Women in Ultra-cycling

[ken jessett]

I wrote this article which was published a few years ago in the RUSA magazine, I don't have it on a web site so cannot just provide the link, so here it is fully written out:

I'm posting this now because it is a current topic.

Warning, it's a pretty long read:

Women and ultra-challenge endurance sports

 

I wrote this piece mostly because I’ve often wondered why far more men than women participate in extreme athletic activities, so the first premise for this article is to ask the question, why do more men than women participate in ultra-distance activities?  You might say that this states the obvious, and that women cyclists have interests and motivation that differ from those of male cyclists and that it is unlikely that addressing these issues will in some way encourage more women to participate in ultra-cycling or indeed ultra-challenges in any sporting endeavor.

The second premise is that this article is not intended to provide answers but mainly to pose the questions that need answers.

As far as I know, apart from the accepted and well known and documented anatomical variations between the two main genders (there seems to be more variations added every day) racing on a bicycle is pretty much the same whether the cyclist is male or female.

My analyses was confined to activities where there was no prize money, the participants engaged voluntarily and paid their own expenses, therefore, no organized sports such as golf or tennis or such were included, nor were activities such as school or college sports.

Looking at the recent results for one 24 Hour ultra-racing event - Bessies Creek - for example, it shows that more men raced than women – 80% to 20% - and that on the whole, men raced the longer distances or times than women.

In the 3,000 mile Race Across America’s roster for the 2016 race, out of a total 248 racers in teams and solo categories, only 21 racers were women. In the sister event the 880 mile Race Across the West, out of 68 racers, only 5 are women.

But this doesn’t necessarily mean that if women do race they are less likely to finish. In the 2015 edition of the RAAM, out of five females that started in the solo category, only three raced to the end – so 60%, and for the men, out of thirty six starters, half finished – so 50%. For the 2015 RAW, three women started and two finished, for the men, eighteen started but only five finished. However, we still see fewer women than men entering these extra distance races. For RAAM we had 36 male starts and 5 women starts; In the RAW, the figures were 18 male starts and three women starts. These races were of the same length for both male and female although women were allowed extra time to complete.

These statistics do not only apply to cycling, we see similar results in other endurance activities.

As chronicled by the American Elizabeth Hawley, residing in Katmandu for the past 65 years and the doyen of Everest chroniclers, of the total successful ascents of Mount Everest, out of 6,871 summits as of February 2014, only four hundred and ten were made by women. As she has said: “There are no pioneering women on Everest, they need to be pioneers in other places”.  In other words, she feels that women are probably best suited to succeed in other endeavors than climbing mountains.

Of the 3,841 successful English Channel swims to date, 63.5% were by men and 36.5% by women. There are no records of the total number of attempts or the unsuccessful attempts by either sex.

In the 2014 edition of Marathon Des Sables, the 156 miles six marathon distance race run across the Sahara Desert in Morocco, 925 men completed with 814 finishing the grueling event, and 184 women ran with 159 completing. Of note is that in 2008, Touda Didi was the first Moroccan woman to win the event.

Similar figures contend in other sporting activities such as the Appellation Trail, rowing across the Atlantic and sailing around the world.

The latest figures I have received on the Appalachian Trail is that between the years 1937-2016 on a self-reporting basis, there were 12,795 thru hikers of whom 2,861 were women either solo or in groups. For section hikers again on a self -reporting basis for the same span of years, there were 2,997 total of whom 720 were women. However, the number of women undertaking the trek is rising. In 1992 16% of the thru hikers were women but by 2012 that number had increased to 21%,. So there is a glimmer of hope that women are catching on to the pleasures of absolute pain – at least in the hiking category of ultra-sporting activities.

Something similar is evident in the Boston Marathon where out of 27,491 runners in a recent event, 14,877 were men but 12,610 were women. So is the fact that running a marathon – although strenuous - is a relatively short endurance activity that attracts so many women?

But on the whole, women just don’t engage in these types of endurance activities to the same extent as men, so the question is why?

If it is simply a case of unsurmountable physical obstacles then why should women try to compete? So, accepting that in general it is simply a case that women will never be able to race as far as men, what are women to do?

