We recently celebrated Scottish Women and Girls in Sport Week, shining a light on some of the opportunities, initiatives and people contributing to growing the involvement and visibility of women and girls in cycling in Scotland.

On Wednesday 27^th October we brought together a panel of female bike-racers to share their experiences and advice for any women thinking of or just getting started in racing. Hosted by Scottish Cycling Board Member, Diane Clayton-Chisholm, who also has experience of entering and organising bike races, she was joined by:

• Kirsty Ellis, who rediscovered her love of cycling in her 40s and gets up to all sorts of adventures involving two wheels. Her favourite racing is cyclocross, closely followed by track cycling
• Elizabeth Adams, whose first race was the Strathpuffer in 2006 and since then has raced cross-country mountain bike, a couple of downhill races, cyclocross and a wee bit of road and crit racing. She has also competed in multi-day mountain bike races home and abroad, including the HT550, and more recently dipped her toe into Zwift racing and off-road triathlon
• Beth Maciver is 20 years old and currently studying physiotherapy at university. She only took up cycling in 2019 and started to take it more seriously when she had more time during lockdown. Training hard, she fell in love with the sport and ventured into virtual racing, joining Movistar in March 2021 to be part of their eSports Team. She has also competed outdoors this year, racing with Torvelo Racing, winning the Scottish National Crit Champ and a second place at the Scottish National Road Race Championships
• Roisin Gordon is a Project Manager from Glasgow and a member of Glasgow Green cycling club. She has been cycling her whole life, cycles in club settings and has been racing cyclocross for the last four years. In 2021 she entered first road and time-trial races

The webinar explored each of the panellists’ experiences in bike racing, with heaps of inspiration and advice to get you started.

• See here for more information about race licences
• See here to search for upcoming events. Look out for ones that are running coaching sessions before the race, these are a great way to increase confidence and familiarise yourself with the race course
• See here to search for your local cycling club(s)

You’ll find lots of information and advice and the opportunity to chat with other female riders on the following Facebook groups:

• Scotland’s Women Cyclists
• Scottish Women of Cross

Some disciplines also have their own associations organising and supporting the delivery of races, where you’ll find information about upcoming events:

• Scottish Cyclocross Association
• SXC (Scottish Cross Country Association)
• SDA (Scottish Downhill Association)

For more advice, check-out these British Cycling website links:

• Women’s Cycling: Progressing to the Next Level
• How to get into Road Racing, Race Smart Video
• Cyclocross Tips (and Fails) from Britain’s Best
• Try a Race with Zwift
• Riding a 10 Mile Time Trial
• Warm Ups and Cool Downs for Cyclists

Want to support local races by volunteering? Check-out all the different volunteering roles and opportunities available.