The Women's Ride
Your Ride. Your Friends. Your Day.
The Women’s Ride will be the only women’s focused cycling event in Victoria. It is a single day celebration of women’s riding with a strong social focus, taking in multiple independently determined routes.
The event invites individuals, clubs, social riding groups, bike shops and all in the community to register a ride, that begins and ends at locations they desire. Ride leaders will determine a route, distance as well as recruiting people to join them on the day, whilst also developing a social following for the event.
Programmed activities and events will take place in locations all over Melbourne and Victoria on the day, (with a central location in Docklands to provide a focal point) allowing ride participants to meet other riders and participate in a celebratory atmosphere.
Participation in the rides may be free or attract a cost (if the ride is usually ticketed it’s fine to charge money for it). Cycling Victoria will be collecting registrations for each ride via the central website and pass this info on to ride leaders. Registered riders will receive a package of discounts and gifts from sponsors.
The event is also intended to generate and distil discussions around issues of gender in cycling, and advocates strongly for an increased presence for women in all forms of participation.
Who is behind the event?
The Women’s Ride is an initiative of Cycling Victoria, and supports their Breeze program of female lead community cycling. The event is supported by The Squeaky Wheel and aligned with the Amy Gillet Foundation as a charitable partner.
How can you get involved?
We are asking that you consider organising a RIDE or contributing an EVENT to the day’s activities.
The rides can be of any distance or difficultly, and it might be that you stage your regular activity with female participation in mind. You might just choose to get together a small group and ride to your local cafe, all kinds of rides and distances are encouraged.
An event could be anything, but something that encourages and rewards female participation on the day is ideal. These could be things such as:
• a discount for participating women in-store
• a reward or free service (pampering, hospitality, food and wine etc)
• a social activity that could be a ride destination or stop (movie, picnic, meal, experience) • entertainment (free or ticketed)
• workshops or learning opportunities (free or ticketed)
All rides and events must be self funded and managed, and will be listed on The Women’s Ride website with information details and a map. Rides and programming can be uploaded via the event website from December 2014.
Contact
For more information, please contact Mark Drehlich at Cycling Victoria on 8480 3077, or via email mark.drehlich@cycling.org.au
Social
You can start following and contributing to The Women’s Ride story via the social accounts listed below. It’s your ride, your friends and your day, so make it count for YOU.
https://www.facebook.com/thewomensride Twitter / Instagram: @TheWomensRide