Not to defend Wiggins (who I am not a fan of), but well over half of the lady riders I know descend with fear. They play the safe card. Descend slow, careful, make it to the bottom just fine… most times.  Their bikes are unscathed after many years of very careful use. They know not the thrill of a brakeless descent. My girlfriend is like this. She refuses to descend hills at more than a few km/h.

The remainder though… the remainder scare the shit out of me. They are the Genghis Khan’s of the bike world: one must not underestimate them. They are tiny women of fearlessness. They descend like demons. They do so without a sound. You turn to look for them and they’re passing you to hit the next climb already. They are insanely fast. They often tuck in to the drafts of their larger counterparts, flying blind into hairpin corners at great speed with equally great finesse. They might as well be skimming the surface of a death star, using nothing but the force to torpedo a hole no bigger than a womp rat. The only thing holding them back is their lesser weight and the laws of aerodynamics. Even this is no reason to breathe easily: The lightweight Japanese Zero fighters were not greatly feared without reason.

Two women stand out when I think of this. One whom I greatly enjoy riding with and admire and respect greatly, and the other I have not yet had the opportunity to yet. One is a world champion XC MTB racer, who I started talking to after seeing her descend like the devil while chasing her on a 100 mi ride. The other was a neopro for a few years who recently returned to corporate world, and I greatly look forward to riding with her in the near future.

With a little luck, she will have mercy and I won’t get dropped on the first mile of the ride.

rawrbikes:

by: 

Lauren

The first week of the 2013 Giro has passed. After heading into the race as a favorite, Bradley Wiggins hasn’t had the most stellar performance, sitting a little over a minute behind the leaders. He has had his share of difficulties this year, but that leaves no excuse for his comments after Friday’s rainy stage, where he crashed on the descent with about 7km to go.

“Let’s be honest,” he said, “I descended like bit of a girl really after the crash.” He quickly attempted to hide his faux pas, throwing in, “not to disrespect girls, I have one at home.”

That’s your excuse, Wiggo? You have a daughter, therefore… it’s ok. Whether or not his comments were genuinely intended as an insult (to be honest, I doubt that he was purposefully being demeaning… let’s not overlook that he is backing the Wiggle Honda women’s team), but that is far removed from the problem. It is the attitude towards women in sport that is the issue at hand here, and how female athletes are viewed. The view of women being the weaker, fairer sex is damaging to what women can achieve in sport, and to the further development of women’s cycling.  

Let’s face it, women have more obstacles than men to deal with if they want to be successful athletes in any sport. Why drag women into your lack of confidence, Wiggins? How is that anyone’s problem but your own? Five-time Giro winner Eddy Merckx puts it correctly, “He’s ridden the past few days like a novice on the downhills. I think there is something wrong with his material, he has no confidence.”  A novice, he says. Not a girl, not a woman. A novice. He leaves gender out of the equation.

Let me reiterate, I don’t believe that Wiggins necessarily meant to be insulting. The bigger issue is here the way in which we talk about women in sport, the comparisons drawn and the language used. It’s a shame that comments such as these are commonplace, however it has far more to do with male insecurity than female inability. Anyone can have an off period on the bike, or a time where they are lacking confidence, but please, leave gender out of it.

Sources

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/cycling/10053670/Giro-dItal…

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-shorts-merckx-calls-wiggins…

(via bikesandbeats)