I think to answer this question it is necessary to look at the psyche involved. If it is a given that ultra-challenging events are predominately raced by men, does this imply that women are just not as motivated as men to accept the physical and or mental stresses required? Maybe women don’t want to get on a bike and ride 24 hours or longer (not many sane people of either sex actually do), maybe women accept that they have no psychological desire to do this to satisfy any kind of challenge, maybe women are just satisfied with being women and don’t need to make out they are as strong – or as risk taking – as men.

If a female racer wants to participate in an endurance race they generally do so competing in their own categories, much in the same way as age categories for both sexes. But if the races contain both men and women, women are in actuality racing against men as well as other women on the same course at the same time, so does this give a negative aspect to the race for women?

Being passed by another racer in any kind of race is intimidating and demoralizing enough, but in a mixed sex race and if the women racer is being passed by a male racer, what impact does that have on the women’s psyche?

For example, a 60 year old racer of either sex would not expect to be able to compete with a 20 year old of the same sex, assuming both are in good physical condition, but for a woman to be blown away by a male racer that has to be demoralizing. Therefore would it not be better for a woman not to have to compete with men in the same race?

A study by Dr. Salvatore J. Tirrito, cardiovascular disease specialist in Tucson states: “Studies show that women utilize less glycogen and more fat than men in long, lower-intensity exercise. This makes the female athlete particularly well suited for, and may potentially provide an advantage over men in endurance events”.

Therefore it suggests there is no general physical impediment to women undertaking endurance activities, could then the issue be one of the historical social environment where women were never expected nor encouraged to pursue the same activities – physical or intellectual - as men? Perhaps women in general don’t feel strenuous activities are expected of them. Although it would be correct to add, that neither do the vast majority of men in our sedentary, physically unexacting lives. Consider the number of people of either gender who actually participate in any kind of sporting endeavor – couch quarterbacking not included. At one time in our society people walked everywhere and were a lot healthier for it, now there are far fewer pedestrians going down my street than there are cars and trucks.

So, why do we see fewer women riding ultra- distances, or climbing mountains or hiking trails or doing the myriad other activities requiring endurance, courage, fortitude and downright grit? Perhaps it is because they have yet to appreciate the extraordinary pleasure of acute physical pain to be found in endurance events as a means of achieving the euphoria of absolute success.

Having said that, I doubt there is anything quite like the same physical exultation of giving birth – which if left to men to experience this same trauma would have led to the end of human kind at the outset – which proves beyond doubt that women are just as capable if not much more so than men to overcome brute suffering and going on to live and fight another day. So they could, so why not?

All in all, I proffer the truth that women can do whatever it is they want to do, they just have to decide that they want to do it.

 

Kenneth Jessett.

[Emily O'Brien]

When we're talking about endurance sports, you can't ignore the broader context of the non-ultra-endurance version of the same sport. Endurance cycling draws its participants from the general population of dedicated cyclists, not randomly from the population at large.

The gender balance in running clubs that meet regularly for runs of 2-5 miles is often much closer than cycling clubs that meet up for 20-50 mile road rides. Likewise, shorter running events have a higher percentage of women than shorter cycling events (like club centuries, charity rides, etc). I've been the only woman on a LOT of group rides, including short easy ones.

 
So given that starting point, it isn't surprising that the Boston Marathon has a higher percentage of women than PBP does. The longer events don't draw participants out of the general population, they draw participants from the population of people who are already engaging in that sport. Endurance events are generally NOT for beginners. 

Cycling has traditionally been pretty male-dominated on many levels, as have many other sports. Women are the minority in most cycling clubs. They are the minority in the bike industry, too. The cycling world as a whole has often struggled with making women feel welcome - particularly women who are new to cycling. If we're talking about things that would be discouraging to a female rider, it isn't being passed by a male racer on RAAM; it's being ignored by the staff in a bike shop while trying to shop for her first road bike, or being hit on and mansplained to by every guy on the first ride she joins, or just generally being made to feel that this is a boys' club and she doesn't belong there. It's being unable to find gear that fits at entry-level price points. It's having been less encouraged in sports as a kid. It's all the things that affect the experiences of *beginners*, not so much the race experiences of people who are already really into it. 

