Monday 8 March 2021 is International Women’s Day (IWD). In anticipation of this celebration of women's achievement and fight for equality, we take a look at one of Scotland’s cycling teams that has grown and transformed, more than doubling in size with almost equal numbers of men and women representing the team in disciplines across the cycling community.
Started in 2015 as Provision Scotland by a group of racers (all men) as a team focused on performance and achievement, with a friendly, ethical basis, it was decided at a meeting late in 2019 that it was time to extend the project and invite some women racers onto the squad.
Lucie Hrnickova, formerly of Edinburgh Road Club, was brought on board and she set about building a diverse squad, covering lots of different disciplines and age groups. The pandemic kind of got in the way a little as many riders put racing on the back burner and concentrated on other matters but approaching the end of 2020 Lucie had attracted a core number of riders to the team.
A call went out for applications and the team was inundated with requests from women who wanted to race with the best and challenge themselves and each other. Important to the team since its inception six years ago is the idea of friendship and as soon as the invites were accepted, the women were talking and discussing ride outs when allowed, Zwift training and racing and the all-important planned café rides.
With some new sponsorship the team is now called Vanelli-Project GO and comprises 15 men and 17 women, with the youngest rider Mia joining the team in June when she turns 18.
There are some well-known faces on the men’s side with Jason Roberts acting as one of the road captains and Greig Brown as the other. Joining the team this year are young Alex Ball, Gregor McArthur and Graham Smith and they’ll be racing with Andy Bruce, Tom Merry and Louis Moore among others.
On the women’s side though the action won’t just be confined to road, track and time trial…the team has riders that will compete in mountain biking with Kat Brown hitting the downhill races, Frances Drummond and Jami Blyth will be riding crits and the odd TT, Hilary Holding and Iona Hamilton will be forming part of the TTT line-up and Eleanor McKay, Grace Norman, Claire Faddel and Lexi Ligeti will be joining Lucie in road races and on the track.
The team has also attracted four very experienced racers in Fleury Stoops, Katie Turbitt, Clare McNulty and Gemma Penman and they’ll be riding a whole host of different types of races as usual, Fleury and Clare on the boards and Gemma and Katie riding everything from the velodrome to the muddy cyclocross races that are the hallmark of Scottish CX.
The race kit is ordered, events are being penciled in and the team is just waiting for the day when they can all meet up again and go racing…and some of the women are even thinking of trying that other sport…triathlon.
With experienced triathletes Eilidh Thomson, and Mia Padmanabhan joining the team in June, they may even be going for the team prize as well.
The full team is:
Jason Roberts, Lucie Hrnickova, Greig Brown, Hilary Holding, Rob Friel, Iona Hamilton, David Griffiths, Gemma Penman, Andy Bruce, Claire Faddel, Oliver Murray, Hazel Smyth, Dave Reed, Lucy Ritchie, Richard McDonald, Frances Drummond, Garry Latimer, Jami Blyth, Louis Moore, Grace Norman, Tom Merry, Eleanor McKay, Alex Ball, Kat Brown, Gregor McArthur, Fleury Stoops, Graham Smith, Katie Turbitt, Lexi Ligeti, Lynn Girdwood, Clare McNulty, Alexandra Hayden, Eilidh Thomson with Mark McGhee acting as team manager.
