In March 2013, British Cycling outlined a new ambition to get one million more women on bikes by 2020. We have a 50-year history of female under-representation in the sport, and currently, four times as many men as women ride bikes.
While we know that this won’t change overnight, British Cycling is no stranger to setting ourselves ambitious targets, and we recognise that the direction of travel is important.
We want to be at the forefront of this change. Our role is to show leadership and create an environment in which women’s cycling can thrive.
Over the first four years of the seven-year strategy, 723,000 women were encouraged to take up cycling. Gains have been made in other areas too; the female ‘market share’ is increasing, and the number of female coaches is increasing.
The HSBC UK Breeze programme, set up to get more women riding bikes for fun, is now six years old and over 150,000 participants have got on their bikes for one of Breeze’s fun, social, local rides.
British Cycling now has over 20,000 female members – a figure which represents a huge growth on the 3,000 who were members in 2008.
The number of female coaches delivering coaching activity has grown by 70% since the launch of the women’s strategy in 2013, with the number of trained female coaches now standing at over 1,100.
At elite level, the performances of our female cyclists continue to provide inspiration for women across the country – British women took home five medals from the Rio Olympics and twelve from the Paralympics, while Lizzie Deignan and Rachel Atherton have both recently won world titles in their respective disciplines.
British Cycling is determined to capitalise on the remarkable momentum driving women’s cycling, creating additional opportunities for women to get involved in our sport at every level.
Download: #WeRide British Cycling's strategy to get one million more women cycling by 2020 - Four year update
Download: #WeRide British Cycling’s strategy to get one million more women cycling by 2020 - Two year update
Download: A Journey of Inspiration and Opportunity - One year on
Download: A Journey of Inspiration and Opportunity - Six month update
Download: British Cycling women's strategy
