With Gender being a hot topic it’s good to reflect just how far society has come in terms of equality. There was once a time when Ladies were excluded from cycling clubs and set up their own Ladies clubs, so what might to some ears sound like an old fashioned term, actually has a great back story.
The Manchester and District Ladies Cycling Association,(MDLCA) organise four events, two 10 Mile TT’s a 50 and a Youth event.
This year I have been keen to promote the discipline of Time trialling, the calendar is packed with events but the Bio Racer series & The Manchester & District Ladies events stood out as good opportunities for members to dip a toe into the scene. What’s good about the MDLCA event is that while providing a women specific event, men can ride by invitation.
There was a certain amount of buzz about the event on social media, including the offer of performance enhancing skin suits.
One of the impacts of COVID is that there are no, post ride refreshments. When I rode the Manchester Wheelers Hilly I felt this left a bit of a hole and have been keen to provide some recovery cake at subsequent events.
I left entering too late however inspired by founding club member Gordon Perry, I was keen to offer a supporting roll, while also enjoying the opportunity to ride on different roads.
Vincci and I set off with a plan to ride through the Macclesfield Forest and meet up with Charlotte at the event, I packed the usual 1980’s style refreshments of,Coke, fruit and cake.
When we set off into an easterly headwind the weather had an autumnal feel. Wheel sucker, Vincci was pushing the pace (always a good method of stopping me form talking), chirping up after 20 miles and saying, “We were are only at 600 Ft…” everything started to change from that point very quickly, in Langley the road kicks up and is 20% in places and reaches 1,400ft. The views are spectacular and the drop to Macc’ using the Cat and Fiddle is fantastic.
We were running out of time on our return to the car and the route seemed more and more convoluted, suddenly to our right we saw a Green and Blue jersey, “Is that Sue? “, Vincci said, we turned back to discover, it was Sue riding her first TT ! we waved Sue off and followed the route, both Sue and Charlotte looked really good while out on the road.
After a day of U turns both in the car and on the bike we arrived at the HQ, Charlotte hit the Coke while Sue declined cake, in favour of fruit. In an individual sport like cycling it was good to bring together riders who might never normally have met.
The next MDLCA event is a 50 on the 4 September 2021 as ever let me know if you are jumping on.
Results
1 Emily Martin 23:18
2. Charlotte Bootham 23:19
6. Sue Carter 29:08
https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/race-results/21537#anchor
By Nick Holmes
