Welcome to Velowenches!
This website and the forum have come from an
idea that I was discussing with some other cyclists about forming a cycling club
for beginners, specifically ladies. The original idea stated:
"I'm thinking of starting a local cycling club. It would be a club for ladies
only, primarily aimed at beginners, in a sort of sight-seeing-and-cycling kind
of format (lots of tea shops and pubs!), to enable Village Ladies (it's sounding
farcical already!!) to go out in company at nights and to organise some fun
trips. It would be emphatically not for racing, or for huge mile-eating rides.
Yes, you're right, I need some cycling buddies!! But then isn't that how they
all start?"
One suggestion that came up was that it would be nice to also operate some kind
of contact network also, so that any ladies anywhere that were beginning to (or
were thinking about) returning to cycling could get together.
I was, of course, very keen, being a beginner myself, and spent quite a lot of time finding out what I needed to know about the implications of setting up a club. The issue I found is that it's expensive. It's expensive mainly because of the insurance and procedures that need to be followed to protect against possible litigation that may be levied against me, as an "organiser".
Well gosh! If it's going to be so expensive and risky, no wonder nobody does it. The easy way to circumvent all of this red tape is for me to, ostensibly, not organise anything. We can all just get together, get to know each other, and ride out to nice places at a mutually decided date and time, with all of us bearing the responsibility for our own safety.
Hence the forum.
So! All of the lady cyclists out there
who are interested in getting to know other lady cyclists in your area, who are
beginners intimidated by the long mileage and speeds of "normal" cycling clubs,
or who just fancy regular rides to nice places with lots of stops and
opportunities to explore the area being travelled through, join the forum and
we'll see what we can put together!
