While I agree with your sentiment in general, Lisa, I think this could be be a good thing.

Whenever the topic of an all-woman's ride (such as either the Cinderella or LRRH) comes up on one of the other cycling boards, there is often an outcry mostly (but not exclusively) from men saying that it's discriminatory to have an all women's ride.

Yet, the Cinderella was the impetus for me to graduate from plotzing around on the bike path on my hybrid bike to getting into road cycling. And once I did the Cindy training rides and finished the Cinderella, there was no looking back!

And I think the Cinderella has been a similar motivator for other women cyclists in the Bay Area and beyond. Heck, a few weeks ago Lee and I were riding out on Canada Road (a very popular bike road up around Woodside) and we both noticed that at least half of the road cyclists out on that day were women - now how cool is that? And it makes me wonder, how many of those women we saw that day started road cycling after they came across a poster for the Cinderella and thought "gee, I wonder if I could do that?".

So, what's my point?

Just that I think an all-women's issue might pique the interest of women who otherwise might not think that bicycling is for them.

And once more women get into cycling, then perhaps we'll see more articles about women in cycling.