom are fairly seasoned. It goes from 20 as much as the early 60s.”
The targets are low in the meanwhile, simply giving “as many ladies as a lot assist as doable”, however the ranges of curiosity counsel that the crew is filling a spot. With a few of the riders simply getting began, Lemen thinks that what can be useful is extra races for the least skilled.
“I believe it is on the up on the whole,” she stated of racing. “Seeing 30 ladies at our trial race in February was a terrific signal… There’s a lot racing on the calendar, however perhaps if we had some extra fourth-cat races to get folks began, that might be good.”
(Picture credit score: Rob Lee)
Billy Oliver – FTP Racing
FTP, or Fulfil The Potential, is a home British ladies’s crew into its third 12 months of existence. Its ambition is to be aggressive at Nationwide A races, in addition to to compete in races in Belgium and France this season. It started as a ladies’s crew, and now has a growth squad – FTP Fusion – and a smaller males’s squad off the again of that.
“Girls’s biking is having a extremely huge upturn in the meanwhile,” its supervisor, Billy Oliver, defined. “I believe for those who look typically, it appears the lads’s scene is struggling in locations. Not every part has caught up with that but. We’re a small finances crew in comparison with so much, however we glance to assist the riders above every part else. We have a psychological well being programme arrange, with a psychological well being skilled who gives a one-to-one service.
“We attempt to supply a rider-first strategy from the beginning. It is laborious, although, there is a greater pool of girls but in addition extra groups making an attempt to get these riders too. We’re working laborious to construct our crew up, so we will get one of the best expertise.”
“It is very laborious to draw the precise sponsors to a ladies’s crew, however folks are actually taking a look at ladies’s biking much more significantly,” he continued. “We have come into it with out preconceptions, which has been good, as a result of we’re simply enthusiastic about the crew.”
(Picture credit score: Billy Oliver/FTP)
Bob Lyons – Alba Growth Highway Crew
The Alba Growth Highway Crew stepped as much as Continental degree in 2024, providing its riders a much bigger platform to showcase their skills and enhance themselves. 9 of its 12 riders are 24 and under, with 5 20 or youthful.
“We focus particularly on rider growth, as I felt there was a growth chunk lacking in biking,” its supervisor, Bob Lyons, defined. “If groups are purely pushed to win and fulfill sponsors, typically the event of riders can change into secondary. We’re very eager to get this stability, the place you’ll be able to take a look at the potential expertise and the way you develop it.
“Now we have to provide our riders the precise assist infrastructure after which the precise race programme. The main target is on the rider, not on the outcome. This may have an effect on some issues, with sponsors wanting to purchase into profitable, however we’re not going to races to make up the numbers. I am very vocal about having the precise riders and the precise race for his or her growth.”
Whereas Lyons is at pains to induce that working Alba is just not easy, he says that girls’s racing is in a great place proper now: “It is a bit of a better process to get sponsorship for ladies’s groups in the meanwhile. It isn’t simple, but it surely’s maybe simpler. Budgets are typically smaller, and you are able to do rather a lot with that cash.”
This piece is a part of Biking Weekly’s particular Worldwide Girls’s Day concern, which you should buy in retailer for £3.25, or on-line for £4.50, together with supply. It’s one we’re very happy with. Throughout the pages, there’s an interview with the world champion, Lotte Kopecky, and you will additionally discover an exploration of the physiological variations between women and men, and the story of 1 inspiring girl’s journey from novice to extremely endurance rider.