I don't know enough personally to comment on the relative numbers of women in non-extreme hiking or mountain climbing or other sports. Many sports are making an effort to be more inclusive now, despite long histories of being exclusively male domains; and change comes slowly. In many cases, it's only relatively recently that there has been the emphasis on equipment designed for women. In some cases that doesn't matter, but in some cases it really does, especially for shorter women trying to get a bike that fits. 

There are also social and lifestyle impediments to endurance activities that disproportionately affect women simply due to the time commitment required for endurance sports. Randonneuring is a challenge for anyone with school-age children at home. While this has also shifted over time, women still tend to carry more of the childcare and household management load than men do. This is not universal by any means, but it's more common for Dad to be able to spend 8 hours on a ride every weekend while Mom drives the kids to soccer and orchestra etc than the other way around. It gets much easier once the kids are out of the house, but if Dad spent the last 18 years keeping up his weekend rides while Mom spent the last 18 years driving the kids around every weekend, then Dad is starting from a higher fitness baseline if he's interested in spending more time on his sport of choice. This isn't really about the biological requirements of pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, etc - it's about the childcare logistics for the next 17 years, and the fact that moms often get less time for their hobbies than dads do. 

And there is also still a persistent pay gap between men and women, which affects the rates at which people can afford to take part in expensive and time consuming activities. Oh, and then there are the female athletes who lose sponsorship deals when they get pregnant.

While I do know some male randonneurs with children still at home or with grown children, most of the women I know in randonneuring (myself included) never had kids. It's an admittedly smaller sample size. But if we are talking big-picture trends, that is surely a factor. I can't think of a single female rider off the top of my head (apologies if I'm forgetting someone!!!) who attends randonneuring events on any kind of regular basis and has kids still living at home, although I can think of male riders who do. 

All this is to say that when it comes to endurance sports in general and endurance cycling in particular, focusing on just biology and the ultra-distance events themselves misses most of the picture of who participates and why. 

Emily O'Brien

RUSA 5397

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Dill Pickle
... gear for the extra mile

www.dillpicklegear.com
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[Ramsey Hanna]

I was in the middle of a write up very similar to Emily’s but honestly she said it way better than I ever could. It’s a bike culture problem,

Ramsey

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[Dave Thompson]

Thanks Emily. 

From my iwdt

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[Rob Hawks]

Ken Jessett wrote:

>  I wrote this article which was published a few years ago in the RUSA magazine, ...

I am having trouble finding just what issue of the American Randonneur (aka RUSA Magazine?) contains your article. Granted it is only in the last 10 years that the table of contents for issues of the magazine began consistently listing the authors of each article, but I could not find any article in any table of contents listing that contained keywords from your article's title (women, Ultra, Jessett) that matched the article you posted here on the discussion list. I did find one article attributed to you, but that was clearly on a different topic.

Can you tell me which volume and issue number, or even what year you believe this was published in the American Randonneur? I would like to read the letters to the editor which certainly would have been included in subsequent issues.

Thanks,

rob hawks

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[DBC RBA]

Plus 💯 to Emily’s post. I had one in mind, but it had a sharper quality. 

I can think of 1 female Randonneuse who has kids in school, but I am clearly only pulling from my experience in the sport. 

Deb Banks

Sent from the Rivetress’ Phone

On Dec 13, 2024, at 4:40 PM, Rob Hawks <rob....@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Paul G. Rozelle]

If we want more women -- and young people -- in randonneuring, then go ride with them.  This will involve riding a lot of shorter and slower rides (and, God forbid, riding with people who are not randonneurs!).  You meet people where they are at, not where you want them to be.  And where they are at, most likely for the reasons Emily points out, is not doing huge long rides.  They're new or newer to cycling.  Go do rides with new or newer riders.  And take your spouse or partner and kids with you.  Next thing you know, they're all be randonneurs.

