Spread the joy of cycling with your female friends by pledging allegiance to CycloFemme.
This Sunday, May 12th is Global Women’s Cycle Day, to mark the day; Women in 30 countries will ride in solidarity, as part of a grassroots movement called CycloFemme. Established in 2012, the annual women’s ride appoints American Mother’s Day as Global Women’s Cycling Day, creating a time to “Honor the Past, Celebrate the Present, Empower the Future of Women in Cycling.”
Building on the momentum that was spurred on last year, when female cyclists in 164 cities from 14 countries gathered to ride, events scheduled for CycloFemme this year have nearly doubled in numbers, with 225 events registered in 30 countries.
CycloFemme was established not only to provide women with an opportunity to ride together, but to encourage and inspire new women cyclists and create an opportunity for women to connect to and strengthen their community.
“By reaching out to women and inviting them to join us on a ride, we are paving the way to creating our most valuable cycling advocates.” said Sarai Snyder, founder of CycloFemme. Snyder knows her stuff, she’s a former bike shop owner and advocate, who turned her passion for women’s cycling into a popular blog: GirlBikeLove. “As mothers, mentors, and teachers, women are the key to influencing future generations. If a mother rides a bike, her children will too.”
A map posted on CycloFemme displays an icon at the location of every ride; with multiple events organised in some larger cities like New York, the entire North American continent is covered in markers — a powerful image representing a nation of women on bikes. It doesn’t stop there, the influence of CycloFemme is far-reaching, and has even hit the shores of the UK as well. Women from nearly every continent and region will be out in force on Sunday, from Europe, Asia, Australia, South America and Africa.
CycloFemme have called on women to sign a pledge, to inspire one more person to ride, they say they will ‘double the tribe’. Women are invited to do whatever they might enjoy on a bike on this day, from leisurely rides on tow paths, to city tours, right through to mountain bike races. However you want to ride, CycloFemme just ask you to get out, do it and share it with another women.
In Rwamangana, Rwanda, hometown of Olympic mountain biker Adrien Niyonshuti, a women’s race will be held on this day to celebrate and empower women who ride. Elsewhere in Africa, an event posting invites cyclists to come spend some time on bikes that will shared by the community.
“As many of us as possible will take shifts riding around in the dirt on the 2 bikes we have,” offers the event listed for Yida in the Unity State of South Sudan. Under contact info there is no email or facebook link, only the direction to “just show up” and take part in the day.
Every event is listed on the CycloFemme website, the UK rides are as follows and all take place on SUNDAY 13th May;
– Stockton-on-Tees
– Clitheroe, Lancashire
– Coventry
– Learnington Spa
– Bristol
– Cardiff
– Brighton
– Medway
– Cheshire
– Belfast
– Bangor, County Down
Riders are encouraged to document their local event and to post to Instagram and Twitter using the #CycloFemme hashtag, so that the messages will stream on the CycloFemme home page.
