Inspired by International Women’s Day 2022, riders from teams in the women’s ZRL premier division have come together to lead a series of social rides to celebrate the achievements of women on Zwift and promote gender equality by encouraging more women to have the confidence to race on the platform.
Whilst Zwift is one of the global leaders in sport, when it comes to providing equal opportunities and prizes for men and women, a recent report showed that only 8% of the racing population on Zwift is female and collectively we aim to support the IWD theme of 2022 to #BreakTheBias.Â
Racing is often considered completely performance orientated, but ask any of the ride leaders in this series why they enjoy racing on Zwift, and they will all cite camaraderie and collective spirit as one of their primary reasons for participation. For all of us, competing on Zwift has led to new friendships, opportunities and experiences. We would like to invite women of all ages and abilities to join us on our #BreakTheBias rides to share their cycling experiences and achievements and ask us any questions they have about racing, training, and cycling in general as we set about forging a more gender-equal world.Â
Break the Bias Ride Schedule
All rides are for women only. Each event is 45 minutes long and held at a social pace of 1.2-2.1 w/kg.
Rides are scheduled twice each day to cover multiple timezones. The first ride is at 6pm GMT (1pm EST/10am PST), with the second at 8pm EST/5pm PST.
Ride dates:
- Tuesday 8th March (Makuri Islands Neon Flats)
- Tuesday 15th March (Watopia’s Waistband)
- Tuesday 22nd March (France’s R.G.V.)
See all upcoming rides and sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/breakthebias
Be sure to join the Discord server for ride chat and questionsÂ
Read on to find out a bit more about the ride leaders and organisers, including a celebration of their favorite achievements in sport!
Cecilia
Cecilia manufactures hard metal buttons for rock drills at Epiroc. She started cycling in 2009 to do a “Swedish classic”. Cecilia races for Heino race team online and Norbergs CK IRL.
She enjoys online racing for the team spirit and the lack of weather and crashes. Cecilia’s most memorable achievement in cycling is her gold medal from Amateur World Championships 2016.Â
Mary
Mary lives in the Yorkshire Dales, UK and is surrounded by the terrain she loves the most…hills! By day she works as a website manager for an outdoor shop as well as freelancing as a product development scientist for a nutrition company. She also has a small farm with her beloved sheep! Mary races for Canyon Esports online and Team Boompods IRL.
Coming from an elite running background Mary, switched to cycling in 2017 following a long battle with injury that stopped her running and is extremely grateful to have found cycling and especially Zwift. Top achievements include 6th in the recent UCI ESports World Championships, being a Zwift Academy Finalist, 2x National Masters Road Race Champion, and 4x National Hill Climb Silver Medalist.
Kristen
Kristen is an artist, goldsmith, and jewelry designer (Kristen Farrell). She used to have a gallery and atelier in Soho NYC, but moved her shop to the Hamptons when COVID hit. She loves racing on Zwift and being team captain of the premier division squad Virginia’s blue ridge Twenty24.
Kristen’s favorite Zwift achievements include being ranked #1 female on ZwiftPower, a virtual everesting, and placing 1st in race 6 of the 2021/2022 Premier Division Season 1. When she’s not busy training or making jewelry, Kristen is usually taking walks on the beach with her 14 ½ year old Shiba inu named Moscow.
Katheryn
Katheryn is a former professional cyclist who, since retiring in 2010, has worked as a director for several different development teams (Alto Velo and the Amy D Foundation) as well as for the professional team Tibco-SVB. She also is on several different boards of directors, has volunteered in her local community, and is active with her local cycling club.
Off the bike, Katheryn loves to cook, walk her dog Cooper, and spend time with her boyfriend Joe and friends and family. On Zwift she races ZRL with Saris-NoPinz and the WTRL TTTs with IRACELIKEaGIRL. Her favorite thing about Zwift is the community.
She won US Nationals in 2005, the Geelong World Cup in 2008, and several Premier League Zwift races.
