This event is a sign of progress – but there is much more to do

The fight for gender equality is far from won, even if this week’s race should make us all proud

Our sport cannot fulfil its potential if we succeed in engaging only half the population

It has been a whirlwind year since I took over the reins at British Cycling. When I began in May 2017 we had just had the leaked draft of the independent review into the Climate and Culture of the World Class Programme – and some of that made for pretty grim reading.

But as I write this now, I think that we as a body, and the sport as a whole in this country, can look ahead with real optimism. Some of the changes which we implemented were long overdue. But the good news is we are now moving forward on a much sounder footing. And we have so much to be excited about.

One of the most exciting areas, of course – and an area of which British Cycling can be genuinely proud – is the wonderful growth of women’s cycling in this country. The start of the OVO Energy Women’s Tour in Framlingham, Suffolk, today will see thousands of fans come out to cheer on a world-class field. This is the fifth edition of the race, but already it has established itself as the best of its kind in the world. That is no exaggeration. From the record crowds each year, which include thousands upon thousands of schoolchildren, to the television coverage, to the fact that this year there will be equal prize money with the men’s equivalent race, the Women’s Tour has raised the bar.

It is wonderful to see, a huge credit to the organisers Sweetspot, and part of a wider trend we at British Cycling are desperate to encourage. Like the vast majority of sports, cycling has a historic disparity of participation between the genders. It is a gap we are trying hard to eradicate.

In 2013, we set ourselves an ambitious target of influencing one million more women to cycle by 2020. I am delighted to say we are well on course to reach that goal. I am also thrilled to announce that HSBC UK Breeze, the programme which offers women the chance to get back into cycling via womenonly, led rides, has just passed 200,000 participants in the seven years since it was established.

In the same period, there has been a 70 per cent increase in the number of women holding race licences and the number of female race entries has tripled since 2012. There are significantly more female coaches, and the number of women taking part in sportives has also risen. We have trained more women to become commissaries and appointed women to top positions on British Cycling’s board – me included!

But it is a constant battle. More female representation at the top of our sport is fantastic, but to initiate genuine, long-term change, we know we must continue our work to transform our sport from the bottom up. Our female membership sits at 23,000 (which is higher than our total number of members 15 years ago). However, women still make up just 16 per cent of the membership. That is not good enough.

Bridging that gender gap is why we have set up a Women’s Strategy Group – headed up by Jill Puttnam, our head of programme design, and which I chair – to try to find solutions. My hope is that through our work, the group will make itself obsolete because the culture of cycling will have changed to normalise women’s participation.

But there is much to do in the meantime. Our research suggests that so-called ‘churn’ – people being inspired to start cycling but then drifting away again – is much higher amongst women than men. This is due, predominantly, to reasons relating to confidence and worries over safety. So we are trying to combat this. We are setting up women-only cycling skills and rider development sessions, education programmes, and so on. Research also suggests that many girls drop out of physical exercise when incredibly young; that from junior school they are getting strong societal messages about having beautiful make-up and hair. That does not sit well with competing so that is a challenge we must meet head on.

Our sport is fortunate to have some wonderful ambassadors – elite riders such as Dame Sarah Storey, Laura Kenny, Lizzie Deignan, Shanaze Reade and Joanna Rowsell Shand – who have all been extraordinarily successful and take seriously their responsibility to be role models not just for cycling but for women and girls to be more active in any way.

The bottom line is our sport cannot fulfil its potential if we are succeeding in engaging only half the population. It is why races such as the OVO Energy Women’s Tour are so important – the best female riders in the world, operating on an equal footing with the men.

I will be cheering them on this week. You should too.