Women’s Festival of Cycling: round up

The launch

The Women’s Festival of Cycling began with a launch event in which more than 150 women rode through the streets of London to the Westminster Parliament.

People of all ages, abilities and backgrounds attended the ride to mark the start of the month-long festival, including women from the cycle industry, media and inspiring females profiled in our 100 Women in Cycling list.

After the cycle ride, guests were invited to a parliamentary reception to listen to inspirational women, including TV presenter Angellica Bell, speak about their cycling experiences.

Read more about the launch event

100 Women

Cycling UK’s 100 Women in Cycling, now in it’s third year, celebrates inspirational women and recognises the amazing work they have done to inspire more women to cycle.

Women on the list contribute to cycling in many different ways. From sports stars to community champions, 100 Women in Cycling recognises the incredible diversity of women who ride.

View our complete list of 100 Women in Cycling 2019

The festival

During July more than 100 events took place around the country, including riding skill sessions, community events and female-friendly rides.

The pledge

It’s estimated that only a million women in the UK cycle regularly, that’s just 3% of the population, with many more bike journeys made by men than women.

The Women’s Festival aims to address that imbalance by inspiring more women to get in the saddle.

A recent poll carried out by YouGov on behalf of Cycling UK that found that 36% of women said they would be inspired to cycle more with the encouragement of friends and family.

So we challenged every cyclist in the UK to enlist at least one more woman to start cycling through July.

The Women’s Festival may be over but you can still make a pledge to encourage another woman to cycle.

More about the pledge

What next?

Your next challenge

If you took part in our Women’s Festival this year and are looking for your next challenge why not:

• Try the Rapha Women's 100. On 14 September 2019, women all over the world will ride 100km in one day, making lasting memories, forging new friendships and inspiring each other to achieve a collective goal.
• Join a Cycling UK challenge ride. The annual challenge ride series is a great way to see the countryside with like-minded people. There are rides of varying distances up and down the UK for riders of all abilities.

Start cycling

If you’re looking to take up cycling or return to riding, you don’t have to wait until the Women’s Festival 2020 to get support! Cycling UK has member clubs up and down the UK which are great places to pick up advice and encouragement for your cycling life.

• Find your nearest local group to go out cycling with.

Finally

While our Women’s Festival of Cycling for 2019 has come to close, we couldn’t finish without saying “Congratulations!” to this year’s most inspirational cycling woman: Fiona Kolbinger! On 6 August, Fiona became the first woman to win the 4,000km Transcontinental Race, beating a strong field of both men and women. It was also her first long-distance endurance race.