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Welcome to women's cycling at Oxford! Below is a selection of things that OUCC Women have been involved in over the last year or so. For more information please see the women's drop down menu at the top of the page, or email the women's captain. We look forward to seeing you out riding!
TRAINING Training is very personal and the number and type of organised rides varies considerably depending on the time of year. In the first two terms, club rides on Saturdays (10am from Trinity Gates) are very well attended and usually comprise a faster and a slower ride. This year, we also started a women's ride on Sunday mornings focusing on group riding with some drills. OCRC also have rides on Sundays which OUCC members can join, leaving at 9am for those looking for something longer. In the summer term and over the summer, many people race at weekends, so rides are organised through the women's mailing list. Many people also participate in the chaingang on Tuesday evenings, and we often have a women's group leaving slightly early to get a head-start over the hills! The amount and type of training you do is entirely up to you, but we encourage people to come out and ride together - it's more fun, and you learn more bike handling skills that can come in handy if you want to try racing. If you have any questions or suggestions, please drop the women's captain a line, or email the women's list. RACING Women's National Team Series 2005 For the first time, OUCC has entered a team in the Women's National Team Series. The series consists of nine races - eight in England, one in Northern Ireland, and we field a team of 3-6 riders in each one. We are currently in 7th position and look forward to building on our experience in next year's competition. If you are interested in racing, please email the women's captain. We are also seeking sponsorship to cover racing costs next year if you would like to sponsor us - the only University team in the series! Information on race dates, courses and results can be found here. Squad meeting minutes: Local Women's Crits and other road races There are a number of other races open to women, either combined with the men, or as a women's only event. For a full list of races see the British Cycling racing calendar. There is a series of women's only races at Hillingdon every fortnight during the Summer with 1st/2nd and 3rd/4th category races - see here for more information. The Women's Cycle Racing Association also organizes many women's events and has a good reference calendar of races. Time Trialling (aka "testing") For those that prefer pitting themselves against the clock over a fixed length course, there is a plethora of time trials to entertain you, and club members are keen participants. First and foremost of course are the BUSA 10 and 25 mile TTs, the latter incorporating the Varsity race against Cambridge. As a club we also hold a cuppers (inter-college) 10 mile TT and a Town v Gown race during the year. The definitive source for time trials is the Cycling Time Trials (CTT) website. Although it can be a bit confusing finding race details. This year several people participated in the National 10, 25 and 100 mile time trials; usually held on very fast courses, there are a great opportunity for getting a PB...!! Run under the rules of the CTT, there is a Ladies Time Trial Series. The prize fund starts at £1000, with the winner getting £250.00. The distances are 10 and 25 miles, prizes start at getting £250 and go down to 15th. For more details of this series and the rules and regulations see here. Bicester Millenium Cycling club has a well-run series of 10 and 25 mile time trials on Tuesday evenings at Weston on the Green, very close by. There are many local time trials and the West London District website is up and running again and gives a list of all events (Open and club) in the west London district area (which includes Oxford).
Results 14 August 2005 - Women's Series Race 7: Towcester 31 July 2005 - WCRA Road Race, Goodwood Circuit 24 July 2005 - Women's Series Race 6: Quainton 28 - 30 May 2005 - Women's Series Race 4: Bedford 3 Day (5 stages)
8 May 2005
- Women's Series Race 3: Ellen's Green,
Surrey 7 May 2005 - BUSA 25 mile TT and Varsity Race - Team and Individual results 30 April 2005 - BUSA 10 mile TT - Team and Individual results 10 April 2005 - Women's Series Race 1: Nottingham 5 Mar 2005 - MK Handicap Series - No 2 26 Feb 2005 - MK Handicap Series - No 1 20 Feb 2005 - MTB Varsity and the article in Cherwell
Atalanta's Christmas Awards Dinner
We had the good company of the swimmers and the water-poloers. The food was excellent but the one girl to choose the oysters from the set menu, lulled into security by the pink haze and the sisters all round, was, mercifully, allowed to swap them for the smoked salmon after one gloopy mouthful.
