The women community in road biking is not too big or I don’t know where all the women are hiding. But if there are any women out there feeling intimidated just by the thought of going up a road bike (as I was), I would like to share with you why I was afraid to start road biking and how I solved it. And maybe the road biking community will see more and more ponytails.
I am speaking from a novice point of view, I rode only 3700 km for about 7 months and I managed to overcome most beginners’ fears. There’s still a lot of work to do, though.
My point of view is highly amateur, so I recommend to watch GCN, the best YouTube channel you should have as a companion in your cycling adventure. So here are my first thoughts and fears about road bikes:
1. Thin wheels on uneven surfaces
This aspect is a bit unnerving in the beginning. It seems like there’s so much less contact surface between us and the ground. But fear not, the width of the wheels doesn’t affect the balance. However, it does affect the capacity of the bike to roll on uneven surfaces. In my first few hours on the road bike I could feel every single grain of sand and crack on the road. The easiest way of getting used to rolling on uneven surfaces is to go in a park, far away from the cars and go over paved surfaces, slightly sandy or with few pebbles and see how it reacts. The secret of this obstacle is going fast enough and not breaking when you see an uneven surface (totally guilty of that in the beginning). Going slower makes things more difficult.
It will get easier with time and once you can handle the bike easier. Probably also if you learn to bunny hop, but I’m still far from that. Here is short explanation of how to do a bunny hop, just practice it more than I do: https://youtu.be/-nOu5TYGvoU. A fair warning that is not in the video: your forearms and arms will hurt like crazy from practicing this too much, so take it easy!
2. Weird looking handlebars
Talking about handling the bike, the handlebars look quite intimidating at first. I remember wondering why they would need that antlers shape and how would you control the bike and break from there. This aspect takes no more than a day or two to get used to. The handlebar on a road bike has 3 positions: you can put your hand on the bar, but recommended only for going up the hill when you don’t need break access, on the hoods – used most of the time with continuous access to breaks and on the drops for going downhill especially in an aero position, from where the breaks are also accessible. None of the position is challenging, however there is one crucial aspect you need to have fulfilled from the beginning: make sure that you can reach the breaks. Especially as a women with small hands, I did have troubles reaching the breaks, which made me feel unsafe (as you can see in the picture above, my fingers were almost fully extended, it is not only painful long term, but also unsafe). The reach can be very far and you might need to buy a handlebar with a shorter reach and also smaller angle for the drops. While changing the handlebar you need to also consider the width of your shoulders and buy a narrower bar, if needed. Here’s a perfect GCN episode about that, guiding you with the key aspects you should consider when choosing a handlebar: https://youtu.be/-P-QynImMuo.
3. Speed
Road bikes go fast! But you don’t have to go fast in the beginning as long as you have good breaks. So the solution to this is: make sure you can comfortably reach the breaks, that have still functioning pads and change the cables if you feel that they are not too responsive. If you start easy, not super slow because the bike is difficult to handle if you go below 10 km/h, you will unavoidably get more and more comfortable with the speed. 35 km/h will only feel normal.
4. Cars
This obviously depends on the country. But the best is to practice on not too crowded roads. When you get comfortable with the handling and the traffic is higher, don’t go too close to the edge of the road, give yourself space and the cars will have to overtake you like any other car. This is just a matter of riding many kilometers until you get used to it. Took me like 4 months to stop being stressed by cars stuck behind me.
Also, a very interesting aspect to consider is that drivers are more cautious with bikers wearing baggy clothes, since the lycra inspires professionalism. So your pick here!
5. Clip-in pedals
This was a categorical no for me in the beginning. How much worse can it get than being literally stuck to your bike? But trust me, it is the one single best improvement you can do on a bike! I started with MTB pedals and still have them. They are easy to clip in, to un-clip, the shoes are stiff, but I can still walk in them. Here is a GCN explanatory video about pedals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6h30OqTyTg
My advice for getting over your fear: clip in the shoes with your hands, just to understand the mechanism. Then hold onto something home while trying to clip in only one leg, better the leading one. Understand how much pressure you need to put on and get used to the approximate position where the cleats are. Learn how to twist the ankle in order to un-clip. Fall once, rather sooner than later. I think it is unavoidable, so just get over with. You will fall like a cardboard, forgetting you are one with your bike or simply not having time to twist your ankle out, it will hurt only a tiny bit. From here on the heavenly experience starts and you will never go back to normal shoes again. The reason is that you can push in the pedal so much stronger and reliably, your cadence will be smooth and the shoes look rather amazing. Look at my cuties above (I wear 34…).
6. Descending
I hope I am not the only one, but when descending all my preservation and survival alarms are on. I just want to break to a stop. However, that is one of the more difficult things to do on a descent – break. It can certainly make your wheels twist and lose grip and just fall, when in fact you want to avoid that. What helped me immensely with descents if to see another women from the world of road biking being afraid of the same thing and the advice she gives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCsGZTZKRIo.
So the key tricks here are: I am descending at a speed that is comfortable for me and I stopped worrying for the people who have to wait for me. And the other huge addition that changed my confidence is which leg to keep down or up when descending: so keep the left leg down when you turn right and put pressure on that down leg. The other point of pressure is the opposite hand – right in this case. And last one: leaning! Practice on flat and try leaning more and more. I am not a master at this, so don’t expect to be an expert over night, just take it easy!
Oh, and I forgot, don’t grab your breaks strongly in a corner, try to do it before that and focus on rather feathering them.
7. Drafting
This is one of the other things I considered very unnecessary… I mean, I can bike by myself. Well, wait to have a stronger man with you and wait to get a feel and joy for the speed. If you want to avoid bonking (check out what that is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFZ0aYz71Tw) when riding with somebody stronger or you simply don’t want to be destroyed after 2 hours of riding in head wind as a tiny women, you will need to learn drafting. The best is to learn together with your partner on an empty road at a comfortable 15-20 km/hour at a comfortable distance, half a wheel, and then get closer and closer until you feel comfortable. Another thing you really need is trusting your partner! I was really scared that if he announces holes or cracks too late I won’t have time to react, but the trick is that if the rider in front of me can pass over the tiny obstacle without bunny hopping, I can to. But just for confidence, I always take my eyes off the wheel in front of me and scan the road ahead. Here is a very good GCN video about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqLdeLchqYA
8. Group rides
Feeling like hyperventilating just at the thought of having 2 extra bikes around you? How will you keep up? How fast will they go? How will your bike handling be? What if you bump into somebody or touch their wheel while trying to desperately draft? It can be quite intimidating to join a group ride as a girl, since you might even be the only one. But you can do it! It of course depends on the level of the other riders, but I would say that here are the key aspects you should be comfortable with before considering a group ride: make sure you are handling your bike properly, make sure you already got used to your clip-in pedals, cars passing by, riding at 30 km/h and a bit more and drafting. And the last thing: if you don’t have a partner to stay with you in case you drop from the group, make sure you know the route so that you can continue by yourself. But I think any group of men are protective with the women, just communicate if it is too hard and one of them will definitely help and push you up-hill.
This being said, I hope my observations will make you more comfortable. It is normal to have all sort of fears and there is a certain beauty in overcoming them one by one. And lastly, there is nothing sexier than seeing girl bikers in their lycra suits and with their ponytails flying in the 40 km/h wind. So go for it!
Also, if you happen to be in Andalusia, check out my post for some ideas of awesome routes: https://www.thymeconsuming.com/road-cycling-routes-starting-in-seville-spain/(opens in a new tab)