The mission Min McDonald has been on since she took up cycling two years ago has continued to inspire, after the Tamworth Cycle Club women’s road racing team she helped form shone in its first event.
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Competing against men’s and mixed teams at the Cycling NSW-hosted Blayney 2 Bathurst, a 110km Gran Fondo event on the weekend, the appropriately named Spin Sisters team finished second overall while its three members also performed with distinction individually.
McDonald, the reigning, inaugural L’Etape Australia sprint champion, won the 40-44 age group, Alyssa Rogan finished second in the 45-49 age group and Breanna Chillingworth placed eleventh in the highly competitive 19-34 age group.
The team’s achievement is more notable given it was only formed in January as part of McDonald’s quest to get more females to embrace cycling.
“We really enjoyed the event. We had a lot of fun,” McDonald said.
“And for our very first event, we’re delighted with our success.”
McDonald and Rogan both finished nine minutes outside the qualifying time for their age groups for the 2017 UCI Road World Championships.
At next year’s Blayney 2 Bathurst, they will attempt to qualify for the 2018 world championships.
“That’s (making the 2018 worlds) certainly a goal that’s within reach for next year if we put our minds to it,” McDonald said.
Next up for Tamworth Cycle Club’s eight-member women’s road racing team is inaugural recreational event the Women’s 100 in Tamworth in April followed by two 100km races in June – the Nemingha to Nundle and the Gunnedah to Tamworth.
As Tamworth Cycle Club’s first women’s development officer – a newly created position – McDonald is engaged in a personal and collective pursuit that is transforming her, the people who answer her call and the sport she loves.
“We’re women who have gradually started riding together over the last year or so and we just decided that we would, I guess, put a bit more effort into our training this year and have a go at a few events and see if we could be competitive,” she said.
McDonald – a former long distance runner with more than 20 half marathons as well as two full marathons to her name – is delighted with the “dramatic” result of the concerted effort to lure more females to cycling in Tamworth.
Last year she was the only female road racer at Tamworth Cycle Club – now there are more than 20.
“The main goal of it is just to motivate and inspire one another and other women in our community to have a go at road racing,” she said.
“Cycling has traditionally been a fairly male dominated sport and we’re just excited to get out there and have a go and also to encourage other women to do the same because it’s a great sport.”
She added: “I would say in general we’ve been doing a lot to build a welcoming and inclusive culture in the club and provide events that are inclusive to women.”