The grant we received will be used towards funding the entries,
travel, kit etc of an OUCC womens team to Women's National Road
Racing Team Series this year. And, with the lifting of the cycling
women's blues probation that Kat had secured earlier that week,
there may be more cycling Atalantas members and their clubmates
at next year's dinner. Pale pink kit anyone?
Ruth Smith
Women's Racing Bike
OUCC aims to encourage
women in cycling and the club owns a road racing bike specifically
to loan out to women interested in cycling who just want to have
a go and see if they like cycling with the club. The bike is a size
small XX” and consists of a blue Ribble steel frame with Campag
Veloce components. The bike can only be loaned out to members of
the club. If would like to use this bike you must first inform the
Women's Captain
and then need to download and fill out the Loan
Agreement Form which you need print, fill out and pidge to the
Club Treasurer at Chemistry along with the Membership
Form if you are not already a member. Any one who agree to borrow the bicycle as inspected from Oxford University Cycling Club (OUCC) agrees to do so on the following conditions:
Women’s
Kit Sites Finding decent women's specific kit can be quite a challenge! So one of our intrepid members decided to brave the millions of cycling kit sites and bring us only the crème de la crème of women's kit.
It’s worth saying that there are lots of other sites out there if you search! Ruth Smith
Women's Track Training Day
Once we were set up with our hire bikes, the training afternoon began. To start with, we did laps of the athletics track inside the cycle track, just to get used to the bikes. The principle difference between a track bike and a road bike is that the former has no brakes, no gears and worst of all: no free wheel mechanism!!! This makes it very difficult to clip cleats in and out of the pedals, as most cyclists are in the habit of free wheeling to do this! The simplest solution seemed to be to start and stop with the support of the fence round the cycle track. Fortunately, the track at Reading is not very steep, so cycling to the edge of the track is not a problem!
After a gentle beginning, the organizers took the training up a level, with a series of different kinds of track races. We competed first in an individual 500m time trial, followed by a 500m sprint (with four riders in each heat). Then the number of riders on the track increased again, as we took part in a competition called “Devil take the hindmost” in which the last three riders past the line on each lap are eliminated. This was a test of tactics, and experience in knowing where to put your bike was invaluable. Following this we were introduced to Keiren racing, in which the riders follow a “derny” (or moped) around the track until a certain point in the race, and then are allowed to sprint to the line. Finally, just as our legs were beginning to fail, we finished with some longer and more gruelling scratch and points races which involved more laps of the track than we’d care to remember!
So the day was a great
crash course in track cycling, and a really good chance to compete
against others of a similar ability, although many of them seemed
to have acquired lighter track bikes from somewhere! Its good for
improving your road cycling technique as you have to keep pedalling
all the time at quite a high cadence, and as there are no gears
or brakes on the handle bars it encourages you to use the drops
at all times! For further doses of track cycling, Kat is planning
to go to the Reading Velodrome every Thursday evening in term time.
Just bring your pedals, shoes, helmet and a sense of adventure!!! Lesley Parry-Jones
Central Division Team Training Day
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Kat and I took the opportunity of enjoying yet another festive meal
to represent the club at the Atalantas Christmas Dinner. Atalantas,
for the uninitiated, is the social club for Oxford women blues.
Their Christmas dinner is a celebration of women in sport in Oxford
and non-blue squad mates are invited to attend, giving the
evening an inclusive team feel. After cocktails at Baby (which felt
more like someone's small front room), we swooshed up our pashminas
and tottered along to Loch Fyne. Which was pale pink. Pink balloons
rose up from the backs of chairs and gifts of pink candles with
pink labels marked the places. I'd never have thought of it
myself, but they were very pleasant touches. 
Then
came the main reason we were there. No speeches, just the
announcement of the clubs to have been successful in their applications
for Atalantas grants. Kat had not told the OUCC exec that
she had applied for money to launch a women's team in the national
race series. It was to be a surprise or a non-event. When we heard
that competition had been tough and that rugby and netball had
won grants for their tours, we concentrated on the mints. .."and
the cycling club. We wish you well in your new venture." There
was a great cheer of two from our end of the table. The swimmers
were also successful. It seemed, however, that OUCC
women were possibly unique in aspiring to compete as a university
team outside of the university circuit. 
