Survey of Women Cyclists about RAMROD and She RAMROD
23 March 2020
She RAMROD wanted to better understand what might be holding women back from endurance cycling, in particular RAMROD (Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day: 150 miles, 10,000 elevation gain). Based on input from the survey, She RAMROD is looking into the following:
- We are planning online clinics on topics of interest to you.
- We will continue to build and promote She RAMROD as a group of support, inclusivity and fun.
- We are looking into sharing training suggestions and plans with the group so you are confident in your riding ability for endurance cycling events.
- Once social distancing has been lifted and it’s safe again for us to do organized rides and coordinate ride buddies, we’ll be working on these with the group.
What we did
We sent out a survey asking for your input on what’s keeping you from endurance cycling,
such as RAMROD, and how She RAMROD could help. In creating this survey, we hoped to answer
three questions:
- What is keeping you from endurance cycling or entering the RAMROD lottery?
- What would help you to consider signing up for the RAMROD lottery?
- What could She RAMROD offer that would get you out bike riding?
For each question we provided a list of multiple choice responses. Respondents could choose multiple responses to each question and fill in their own if they did not see it on the list.
What we learned
We had 19 respondents who shared with us their barriers and things She RAMROD could do to help.
Here’s what we learned.
There were three main themes in the responses: cost, support, and education. We feel that She RAMROD can begin to help with the latter two, support and education, and hope that we can grow to help with costs.
Cost. Cost was a main issue and need for support from respondents, both the cost of equipment and cost of participation. We recognize this. Biking is expensive and RAMROD certainly is an expensive ride. Redmond Cycling Club (RCC) provides a lot of infrastructure on the day of the ride which is understandably costly. For now, we hope to provide some resources, like clinics and training plans, free of cost. However, we also hope to continue She RAMROD beyond 2020 and secure sponsors to help with funding.
Support. Respondents also had concerns about being able to complete RAMROD, being too slow, or feeling unsafe on descents or in traffic. These are all legitimate concerns that She RAMROD committee members have felt, have heard from other women cyclists, or are feeling even now. However, we have found that riding with a buddy and/or having a group, can help. We hope to provide a supportive environment for overcoming these concerns through group rides, facilitating connection to ride buddies in your location and who ride your speed, and through building this community as a whole.
Education. The last main theme of our survey responses was education. For endurance riding there is much beyond just the cost of equipment and hard work. It is also important to know things like how to fuel yourself on long rides, how to keep your body healthy, and how to deal with your bike equipment (bike fits, fixing a flat, etc.). We hope this is an area that She RAMROD can provide a lot of value to women cyclists by organizing clinics. Our first clinic is scheduled for Thursday April 9th at 7pm and will be virtually hosted on Zoom, click for details.
In the following three tables, we provide a further breakdown of responses from our survey and our thoughts regarding each.
| What is keeping you from endurance cycling or entering the RAMROD lottery? | |
| The cost of event entries are expensive (47%) | Cost is understandably an insurmountable barrier for some. We wish we could provide scholarships to cover costs at this time. Before the next fiscal year when folks are determining their budget, we hope to secure some sponsorship. |
| I’m unsure if I can ride 150 miles with 10,000 ft of elevation gain (42%) | It’s okay to be nervous, unsure, or scared. People of all ages, shapes, and sizes have done this ride. We can’t promise it will be easy and you will need to train hard and many hours to make it as easy as possible, but that is what our community is here for: moral and literal support (and training buddies)! |
| I believe I am too slow and everyone seems to be faster (42%) | It is hard to find a group or your buddy that is your speed. When it is safe to organize rides again, we plan to organize a spreadsheet for finding bike buddies and organize group rides where no one is left behind. |
| I don’t have the time to train (32%) | Unfortunately, we don’t have the power to give out more time for training, but we wish we did! |
| I’m scared on descents or to ride outdoors in traffic (21%) | Safety is a legitimate concern. Riding with a buddy or joining group rides on low traffic or protected routes is a good way to get more comfortable. When it is safe to organize rides again, we will help by suggesting routes / organized rides. |
| What would help you to consider signing up for the RAMROD lottery? | |
