Lifestyle

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.

The Women's Tour is put on the map

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/

The Women's Tour is put on the map

We are now into our second year of the Women’s Tour, significant because it’s the first ever women’s UCI level race to come to Britain and because its organisers were upfront about it being a way to bridge the gender gap in cycling.

What happened to the Women’s Tour de France?

In this photo, Marianna Vos pedals here way to victory over the finish line in the inaugural Women’s Tour last year. In a recent interview a huge supporter of the event, Chris Boardman said,

I think what I enjoyed about the last Aviva Women’s Tour were the resources that went into creating an international event, that was properly televised by ITV and it gave women’s racing in the UK, in fact globally, a major event.

Here’s to many more years of the Women’s Tour!