Female cyclists are biker chicks and biker chic. To accurately distinguish this special species of road biker from the majority of her male counterparts out there, especially at high speeds, look for the following tell-tale cues: her smooth-shaved legs, wispy locks of long hair flying from the back of a helmet, lady lumps in all the right places, an impeccably fashionable bike jersey, and a killer smile!
Road biking is sport I never imagined taking up myself. I secretly made fun of people who wore padded bike shorts, I was terrified to ride on the street right next to moving cars, and always thought it would be more "inconvenient" for a woman to bike because of well, you know, female stuff.
Now that I'm hooked on cycling, I realize that there are a lot of female bikers out there. Sure, they are more scarce, but the ones I have met along the way are AMAZING women who are strong, intelligent, talented, determined, and beautiful from head to heart to toe-- or from helmet to toe clips, as it were. These she-road warriors are so inspirational to me that I wanted to profile them as a kind of homage to them for riding with me, encouraging me, keeping me motivated, and helping me train.
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| Tammy |
Beauty:
Tammy is the only other female member of the Viet Velo NW team. She is the mom of two accomplished young ladies, an amazing cook, a marathon runner, and a prolific home gardener. Somewhere in between all that, she sleeps, I think. I was so nervous to bike with Viet Velo that very first time last year, but Tammy welcomed me to the group with open arms and told me that, "We girls will stick together." She happens to be married to one of the Viet Velo Captains, whose name is also Nhan. They are seriously one of the coolest, most fun couples I've ever met.
Tammy encouraged me so much on that first ride, and she convinced me that road biking is possible for a woman to both enjoy and excel at. I am in complete awe of this woman and her talents. She makes me believe it is possible for a female biker to do it all-- balancing a family life, motherhood, a full-time job, and still have an exciting life full of adventure.
Beast Mode:
On every ride, she is flanked by all male bikers. She's done all the major event rides with them like STP (she rode 200+ miles from Seattle to Portland in one day), RSVP (Ride from Seattle to Vancouver, BC and Party), High Pass Challenge (a strenuous mountain pass ride with over 7,500 feet in elevation gain over 114 miles), 7 Hills of Kirkland (she crashed on the rain-slicked roads and was temporarily knocked unconscious), you name it! The Viet Velo guys are a bunch of fun-loving, smart-ass types, but she can keep up with the boys in more ways than one.
On that first group ride, one of the male riders accidentally bumped into her and literally sent her flying off her bike, sprawled into the street. That one terrifying moment seemed to validate all my worst fears about road biking. Had there been an oncoming car just then, I might have fainted. But she jumped up, grabbed her bike, dusted herself off, got back on her bike, and gave her fellow rider a good-natured ribbing for knocking her into the street like that. Her knee was bruised and bloody from hitting the asphalt, but she showed such true grit that day by getting over it and getting on with it. She finished out the ride with a smile on her face and a tale to tell! I asked her to tell me why she likes to road bike, but she said, "No quote from me, I just ride!"
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| Tammy and I, center, on my first ride with Viet Velo |
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| Stephanie |
Stephanie is a high school friend who I hadn't seen since graduation. I ran into her at a mutual friend's party last year where we re-connected and discovered that we both road bike. I was thrilled to see her again, let alone find out that she is avid cyclist too! With the encouragement of her husband, she took up the sport years ago, and since then they've covered mile after beautiful mile together. She said, "Biking is definitely part of the glue of our marriage. It has brought us closer."
Stephanie is so generous of spirit. She has shared with me so much invaluable biking advice, savory recipes for homemade trail food, wonderful ride anecdotes, and an incredible sense of self as a woman-- even while being part of a dynamic duo with her husband. We have yet to get a chance to ride together, but I've kept her experienced advice in mind with every ride. She is the one who emphasized to me that biking is about both performance and pleasure. You can pedal hard, but what's the point if your head is down and you're missing the view?
She and her family organize a magnificent touring ride in Canada every year around Memorial Day weekend. She graciously extended an invitation to me and Nhan to join them this year. I was truly humbled and honored by the generosity of her offer. And Nhan and I were dying to go. But alas, we both have family events that same weekend that cannot be missed, so we sadly and regretfully have to miss out on this chance to ride with her and her family.
Beast Mode:
As a couple, she and her husband plan to do the RSVP ride again this year, and a week afterward they plan to climb Mt. Fuji in Japan! Stephanie's just cool like that. She, too, bikes with an all male group which includes a fellow rider known as "Bill the Machine." With a nickname like that, you know she's not messing around when it comes to training. But Stephanie is both game and gamine. She can definitely keep up with the boys in terms of distance, drive, and determination. But she is always still a lady first. She authorized me to use the above photo of her because she said, "I'm wearing my girly riding skirt." This beautiful dichotomy in her is precisely what makes her so inspirational to me. I admired her in school because of her intelligence and grace, and it makes me smile to know that she has carried these these same characteristics over to her biking prowess.
