It’s a bit of a dire moment for women’s road cycling development at present in Australia. There are a number of teams, some announced, others not publicly confirmed at this stage, that will not continuing their participation in cycling to 2023.
Women’s cycling development has been in a state of flux for years now, with the wind-up of the highly successful women’s development squad, sponsored through various iterations by companies connected with Rochelle Gilmore and supported by Cycling Australia (now AusCycling). Since then, shortfall has been taken up by privately-run teams, with Roxsolt Liv SRAM and ARA-Pro Racing Sunshine Coast, in particular, stepping up to give riders opportunities to race against top competition and overseas.
It was the loss of another of these teams, Inform TMX MAKE, that prompted former rider turned commentator, coach and bike shop owner Pat Shaw to reach out to the wider cycling community.
“I’ll try and see whether anyone else had what I was feeling, so I went to Twitter and put up a simple post on whether we could crowdfund a certain amount of money,” said Shaw. “The responses were really good and it certainly started a conversation and allowed me to create some momentum around seeing what we could do for the athletes which would have been left high and dry.”
The way Shaw sees it, if we’re missing opportunities to develop riders now, we’re potentially losing them from the sport forever, with potentially grave flow-on effects down the line for the health of women’s racing.
“The number one aspect is that it stops these riders from not even trying because it’s too hard financially,” said Shaw. “We’re talking that maybe 80 per cent of riders in that 17-20 year age range will stop doing the sport or pursuing it at a serious level. That stops us from having world champions, Olympians, Commonwealth Games representatives.
“The flow on from that is that there’s no one for those young fans who are 10, 11 or 12 to look up to and aspire to be like. So, then there’s 100 per cent drop-off in those age groups.
“We know the talent is there, and the development will happen naturally if we support them to get to the start lines of racing in good environments. If we don’t, plain and simple we are clearly doomed as far as the sport goes and it will take us decades to rebuild.”
Inform TMX MAKE are one of the premier domestic squads in the men’s ranks, also adding an instantly impressive women’s team in 2022. Their announcement that they were winding up the team after nine years of competing came as a surprise to the cycling community, but particularly Pat Shaw, the newly recruited women’s team manager, who now hopes to build a new cycling team that gives opportunities to Australian riders to fill the void and help young riders progress further in the sport.
“It comes down to the call that I got from Inform telling me that they were wrapping up the team, said Shaw. “Maybe people won’t quite believe it after only being involved with the team for six weeks before that but it left a really sick feeling in my stomach. I wanted to make a difference.”
You’ll know Pat Shaw for his tactical know-how and hard racing on the bike during his career, if you’ve been to the national championships in recent years and heard him acting as master of ceremonies, or if you tune into a live stream of local racing and hear him commentating. He described his journey into women’s racing.
“When I was racing, I didn’t really have that because I was so focused on what I was trying to accomplish as a team and for our supporters,” said Shaw. “I didn’t really look into women’s cycling at all beyond the riders I knew and a few individuals I followed. Through my commentary role and working on events, I was able to see the effort and what was required to be successful on that side of the sport and it gave me an appreciation for what they were doing.
“When I was approached by Inform to ask if I wanted to manage their women’s team, I thought this is the time, I’ve done what I can to bridge the gap on the microphone and through my social media abilities, so I wanted to do more for riders in a strategic role for a team.”
That led to a shock around the announcement of the team’s wrapping up, with Shaw looking to recruit riders for 2023 and starting to establish relationships with the rising talents within the sport.
“We’d already planned for next year,” said Shaw, “and planned to do some great things with some incredibly talented young ladies within the Australian cycling system and then I had to make those phone calls to let them know the team wasn’t going to go ahead.”
From the ashes of that ambition rises the phoenix of Shaw’s new cycling venture, which is already building momentum with sponsors, staff and riders and is also utilising crowd funding to help meet the requirements of a team that can go forth and help some great young talent get opportunities to move into the WorldTour.
“It's been really heart-warming to see some of the amounts that have been donated, I would love to know everyone’s individual reason for donating,” said Shaw. “We’ve raised nearly $5,000 and we’re only a few days after launching the GoFundMe page and people’s generosity blows me away every day no matter the amount they’re donating. I’m proud to have them on board as part of our story.”
The practicalities and unpredictability of the public fundraising has dictated the necessity of the majority of the team’s budget to be formed from sponsor contributions, with all the extra dollars from crowdfunding flowing through to make other aspects of what shapes to be an ambitious program easier.
“The plan was to have sponsors make up the bulk of the money, the vulnerability of the crowd funding aspect long-term was always going to be difficult, that’s just the reality,” said Shaw. “The crowd funding will make up the shortfall if we don’t meet up to our sponsorship targets.
“If we met those targets then it will supplement things like rider’s international flights to Europe, accommodation for what’s set to be a four-month block and insurance as well.
“The second part is spreading our project and our mission. Even if people aren’t donating, just sharing our story will allow these young ladies to have more light on their story.”
Sarah Gigante will join Team Movistar in 2022 Credit: John Veage/Cycling Australia
“The one thing we will be is fully transparent about how the money is spent,” said Shaw. “That’s really crucial. At the moment, we’re looking for people to do it out of the kindness of their heart until we raise the funds, but there’s plenty of ideas in the pipeline.
“Once we’ve got things up and running, we have the idea that everyone who has donated will have access to personal videos from the riders and team riders. We’ll have a team rider card set that will go out to everyone who has donated, no matter the amount.”
It’s quite late by traditional time-frames to be setting up a team for the next season in August, but the impressive momentum gained already shows that it looks likely to become a reality. Almost all of the current crop of Australians racing at WorldTour level came through the women’s development squad, and without teams like these filling the shortfall, we won’t see the next generation make similar steps.
“I’m so inspired by these young women and the qualities that they have,” said Shaw. “They are so passionate and dedicated, and their sacrificing all the time. Their percentage of chance of success is so low, but it doesn’t stop them trying to drive to be a future Chloe Hosking, Amanda Spratt, Grace Brown or Georgia Baker.
“It’s been a phenomenal year for the success of Australia’s female professionals. It’s such a shame at we’re seeing so much success at the top, but we’re doing nothing at the bottom.”
Hopefully, the new team can take on part of that key role of facilitating rider development and positioning women’s cycling for a successful future. You can find further information on
Disclosure: As the author of this article, I should also disclose that I have made a donation to the new venture, but have no other connection with the team.
