Here is something I have been thinking about a lot lately.
Roadman has always had a predominantly male audience. That is not a secret. The podcast, the Skool community, the YouTube channel — the majority of people consuming this content are men in their 30s, 40s, and 50s who are serious about getting faster on the bike. That is who we built this for, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.
But women's cycling is the fastest-growing segment of the sport right now. Not by a small margin. British Cycling data shows women's participation grew 38% between 2019 and 2024. Women's gravel racing has seen the fastest growth of any cycling discipline. The Tour de France Femmes launched in 2022 and brought more eyeballs to women's racing than anything in the sport's history. This is not a niche trend. This is the future of cycling.
And I want Roadman to be part of it. Not in a corporate, box-ticking way. In a "this is good content that helps people ride bikes better" way.
Sarah on our team has been pushing for more of this content for a while, and she is right. So here we are. If you are a woman thinking about getting into cycling — or you are already riding and looking for your people — this is for you.
The Intimidation Problem Is Real — And It Is Fixable
Let me be really clear about this. The barriers that stop women from getting into group cycling are not imaginary. They are well-documented and they are consistent.
The two things women cite most often are: "I am not fast enough" and "I do not know the etiquette." Both of those are completely reasonable concerns. Walk into the wrong club run on a Saturday morning and you will find 40 blokes in matching kit smashing each other's legs off on the first hill. That is not welcoming. That is terrifying.
Here is the good news. That ride is not the only ride that exists. Not even close.
There are rides at every pace, in every area, for every level. The problem is not that they do not exist. The problem is that they are harder to find than they should be. The cycling world has not always been great at making itself visible to the people who need it most.
Here's how to find what you're looking for.
Finding Group Rides: Where to Actually Look
There are broadly two routes in: women-only rides and mixed rides that are actually welcoming. Both work. Which one suits you depends entirely on what makes you feel comfortable.
The British Cycling Breeze programme is the gold standard for women-only rides in the UK. Trained ride leaders, social pace, no competition, no pressure. They run rides across the country and they are specifically designed for women who are new to group cycling or coming back to it after a break. If you are in the UK and you have not looked at Breeze, start there.
The Rapha Women's 100 is an annual event that gets thousands of women riding together on the same day across the world. It is not a race. It is a celebration of riding 100 kilometres, and the community around it is strong. Events like this matter because they make women's cycling visible in a way that a Tuesday evening chain gang never will.
For mixed rides, the key is knowing what to look for before you commit. Here is what separates a good club from a bad one: they state the pace of each ride clearly. They use the words "no-drop" and mean it. They have separate groups for different abilities rather than one ride that inevitably splits on the first climb. Their social media and website show a range of riders, not just the racing team. They have women riding, and those women look like they are having a good time.
If a club's website is just photos of blokes in race skin suits, that tells you something. Trust your instinct on this.
Facebook groups are underrated for finding local women's cycling communities. Search for women's cycling groups in your city or region. These tend to be friendly, practical, and full of people who asked the exact same questions you are asking now. InternationElles, a women's cycling collective, is worth following for both the community and the advocacy work they do in making the sport more accessible.
The Indoor Revolution
Here is where it gets really interesting.
Zwift and indoor cycling platforms have done something that no amount of club restructuring could do on its own: they have created a way to start cycling with zero intimidation.
Think about it. No group to keep up with. No junctions to navigate. No worrying about what kit you are wearing or whether your bike is good enough. You are in your own house, riding at your own pace, and nobody is watching.
Zwift reports that women now make up approximately 20% of their platform users, up from around 12% in 2019. That is significant growth. And the Zwift Academy Women's programme has specifically created a structured pathway for women to develop as riders — building fitness, learning about training, and joining group rides in a virtual environment before ever clipping in outdoors.
This is not a replacement for riding outside. Nothing beats the feeling of a quiet road, a tailwind, and a group of mates rolling through the countryside. But as an entry point — a place to build fitness and confidence before that first group ride — indoor platforms have completely lowered the barrier in a way that matters.
If the thought of turning up to a group ride cold fills you with dread, start on Zwift. Build your legs. Get comfortable with the effort. Then go outside when you are ready. There is no rush.
The Growth of Women's Cycling Is Real
This is not wishful thinking. The numbers are clear.
Women's participation across road, gravel, and track cycling has grown faster than men's in every category over the past five years. Women's gravel racing, in particular, has exploded — it is the fastest-growing discipline in the sport. Part of that is gravel's culture: less rigid, less hierarchical, more focused on the experience than the result. That appeals to a lot of people who looked at traditional road racing and thought "not for me."
At the professional level, visibility has never been higher. The Tour de France Femmes, launched in 2022, gave women's road racing a platform that decades of advocacy had struggled to achieve. Riders like Marianne Vos — arguably the greatest cyclist of any gender in the history of the sport — and Lotte Kopecky are household names in a way that women's cycling has never had before.