Paul, on behalf of The Rozelles ##2955, 3166, 9965, 11409

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[David B]

Hi Rob,

For reference, I found the article online.  It was published Feb 2017 by Arrivee (Audax UK).

https://issuu.com/audax-uk/docs/17febarrivee-issu (pages 34-35)

An Editor's Note is included at the end of the article (see below).

-Dave 13555

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[Jake Kassen]

FWIW, Emily got me (male) into endurance cycling because I didn't want to sit at home while my girlfriend when on rides all weekend long. She also taught me how to build a bike wheel on our first overnight date. :)

I ran some numbers regarding the historic participation of non-male RUSA brevet completions. This only counts people who were RUSA members -- not compulsory until ~2020 although I don't think think the non-member percentages of female/other riders would be different. (Women are 17% of current members.) See data below.

It seems the percentage of RUSA riders who aren't male is largely staying if not a slight, sustained drop after the pandemic. From what I've noticed, many or most women on RUSA events are the partner or daughter of a male randonneur so the sport is failing at attracting women independently even beyond what the low percentages show.

That said, it would be interesting to see statistics regarding the gender of recreational cyclists in the US for the age ranges that typically participate in RUSA offerings. The average age of a RUSA member is 50 for females, 52 for males; only 12% of members are 34 or younger. (Note: Perhaps someone with non-public data can revise the membership data to reflect only those who have completed an event or perm this year.)

RUSA Brevet Finishers by Year/Gender:

YEAR: TOTAL F or O %
2000: 1110 179 (16.13)
2001: 1545 261 (16.89)
2002: 2130 297 (13.94)
2003: 4616 629 (13.63)
2004: 6723 975 (14.5)
2005: 3438 400 (11.63)
2006: 4521 591 (13.07)
2007: 7982 1074 (13.46)
2008: 5092 745 (14.63)
2009: 5771 828 (14.35)
2010: 7896 1134 (14.36)
2011: 8621 1223 (14.19)
2012: 7177 1139 (15.87)
2013: 7301 1072 (14.68)
2014: 8393 1223 (14.57)
2015: 9220 1284 (13.93)
2016: 6947 1022 (14.71)
2017: 6585 955 (14.5)
2018: 8234 1292 (15.69)
2019: 7849 1183 (15.07)
2020: 2936 520 (17.71)
2021: 5474 742 (13.55)
2022: 7938 1078 (13.58)
2023: 8334 1132 (13.58)
2024: 6875 1086 (15.8)

Jake

PS. I agree it's important to ride with new people (all genders) to make them feel welcome but it's also important to not overdue it. Not everyone wants to chat or ride near someone. Not everyone views being "welcoming" the same way.

> On Fri, Dec 13, 2024 at 3:04?PM ken jessett <kenje...@gmail.com>

> wrote:
>
> > I wrote this article which was published a few years ago in the RUSA
> > magazine, I don't have it on a web site so cannot just provide the
> > link, so here it is fully written out:
> >
> > I'm posting this now because it is a current topic.
> >
> > Warning, it's a pretty long read:
> >

> > _Women and ultra-challenge endurance sports_
> >
> > _ _

> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/randonneurs-usa/CAMwb-nBrQ5X9%3DFKkA2VDR-xtqJGVOUCMqih7QmQKtodEfZMLCA%40mail.gmail.com.
>

[Pam Wright]

Ditto, Deb's "plus 💯" and thank you Emily!

Time and money are all of our cards to play.  And then, I had a sharper addition to again use Deb's words :)

I get asked by RBA's how LSR is 50% women and the answer often falls on deaf ears, because it isn't fancy and is surprisingly simple, but does require some "extra."  Any rider that is made to feel welcome and valued will probably come back.  For almost 20 years, I've watched Dan Driscoll walk that walk.  Day after day.  Year after year.  Mile after mile.  Rider after rider.  He's doing it right this minute.  He celebrates EVERYONE'S success and constantly cajoles and coerces new riders and those backing off.  He works hard to make every ride a rolling party and we keep showing up.  

And Paul is absolutely right.  You go where the riders are.  Reaching out isn't all that hard...or is it?

