9 Significant Photos in the History of Women’s Cycling

Photo moments that show how the bicycle paved the way for women's emancipation and how it went on to shape women's cycling.

Female cyclist in rational dress from 1889. Source: http://1890swriters.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/1890s-womens-fashion.html
The Safety Cycle: Photograph: London Stereoscopic Company Getty Images
Cambridge students hang an effigy of a woman riding a bike in protest against university admission. Photograph: Hulton Archive/ Getty Images
Source: http://www.brainpickings.org/2012/01/03/donts-for-women-on-bicycles-1895/
Two suffragettes on bicycles in 1914. Photograph: Corbis
Beryl Burton
Connie Carpenter-Phinney wins the LA Olympics Road Race in 1984. Photo sourced from http://pages.rapha.cc/
Helen Wyman wins the 2013 Koppenbergcross. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Afp/AFP/Getty Images
Photo: http://www.womenstour.co.uk/

In around 1895, probably out of anxiety that women now had a vehicle towards their own liberation, a list of dont’s for women on bicycles was published.

The list included one ‘don’t’ that instructed women not to “cultivate a ‘bicycle face’!”

Clearly the concern was that women riding bikes would become less feminine. Nowadays, we applaud the bicycle face with a selfie!

cycling Inspirational Women in Cycling

Our writer went climbing - and got more than she bargained for (in the form of a big diamond!)

A look at some of the 2016 gear that caters for serious female cyclists looking for performance kit.

Contributor Emily Conrad-Pickles is riding 20,000 km to raise money for World Bicycle Relief. Here's a portion of her journey.

Brand new format for the team which we don't think has never been seen in cycling before.

Yep - we went there... We got our brains scrambled in the process, but we learnt a lot.