Tuesday 17 April 2012

Come and ride with us on May 13 and celebrate women's cycling

On May 13th Cycletopia are leading a tour of the Pennines in support of Cyclofemme's Global Women's Cycling Day.
The Cyclofemme rides are the brainchild of U.S. based women's biking webzine GirlBikeLove and are being held to commemorate and celebrate women and cycling across the world, in their words, "to honour the past, celebrate the present and empower the future". 
Currently there are 67 rides registered to take place in nine countries and the list is still growing.
The rides are free and open to all, with the option to sign up to an existing ride or register a ride of your own on the Cyclofemme site.
So why not join us to celebrate women's cycling on May 13? 
Our Pennine ride is a hilly 35 mile on-road route taking in some stunning scenery across West Yorkshire and Lancashire. We'll be setting off from Hebden Bridge train station at 10am (to link up with the 9.08am train from Manchester Victoria) and having a cafe stop in Trawden. The ride is most suitable for road bikes and hybrids with slick tyres as we're aiming for an average speed of 10-12mph, but we won't leave anyone behind. 
EVERYONE is welcome on the ride - although the aim Cyclofemme is to celebrate women's cycling, the rides are not exclusively for women - so if you know a bloke or two who would like to join us on the ride then please feel free to bring them along too.
A map of the route can be found here.
To register for the event in advance click on our facebook event page or send us an email.

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Fancy a go at cross-country MTB racing?

Here at Cycletopia we're all about empowering women to get out and ride their bikes, so the Stilettos on Wheels event is definitely worth a mention on these pages. There are a growing number of road-based women-only events around, but this is the first event we know of that is aimed at mountain bikers.

This event is aimed at all levels of rider interested in taking part in cross-country (XC) mountain bike racing and there will be four entrance categories: solo (2- or 4-hour) and pairs (2- or 4-hour). Usually enduro (or XC) races are longer than this -- 8, 12 or 24 hours -- so having the chance to ride this shorter race makes the event accessible to beginners or anyone wanting to have a go and see whether they enjoy it. You don't have to be a hardcore rider to want to give it a try, but if you have raced before you can go and give it your all for the full 4 hours.

The best bit (because we all like a freeby) is that anyone signing up for the Birchall (Derbyshire) race on May 19th gets a free waterbottle if they sign up by the end of April. And it's pink! A few of us from Cycletopia will be there so why not come along too?