She Pedals no more

Lack of support forces unique women's cycling magazine to close

Having noticed a lack of cycling magazines aimed at women, track cyclist Dena Eaton took matters into her own hands and launched one. She Pedals seemed destined to become a hit - with more and more women taking up the sport every year, either competitively or as part of a fitness program - anyone would have thought that the title would soon build up a considerable and loyal following around the world. Sadly, it was not to be so; after two years in which the magazine made its way into a handful of Barnes&Noble bookshops and independents, even the subscriptions that made up the vast bulk of readership proved insufficient and the title has closed.

"I've used up most of my savings trying to do this and it’s time to go on to other pursuits," Eaton told the publication's 1500 Facebook fans, citing continued lack of support as the reason.

In the early days, She Pedals was entirely devoted to cycling with a range of articles on bikes, nutrition, fitness, rides and female riders/industry figures. However, that lack of support forced Eaton to rebrand the California-based magazine as Endure and include articles on swimming and running in an attempt to appeal to the triathlete market.

Could She Pedals have been viable? Probably. Even the upper echelons of the professional women's cycling world are virtually ignored by the established cycling press, yet more fans than ever before follow the sport and more women than ever before are riding bikes. It's still at grassroots level, but there's a definite sense of change in the air with new women's teams coming together; a feeling that maybe next year, perhaps the year after that, it's going to explode and finally receive the recognition, sponsorship and respect it's deserved for so long. At present the magazine trade is unaware of how large the market has the potential to become - had it have been otherwise, She Pedals would have been out there in more shops and more copies would have sold.

There'll be plenty of women's cycling magazines on the shelves in two years' time. She Pedals was just too ahead of its time.

Nicole Cooke fails to regain title

Nicole Cooke, who hoped to regain the British Women's Road Race title following a year of disappointing results after illness at today's race in Stamfordham, Northumberland, was beaten by Lizzie Armitstead who came second in 2009 and 2010.

Cooke riding in the 2010 Flèche Walonne, a race she has won on three occasions

Armistead crossed the line just two seconds ahead of the Welsh ex-champion after a high-speed sprint to the finish, having been part of a four-rider breakaway that led the field for almost the entirety of the 65 mile course. Emma Pooley rode well, as ever, and her Garmin team kept things moving along at a high rate. Cooke, who has previously accused her rivals of ganging up on her in order to prevent her winning, seemed content - "I realised there wasn’t much chance of me being able to break away by myself with three strong girls who’d chase me down," she said, "So I just had to go as good as I could in the sprint and cover the attacks that they threw in."

However, finishing ahead of Pooley will doubtless keep her spirits up and second place remains a sufficiently good to guarantee her place for the time being on the Mario Cippolini-Giordana team. With two Tour de France Féminin wins and a host of other trophies including nine previous wins in this race, Cooke is the only female cyclist to have won an Olympic gold and held a National Champion title in the same year. At 28 years old there's no reason to suspect she's past her best yet and she may well be back on form by the start of next year.


Armitstead's victory was deserved - she rode well and has proved herself to be one of Britain's finest. With her, Pooley, Martin and Laws riding together, Garmin have what is probably the strongest Women's British team ever and one that will bring much attention to British cycling and it'd surprise nobody were she now to become leader of the British women's team ready for the World Road Race Final set to take place in Copenhagen this September - an event which should suit the 22-year-old West Yorkshire rider as the region is relatively flat and will feature the sort of sprints at which she has proved she excels.


Lucy Martin's 2nd place in the Under-23 Championship, along with Laura Trott's 1st and Dani King's 3rd, shows just how highly young British female riders are performing currently - if one thing's for certain, it's that women's racing is vibrant, top quality and worthy of far higher exposure than it currently receives. Hopefully, with riders of this calibre emerging and adding their successes to those already achieved by the likes of Cooke, Pooley, Pendleton and others, that'll change in the coming years and events will receive the same attention that men's races do.

Lizzie Armitstead took a deserved first place.

1st - Lizzie Armitstead (Garmin-Cervelo) (2h 28' 40")
2nd - Nicole Cooke (Mario Cippolini-Giodana) (+2")
3rd - Sharon Laws (Garmin-Cervelo) (+4")
4th - Emma Pooley (Garmin Cervelo) (+8")
5th - Laura Trott (Moving Ladies) (1st place Under-23 Champs)
6th - Lucy Martin (Garmin-Cervelo) (2nd place Under-23)
7th - Dani King (Horizon) (3rd place Under-23)
8th - Catherine Williamson (Konica Minolta)
9th - Katie Colclaugh (HTC-Highroad)
10th - Emma Grant (For-Viored-Brookwex)
(5th - 10th place awarded same time)

Marianne Vos at work in the Netherlands

NK wielrennen op de weg 2010 dames by tedvdw

Marianne Vos racing in the Netherlands. If this was a men's race, there'd be spectators everywhere. Watch the speed through the corners and give me one reason why women's racing doesn't attract as much attention as the men's does.

Women's GP crash update

The four riders airlifted to hospital following a huge crash at Minneapolis have all been discharged from hospital with relatively minor injuries. Robin Bauer has a separated shoulder, Shelley Olds has injured ribs which will probably affect her ability next weekend to hang onto her US Criterium title, Laura Ralston has a broken collar-bone while Hillary Billington got away with cuts and bruises.

The crash, which some spectators called the worst they'd ever witnessed, also involved top all-rounder Kristin Armstrong who returned to professional cycling last year after the birth of her son and who hopes to compete in the 2012 London Olympics. Officials stopped the event and later decided to abandon altogether.

Kristin Armstrong was involved in the crash but escaped injury.

Brit woman wins Tour Series

You think cycling is ignored by British TV? Well, how about women's cycling? Did you even know that there are professional female cyclists? Many people don't, because the women's cycling world gets even less attention that men's cycling, despite the fact that there's a number of British women who are among the best cyclists in the world. But then, when even the undoubtedly TV-friendly face of Victoria Pendleton can't get the sport the exposure it deserves, what hope does sheer skill and ability have of getting it on the box?

Professional Kona rider Helen Wyman adds another trophy to her collection - will she be on the news tonight?

One of those women is Helen Wyman, professional rider for the Kona Factory Racing team and rides in both road racing and cyclocross, holding the British Champion title for the last five years. Wyman's cabinet is groaning under the weight of at least 34 other trophies, which is a damn sight more than any British male rider can claim, and she's just added another in the shape of the Women's GP tour series after beating challenger Lucy Garner (who doesn't even have a Wikipedia page) who trailed Wyman by a mere three points in the overall classification despite Garner beating her across the finish line in the final stage of the event which took place in Woking.

Is she going to be on the news tonight like Bradley Wiggins was when he won the Critérium du Dauphiné the other day? With 99.9% certainty, no. Why? She's a hero!