Lizzie Armitstead: I’m disappointed in Brian Cookson

Lizzie is in the right here ! Tweeted High & mighty Cookson last week after reading the Blog " Prowomen ", thus alerting him to the Toscana HC ( has cars ) F?cßup . Monday he comes out with a " wtf will checkup " tweet!

WELL WE ARE STILL AWAITING THE REPORT ! WHY ? You are tweeting @cooksonforuci & you run a blog (briancookson.com) yet as Pres. of UCI Road you appear to have nO COOPERATION from the Organiser or UCI Personnel at this Event ! says a lot for what you can expect to achieve IF YOU get the nod on friday !

This is Womens Racing at the HIGHEST LEVEL , not a bunch of school kids going around the block for a bit of fun ! As regards his disparagement of Nicole Cooke , anyone remember him ducking publicity WHEN SHE WAS ON THE PODIUM? Yes she was a MEDIA Story so those with her got their MUGS in the paper ! Not bad for their " reps "?

Get real Cookson , you are kidding the PUBLIC when you can't even do YOUR CURRENT JOB WELL !

OUT WITH Both of these charlatons ! Put a woman in Aigle with the MANDATE to clean house !

Will we be worse off ?

WE Couldn't lose by trying this as an interim measure !

Granted, running a road race with traffic is bonkers, but she's got to realise that simply because she takes part in cycle races doesn't mean that it's necessarily a good thing and that it should attract interest, money and crowds. I don't disagree with her that the piggy-backing on the men's races is a way to achieve some exposure, but it won't mean she gets quite the exposure she seems to believe she merits.

The UCI should support women's cycling but the answer is not to force it down the throat of teams and the media

It kind of sums up the UCI's approach to women's cycling that their defence is "look, two professional women cyclists haven't criticised us. Women should be grateful for that."

Oh and on that rant, monetary return via media coverage is only an issue because the media don't, not can't, cover womens races. The problem is that the likes of the UCI and British Cycling do not do anything to prevent the media from taking such a biased and unfair standpoint. There's no need not to film something thats happening at the same time, in the same place, it's just they don't want to because of the existing stigma around women doing sports.

"Get back in that kitchen." That's all this is.

This is horrendous. On the subject of Tuscany and safety - these are world class athletes, comparable in skill, training and dedication to Cav, Cancellara etc, different only in gender. Why the hell should they have to put up with this when not one of their male counterparts would have to have any doubt over event planning of this kind.

Also, the UCI seemingly refused to put up any live coverage of this event - it was only covered, online, by RAI sport - great if you speak fluent Italian.

It's disgusting that this is still happening after the last few years and infuriates me to the point of combustion. Watching poorly filmed home videos of international grand tours (women's, of course) - where the stars are getting changed in the back of hire cars that they drove there themselves and making up their own bottles from water bought at local newsagents. While the equivalent men's teams warm up under parasols held up by apprentices while international television agencies interview them and their coaches carefully monitor every inch of their anatomy before they set off.

There is NO excuse for this divide, not to this degree.

If I ever have chidren, and if I ever had a girl and a boy and both are budding cyclists like their parents - when I ask them of their aspirationas and they both alike answer "to be professional cyclists" - why should I have to tell one that she'll have to think about a "real" career as women cannot sustain a permanent lifestyle out of being a pro female, whereas her brother would enjoy the benefits of an almost rock-star like life. Why does this even need to be part of the conversation? Why do I have to kill a childs aspirations in one sentence purely because of this unecessary inequality!?

The only thing my brain wants to know is "why?", because as yet no reasonable explanation as to why all of this is still a problem in our sport has been given.

Sorry for the rant but I race with a few junior girls here who are well on their way to superstardom, but knowing that once they hit my age (mid-twenties) - they will probably have to sacrifice most of their training time for a full time job to support themselves, it's more than saddening. It's literally heartbreaking.

What does a sponsor get? They get their name linked with something that isn't widely perceived as being rife with dopers. Why do you think Rabobank are still happy for Marianne Vos to wear their logo, even though they've pulled out of the Men's side of the sport?

Womens cycling is exciting and its a snip for sponsors. Lets hope the TOB initiative is a success and others follow suit.

