I find that most of the women here who are involved (that make themselves publicly known, anyway) are the ones who race and ride for various teams. Which is great - good for them! But they aren't ones who generally go out of their way to help newcomers. Even the normal beginner-ish co-ed (mostly male) group I would sometimes ride with seems to be posting only more skilled rides lately, and I'm just too scared. It sucks that I'm usually ok on the climbs but get left in the dust on the downhills, because that's when no one wants to wait!!