Monilee
Monilee is a life-long athlete, mother of 3 young girls (5, 7, 11), works at Microsoft as a Partner Group Program Manager, and loves to ride and race her bike. She learned to ride at the age of 24 (so she could be part of an Adventure Racing team!) and hasn’t looked back since. Her first love was mountain biking – she loves an adventure – so was immediately attracted to the multi-day stage races (La Ruta, Trans Rockies, etc) before moving to compete in the Canada Cup series at an Elite level. After moving to the States she dabbled in 24h MTb solo races where she competed at Worlds for 3 years, with a best finishing place at 4th.Â
She loves to learn new things and push her limits, but most of all she rides for the pure joy of riding her bike. She lives in the Pacific Northwest of the United States where there is plenty of nature, roads, dirt, and trails to keep things interesting. On Zwift she races with team AEO and leads rides with the BMTR community. She is fascinated by food and is often found talking about her latest favorites (especially cookies!).
Charlotte
Charlotte Backus is a professional cycling coach. She lives in Park City, Utah with her boyfriend Matthew Turner and also helps out with their family property management business along with managing many social media platforms and video edits. Having previously raced in the premier division for Twenty24, Charlotte now races in the community division for Socks4Watts.Â
She’s been cycling since she was very young and has raced as a UCI elite pro rider. Her favorite achievements are becoming a coach and being one of the beta riders on Zwift. She strives to help her athletes through her experience, certification, and knowledge in both training, nutrition, physiology, and sports nutrition. She continues to race at the elite level in gravel, road, and esports and continues to coach many athletes from around the world.Â
Alice
Alice is a teacher from Surrey, England, who races for Heino and Socks4Watts on Zwift, and the UCI Continental team AWOL O’Shea IRL. Alice joined Zwift when lockdown hit as a substitute for competing in time trials and road races and soon became hooked due to the camaraderie she experienced in the women’s Zwift community.
Her proudest cycling achievements are competing in the Women’s Tour WWT stage race last October, winning the WTRL TTT World Championships on Zwift, and representing Great Britain in the recent UCI ESports World Championships, where she placed 13th.
Aside from her own racing, Alice is manager of the Socks4Watts Women’s team and is part of a British Cycling Road Workgroup where she works to improve provision for women and girls in outdoor cycling.Â
Arielle
Arielle raced BMX professionally from the age of 15 to 28, becoming the first American woman to win a UCI World Cup, a World Cup series title, a silver at the Pan American games, bronze medal at the world championships, and qualifying for the London Olympics in 2012. She retired from World Cup racing in 2013 to start her family and coach the next generation of Elite BMX racers.
After dabbling in some pro MTB races and after the birth of her second child, Arielle found Zwift as a great way to rebuild strength and fitness from home and fell in love with Zwift racing and the Zwift community after joining the Aeonian race team. She coached 3 Olympians competing in 3 different cycling disciplines at Tokyo this year, is married to an Army soldier, and is a proud mum of a 7-year-old and 2-year-old.Â
About the Organisers
#BreakTheBias with Zwift was founded by Karla Williams and Alice Lethbridge to promote the camaraderie and friendship that exists between female racers on the platform.Â
Karla is a Peruvian/British mum of a little girl, co-founder of Aeonian Race Team, and organiser at The Warrior Games. Karla has been cycling for around 7 years, mainly socially, with some sportives here and there. She discovered Zwift 5 years ago, and got completely addicted to it! Zwift has been an amazing platform to keep her strength during the winter months and has also had a big impact on keeping her healthy physically and mentally.
As Karla’s love for the sport grew, she realised how hard and intimidating it is for women to get into the sport and e-racing. Realising this made her passionate about promoting, highlighting, and supporting women’s e-racing by managing a women’s e-racing team and by setting up The Warrior Games, which offer different types of races for the women’s community on Zwift. She hopes to provide ladies the opportunities to try these races and get the confidence in themselves to enter the racing scene, which in itself is very intimidating. #BreakTheBias
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