Trek-Drops is a women's team that grew from grassroots club racing into a professional programme. That pathway matters. When women can see a trajectory from their local club ride to an elite team, the whole sport feels more real. More possible.
And this visibility is pulling recreational riders in. When women see other women racing the Tour on television, it normalises the idea of women on bikes. That sounds simple, but for a sport that spent most of its history treating women as an afterthought, it is deeply significant.
Overcoming the "Am I Good Enough?" Question
Here is the direct answer: yes. You are good enough.
I know that sounds like a platitude, but I mean it practically. Cycling groups run at different speeds. There are groups that ride at 15kph and groups that ride at 45kph and everything in between. There is a group for you. The question is not whether you are fast enough. The question is whether you have found the right group yet.
The first ride is always the hardest. Not physically — most introductory group rides are easier than you expect. The hardest part is walking up to a group of strangers, saying "hi, is this the beginners' ride?" and clipping in next to people you have never met.
Everyone who has ever ridden in a group has been through that moment. The bloke who is now leading the club's fast group? He turned up nervous to his first ride too. He just did it long enough ago that he has forgotten.
The thing nobody tells you is that most group riders are quietly desperate for new people to join. Cycling clubs live and die on recruitment. If you show up and you are keen, you will be welcomed. That has been my experience watching this from the Roadman community, and it is what I hear from riders across every club and group I have spoken to.
What to Expect on Your First Group Ride
Practical stuff. Because knowing what is going to happen makes it less intimidating.
Arrive 10 to 15 minutes early. Introduce yourself to whoever is leading the ride. Tell them it is your first time. This is not embarrassing — it is useful information. A good ride leader will keep an eye on you, explain the route, and make sure you are not left behind.
Ask about the pace before you start. A conversational pace means you should be able to talk while riding. If the answer is "we average 28kph" and you have no idea what that means in real terms, ask them to put it in plainer language. A good group will do this without making you feel stupid.
It is completely fine to sit at the back. In fact, sitting at the back is the smartest thing you can do on your first ride. You can watch how the group moves, learn the hand signals and calls, and ride at a pace that suits you without feeling like you are holding anyone up. There is a detailed guide to group ride etiquette on this site if you want to read up beforehand, but honestly, the basics are: hold your line, do not overlap the wheel in front of you, and point out potholes.
Bring a water bottle and a snack. Something simple — a banana, an energy bar. Someone in the group will get a puncture at some point and you will all stand around for ten minutes while they fix it. That is normal. That is part of it. Some of the best conversations on a group ride happen while someone is wrestling with a tyre lever.
Do not worry about your bike. Do not worry about your kit. If it rolls, you are good. Nobody worth riding with cares what brand is on your frame or whether your jersey matches your shorts.
The Community Effect
This is the part that keeps people in the sport. Not the training. Not the equipment. The people.
Research consistently shows that social connection is the number one predictor of long-term exercise adherence. Dr Michelle Segar at the University of Michigan has studied exercise motivation for over two decades, and her findings are clear: people who exercise for social and enjoyment reasons stick with it. People who exercise purely for weight loss or performance goals drop off. Not willpower. Not motivation. Not having the right training plan. The single biggest factor in whether you are still riding a bike in five years is whether you have people to ride with.
Dr Stacy Sims — whose work on female athletic physiology we have covered extensively on the podcast — has made the same point about women in sport specifically. Women are more likely to sustain training when they have a community around it. The lone-wolf approach that works for some male athletes is less effective across the female population. That is not a weakness. That is data.
And cycling is uniquely good at community because of what a group ride actually is: two to four hours of riding alongside people at a pace where you can talk. The conversations you have on a bike are different from the conversations you have anywhere else, because you are side by side, looking ahead, and the effort strips away the performative layer of normal social interaction.
I have watched this happen in the Roadman community over and over. People join for the training content. They stay because of the other riders. The accountability of knowing someone is expecting you at 7am on Saturday. The group chat after a ride. The shared suffering on a climb that turns into a shared joke at the coffee stop.
That effect is the same whether you are a 45-year-old bloke chasing an FTP number or a woman who has just bought her first road bike. The mechanism is identical. Find your people, and the riding takes care of itself.
This Is Not Going Away
Women's cycling is not a trend. The growth in participation, the visibility of professional racing, the investment from brands and platforms — all of it points in the same direction. More women are riding. More women will ride. The sport is better for it.
If you have been hovering over a Breeze ride page or scrolling through your local club's Instagram wondering whether you would fit in — stop thinking about it and sign up. The worst that happens is you try a different group next week. The best that happens is you find the thing that changes how you spend your weekends for the next 20 years.
Whether you are looking for your first group ride or you are already racing and want a community that takes the sport seriously, the Roadman community on Skool is open to everyone who is serious about getting better on the bike. Women included — obviously.
The sport needs you on the road. Go find your ride.