The phrase ‘shrink it and pink it’ was coined to describe the approach many companies had to designing for women, meaning essentially that women’s products were smaller versions of men’s products, with added pink so you knew they were aimed at women.

It’s a term that’s become common parlance, and isn’t isolated to the bike industry. Browse the internet and you’ll find articles bemoaning pink hammers, feminised versions of computer company websites, and ballpoint pens ‘designed for women’.

All these products play to a stereotypical perception of femininity, and in many ways are simply the continuation of gender washing that starts in childhood with the pink princess aisle in toy shops.

For adults within the world of cycling, it meant that often not only were the women’s versions pink and floral, but also specc’d to a lower level, little to no high end or performance options, and there was nothing like the variety and options available to men. It sent the message ‘we aren’t interested in you’ even if that wasn’t the overt intention.

Over time, the term ‘shrink it and pink it’ almost became the representative tip of the iceberg, shorthand for the whole raft of issues facing women in cycling, from afterthought products to gross inequality within professional road cycling.