Cycling UK seeing sense

LFGSS is mainly (as far as I know, and I know a fair bit having spent a lot of time on there before getting banned for supporting brokenbetty) men who joined in their 20s / 30s circa 15-20 years ago. Fixed gear is inherently linked to track cycling and therefore the links to Herne Hill. It is about commuting and leisure cycling (on and off road). Many of the users claim an interest in all types of professional cycling, not least road and track.

It is a woke echo chamber hell hole and bigot-fest of MRAs. At least 22 year old MRA TRAs have the excuse of youth - these nasty hateful authoritarians really don't as a whole

I think people are painting a fairly negative picture of cycling here. LFGSS is incredibly niche for example - it's the domain of young London-based hipsters who ride fixies. The vast majority of people involved in cycling that I meet (I'm a youth coach and club rider) are quietly relieved by the clarity afforded by the supreme court decision and by the policy changes at British Cycling and the UCI (both of which pre-date the SC decision).

The two organisations that regulate competitive cycling in the UK (BC for racing and CTC for time trialing) have clear policies in place which have been broadly welcomed at both the club and national level, and life goes on. Since these policies have been in place, there has not been a single instance that I am aware of of a TIM entering (or attempting to enter) an event.

Cycling UK does excellent work in promoting non-competitive cycling and I hope that they will get over this, and that the 100 Women in Cycling award can continue in its current form.

That woman's post was amazing, so thoughtful and well-reasoned. But is it any wonder when you have a bully as an admin, that more people don't speak out?

@Camelos @SummerDaisyFields nothing useful to say apart from sending my empathy.

I used to work in a cycling related field but stepped away. My area had changed massively. The dominant culture used to be curious, practical, slightly eccentric older men who I loved working with and learning from. You kept your politics to yourself. This got replaced with younger 'progressive' types keen to enforce political viewpoints and moral behaviour. I saw some awful bullying. Its sad.

Herne Hill Velodrome is very popular with the users of LFGSS (London Fixed Gear and Single Speed) forum.

LFGSS was setup by, and used to be run by, a man who "came out" and non-binary before "coming out" as a woman. He is now called "Dee" not "David". He quit and handed it over to others because he did not want to potential liabilities of dealing with the Online Safety Act and did lots of whinging about it in the media.

LFGSS is an echo chamber as bad as reddit.

There is a "LFGSS Ladies" subforum. Interestingly it has 13 pages of threads, of which the 4 most recent pages cover the last 9 years, and the oldest 9 pages cover 10 to 15 years ago. 4 threads have been updated in the last year, and the first page includes threads started 5 years ago. In contrast the first page or the "general" sub-forum has no thread which hasn;t been updated in the last 6 days, and "Miscellaneous and meaningless" subform first page is all stuff updated in the last 9 hours.

A user on there under the name "brokenbetty" posted this a few years

"As a female person (not a minority yet undeniably historically and still marginalised), I find the forum far less welcoming than I used to.

I utterly reject the belief that the only significant difference between men and women is mental. I do not accept my existence and my lived experience of the constraints and pressures that are imposed on female people by a sexist society being redefined as some sort of proof that there is such a thing as a Woman's mind that exists independent of the body.

Like many women (OG version) I'm horrified how happy male people who consider themselves to be progressive have been to support the appropriation of female opportunities, protections, political voice, even our actual name, as resources for the benefit of males.

Sure, if you redefine womanhood as type of mind you can make comforting statements about "including all women" in women's sport, but all you've really done is created new opportunities for male people at the expense of female.
I don't believe this - or at least I hope it doesn't - comes from a place of hating women but I do think it comes from a deep seated unconscious belief that women are lesser than men, and that men have the objective vision, and therefore the right, to define society and women's place within in it. And I am quietly terrified how quickly rage and yes, hate, arises against the women who stand up and say No to having this new, mental definition of womanhood imposed upon them.

Women (OG version) are talking about this to each other. More and more every day. If they are not talking to you about it it's because they are scared to.
Let that sink in. Women are becoming scared to tell so-called progressive, feminist men the truth. They do not believe you will listen. They believe you will call the witch hunt on them.

Even if you don't believe our sex is innately significant, living as female in culture shaped by and for male people makes it significant, and we need the rights and language to talk about that.

Yes, trans people exist, but Female people also exist.

We share many challenges. We could have a fantastic dialogue between trans people and female people about the way male-shaped culture shapes us and how to escape that and make it better for all of us. But we cannot do that when male people who believe they are the same as us appropriate our cultural and physical spaces, our political voice and even our own name."

She left soon after posting this having been accused of all sorts of bigotry.

The disgusting misgynistic man who used to run the forum posted this

"Just a reminder that your forum admin is in the trans-umbrella and not shy about it, identify as non-binary and very much going to enforce a zero-transphobia policy.

British Cycling were assholes before this latest move, unfortunately I can't throw a strop and remove affiliation as I'd already done that with BC. But I can ban transphobes who even think they can use this space to further their views, and will do so on subtle digs and nuance too... I won't wait for blatant statements.

