The ratio of girls to guys on the UM cycling team is pretty sad, especially for a campus of 36,000 people... ie: 3-4 on road bikes and 2-3 on mtn bikes, two of those overlapping, so really just 5 girls all together... this is on a team of about 50 (30 guys race regularly, but lots more go on club rides). I was the only female at our last meeting (the conversation quickly turned from bikes to.... other things ). I don't mind "hanging with the guys," but it's nice to be able to exchange tips with female riders (go figure!) and bike with people that don't turn every club ride into a testosterone-induced race.

The guys this year (ie: next school year) have made it their goal to get more girls on the team (to quote one of them, "we need more chicks on bikes!" ). I question their motives, but I'm all for getting more girls to join.

the question is, how? i've come up with some ideas, including more advertising (the general response to our jerseys is "UM has a cycling team? wow!"), better on-line links and resources on our club website ( http://www.umich.edu/~cycling ) skills clinics, and "buying a bike" clinics. I was trying to think of how to take some of the intimidation out of being a new cyclist, especially a female one (ie: you walk into an LBS here and get The Look: "What do you want?").

The guys think that them standing on the Diag (the quad) in spandex should be enough. I laughed hysterically when they said that. I don't think they appreciated my laughter

i sent my ideas to the Mountian Biking VP... haven't heard back yet (after talking to him a bit, i do think he was serious about trying to even out the gender distribution).

Do you ladies have any suggestions?