Fortunately, I had a BF (now hubby) who thought it was cool that I'd ride with him, so he rode whatever pace I wanted to. Made it easy to start.

But, I think a fabulous thing is to stage events just for the girls. The Valleyspokesmen in Dublin, CA have held a women's only metric century, the Cinderella Classic, for something like 28 years. When I first rode it in 1987(?) I think there were only about a 1000 women at most.

This year registration was limited to 2,200 and registration closed in just a few days. An amazing group of women show up. The percentage of 1st timers, older women, youngsters on tandems with mom, etc. is much larger than other centuries. I think the Velogirls have training rides just for this event. It's a pretty cool thing. www.valleyspokesmen.org/cinder.html

You may also want to check outwww.velobella.org. Totally cool jerseys!