She is a biker beauty with brains. She offered this cool observation when I asked her to comment on road biking from a female perspective:
"I saw a group of roadie biker men on a break at Coulon Beach a few weeks ago, and couldn't help but overhear them compare their times, bikes, etc. and was reminded that cycling is still dominated by men. I felt turned off. And yet I believe men & women ultimately ride for that same feeling of freedom, self-challenge and inner contemplation. We just express it differently."
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| Reunion party last year. Stephanie is the tall one in the grey top. |
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| Phuong |
Beauty:
Phuong is a college friend of mine who lives in Paia, Maui. I featured her in the previous blog post, "Pedaling in Paradise." She is a nursing professor and an avid paddle boarder with rock hard, six-pack abs even as a mother of two cute kids.
She went through a lot of effort to set up that island cycle tour for me just because she knew how much I loved to bike. What I didn't realize was that she hadn't ridden her bike much at all since she had her kids because she said her equilibrium felt different, and she was scared of falling while still clipped in. I begged her to ride with me since it was something I wanted to experience with her. I came to visit her after all, and the sheen of riding around the island lost its luster once I found out that she had no intention of riding at all that day.
Somehow her husband, Jim, and I finally convinced her to do it. But I could see sheer dread in her face, and I knew she was doing it for me despite all of her anxiety about it. That is the kind of true friend she has always been. But if she was going to go, she would be doing it her way, without clip pedals and shoes. Despite Jim's protests, she stood her ground and insisted on wearing her own running shoes to bike so that she could stop quickly and alleviate her fears about falling. I completely empathized with her since I faced many of the same fears about clip shoes myself. My knobby knees speak for themselves.
Beast Mode:Turns out her fears were mostly in her head, and she just needed to shake off the dust and rust. Once she was back on the bike, she re-discovered her love of biking-- much to the ecstasy of Jim, who's been trying to get her to bike with him again for the past 5 years.
The funny thing is that she pounded up this steep hill past everyone on that wonky-wheeled bike of hers, but walked it back down. She said she loves going uphill, but doesn't care for the speed going downhill. I don't blame her; that hill is much steeper than it looks. You can tell by how far she had to lean back just to walk down.
As I also mentioned in the previous post, Phuong and Jim rode their bikes all the way from Alaska to San Diego in 2004 as part of their honeymoon. It took them 3.5 months of biking and camping all along the coast and byways; all their gear stored in panniers (saddle bags) on their bikes. They would ride anywhere from 50-80 miles a day, and then pull into camp at night to rest and recover before the next day's ride. Each campsite has special reserve spots for bikers since they don't have cars to take up room. Usually, the camps are prime locations right near the water. They bought fresh food from grocery stores along the way, cooked and camped, had clean showers and real restrooms every night. They learned a lot about themselves as a couple and as individuals along the way.
Nhan and I have also contemplated doing a similar ride together since his grad-school friend, Meghan, and her husband did one too a few years ago. She met with us for coffee one evening to give us some insight and anecdotes on the magnitude of that kind of bike tour. It takes a lot of logistics, planning, and more importantly, a significant amount of time off from work.
Had it not been for Phuong insisting on wearing her own shoes instead of clip pedals, she might not have been convinced to join me on that ride. And had she not biked that day, she would not have seen the stunning views that we did, and Jim might have lost his riding partner forever. She promised me too, that we would ride together again some day.
Girls compete with each other. Women empower one another.
One of the toughest things about being a female road biker is accepting that you will never be as strong as the guys, nor have the burly quad and calf muscles that the guys have (thank goodness), that you might not be the fastest up the hill, or that you might need to take bio-breaks more frequently. But one thing I do know is that female road bikers have a lot of determination.
It is precisely because we have to keep up with the guys that we push ourselves to excel. We have to work that much harder to compensate for our lack of physicality. We all have to get up that same gnarly hill, but it's that much harder for a someone with less developed muscles-- no matter how often we hit the gym, how fast we spin, or how much weight we lift. Most of the guys we ride with are exceptionally patient, supportive, generous, and encouraging while we toil alongside them, or mostly behind them, on group rides. Maybe they let us tag along, or maybe they really enjoy our company and want to help us improve our skill set-- or just maybe we deserve a spot on the team.
Nhan has always been my first supporter and primary champion in biking, but I've met so many cool bikers along the way who have also helped me get better at this sport. Turns out that some of my "fellow" riders are not fellows at all, but fearless female road bikers who really are blazing the trail for other women. Without their invaluable advice, support, and encouragement, I may not have had the confident role models I needed to keep at it. These gals are my biking heroes, or rather, heroines. They make biking brilliant for me, and I admire and respect each and every one of them for it.
And just when you believe that the somewhat sexist gulf between men and women bikers can be bridged, turns out there's such a thing as Hoo Ha Ride Glide........
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