(For those new to cycling, the UCI, the Union Cycliste International, is the World governing body of cycling.)

"What is the state of Women’s Cycling?" This is the question asked of Pat McQuaid, the President of the UCI. WCN sat down for a few minutes at the World Track Championships in Bordeaux (April 2006) with the one man who can directly influence what happens in the development, control and more importantly the respect for Women’s cycling, the Irishman at the head of the UCI. 

There are many observers of the women’s peleton and cycling for women around the world. To them there have been many improvements, but many would say that there is still a long way to go to get women’s cycling the respect, recognition and reward it deserves. There are riders in professional teams who are not paid, they are simply given kit and loaned a bike, in other teams, the situation is a little better and in others, riders are paid a salary which they can live on. None of the riders though, earn anything like the salaries earned by those in a similar position in the men’s peleton.

Here’s the interview>>

WCN : What is the UCI doing to take women’s cycling to the next level?

PMcQ :  It’s true we have made huge strides over the past 10 years to move cycling forward in the last few years. I was President of the road commission and since I have been involved and responsible for women, it was important to ensure that we had the development of the World Cup. This was very much the major item on the agenda a few years ago. I also wanted to make sure that it was truly a World Cup and not a European one like the men’s competition. I have always worked hard within the UCI to ensure and maintain an Australian and New Zealand connection. We even have a Scandinavian link now with the races this year [There will be a World Cup in Sweden and one in Denmark in 2006, at the end of July]. This World Cup series in one that we have developed and is a programme that is well accepted and supported by the teams and embraced by them.

WCN : Isn’t it true, though, that an even larger number of well funded trade teams are going to be an important part of the success of the World Cup?

PMcQ :Yes, we have gone down the road to develop trade teams, we still have a lot of work to do there. This is an area we need to invest some time in. Women’s racing is a lot less administratively structured than the mens racing. We are trying to put in place structures for the teams and getting Team Directors and Team Managers to accept a disciplined  structure which is fair. This means that there is some element of security, so that there is less skull-duggery and other serious issues going on. We do intervene when we hear of issues happening to protect the rights and interest of the women. In the last year we have set up the women’s union [the women’s CPA] under the wing of the mens union [CPA]. This is something that the men have been developing over the last 10-15 years that the women can now take benefit of.”

WCN : You talk about investigating issue and making sure that women are not treated badly, yet we still see so called professional teams not paying riders or paying so little that it is an insult to their sport. What are the UCI doing about getting a minimum wage for women?.

PMcQ : The fact that this is a global makes it difficult to enforce. Even at the men’s level, we can only set minimum salaries at the very highest level, for the pro-tour teams and some continental pro-tour team levels. Even at the continental pro-tour level it is difficult to enforce. We have 130 teams in the men’s side and we can’t dictate a minimum wages in France and Ukraine. Even in the men’s teams we have problems developing teams outside Europe because of the minimum wage. We also have problems enforcing the minimum wage outside Europe. The best we can strive and hope for in both the men’s and the women’s sport, is that there is, at least a small salary or at minimum, good contracts and conditions of employment. In the end it is always a matter of money and sponsorship. Our aim is to develop the programme and to facilitate high quality of racing like the World Cup, so that there is an interest for entrepreneurs to go out there and get sponsorship for the teams. The teams need people who are tuned into the women’s market to go out there and get sponsors. There are some very successful teams now with good backing. Teams like T-Mobile, Univega, Nürnberger and the two Dutch teams are setting the standard for others to emulate their standard. We are encouraging this.

WCN : With sponsorship in mind, how are the women ever going to attract additional sponsors if they are pushed out to the extremes of the day, where TV coverage is sporadic and spectators are few. The road World Championships in Madrid were a prime example, the women were warming up in the dark and racing before the world and TV had woken up. At the same Championships, the U23 Men, who have the opportunity to step up to senior level, raced in the middle of the day, taking the timeslot from the professional women who are at the pinnacle of their sport.

PMcQ : The decision of the timing is decided by the federation hosting the event. We will work with them but it is their decision. It is not always fixed to the women starting in the morning. In other races, in the Netherlands for example, the women’s race on Saturday afternoons. They have success in supporting the women. When you talk about media coverage the Track World Championships were covered live on national television, in France, Russia, Ukraine, Muldavia and Belarus, that’s 1/ 6^th of the world's land mass. There was a lot of coverage going to the women of that event. The spectators watching at the track said that the women’s racing was equally exciting as the men’s. The world’s media has to help to promote women. They are the worst, the problem is they are traditionalist, and are very much tuned into the men’s racing, they seem to have closed their eyes to women’s racing. I have watched the finish of women’s road racing, where the women finish earlier than the men, at the Primavera Rosa last year, [the race was cancelled this year]. The media were having a coffee when the women finish and clearly not interested. This is changing; at the World Track Championships the media covered every event regardless of male or female. Unfortunately track racing is unique, but hopefully this will translate onto the road and it is starting to. All we can do at the UCI is to keep promoting the programme, trying to protect the riders rights and put quality racing on that the media want to cover.

Women’s racing is more global than the men’s in some respects. Some would view that it is ahead of men’s racing. We know that there is a lot more to do but we can’t change it over night, it will take time.

I believe that the women need to develop stars like the Netherlands had with Leontien Zijlaard van-Moorsal, like Nicole Cooke has done in the UK, like Oenone Wood and Sara Carrigan from Australia and Sarah Ulmer in New Zealand; she is one of the biggest stars in New Zealand. Success will breed success.  

WCN : Thanks for your time, Pat