So this is the general warning, that if you don't think transwomen are women, and that transmen are men... then this forum is a place of very thin ice for you."

They lost me at 'horrific' supreme court ruling
(Ex-keen cyclist)

Had Emily (Zach) Bridges (looking very feminine on the right) been allowed to compete in women's cycling, then I have absolutely no doubt that he would have broken World records on the track and road. As a 17 year old, he was much faster than Chris Boardman at the same age. When I stated on the Time Trial Forum, that he should never be allowed to compete against women, I was called a "Nazi" and a "bigot".

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/sport/16250063.star-cyclist-zach-bridges-shows-powers-recovery-flourish-national-record/

As someone who also works in cycling I empathise and agree with you.

It’s by far the majority position in this country and all others I’ve seen opinions polls in, so not all that surprising that on FB people approve.

I saw a couple of posts on Facebook about this earlier and was surprised that the majority of comments were in support of Cycling UK. I'm a member, mainly for the insurance my club requires me to have, I haven't seen anything about their 100 women in cycling. I shall take more notice!

Working in the cycling world I am continually disappointed by women of influence embracing gender ideology and rejecting the concept of single-sex spaces. I feel pretty lonely with my opinions, making it harder to speak up and speak out, although I am trying to be bolder sharing my perspective as valid, legitimate and worthy of consideration.

The Supreme Court ruling has clarified the law, all Cycling UK are doing are complying with the law, although I would have preferred they did this without apologising or feeling the need to even mention trans people - this is an awards initiative for women, these are women's rights issues, and as I said earlier, women deserve our own spaces, awards and things, especially in areas where we are significantly under-represented.

Herne Hill Velodrome has form; it's no friend to women:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10885307/Trans-women-cyclists-second-non-binary-race-leaving-young-mother-third.html

I'm pretty sure most members of Cycling UK, me included, join up for the insurance and legal advice.
Every now and then they try to slip in an article about a "woman's cycling group" that includes men, and I seem to remember they did a very sympathetic interview with that unpleasant flabby American bloke who 'won' a women's world cycling title - though it seems to have been scrubbed from the record. Each time they do it they get loads of push-back, so maybe they've finally realised that their members, who pay their wages, are not taking it.

Really disappointed that Sarah Ruggins has chosen to come out in support of the boycott. I still massively respect her for her achievements, but sad that she has taken this stance.

No! It took at least two of us to convince one of the nominees to accept it. Yes, you've got people getting publicity for turning it down, but probably the people who did make the list are all turning their toes up with embarrassment!

Just seen Sarah Ruggins posted pretty much the same letter on her insta around an hour ago.
Really depressing.

Its true the cycling world has never been great for women (better now than it was but thats not saying much), but I like to remember none of this is representative of the folk who you chat with while out riding who like most think this is nonsense.

This stramash is at the intersection of the geeky very online subculture, and the lobbying/advocacy subculture, both skew more TWAW.

The advocacy orgs all have a small number of very dedicated trolls who can be disproportionately influential if the orgs aren't confident in their purpose (or funding). They are terrified of bad press. Makes them vulnerable to a small number of people kicking off, and the trolls know that. I've met lots of those cowards too @CyclingSam and I'm done with them!

So disappointed in how this is playing out - the performative activism of women rejecting the award and other women celebrating this. Women deserve our own spaces, awards and things - I am so perplexed why this is so controversial or difficult for some people.

Although I’m not a cyclist I remember you posting in the past; you’re one of the blokes some of us are wont to call the Staunch Allies (which is high praise) I reckon. As opposed to the Reasonable Men…I think many of us know exactly what you mean by that syndrome!

Too many cowards in the cycling world.
I've met many of them.

I note that CWeakly’s tweet to its article has gone down well too /s
https://x.com/cyclingweekly/status/1985747679130108310
How much will it take for them to see sense?

And their FB post to the article has 601 comments and they’ve limited who can comment on it 😂

You're right, a thread probably wouldn't last long if the same reality denying moderator is still in charge.

It doesn't appear to have come up yet at the other place.

@oldtiredcyclist Our club of banned cycling forum users is likely a small one, given that most don't seem to care about what's been going on, and once they've been made aware, tend to have what I call Reasonable Man Syndrome, which means they feel there must certainly be a compromise (women being the ones who need to compromise, of course).

The only cycling forum I'm aware of that's run by a sex realist is mine (notanothercyclingforum.net), but it doesn't really count as a forum; I named it well...

They still should have the right to be considered for it, even if they don't want it. In the same way that I have the right to free association even if I just want to stay at home with a book.

Blimey, what gushing, hand-wringing angst fest that was! She spouted the usual tropes about hateful laws, why oh why oh why can't we have some women who used to be called Kevin etc.

Fortunately, all thd commentators appear to be members of the reality based community. They pointed out exactly why she's wrong on this.

I was banned from the CyclingNews forum a few years ago for exactly the same thing. In my case it was comments made about Rachel McKinnon.

Mainly the usual TWAW sentiment