Maidei goes on a world tour-Part 1 of the Bicycle Mystery Tour

[Bike Chick]

Fledgling, I hope she gets to come through Missouri, Illinois and on to Indiana. I really think she would enjoy seeing the Arch and the Mississippi River, don't you?

[Fledgling]

Most certainly. The Arch isn't something to miss. And whose life is really complete without taking a picture with the Nelson Atkins shuttlecocks?

[Catrin]

Fledgling, I hope she gets to come through Missouri, Illinois and on to Indiana. I really think she would enjoy seeing the Arch and the Mississippi River, don't you?

I think she would love to see the International Motor Speedway, I only live a mile from it Let's see, there is also Eagle Creek Park - and while I don't ride singletrack, Brown County State Park in the southern part of the state has some great singletrack that I bet someone could take her on! I could take her hiking on it, but I bet she would prefer to ride. There are other great places as well.

[MomOnBike]

I know of some pretty neat places in Eastern Nebraska that she'd like to go, too.

For the Record, DH & I are planning a trip down the Katy Trail this fall. If Maidei is in the vicinity, she's more than welcome to come along. We could do an exchange with, um, whomever, near the Arch - or something like that.

[katherine]

Is she coming to AZ (or vicinity) soon? My partner and I are going to bike along the north rim of the Grand Canyon for 4th of July (big US holiday) and I bet she'd love to see it!

[kiwi girl]

Very belatedly, here are photos of Maidei at the "Girls on Bikes" ride in Methven, Canterbury, New Zealand in February. It was the inaugural ride and with 750 finishers the biggest women only ride in New Zealand. A beautiful day and great bunches to ride with

[shootingstar]

Thanks for these photos, kiwigirl. That sounds like a huge ride for only women! How was it promoted to get a huge participation rate?

[kiwi girl]

apologies - I started writing this and I got a bit carried away, Shooting Star's question has really got my passion for the great state of women's cycling both as a elite and mass participation sport in New Zealand at the moment going...

I can't remember if I learnt about the event from seeing a poster in a bike shop window (and every bike shop I walked past for the 3 or 4 months before the race had one) or if I was on a mailing list because I did a (mixed) event by the same organisers last year. The ride had both a 35 and a 76 km option which opened it up to a range of riders.

Methven where the ride was is a small ski town, but Christchurch with a population of 335,000 is only 90 minutes drive away. One key thing is that there have been a couple of very very successful entry level womens only triathlon series (generally 200 m pool swim, 10 - 15 km bike 3 - 5km run) over the past 5 - 10 years that have been really positive in getting women to get into sports. Lots of people have gone on to these to be more involved in running, cycling or triathlon at a more competitive level. Most of the women I talked to at Girls on Bikes had started at one of these events

There are now lots of women who met through these events, various internet forums, training groups and (for triathletse) people who meet at the pool that word of mouth can be pretty good as well

Cycling is really on a high in New Zealand at the moment. There is a core group of men doing well in the pro circuit (two guys in the tour de France and Jesse Sergent won a stage in the tour de Gila a couple of days ago). The womens road programme doesn't get a lot of publicity but there is crossover from the track programme, particularly the coverage that the elite pursuters have got. Even though Sarah Ulmer has retired she is probably still one of the most respected athletes in any sport and of either gender in the country. She has put on a series of womens only rides around the country for a few years as well. Alison Shanks has carried on that success and that publicity for cycling (helped by the fact that a) she is really good, and b) her background in netball which is the highest profile womens sport in New Zealand.