Rider of the Year Awards

BeaconRuth

Shouldn't there be two? One for the men and one for the women? What chance have Vos and Cooke of winning a Rider of the Year Award when compared to the blokes in all the ultra-high profile events they get to ride?

Wouldn't it be brilliant to celebrate the top male rider of the year AND the top female rider of the year?

Ruth

BeaconRuth

ps. I mean Procycling Rider of the Year Awards.

petecossins

Hadn't told anyone before, Ruth. But we are having two riders of the year. One male and one female. If we can get it sorted in time, we'll have interviews with both in our December issue on sale November 22.

BeaconRuth

Super! That's really terrific.............. it's just that with all this stuff about forums and women's cycling and Procycling and everything I went and read your request for nominations for a Rider of the Year, and it didn't look to me as though the women would get a look in after all those blokes. Can people nominate both a guy and a gal then? If so, that's not made very clear is it?

Ruth

petecossins

We've had to make the selection within the office based on performances this season, although this has been backed up by votes for women riders in the poll. I think next year we'll have separate votes

BeaconRuth

So the female Rider of the Year will get an equal write-up, an equal sized pic and equal prominence as the male Rider of the Year?

Yeah, OK, it ain't gonna happen............. but just imagine what it would mean to all the aspiring youth and junior women (of whom there are increasing numbers in recent years) to see a top pro woman like Vos given the kind of fuss and attention that Bettini or Boonen get! How depressing must it be for Cooke to know that, no matter whether she is the best female cyclist in the world, she'll only ever be considered second-rate, will never get the press attention, the photo-shoots, the RECOGNITION that a man of equal ranking will get.

Ruth

ut_och_cykla

Here, here Ruth. But perhaps it's the silly argument (like the one for Wimbledon ladies - they play less, earn less etc) SAdly it is money that makes the world go round (and which will probably bring it to a standstill one day too!)

Ste_S

BeaconRuth wrote:

So the female Rider of the Year will get an equal write-up, an equal sized pic and equal prominence as the male Rider of the Year?

Yeah, OK, it ain't gonna happen............. but just imagine what it would mean to all the aspiring youth and junior women (of whom there are increasing numbers in recent years) to see a top pro woman like Vos given the kind of fuss and attention that Bettini or Boonen get! How depressing must it be for Cooke to know that, no matter whether she is the best female cyclist in the world, she'll only ever be considered second-rate, will never get the press attention, the photo-shoots, the RECOGNITION that a man of equal ranking will get.

Ruth

In my experience there certainley seems to be a greater mix of male/female riders in the younger age groups than the senior ones. With role models like Cooke and Pendleton, Blythe, Reade et al hopefully a few more of those youngsters will be encouraged to keep on with the sport.

petecossins

So the female Rider of the Year will get an equal write-up, an equal sized pic and equal prominence as the male Rider of the Year?

Yeah, OK, it ain't gonna happen.............

Well the female rider of the year won't be our cover star or the first feature, but as things stand now she has only two pages fewer in the mag than the cover star and she's not the only female rider covered in the issue - and that's in addition to Liv's column.

I totally agree that they are equal as athletes, but men are going to have more prominence to a large extent because their events have more prominence. I can't justify giving the leading women's stage race the same coverage as the Tour de France because there is nothing that compares with the Tour. In fact I'm not too sure what the leading women's stage race is. There does not seem to be one that attracts all of the top riders. However, I am determined to get behind women's riding whenever I can, after all women buy magazines too and if I can boost our readership by drawing more of them in then that's going to work in everyone's favour.

ricadus

Think positive - the womens side is an under-developed market, so is a potential growth area. Plenty of women do amateur triathlon or running; just need to get them interested in the road biking, if not by competitive racing then by challenge riding.