{"id":172123,"date":"2019-01-25T12:17:59","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T12:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=172123"},"modified":"2019-01-25T12:20:28","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T12:20:28","slug":"key-2019-issues-for-professional-womens-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/01\/25\/key-2019-issues-for-professional-womens-cycling\/","title":{"rendered":"Key 2019 Issues for Professional Women\u2019s Cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"

The final rosters have been announced, things are already underway in the Southern Hemisphere, and we\u2019re looking forward to lots of epic women\u2019s road racing in 2019. With upcoming stars emerging and some veterans trying out a new team, we\u2019ve no doubt that we\u2019ll have plenty to talk about this season. The community support and fan base around women\u2019s cycling continue to grow and with some positive announcements last year, it looks like things are headed in the right direction. That being said, we shouldn\u2019t lose sight of the issues that still need our attention. Here are four topics that we want the media and professional community alike to keep top of mind going forward.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Increased organization!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By building unions and organizations specifically around professional women\u2019s cycling, female riders are able to leverage the power of numbers and an institutional framework to make bigger asks. Since 2017 The Cyclists\u2019 Alliance has played a trailblazing role, working tirelessly to help professional women cyclists negotiate better contracts and get better treatment. Moving forward, they\u2019re expanding their mission to include access to more resources that can help riders take care of themselves and excel in their sport.<\/p>\n<\/lite-youtube>\n

They recently announced that they will partner with The Mind Room<\/a>, an organisation dedicated to sharing psychological knowledge and tools to bring attention to everyday actions that can enhance wellbeing and performance. The mental health toll of being a professional athlete is no joke, and we\u2019re glad to see TCA taking this step for the riders they represent. Here\u2019s to women continuing to come together to strengthen these organizations and get access to the resources they deserve.<\/p>\n

Money, money, money!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

We\u2019ve said it once<\/a> and we\u2019ll say it again, half the female peloton earns less than \u20ac10,000 per year, and a quarter receives no wage at all. It was announced last year that, after seemingly endless stagnation on the issue, female professional cyclists could have a minimum salary, and a tiered system comparable to the men sometime this year. Alessandra Cappellotto, head of the new women’s division of the Professional Cyclists Association (CPA), has been diligent about working on the minimum salary rule and it seems like they\u2019re getting close to implementing something concrete.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Blz_7JnAxK7\/<\/p>\n

Recently, the UCI further outlined plans to increase prize money\u00a0at women\u2019s races, a change that will commence this season. Let\u2019s keep the momentum going and make sure we pressure these organizations to make the changes they have promised.<\/p>\n

Coverage!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As they\u2019re quick to point out in their press releases, since its creation in 2016, the UCI Women\u2019s WorldTour has seen its audiovisual coverage develop at a very high rate. The number of television viewers for the series grew from over 80 million for the 2016 season to 124 million in 2017 and the number of broadcast hours has more than doubled to reach 650 hours, compared with 310 hours the year before.<\/p>\n<\/lite-youtube>\n

The number of broadcast races was up to 15 of 23 in 2018 and we continue to see some events taking the extra step to bring in live television coverage and live streaming for their women’s events. Unfortunately, there are still many events that have not. Fans are proving they want to watch and with a gut-wrenching plea<\/a> by Cecilie Uttrup-Ludwig searing itself into everyone\u2019s memory at the end of 2018 La Course, there are plenty of reasons we should insist of seeing those numbers grow.<\/p>\n

Collaboration!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Although women\u2019s cycling is often seen in opposition to the men\u2019s model, it is important to understand that working together is what everyone wants and what is going to be the best for the sport as a whole. For the time being, it\u2019s true that even the most obscure men\u2019s races often find their way onto television screens, but many high-level women\u2019s races don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Likewise to how women\u2019s tennis owes much to the promotional fuel offered by combined tournaments, jointly-broadcast races give the women\u2019s peloton the opportunity to take advantage of the media exposure that already exists at the men\u2019s events. This isn\u2019t about being content to exist in the background, but by tapping into a wider audience and allowing these new viewership markets to propel the sponsorship towards standalone women\u2019s races and promote organic growth within the sport.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Annemiek Van Vleuten wins the sprint at the finish of the ‘La Course by Le Tour de France’ one day women’s cycling race, 112.5 km from Annecy to Le Grand Bornand, France, Tuesday 17 July 2018. \u00a9 Profimedia, AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the same time, pushing to do things in an identical manner doesn\u2019t benefit anyone. There are differences in how women\u2019s cycling currently operates that should be appreciated, including how dynamic their shorter courses are. When looked at from this perspective, what the female peloton needs is not equal course distances, per se, but rather equal opportunities to showcase its talent.<\/p>\n

As women\u2019s cycling continues to work towards establishing its own professional model, it can learn from the mistakes that have already been made and develop something that is unique, innovative, and truly its own. Let\u2019s keep celebrating the people who are working to make this happen and to support them in the effort to draw attention to the issues that matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final rosters have been announced, things are already underway in the Southern Hemisphere, and we\u2019re looking forward to lots […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":165296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[334],"tags":[477,2043,2242,538,2624],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-172123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-socialising-and-culture","tag-annemiek-van-vleuten","tag-kasia-niewiadoma","tag-the-cyclists-alliance","tag-women-cycling","tag-women-cycling-2019"],"yoast_head":"\nKey 2019 Issues for Professional Women\u2019s Cycling - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The final rosters have been announced, things are already underway in the Southern Hemisphere, and we\u2019re looking forward to lots of epic women\u2019s road\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/01\/25\/key-2019-issues-for-professional-womens-cycling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Key 2019 Issues for Professional Women\u2019s Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The final rosters have been announced, things are already underway in the Southern Hemisphere, and we\u2019re looking forward to lots of epic women\u2019s road\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/01\/25\/key-2019-issues-for-professional-womens-cycling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-25T12:17:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-25T12:20:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2018\/06\/profimedia-0336315602-1.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Megan Flottorp\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/01\/25\/key-2019-issues-for-professional-womens-cycling\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2019\/01\/25\/key-2019-issues-for-professional-womens-cycling\/\",\"name\":\"Key 2019 Issues for Professional Women\u2019s Cycling - 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