Leading in equity and equality
One of the world’s first road races to award equal prizemoney in the men’s and women’s events takes place in Manawatū, writes Bob Selden.
New Zealand led the way in promoting women’s cycling in the very early days of cycling. The first all-women cycling club in Australasia was the Atalanta Cycle Club, started in Christchurch in 1892. Up to that point, there were “male only” clubs.
The Canterbury Times in 1892 reported: “Everyone cycles – both sexes, all ages, all ranks. Ladies make calls 30 miles out. There were lady cyclists in Christchurch when they were practically unknown in other parts of the world, and they cycled in knickerbockers, and tasted the freedom of the reform dress when their sisters elsewhere were merely talking of it in whispers.”
But it wasn’t the men who were progressive in establishing a club for women. It was left to suffrage campaigner Kate Sheppard and dress reformer Alice Burn, who were first members of the Atalanta Cycle Club.
They organised picnics, day trips and longer tours.
Women’s clubs became synonymous with the emancipation they sought and so they attracted a lot of negative publicity, sometimes being insulted by people when cycling and in fact facing open hostility.
Stones and food were thrown at them, and on occasion members were pushed off their bikes.
However, they persisted and by 1898 in Christchurch it was claimed there was hardly a woman who didn’t ride a bike or was learning to ride one.
In terms of sport cycling for women, women’s cycle racing in its infancy was treated with contempt.
When Alice Burn entered a men’s road race in Ōamaru in December 1892, she was viciously censured by pro- and anti-cyclists alike, including members of her own women’s club.
But she vigorously asserted “a woman’s right to do exactly as she pleases in spite of the strictures of a conventional majority”.
And so through the efforts of women such as Burn, women’s cycle racing in New Zealand was born – another first for Aotearoa.
Fast forward to 2019 and the board members of the Greasy Chain Charitable Trust in Manawatū – who are mainly male, by the way – had perceived the rapid advancement of women’s cycling on the world stage and decided they needed to do something for women’s cycling in New Zealand.
This could be described as farsighted, given the Tour de France Femmes wasn’t to begin for another three years in 2022.
Like their female counterparts in Canterbury in the 1890s, the Greasy Chain board members saw themselves as trailblazers in establishing the Gravel and Tar La Femme for women as a companion to the men’s Gravel and Tar Classic, which had by this stage developed a reputation as one of the toughest one-day UCI events in Oceania.
The women’s event was to be run on the same day over a similar course to the men’s Classic.
However, while this may have been seen as a move towards equality in the sport, “equity” was another matter.
Professional female cyclists in the emerging races around the world were still being paid less in prizemoney than their male counterparts.
It has been erroneously reported that the 2021 UCI Road World Championships, held in Belgium, was the first to include equal prizemoney for men’s and women’s events.
In fact, one of the first to pay equal prizemoney was the first edition of the Gravel and Tar La Femme in January 2019 in Manawatū.
Led by race director Steve Stannard (also the race director for the men’s Classic and whose own daughter Lizzie was an emerging cyclist), the Greasy Chain trust came to a unanimous decision to have equity in prizemoney between the women’s and men’s events. And that’s history.
Brodie Chapman, the Australian winner of the first Gravel and Tar La Femme, used her podium acceptance speech to thank the trust for its support of women’s cycling and was also full of praise for the organisation of the event.
The trust sees the event not only as a means of providing equity, but also as a great opportunity for female cyclists to get the developmental experience of participating in an international UCI race without having to travel internationally.
In Chapman’s case, she went on to gain a World Tour contract and became the Australian Road Race Champion in 2023.
Since then, there are many Kiwi women who have ridden the La Femme and subsequently gone onto bigger things. For example, Niamh Fisher-Black, who won the race in 2020, obtained a World Tour contract and has since won the under-23 World Road Cycling Championships.
Others include Ella Harris and Lizzie Stannard, both of whom have obtained World Tour contracts and have ridden the prestigious Tour de France Femmes.
This year’s second-place getter, Sammie Maxwell, is the current under-23 World Mountain Bike Champion.
The fields for the La Femme are impressive and competitive, with many of the current and potential world-class riders competing.
The status of the La Femme as a worldclass event supporting women’s cycling was one of the reasons the Greasy Chain trust was awarded the Shona Smith trophy for the development of women’s cycling by Cycling New Zealand.
With our long-standing world reputation for progressive initiatives in terms of social development, all Kiwis can indeed be very proud of yet another milestone in our history: the equality and equity provided for women in the Gravel and Tar La Femme.
The Greasy Chain trust came to a unanimous decision to have equity in prizemoney between the women’s and men’s events. And that’s history.
Bob Selden chairs the Greasy Chain Charitable Trust, a cycling organisation, and has held board positions in sailing, rugby, netball, chambers of commerce and human resources. He is a management author, family business consultant and keen sport participant and follower.