#feministfriday episode 369 | I just kept going

October 8, 2021

Good afternoon everyone,

Thank you ever so much to the friend and subscriber who this week sent me multiple links about gnarly cycling races. As you know, I love reading about gnarly stuff from my life which is very much oriented around my immediate physical comfort.

We're starting with the race itself, the Paris-Roubaix, which has just run a women's race for the first time! Cycling is kind of… worse for women than football as far as I can tell, so this is huge. The race is both long and mostly on cobblestones. In case you have never cycled on cobblestones for over five minutes, here is what you need to know:

Incredibly miserable
Arms get really red and puffy, feel like they are entirely the wrong shape for your body
Obviously you'll be wanting a comfortable saddle to but it won't help as much as you think

The woman is Marianne Vos, the best female cyclist of all time. The place is the showers below the velodrome in Roubaix, France. This weekend Paris-Roubaix, the greatest and most prestigious one-day bike race, will hold a women’s race for the first time in the race’s 125 year history. Paris-Roubaix is a muddy, desperate battle across cobblestone farm roads in Northern France. The race finishes on an unglamorous cycling track in Roubaix, and the very few who survive the “Hell of the North” (as the race is called) traditionally clean off the grime and mud in these famous concrete showers below the track that drip out a miserly stream of tepid water.

https://whyisthisinteresting.substack.com/p/the-paris-roubaix-edition

Marianne Vos did not win this year, that was Lizzie Deignan. She wasn't meant, from a team perspective, to be in front, she just found herself there and thought… well, okay? Why not me? I love that.

She said she was not the designated lead rider for Trek–Segafredo, who also had the Italian Elisa Longo Borghini finish third. “That really wasn’t the plan,” Deignan said. “I needed to be at the front for the first cobble section to protect my leaders as I was kind of the third rider. I looked behind me after the first cobbles and there was a gap. I thought at least if I’m at the front they have to chase me, so I just kept going.”

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/oct/02/lizzie-deignan-triumphs-in-first-staging-of-paris-roubaix-femmes-cycling

Shifting sports but not themes, here's a fantastic interview with the climber Lor Sabourin. They talk a bit about why people are fascinated by elite athletes and they talk about finding their place in a culture. I think those two things – the fascination and the finding a place – are really intimately linked! It's exciting to see people find a place for themselves, whether that's in the culture of the sport or at the forefront of the sport or, in the case of climbing, around a boulder. It's a good interview, do have a read:

I’ve had climbing partners that were definitely part of that kind of “old guard” of climbers, that really macho culture. And when I came out to them, they just showed me so much unconditional love, and did their own education to be able to support me. And I never, as a kid, could have imagined that I would have people in my life that did that. I didn’t realize I had that much access to support. And that’s been amazing for my climbing: feeling like I have a safety net under me to try new things and do things that scare me.

https://www.autostraddle.com/for-non-binary-climber-lor-sabourin-being-outdoors-is-finding-your-body-in-a-uniquely-liberating-way/

Love,

Alex.