who do you admire?



TrekCyclerChic

New Member
Dec 13, 2004
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Ok ladies, I am realizing that I don't know very many professional female road bikers, so here's you chance to tell us all who you look up to or admire and why.

:-D
 
TrekCyclerChic said:
well this is just depressing...
Note that this is true for the USA, but I don't really know about other places. This is what I see. Women's cycling receives so little coverage that it is difficult to form a good following of a woman's career. Plus there are few "grand tour" style events for women (if any? the Giro used to have a scaled down women's tour, but I heard it was not run this year), which even for the men are the real legend and status makers. Even if I think about the men that I know a lot about, they are/were almost all participants in The Tour de France and/or the Giro. The one day classics are starting to get more press and some television coverage here, but the riders are harder (at least for me) to identify and follow than the ones you get used to seeing leading a race or attacking day after day in a long race.
Do I know about women cyclists and can I name some -sure, have I followed them, sorry to say not so much. It is also interesting to note that I think that I can only name one non-American female cyclist, and that is only because she gets a lot of press in Velo News.
Just following results and tracking numbers doesn't appeal to much to me. Written race reports are OK, but still not even close to the same drama as watching a race unfold. I love to watch racing and I'd certainly watch women's races if they were televised, but its hard enough to find any cycling on TV here these days - even the famous races like the Vuelta! so I'm not going to hold my breath.