It's a viscous circle - sponsors want exposure, so without TV/media coverage there's little point in promoting an event that only a man and his dog is watching. Obviously, if World Tour race events were encouraged to include a women's race in the programme, then it would be a good starts - there are Fleche Wallonne and Tour of Flanders races on the same day as the men's race.

So with, at the current count, three men's teams dropping this year, Europcar always on the edge and even "big" teams like Saxo struggling for money, where will the funds come from for the compulsory women's teams?

Perhaps there needs to be encouragement or incentive to do it rather than just obligation. If it's only world tour teams that would be forced to do it, some of the smaller teams would never make that step up to World Tour as finding an extra 5-10% of their budget would be a problem.

"Elite athletes are interesting, aren't they? They have personalities that are sometimes difficult to handle – and Nicole is one of those people who has a particular view of things which she's absolutely entitled to."

Let's imply that she's a bit weird, while being both patronising and nominally defending her right to be that bit weird.

Anyone who thinks there aren't more hurdles for women than men needs to get out more. If pro cycling is nominally about marketing products, then the makers should realise that there are a lot of women out there making purchasing decisions. Early adopters of women's teams could do well.

So what do people expect by plowing money into it? The problem is that the return for sponsors has never been great from women's sport. If the ultimate goal is to increase women's participation then there are other ways of doing this. Effectively the numbers have to be there and this is not limited to women's sports either.

Like so many women's sports, beyond repeated efforts to kick-start the sport they fall flat because interest wanes. For these things to be successful they should be self sustaining.

I wonder how many people have sought out paraolympian events post-Olympics? I wonder how many of you were disappointed when the teams pulled out of the women's Tour of Tuscany? So beyond writing right-on comments about women's sports how do you actively show your on-going interest and commitment to women's sports? Seems even Road.cc only pays it lip service by reporting Armitsteads comments rather the results of the women's races.

I think more women should be encouraged to participate in sport, be competitive and enjoy being healthy. But I bet when you look deeper into the costs and problems faced by BC and even the UCI, the budgets are not there. After all in the case of the Tour of Tuscany, it is not that the problem is getting teams to compete, but the costs of running the event on closed roads. Do you spend your budget on things which actively encourage cycling (at all levels) or just those elite women?

Quick question:

If Pat McQuaid gets re-elected, will the UCI not forcing the current men's teams to set up women's teams still be Brian Cookson's fault?

First comment shows the difficulties women's cycling have to face: blinkered and self-centred attitude.

Cookson is supposed to be revitalising cycling? Not if the views expressed here are typical of his general attitude.

What comes first, the investment in the teams for sponsorship return, or the races that draw crowds for the sponsorship to be viable?

Forcing larger team sponsors to spend on a women's team while accepting that the women's team needs a small fraction of the budget seems counter-productive. Surely it needs a platform where bigger investment is an attractive proposition to sponsors.

Maybe Brian Cookson needs some time to sort out the UCI mess and address the current issues before putting this in place is possible. Not saying it's not an issue, just that there may be a lot of dodgy goings on that need clearing out before serious investment in women's racing will get a fair hearing. I hope it does, to me racing is nothing to do with higher average speeds and everything to do with spirited attitudes and bold moves from riders and I see plenty of that in women's racing, on or off-road.

Quite how women would 'do it for themselves' when racing is controlled at pro level by the UCI I'm not sure.

If the UCI commit to a coherent women's season and a couple of pro teams commit to investing in women's squads then televisation of the women's giro will follow and cash for women's racing will expand.

Good for Armistead. Call them to account before they have time to slack I've heard no details from Cookson except criticism of feisty young hot heads like Nicole Cooke. As an emotional athlete what does she know about cycling?

He's still the head of BC, and she has a legitimate gripe.

I think this is pretty shameless. Have a pop before he's even been voted in.

Plus if women want women's cycling to succeed why do they need to piggy back off the men? Why don't they do it for themselves? Men's cycling hasn't required women's cycling, so why do they need the men's support? Perhaps they want to be patronised.

It is like women's professional football and basketball. It would be pretty much unsustainable if they weren't affiliated with the men's team.