Pamela Wright

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[Juliayn Coleman]

Please be careful when recommending "reaching out" to women riders. I can appreciate the generous intent in which this has been suggested, but as someone who has been reached out to in an inappropriate/unwelcome way by various randos over my 12 year experience (not a lot, but it has happened), the whole concept of reaching out to women riders doesn't make me feel too good. I also think of women who have been victims of more serious instances of sexual harassment in their lives (which the CDC estimates at about half of US women, probably an underestimate since I have also seen numbers over 80%), and what "reaching out" would feel like for them.

I just want to make it clear that the overwhelming majority of interactions I have had with male and female riders has been positive. However, just like being aggressively passed by one driver when you ride all day with otherwise courteous drivers, the bad interaction is usually the one that sticks with you.

For that matter, for anyone wondering why more women don't participate in cycling/RUSA, imagine being a survivor of sexual harassment or abuse (again, at least 50% of women), and choosing to participate in an activity where you will be "welcomed" by an ~85% male demographic. No thanks!

This is why I have actually advocated to the board for an option to not have any gender marker next to my name. I understand a lot of women are proud to be women randos and want to keep the F marker, and I congratulate them. I am proud to be who I am too, I just have a different experience.

I think one thing that is very important for us to keep in mind is, while it's great that some would like for RUSA to be more diverse, and I am definitely one of them, there are certain social and logistical realities we cannot change.  Rather than personally urging individual women on brevets to be more involved, or relying on a single RBA, to me it seems like offering more women-only events is a better strategy, and I'm glad to see that some clubs have started doing this.

Thanks,

RUSA#7241

[Richard Stum]

Emily,

A very articulate and honest reason for why our sport sometimes looks like a bunch of grumpy old men.

Best,
Rando Richard

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[Emily O'Brien]

For whatever this is worth, whenever I meet a new rider on their first brevet, I always ask how they found out about us (and I also tell them that I always ask, because I don’t want anyone to feel singled out by that question). It’s usually through a friend, from someone at a bike shop, or via social media or online forums. Those methods of reaching people are likely to reinforce existing demographic patterns, and bring in new riders who look a lot like the old riders. Word of mouth doesn’t tend to reach people outside of those networks. If you’re reading this, as yourself: How did you get interested in randonneuring? How likely do you think it is that other riders would get into it via a similar route, and what would those riders probably look like?

Ultimately, if we want to know why we have fewer women than men in randonneuring, we need to know all the points at which otherwise demographically similar men and women diverge in their likelihood of riding a brevet. 

In other words, is the population of experienced “rando-ready” cyclists (i.e, experienced riders who have the skills and fitness to complete an unsupported 100km or 100mi) out there closer to gender parity than RUSA? If so, that means that we’re failing to attract (or keep) the women in that category, even though we are attracting the men. Maybe the women are doing gravel races or grand fondos or charity rides instead. 

Or, is the population of experienced “rando-ready” cyclists already skewed as much as RUSA’s population? If so, RUSA is recruiting men and women equally; there just aren’t as many women in that pool to start with - they either already got discouraged before they got that into it, or they never started in the first place. 

Those possibilities aren’t mutually exclusive. But if it’s more the second one, then RUSA would actually have to recruit rando-ready women at a significantly HIGHER rate than men in order to approach gender parity.

If the population of “rando-ready” cyclists is already as gender-skewed as RUSA's, then when and why does that difference appear? Every one of us got on a bike for the first time at some point. We all did our first ten mile ride at some point, even if we were kids at the time. And everyone who takes those first steps decides which steps to take next. There are many steps between birth and randonneuring; which of those result in a gender imbalance in the population of people ready for the next step? Which of those is RUSA in any position to affect?

Some of those questions are easier to answer than others. But I think we can get closer to real answers with some research. For example, what is the gender breakdown for riders who have only ever started one RUSA event? Those are the folks who tried it once and didn’t come back. If we are losing new female riders at a higher rate than new male riders, it should show up in those figures. 

