EUROPEAN WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP
What is it?
words by David Miller, bikesportnews.com

In racing terms, all things are never equal. Someone’s always got better tyres, better brakes, better this, better that. Equality takes time. But now it looks like it is beginning to in bikesport.

Now, all the girls, females, ladies, women (or wimmin) [ED - don't worry, the author is suffering for that comment] in Europe get their own championship as the European Women’s Cup has finally been given championship status by the FIM. And, despite it only being three rounds this year, it has come a long way from humble beginnings.

“EWC was born in 2005 as a Cup, based on the previous year’s experience in the Italian Female Motorcycling Trophy,” says series organiser Paola Furlan.

“Because the trophy was such a success, we canvassed the opinions of hundreds of female track riders through the Motocicliste Motoclub.

“This study, together with the proposal for a Female European road racing competition, was presented at
first to the Italian Federation, which was able to persuade the UEM that a European series was a good idea.

“The basic reason behind it was the awareness of how many enthusiastic European women want to race but were stopped by the idea of competing with men in categories at too high a technical level.

“So a female competition helps their approach and there was no reason to believe that bike racing, even with
a cultural gap, was different from other sports, where women compete in their own category, separate from men.”

In 2007, following the growing success of the event, the skill levels, the number of the nations and competitors and the media attention, the UEM decided to make it a championship instead of a cup. And the popularity grew.

“It's quite difficult to bring popularity to female racing in such a small timeframe,” says Paola. “People still see it as a "weird thing" - entering into a typically-male world with the usual prejudices and objections offering resistance to the "normality" of women in this sport.”

And resistances there are, both at a basic level (it's more unusual to introduce a daughter to racing instead of a son) and at a federal level: promoters, sponsors and teams where the female competitor’s presence is still alien.

However, Paola is pragmatic about the whole thing and is looking to the future: “We rely on a long term vision. The riders of today could be a model for the next generation so that their daughters and granddaughters can start at a young age.

“However, we are really pleased that, even in few years, our series has been acknowledged by manufacturers, teams, the media and the spectators.

“We are work to make a brighter future for female racers and racing, even it's not so easy at the moment. We want to make the series bigger. But in order to achieve this goal, it has to be the will of everybody (federations, UEM, local promoters, racetracks, sponsors, teams and riders too) and not only ours.”

The EWC kicks off at Misano on April 13. Click here for more details or view the Feisty Racing calendar.