FEATURE
These mentors came from a variety of senior cycling industry roles across the globe, including Ribble Cycles’s head of PR, Sasha Castling, who agrees that the initiative has come at a much needed time.
“It’s more important than ever, with the landscape changing. And it’s been very positive to see the increase in women entering the industry, which is why Uplift is so vital where we can help and support one another. I’m a strong advocate as well for social mobility in particular empowering women of all ages and promoting visibility, vision and voice. I think that’s really important – when we support one another, we all rise together. I think what Rachael has done brilliantly is allowing this to happen.”
The motivation behind creating the programme wasn’t
to devalue any male presence in the meeting room or boardroom, but more to help give women the confidence to speak up in situations where it might be more beneficial to hear from a female perspective. But for more women to even be in the room and speak up, the industry as a whole needs to enhance staff retention and become more flexible. Burnside was fortunate enough to have her own mentor when she joined the cycling industry, and as more women joined not only her team but the industry as a whole, she decided it was time to set up a programme to benefit more women in cycling. “We could see it post- pandemic that women’s cycling was growing, and that more women were pacing the halls at Eurobike or Sea Otter,” explained Burnside. “And I thought actually, maybe we need to try and create something like this ourselves. I knew how valuable it was for me having had a mentor in a very male dominated business and so wanted to try and see if together we can create something ourselves.” The mentors are not being paid for their time, but Burnside has been strategic in her pairing of mentors and mentees so that both parties can get something out of the relationship. One thing that surprised Burnside when she launched the programme was the sheer volume of interest – particularly from women in senior positions. “When we launched, I was surprised by the amount of other senior women that I didn’t know existed who got in touch and said they wanted to be mentors, which was amazing,” said Burnside.
“When I originally launched this, I thought that nobody would want to do this and dedicate time. But I’ve had about 10 people come to me after the fact and say they would love Sasha Castling
www.bikebiz.com
‘WE COULD SEE IT POST-PANDEMIC THAT WOMEN’S CYCLING WAS GROWING’
to be on the next programme, so there’s definitely an appetite for a phase two.” Phase two of the programme is expected to
begin early next year. Any women looking to volunteer in a mentor capacity or otherwise should get in touch with Burnside on
rachael.burnside@shiftactivemedia.com. But why is something like this so important for not only building up women in the industry, but also developing the industry as a whole?
Although the majority of cyclists may still be male, figures
have shown, particularly during and since the pandemic, that women are interested in riding – especially when they can see that there are thoughtful products and attitudes that allow this.
“We all benefited during the pandemic with the brands that were built, businesses that were built,” continued Burnside. “And I think, now, this programme is very much about understanding, how do we tap into this audience of women who ride bikes and who will ride bikes?
“Some of the biggest brands are investing a lot of money in this, and they haven’t pulled back – Zwift haven’t stopped sponsoring the Tour de France Femme, Liv haven’t stopped investing in
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