Ride the Revolution

Book excerpt: Ride the Revolution represents the best new writing on cycling from women involved in the sport at all levels – as fans, key personnel, riders, photographers, journalists and presenters. When Marie Marvingt decided to ride the 1908 Tour de France she was told 'absolument, non!' by M. Degranges and the Societe du Tour de France. Instead she rode each stage 15 minutes after the official race had departed and finished all 4,488 kms of the parcours - a feat that only 36 of the 110 men who entered the race could equal. Her motto? "I decided to do everything better, always and forever." It's in the spirit of Breakneck Marie that this book has been written. This is not an anthology of women writing about women's cycling. Nor is it an anthology of women writing about men's bottoms in lycra, or peloton crushes or the curse of helmet hair. This is an book that celebrates the diversity of women's writing about the glorious, sometimes murky, often bizarre and frequently hilarious world of cycling in all its soapy operatic glory - from the professional sport to the club run, on the roadside and in the saddle, behind the scenes and on the massage table. These fresh and vibrant voices examine the sport from a new perspective to provide insights that rarely make it into the mainstream - what is it like to be a top women rider or work in their support team? Where is the women's sport heading and when will more women be represented at the highest level of sport's governance? And how do you get out and ride your bike when the news is full of stories of cyclists dying and you can't get clothing that fits?