The most obvious “feeder” club for Boston area randonneuring events is Charles River Wheelers. Formerly known as Charles River Wheelmen, they have made huge efforts to be more inclusive (hence the name change). They were where I did my first group rides, and where I first heard about PBP too. New England Randonneurs doesn’t have as close ties with CRW as the Boston Brevet Series once did, but they’re still the largest recreational, non-racing club in our area. I will ask them for some statistics on how their demographics have changed over the years.

Overall, I generally think that RUSA’s gender balance reflects the bigger social trends in cycling participation than anything specific to RUSA. I will say that I have personally always felt comfortable and welcome in randonneuring, even when I was the youngest rider on every single ride I went on. But I would like to do some more research on this topic. 

Emily

[Sharan Daniel]

I appreciate the discussion and contributions to it. I think a concern with diversity in the sport might also take retention into consideration, so some stats on that would be helpful as well. Do non-male riders drop out of randonneuring with RUSA at the same or different rate than male-identifying ones? One could look at rates of lapsed membership after 1 year and 5 years; or participation in events (I would include permanents as well as brevets)—e.g., how many people participate in 1 and don’t do another within 5 years. Perhaps that would give insight into whether something specific to RUSA culture is at work or not.

Sharan
RUSA 12811

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[Gardner Duvall]

Emily, thanks for your very thoughtful input.

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[Ramsey Hanna]

This is purely my anecdotal experience in the non randonneuring cycling community in the different disciplines but (what a surprise) the groups that intentionally try to make their communities as welcoming to non-male participants have the most diverse and the largest communities (if you want to see it done right, look at groups like Velopigs and Dirty Kitten, I bring them up because they are local to me). These groups are also WAY bigger than the local randonneuring pool. There’s definitely also a way way bigger pool of participants that are more into the non competitive side of cycling, I have seen zero new folks on the fast group rides I do in the past few years (and theres never any women). Seems like randonneuring could fit in here since it’s non competitive.

I think Randonneuring has the potential to be the primer on Ultradistance cycling since it is the lowest barrier to entry of all the disciplines in that category and there is a progression into longer and longer distances over a season.  Ultradistance cycling as a sport is definitely growing by quite a bit (I see more and more events being offered near me) but it would appear that RUSA participation is not (someone can confirm or deny that). I have a lot of other opinions about why that is but in regards to gender inclusion, I think it’s pretty easy to connect the dots here,

Ramsey 

[Jake Kassen]

Good question about retention. Here is a page of data for that:

https://rusa.jkassen.org/rusastats/membership_length.php

It would appear that women are slightly less likely to remain RUSA members as their male peers but the separation is minor and reversed in some years. Just looking at people whose membership has expired, men and women had remained RUSA members for almost the exact same of time.

I'm not sure how much to read into this data and it was only starting in ~2019 that participation required membership. It looks like woman are finding RUSA slightly less appealing then men but the differences are minor.

Also note, I'm combining female and other (X) designations. As an aside, there are 72 RUSA members who are listed as "other" (4%). Granted, it's only been an option that been available since 2019.

Jake

> -------Original Message-------
> From: Sharan Daniel <sharan....@gmail.com>
> To: Jake Kassen <li...@jkassen.org>
> Cc: Randonneurs USA <randonn...@googlegroups.com>
> Subject: Re: [RUSA] Women in Ultra-cycling / Data
> Sent: 15 Dec '24 12:12
>
> I appreciate the discussion and contributions to it. I think a concern with diversity in the sport might also take retention into consideration, so some stats on that would be helpful as well. Do non-male riders drop out of randonneuring with RUSA at the same or different rate than male-identifying ones? One could look at rates of lapsed membership after 1 year and 5 years; or participation in events (I would include permanents as well as brevets)—e.g., how many people participate in 1 and don’t do another within 5 years. Perhaps that would give insight into whether something specific to RUSA culture is at work or not.
>
> Sharan
> RUSA 12811
>

[Sharan Daniel]

Interesting. Probably not enough data to be conclusive, but what little is there does kind of suggest that attraction to the sport is a better place to focus any efforts at achieving more gender diversity.
Sharan

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