If the international women’s cycling day wouldn’t exist, it had to be invented. And so it happened, by yearly celebration of Rapha Women’s 100 event all over the world. For the 3rd time thousands of women from all over the world came together to ride their bikes at the same time. This year Barcelona became one of the cities to host female cyclist offering them to do 100km together along the Maresme coast. The key word of the event is “together”, as a social part of it is the most important and the main goal is motivating the girls to become more active in organising their rides and participating in the cycling events. That’s why the idea of the day was not only to make 100km, but to make it with other women. The idea of riding the bike in a company of other female riders appeared attractive to 50 ladies who came to Forum at 7am the 26th of July with their bikes to challenge themselves with 100km on a hot summer day. Most of them commented that the initiative of making kilometers in a female company was so much anticipated and seemed attractive to all kind of cyclist and levels. That’s why the peloton included triathletes, urban riders, velodrome enthusiasts and professionals, fixies and btts. All kind of bikes were welcomed as long as the riders could complete 100km following the basic traffic rules on the roads. The peloton happened to be very international and consisted of cyclist from France, Poland, Portugal, USA, England, Colombia and of course Spain. |
The cyclists left Barcelona at 8am in 3 groups leaded by the group leaders and accompanied by the clouds, which made the first 50km to Calella really fast and cheerful. After a little stop in Calella and filling up with fruits and isotonic drinks provided, the ladies returned to the city with the sun on its highest point, strong side winds and sunday beach traffic. All of this made the return a bit more challenging, breaking up the peloton into various groups. However nobody was left alone thanks to the assistance of the mechanic’s van following the cyclist all way through the ride. On arrival to Barcelona most of the participants could notice in their legs the 100km completed through the sun and wind, so that the distance has left everyone satisfied. According to the head-turning reactions of the other cyclists and car drivers passing by on the beautiful and numerous female peloton, it was clear that Barcelona did not remember so many ladies on the bikes on the road at the same time and proving that the event should be repeated. |
* Katerina Kolbu, Rapha Women's 100 Barcelona's organizer wants to thank everyone whose collaboration made this happened, especially to sponsors as Etixx, Probike, Moritz, Isdin and ImBikesfor its assistance and contribution.