Cookson: "Great news" for women's cycling

Aoibheann

It seems the change in leadership in the UCI has lead to more of the same as far as women's cycling goes. Ahead of his election as UCI president, Brian Cookson made a number of promises to improve that part of the sport. He proposed increasing the number of events, promised discussion on a minimum wage (this interview with Emma Pooley on the topic is worth a read) and to have men's and women's events running concurrently to cross-promote the events. The promises were greeted with considerable skepticism given the situation at the time (and here's some backlash to some thoughts he had the poor sense to voice!) - but there was some hope that Cookson would actually bring about some serious change. Thus far, it's been a case of all mouth and no trousers - see here for some pretty vague comments on change within the sport.

Fast-forward to yesterday. I'm sitting scrolling through the various comments on the hellish cobbles stage, only to see a tweet from Brian Cookson with the line: "More great news on women's cycling.", followed by a link to the UCI website. And I dared to get excited for about 30 seconds. By the time I got through the article, I was pretty furious. Somehow, two sportives (one of which is already very established, they just happen to be promoting female participants), a training film and a few hashtags on Twitter are considered to be "great news" for women's cycling? It absolutely beggars belief. Where are the increased number of events? What happened to adding female versions of existing male races? Where's the discussion on the utterly ridiculous pay for female cyclists? The maximum prize money a female cyclist can win is now €22,500 - the equivalent to winning a single stage of the Tour de France.

But perhaps I'm expecting too much change, too soon? Cookson has been saying all the right things in this regard, and I know that real change takes time. But to consider the above as serious progress... Seems so far that when it comes to cycling it's plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...

I'll finish with this fascinating article on Alfonsina Strada. This quote sums up the situation nicely for me:

"In the short-lived Grand Boucle Feminin (the women's Tour de France), they awarded the "Golden Gloves" to the most elegant, best turned-out rider. Plus ça change."

Hunterbiker

I think trying to promote change in an organisation like the UCI must be like stopping an oil tanker.
Not saying that's right but as well as the issue about raising the profile of Women's sport tgey've also had the ulcer that is the Lance Armstrong debacle as well as tge fallout from the election itself.
you'd hope this next 12months would show some improvement though.

gordongekko

Hunterbiker wrote: »

I think trying to promote change in an organisation like the UCI must be like stopping an oil tanker.
Not saying that's right but as well as the issue about raising the profile of Women's sport tgey've also had the ulcer that is the Lance Armstrong debacle as well as tge fallout from the election itself.
you'd hope this next 12months would show some improvement though.

And has he actually made any progress on the issues you mentioned during the last 12 months?

Hunterbiker

No I don't

Aoibheann

In some actually positive women's cycling news, anyone following the Giro Rosa? Emma Pooley won her second stage of the race today, and leads the KoM classification. Marianne Vos still holds the overall lead after 8 stages and is surely the favourite to hold on with one stage remaining. She only holds a 16 second lead, but it does happen to be over her own teammate, Pauline Ferrand Prevot, with yet another teammate back in third - can't quite see there being any contest there, unless we have a Froome/Wiggins situation going on.. :pac:

Tomorrow's final stage is fairly short at 80km, and largely flat, but ends in a 13km summit finish (for more details, have a look here).