As part of Women and Girls in Sport Week 2021, we want to highlight some of the great work the cycling community is undertaking in order to encourage more female participation in our sport. As the largest cycling membership organisation in Scotland, Scottish Cycling works to create a network of safe, progressive and inclusive clubs, supporting the development of a diverse cycle sport community. 

Elgin CC are a shining example of a club that has grown a diverse and inclusive membership, and now has a thriving woman and girls section. Scottish Cycling caught up with Lorna Breetzke to discuss the development of the club to this point, their aspirations for the future, and how she accidently started a woman and girls section.

Elgin CC was formed in 1981 to provide road group rides for their members with a predominantly male membership – it wasn’t until 2010 that a female rider joined the club! Over the years since, the club has grown to 182 members with 46% of members now women. The club runs weekly club sessions for members, and delivers events throughout the year.

So, how do you accidently start a new section of a club? Very easily, it would appear – if you have an enthusiastic group of riders and a motivated person to kick it off and continue when things start to snowball.

Lorna explains how the women and girls club section came to be:

‘At the start of June last year, after the restrictions eased and riders were allowed to cycle with another household, I – along with some friends, Diane Maciver and Amy Curtis – started a group chat for weekly Wednesday night rides.  Over the next few weeks other riders were asked to come along, including some non-members who had seen pictures that were put up on Facebook. This very quickly developed, and by the end of August 2020 the small messenger group had turned into a reasonable sized chat with 21 women riders regularly participating in the Wednesday rides. We never set out to separate the women from the men and initially it just started as a casual get together, which then snowballed into something else.’

With the amount of interest in the rides, Lorna decided to create a women’s page on the club site, with the intention of allowing the promotion of events and weekly rides. Facebook also allowed the new group to organise and categorise their rides based on average speeds. This meant that riders of a similar ability could get the best out of their ride:

• Group 1 – 16mph+
• Group 2 – 14.5-15.5mph
• Group 3 – 13.5-14.5mph
• Group 4 – 12.5 – 13.5mph

The other benefit of this was that riders would sign up to a ride and see who was in what group. This worked really well, giving the riders added peace of mind that they could keep up with that group.

The first week in September was quite a week for the group with the first women-only TT race and taking part in the Rapha 100 Ride. Officially, the TT was a race, but it was also of a taster session for participants as none of the women had completed a TT before. The riders gave 100% throughout, and most found that they surprised themselves with how well they performed, and with learning that being involved in a race is not as intimidating as they first thought. The Rapha 100 was also a great experience, and for some, was the longest ride they had ever completed.

The winter was a struggle for everyone to get out so indoor training became the norm. By the time the Wednesday night rides started up again in the spring, the group had grown to 37 riders! When the group riders started back it took a while for the legs to get spinning again, but gradually riders started to move up the group levels as strength and fitness started to return. As has been said, this format works as it gives people confidence to go out, feel comfortable, and gradually progress in line with their fitness and abilities. Over the next few months, the riders started to move into faster groups; eventually there were no riders signing up for the slowest group.

At this point, Elgin CC started the ‘Blow Your Own Trumpet’ initiative for riders to tell the group about their achievements whatever they maybe big or small.

Confidence in cycling isn’t just about the ability to ride well alone or in a group. Having the confidence to just go out for a ride and know that you can deal with most things a road trip can throw at you is very important. To help get the women exploring what they had on their doorsteps and further afield, Elgin CC received a grant through Scottish Cycling to run cycle maintenance courses and receive some coaching from a local provider. This has gone a long way to helping adventurous spirits embrace their wanderlust in the oft-limited available time in their busy lives.

In May of this year, the group started Breeze rides for non-members, which are generally fully booked. They now have 4 Breeze leaders, which has been a major contributor to the growth of membership. 59 women now partake in activity with the women and girls section, a brilliant figure considering the initiative started with just 2 members a little more than a year ago.

Looking to the future, the group is aiming to get riders started on their coaching pathways to be able to deliver quality coaching for their members. They also want to increase their available sessions to be more inclusive so that they can attract women who would like to experience a group ride but don’t have the group skills or fitness for the other rides. Some of the women are also now joining mixed rides and further testing their cycling abilities.

So, to a final word from Lorna:

‘We now have 4 of us organising the ladies group – myself, Amy Curtis, Diane Maciver and Shirley Feaks. We already have plans for next season and hope to continue the growth of our membership.

Why does it work? I think you have to put in the effort, keep motivating, keep encouraging and keep giving them new challenges.  We live in a time where people need something to get them away from it all for a little bit.  We all have busy lives so a little escape on a Wed night with likeminded women always does the trick and the smiles at the end of a ride says it all!’

All of us at Scottish Cycling look forward to supporting the club as they continue their exciting development, and we offer special thanks to Lorna Breetzke on behalf of Elgin CC for her time provided in the development of this article.