Feargal McKay

Fabian Wegmann: It's more important to save races than riders.

A part of Wegmann's argument is that effective subsidies are being removed from the sport, things like free police outriders, leaving race organisers with new costs they can't meet. The thing is, this has been going on for more than two decades now, and not just in cycling.

Across four or five years in the 1890s, Jules Beau's photographic albums contain 80+ images of women on bikes, three dozen different women in all. Some were society ladies, some theatre performers, some pro riders.

It's true that not enough is written about these women - and the women that followed every decade after, especially in France and the UK - but that's not down to them not being written about in their time. Look at this from La Biyclette in 1896, a dozen-and-a-half of the women racing then:

Across four or five years in the 1890s, Jules Beau's photographic albums contain 80+ images of women on bikes, three dozen different women in all. Some were society ladies, some theatre performers, some pro riders.

... about the women racing in London in the 1890s (and written about by Sheila Hanlon here www.sheilahanlon.com?p=1556 ).

Across four or five years in the 1890s, Jules Beau's photographic albums contain 80+ images of women on bikes, three dozen different women in all. Some were society ladies, some theatre performers, some pro riders.

The historical record is how we know about Tillie Anderson and the other women of the 1890s in the US ...

Across four or five years in the 1890s, Jules Beau's photographic albums contain 80+ images of women on bikes, three dozen different women in all. Some were society ladies, some theatre performers, some pro riders.

The historical record is how we know about what is generally believed to have been the first women's race in 1868

Across four or five years in the 1890s, Jules Beau's photographic albums contain 80+ images of women on bikes, three dozen different women in all. Some were society ladies, some theatre performers, some pro riders.

The issue of these women has come up because of an email I received last week, but it also ties into something @genkigalcycling.bsky.social's has written about the women written about in her great-uncle Bill Mills' magazine, The Bicycle, in the 1930s and 1940s.

Across four or five years in the 1890s, Jules Beau's photographic albums contain 80+ images of women on bikes, three dozen different women in all. Some were society ladies, some theatre performers, some pro riders.

Obviously, it's the pro riders that interest me the most. Some of them I've written about in the past, in relation to the Hour record. Most rarely get mentioned by cycling historians. Forgotten as they are today, their memory lingered on after the 1890s. Here's Desgrange in 1921:

A factoid beloved by those shitty engagement farm accounts that unashamedly nick content in the pursuit of clicks:

Also erased: Beth Heiden. Skating World Championships 1978 and 1979, cycling 1980.

A factoid beloved by those shitty engagement farm accounts that unashamedly nick content in the pursuit of clicks: