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Brian Cookson to bring together Tour de France organisers and top female riders

UCI presidential contender aims to raise status of women's cycling...

British Cycling president Brian Cookson is putting together a meeting between Tour de France organiser ASO and representatives of the women’s racing community to discuss the possibility of setting up a women’s equivalent of the Tour.

Cookson is standing for the presidency of cycling’s governing body, the UCI, against incumbent Pat McQuaid. Writing on his blog today, he says: “There has been a lot of attention recently on the need to develop women's cycling at all levels of the sport and quite rightly so.

“Cycling, like many sports, has been male-dominated throughout the sport's history, and continues to be so. But the world has changed, continues to change, and we need to change with it. There are some key things that we can do right now that will make the development of women's cycling happen more easily and more quickly.

“A women's equivalent of the Tour de France is one potential solution and the focus of attention of a really successful petition which now has over 77,000 signatures.

“Undoubtedly having a female equivalent of the biggest bike race in the world is certainly something we should explore so I am currently setting up a meeting involving Marianne Vos, Emma Pooley and other key representatives behind the petition with the right people, including Tour de France owners ASO, UCI Management Committee member Tracey Gaudry and myself.”

Cookson mentions the women’s Olympic road race as an example of a successful women’s event. “Despite the rain, the crowds and television audience were huge, just as big as for the men's race, and they were rewarded with a thrilling contest that was a superb sporting spectacle. The race was easily better than the men’s,” he writes.

However, the loss of many once-significant women’s events and the struggle of the last remaining women’s grand tour, the Giro Donne to stay afloat, indicates women’s racing has serious problems.

“Women's road racing is caught in a negative cycle where lack of exposure is putting off sponsors which means that women find it hard to earn what they should which limits the talent attracted,” writes Cookson. “It's a classic case where we need the governing body to step in and provide a solution to grow the sport so it can become self sustaining.”

“We need to stop the negative spiral that has developed under the current UCI administration, whereby dwindling exposure, sponsorship and support is leading to fewer events and reduced rewards for the women's professional peloton.

“To do this, we need to work closely with organisers, sponsors, teams and broadcasters to create new events on the professional calendar.”

One such event is a five-day women’s tour in the UK, which Tour of Britain organisers SweetSpot announced earlier this year.

“The event will be separate from the men's race, but it will be promoted to a high standard and will, I'm sure, be the first step in having a full equivalent Tour of Britain as it develops.”

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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JonD | 10 years ago
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On a related FP note:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/10210128/Brian-Cook...

Yer couldn't make it up...well, unless you were an Italian politician..

Avatar
skippy | 10 years ago
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phat the rat has had 8 years to help Womens Cycling !

BIG FAIL !

Told jim Burn in Porto Vecchio , he should back @GaudryT for his replacement !

both phat & Cookson , are " OLD SCHOOL " , bereft of ideas and unable to escape the " vicious circle of FAVOURS OWED"!

Time for new blood , could any of the remaining 39 delegates do a better job that Gaudry ? NO WAY !

Told Vittorio Adorni on Saturday in Rovereto , that the UCI has reached the point , where it no longer serves the Racers , let alone the " Tifosi "!

Avatar
pwake | 10 years ago
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Oh! He hasn't invited Pat...

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