Davina McCall launches new, women-only charity ride for Action Medical Research

According to a Sustrans spokesman (ahem..person) on the radio last week women are the key to increasing cycle journey's in the UK as they are more effective as a pressure group and tend to encourage wider family participation - rather than sneak out on the Sunday morning in small groups and pretend they're pros.

I suspect that apart from the intimidation from motor vehicles on the roads we all suffer from, women are put off commuting by bike as it's not just a question of arriving at work, dabbing on extra Sure Extra dry, smoothing down your hair and going straight into a meeting. Completely understandable.

Club rides seem to be a hassle for women for two reasons: You can't really take a leak at the side of the road as men do, and you have to put up with tired male repartee and them staring at your arse until you can get another woman to join. At which point you both have to put up with the repartee and staring...

I have to cycle alongside blokes every weekend listening to their tired BS about fictitious races they've been in where they averaged 30 mph, their opinion on football, and why their bike is better than yours- and I am a bloke! Out of a membership of over 80 we have just two women in our club. One is an ex pro married to an ex pro and can beat 99% of the club with little effort - so she's considered behind her back to be a man pretending to be a woman. Ho ho... The other probably wears earplugs and hangs back to avoid puncturing any egos.

If Davina builds up women only sportives, acts as an example to my young daughter and inspires her to take up cycling for fitness I will be delighted.

I would be equally delighted in 5-10 years time to be out on a club run and passed at speed by an all woman group who kick our collective arse.

Raising money for charity and getting women on bikes can both be seen to be a "good thing" which, like mum and apple pie, nobody can really disagree with. Then there is the law which governs us all, including Davina McCall.

Charity cycle rides have always been open to both sexes, up until now. How many women rode them is irrelevent; they were entitled to enter. If I promoted a charity ride aimed at a men's health issue, exclusive to men riders only, I would be hammered by the cycle pundits such as yourself Tony. Which just goes to show that if you are a TV personality with a pretty face the chattering classes will overlook your breaking the law and demonise anyone who comments ctitically on it.

Forget cycling; this does not make for a good society.

It's a similar concept to the Moonwalk, which is a massive women-only event. (As opposed to a massive-women only event. Or a group of females dedicated to letter-writing which would be a missive-women only event, but I digress...)

Don't see them being shut down or even criticised for discrimination. And it's good that there is a cycling version, which might encourage more women to take part in other events.

If you don't like it then organise your own event. There are plenty of charity rides. Or sponsor someone taking part if you want to help.

Honestly, if your reaction to this is concern that males are being excluded from a cycling event, well I think you're beyond help.

And if you've never taken part in any cycling event* then 1. You're hardly qualified to comment and
2. How did you get here ?

*Unless you're an audaxer in which case we understand, you've done dozens of rides and P-B-P twice but never actually spoken to anybody.

Which reminds me of the joke about how you can tell an extroverted audaxer...

He looks at YOUR shoes while he's talking.

More totty in the sport and tighter buns to admire - Hooray - that's not sexist is it

Oh FFS!!

TV presenter in doing something worthwhile shocker and all the men can do is carp.

I wondered who would be stupid enough to cry foul over discrimination and so far the count is 4.

If you're that bothered about not being invited to Davina's charity do and being able to raise money then sign up for one of the other organised cancer rides or do a sportive and get your mates and family to sponsor you or organise one of your own.

One thing that bugs me is why those running events for cancer awareness are for women only. My mother has had breast cancer 3 times and it certainly affected the males in the household, men can also get breast cancer so...why make that women only? I am all for more women taking part in cycling but if there was a 'men only' race started there would be uproar about sexism and discrimination.

"discrimination (noun) - treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit"

So, there we have it, pb4 is right, Davina's ride is discriminatory. And I'm all for it! It'll guarantee more women get on their bikes than would be this case if this were an 'open' event, and perhaps they'll be tempted to join open rides following that. You've failed to explain where the harm is in that.

Good on ya Divina!!! To those who have spat the dummy out with cries of disrimination b******s!!! How many sportives take place with a healthy ratio of men and women?? How many women do you meet on training runs??? How many clubs out there are male dominated?? I have no issue in a female only sportive! May they raise plenty of cash and may they turn away many due to the popularity of this particular sportive!! Hopefully this will be a huge step forward in introducing more women to this great sport!

Completely support women only events. I support my wife on charity runs she does by helping her clear time for training from a busy schedule. Good for her. I am proud that she exercises, I like to think I might have influenced her a little to the good of exercise.

She started with a couple of women-only breast cancer runs and got enough confidence then to do other events. She has been responsible for four or five other school mums running now too. Without the friendly atmosphere of the women only events she might not have got the early encouragement needed. So, all hail charity events and women only is fine by me.

I have also been involved in positive discrimination events in the form of Dad's mornings at nursery and they have been very good too. Generally encouraging the breakdown of 'traditional' roles and so on is something I favour. This includes working only the hours you get paid for:-)

Technically there might not be anything any of the organisers could do legally to enforce a women only event - so I guess all you outraged men above are free to apply and then take it to the courts should you wish. I would be interested to know how you get on, should to you put your money where your mouth is... Would be interested to know if there is any legal basis for this or whether it's just convention and respect for other people's effort and good will that makes an event 'women only'.

A

Events like this make cycling more accessible to a lot of women who might otherwise miss out on what we know if a fantastically enjoyable and healthy past time and form of transport - that can only be a good thing.

Women don't take part in cycling events or indeed cycle in anything like the numbers men do, and lots of women would probably like to give it a go this is helping them do that. At the moment there is a massive gender gap between men and women in cycling - that surely amounts to de facto discrimination even if it's unintended.

As for discrimination? If this event was in any way breaking the law Action Medical Research wouldn't be doing it and nor would Sport England have given British Cycling a million quid to get more women on bikes - in large part by organising women only rides.

Quote:

The fact that many sportives are practically male only events is completely beside the point. Women can take part in these sportives if they wish. men should be allowaed to take part in this event also

it's probably because of bores like you that the laydeez stay away from the sportives in the first place. lighten up.

No it's not, more women are likely to take part because it's only open to women.

Thanks 5339 that's the right link - we've added it to the story too

The 'here' link at the end of the article appears not to go to the right page. Could this be it - http://www.action.org.uk/davinas_diva100

Good on the women, I say. It's a super way to encourage more women to take up the sport and hearing that British Cycling are doing similar is an excellent sign.

Next stop, a women's World Tour and parity with the men.

where one group has been historically disadvantaged, (and many would say still are) then there is a need to provide positive and exclusive activities to address the already unbalanced status quo - hence this is a great activity being spear headed by a great person.

I well remember watching (on television) Davina McCall doing her section of the Walliams Sport Relief event and I was very impressed with the courage she showed, I am even more impressed to hear that she has "taken up cycling" on a regular basis. I hope the event is a great success, well done Hinnie.

Well, Action Medical Research run a very full calendar of charity rides and challenge rides the participants for which will be overwhelmingly male - maybe they thought that this might be putting off some potential women riders, especially those who don't ride a bike regularly. British Cycling will also be running some female only charity rides this year… breast cancer charities have been doing female only events for years without any feeling the need to call in the lawyers.

As I said at the top very many sportives are practically male only events as it is.

Excluding men from a sporting charity event will more than half the money raised.

Why isn't this considered discrimination?

That's a great idea - I hope they get a good response as it might go some way to showing the potential for growth in women's participation in cycling.