I'm female. I have not ridden an audax for a few years, so don't know if the general ambience has changed. When I was riding them regularly I frequently did so on my own. What struck me was the friendliness and kindness of other audaxers. Yes, I frequently got asked if it was my first audax and you could see people looking for my "other half", then asking if I was riding on my own. I took no offence at this and did not feel patronised. Many times other riders would offer a tow whether I was struggling or not and sometimes I was able to return the favour to others (both male and female). I have even had guys stop and assist when I have had a puncture. Yes, I could have managed on my own, but help is always graciously accepted.
So gentlemen, if you see a female on an audax please don't be worried about striking up a conversation or offering assistance for fear of giving offence. We are not all as prickly as some of the posts on this thread would have you believe. It's nice to chat to other riders and the friendliness and kindness of others is what makes an audax ride special.
On Friday I stood on stage at an Amsterdam tech conference, in front of many of the big names in my industry, and I told them to be better.
Specifically my talk was on the changes they could make to their recruitment processes, their company culture, and approach, to increase the diversity of their teams, with a view to improving the productivity, and well being of said teams. This was something of a telling truth to power type moment. Afterwards in the Q&A, one woman stood up, thanked me for doing the talk, then gave her story about why she'd moved from the core of our field to a role not really associated with it (tho she is still involved via things like the conference), because of the shit she took from men. After the talk, a couple of others came and told me the similar stories. One woman came up to tell me she'd worked in the industry for 10 years and never had a problem. I asked where she works and if they are hiring.
For every rider who's had a shit break with people being arseholes, be it at work, or on a cycling event, there will no doubt be others who have never experienced that behaviour. That's great, let's get more of those.
But let's also recognise that there are people who will turn up to their first ride, they'll be nervous about what they are doing, they haven't gone this far before, they didn't sleep great, they couldn't eat much breakfast cos of nerves, and they just want to get started. Yet while waiting to start, they can't pee cos theirs a man in the women's loo, they get asked if they are here alone (it really does come across as "So do you come here often?"), they may get unsolicited advice, it all adds up, it's all just another paper cut.
When you consider that many of us unfortunately are getting this shit in our every day life, and would like to escape it during our hobby, why would we stick around if we are?
We can all be better.
Just for context- I have done an SR and PBP ( albeit several years ago) so am not talking from the perspective of someone who has only ridden a few 100k rides.
In the off chance that is a suggestion that I've only done a few 100k rides. I'm at 14 BRM, plus a load of DIY's... and an ultra race...
What could be done to attract more females? A friend introduced me to audax and I rode my first one with them. Perhaps some sort of "ride buddy" scheme would help. Personally I have never found toilets to be an issue or even a consideration.
s/females/women/g
I have suggested the ride mentoring scheme in multiple places across this forum, but as yet it has widely been knocked as "it's not needed cos we're friendly!"
Most people I meet on Audax events are great people, they treat me as an equal, they aren't patronising. But there is a tiny minority that can ruin an otherwise brilliant ride.
J
