Women’s Cycling Weekly: Issue 23
The 23rd issue of the WCW is live, with all the news, articles, podcasts, and videos to catch up on this week.
The 23rd issue of the WCW is live, with all the news, articles, podcasts, and videos to catch up on this week.
Hello! Welcome to Women’s Cycling Weekly issue 23 🚴♀️
I was so smug with myself yesterday because I’d written half of this newsletter and had plenty of time — or so I thought — to finish it off this afternoon. That was before my car broke down on the way home 😑.
As a result, here I sit, at 5 pm, with half of this thing to write. Is it too late in the day for a coffee? Anyway, at least there’s women’s racing on this weekend and lots of content to read/watch/listen to!
CyclingTips can’t help you when your car breaks down (to my knowledge 🤷♀️) but they can (and do) help spread the word of women’s cycling content! Thanks, as always, to them for the support. Remember, if you’re reading it on CyclingTips.com you can also subscribe to get this very content directly into your inbox, guaranteed no breaking down en route.
The Bunnyhop is back for another episode! This time featuring multiple Sophies, Joanna Rowsell just casually mentioning her pivot to studying medicine like that isn’t amazing?? and the ever-brilliant Teniel Campbellalongside regular host Rebecca Charlton. Great content. Get it near to your eyeballs asap.
Look, I’ve put the ‘other’ podcast on top so I don’t seem too biased towards the one I’m on! A new one to me this week — and maybe to you, too. Ride 2 Unite by We Love Cycling featuring The Cyclists’ Alliance founder Iris Slappendel whom this newsletter very much stans. Plug in here.
And then, of course, it’s Freewheeling ft.an LBL recap, Festival Elsy Jacobs, and — to entice you further — more rider diaries in Tayler Wiles’s sultry tones.
A name from more recent history this week and thus one you might already know, but whose story you might not. In the last 24h you may have seen this piece — another by the wonderful Isabel Best — featuring the story of Rebecca Twigg, one of America’s most accomplished female riders who was active in the 1980s and 1990s. Twigg had precocious talent when she was younger, a high-achiever both academically and athletically. She won a silver medal in the first-ever women’s Olympic road race in LA in 1984, six world championship medals in the 3,000m pursuit on the track, and broke myriad records. After taking a career break after a burnout she then retired, and fell off the radar. What people didn’t know, until 2019, was that she had been homeless.
Twigg’s story is extraordinary but the circumstances that led her to her situation are still a risk for riders today. In the piece, Isabel Best speaks to figures in the sport, including riders, about the financial hardship that many female so-called ‘pro’ riders face and how that can lead to difficulties both while racing but also once they retire.
Any number of factors can exact a heavy mental toll on elite sports people as they transition to ‘civilian’ life. But female cyclists retire with an additional burden compared to their male counterparts, since the vast majority of women leave the sport with no savings, no pension scheme, and a lot of debt.
If you haven’t already, you can read the article now on Cycling News.
This riposte is just *chef’s kiss*:
Love to see it:
Finally, 99.9% of bovines agree:
Thanks for reading Women’s Cycling Weekly!
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Have a great weekend!
Until next time,
Amy x