| 42% said a training plan would help them be more confident to do RAMROD and other long distance rides | We are currently looking into resources for this and possible training plans. However, the RCC RAMROD training series ride lengths are a good benchmark for the miles you should be putting in for your longest ride each week. We have also added these rides to our calendar. |
| 37% asked for organized scheduled training rides with people who ride their speed | When it is safe to organize rides again, we plan to organize a spreadsheet for finding bike buddies and organize group rides where no one is left behind. |
| 26% asked for clinics to help learn about fueling for long rides, bike fits and keeping their body healthy | We have our first clinic on bike pain on April 9th! It will be virtual, see the details here. We are also planning to organize further clinics on other topics. |
| 21% asked for education on bike equipment for long rides | We hope that the She RAMROD Facebook Group will be a good resource for the community to ask questions and share information about bike equipment. We also plan to share information and host an event to share ideas on this topic. |
| 21% said financial assistance with the registration cost | Cost is understandably an insurmountable barrier for some. We wish we could provide scholarships to cover costs at this time. Before the next fiscal year when folks are determining their budget, we hope to secure some sponsorship. |
| What could She RAMROD offer that would get you out bike riding? | |
| Feeling part of a group / community (58%) | This is our main mission for She RAMROD, creating a community for women cyclists. When it is safe to organize rides again, these will be the heart of the community, but in the meantime, we hope to foster an online environment of support and education for women cyclists. Please reach out if you have feedback for us or would like to take on a role in shaping this community. |
| Organized rides (53%) | When it is safe to organize rides again, we plan to organize group rides where no one is left behind. |
| Ride buddies (42%) | When it is safe to organize rides again, we plan to organize a spreadsheet for finding bike buddies by location and speed. |
| Clinics on bike fits, riding, nutrition, etc. (42%) | We have our first clinic on bike pain on April 9th! It will be virtual, see the details here. We are also planning to organize further clinics on other topics. |
| She RAMROD making training and riding fun (38%) | We hope to create a safe and fun environment where women cyclists can grow and enjoy endurance riding! |
Other issues to highlight
There are two other issues pointed out by respondents through the ability to add their own
answers to the questions and in the comment box, that we feel are worth bringing up and having
a continued dialogue around.
The first concerns male cyclists. In the survey responses, there was both a wish to ride without men who are jerks and a wish to have co-ed events/rides as men can be supportive and provide some competition to make us stronger too. Overall, we feel that She RAMROD should be a safe space. This means some women-only events. However, we also feel that men should be our allies in recruiting more women endurance cyclists and supporting an increase in women riding RAMROD. We also recognize that some women train with their male partners. Striking a balance between the two wishes expressed in the survey response, may be difficult, but we hope to do our best in creating this community and hope we can have a continued dialogue around this too.
The second issue we want to highlight is related to getting additional support. Respondents asked for 1) A structural change to the RAMROD lottery: reserving a specific number of spots for cis-women, trans-women, and non-binary cyclists; and 2) Scholarships cis-women, trans-women, and non-binary cyclists.
She RAMROD is not associated with or part of Redmond Cycling Club (RCC), so we are not a part of decisions about the lottery, but we share a passion for the endurance cycling that RCC supports. RCC is already in the process of offering women-only rides (when it is safe to do so again). Another way to get a spot in RAMROD is volunteering. RCC has a volunteer program which offers a lotter bypass (automatic entry) for the volunteer in the next year’s ride, so this is another way to get a spot to ride RAMROD.
In Conclusion
Thank you for those who completed the survey and took the time to read until this point. We have
taken the responses from this survey and begun to work towards how She RAMROD may be able to help
remove some of these obstacles that are keeping you from enjoying more time on your bike and training
for endurance rides. Hopefully, the actions we take to encourage, empower, and support more women
to ride will boost the number of women riders in RAMROD to 20% in 2020!
Please, stay safe and healthy, practice social distancing, and we hope to see you in person soon. In the meantime, please reach out with questions, concerns, or ideas!