Women cyclists put the pressure on

Let's ride: Sue Webber will compete in today’s Celtic Country Classic Tour de Femme ride from Glen Innes to Inverell.

Adam Hourigan

ELITE women cyclists are putting pressure on organisers of the Grafton to Inverell Cycle Classic to allow them to participate in the main event.

For the past several years, the women have competed in a parallel event called the Celtic Country Classic Tour de Femme, raced between Glen Innes and Inverell.

With a 45km loop added to the women’s course, the elite cyclists race over a 112km distance and miss the huge climb up the Gibraltar Range, which is a feature of the 228km men’s race.

Cyclist Sue Webber, who will race in the women’s B-grade event today, said many of the top women riders want to race the full distance up the range.

“It’s the hardest cycle race in Australia,” she said.

“It’s the Everest of road cycling in Australia, so why wouldn’t our top riders want to give it a go?”

Webber was not sure why the women’s and men’s races were separate.

“There may be some sort of ruling that the organisers have to follow,” she said.

Media liaison for the Grafton to Inverell Cycle Classic, Peter Sunderland, confirmed Ms Webber’s suspicions, but added it was only in the past decade women had stopped riding in the main race.

“Under UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale), the world cycling governing body, regulations, women must compete in these shorter events,” Mr Sunderland said.

“But women didn’t vote to compete in the main event when it was available to them.

“When there was a women’s section in the race there was only ever a handful of entrants.”

One of the reasons the women’s classic began was because competitors were calling for a shorter event because the 228km race was too hard, Mr Sunderland said.

“If there were enough women wanting to compete in the main race, it’s something we could look at for next year,” he said.

“But we would have to go through the right channels and get clearance from Cycling Australia.

“There’s issues of liability and duty of care that all riders who take part in the race are capable and fit.”

The top women riders would have no difficulty handling the race, but the number of competitors in all grades in today’s races was already well over 500, Mr Sunderland said.

“Whether we could get them all on the road is another issue we would have to look at,” he said.

“There are also some economic issues. We have police escorts for every section of every race, which we have to pay for.”

A total of 59 women are competing in today’s races, with 31 in the A-grade event.

Local riders competing include Webber, Lorraine Rotunno, Narelle Tilse, Roz Donohoe, Karen Selbach, Lisa Dougherty and Veronica Barker.

Dougherty and Barker will compete in the event for the first time, Webber said.

“I think Lorraine Rotunno would be one of the best-performed locals,” she said.

“She’s been riding strongly in recent weeks.

“Narelle (Tilse) and Roz (Donohoe) will also ride well.”

Webber’s ambitions in the event are far more modest.

“If I can finish in the allotted time (2.5 hours) I will be happy,” she said.