It’s a long-standing question within the cycling industry - how to increase female representation within the sport? Gravel riding seems to have a better balance of the genders, but it’s nowhere near parity, and this is even more apparent in the competitive side of gravel too.  In order to try and break this convention, certain race promoters are making a concerted effort to change the balance for the better. The Allianz Gravel Ride & Race Bern, held in the Swiss Capital at the end of October, is one such event.

The spirit of gravel, much like mountain biking and cyclocross, is arguably less gender-divisive than road riding, with both disciplines embracing female riders from their inception. This particularly applies when considering equal prize money and distances. The recent UCI World Gravel Championships is sadly excluded from this positive trend, but some might argue that the federation running this aforementioned event are part of the problem…..

It could be because gravel riding is often less competitive (or to clarify this, less testosterone-driven) and has an innate element of adventure within it, with freedom of choice and a less performance-focused approach. While we’re a long way from a 50/50 split, there is already more representation of women riders in gravel. Some events however, including Switzerland’s biggest gravel event, much to event organiser Christian Rocha’s dismay, have seen female riders being woefully underrepresented in the past five years.

Earlier this year, Christian was convinced that there should be a higher participation of women riders at the event. That is why he teamed up with Emma Pooley, Sara Bukies and Natalie Schneitter to offer women something different. Emma, a former World Time Trial Champion, pioneered the idea for these inspirational women to each lead a group during either the 50 km Race event or the 25 km Ride event to give the participants a taster of these types of events. 

And the result? Progress, definitely. 41% of the participants in the 25 km event were women in 2022, up from 29% in 2021, and 14% of participants in the 50 km event were women, up from 9% last year. Many might look at this direct promotion as being the solution – using a trio of amazingly influential and inspirational riders to increase the representation of women at this event – but there is more at play here in the wider riding ecosystem in Switzerland. 

Let’s take, for example, the accessibility of cycling in this country. From an off-road perspective, there was a clean sweep of female Swiss riders on the MTB XCO podium at the 2021 Olympics and from a road perspective, there was the recent addition of a women’s version of the Tour of Switzerland, a standalone event held after the men’s version of the same race. 

Both of which promote the vision of women on bikes (seeing women on bikes is the first step for more women to want to ride bikes), but more so, the notion of women who compete. And from an introduction to cycling perspective, we’ve followed initiatives such as Fast And Female run by the Swiss Cycling Federation and other grassroots initiatives such as the School of Rocks that Emma’s now running Zurich, as well as the Bern-based, women-led Gravelle, certainly mean that Switzerland is tapping into an already deep pool of women riders.

Irrespective of the details, the increase in female participation at the Allianz Gravel Ride & Race Bern is a strong signal for gravel event organisers. Yes, there is more work to do. Yes, there is a need for a wider set of female-focused initiatives to introduce women to cycling. But nonetheless it shows that with some work we can move towards wider representation in gravel – and for 2023, we want to see the record 14% female participation in the 50 km distance event obliterated.