Former and pro riders Iris Slappendel and Carmen Small, and Gracie Elvin (Orica-Scott) have announced the formation a new riders' union called The Cyclists' Alliance. The new women's cycling group is looking to provide contract and educational support, career advice, and legal and retirement assistance.
The Cyclists' Alliance was the brainchild of the recently retired Slappendel - who spent 13 seasons as a professional – spurred on by some of her own experiences as a rider and a UCI representative. The project has taken more than a year to put together and was originally due to be announced at the end of November as the group, which also includes Marianne Vos in an advisory role, tried to get all their ducks in a row.
"There are always more and more things that you want to include but we said that we just needed to get out there and start getting the riders on board," Slappendel told Cyclingnews. "It was my initiative to start something like this, but I didn't aim it to be so big. In the end, we took a year to prepare it. I thought that it would be much smaller. Also, we focussed more on certain things and we've created a plan for the future of women's cycling."
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Slappendel, Virtu Cycling directeur sportif Small – who was still a rider at the start of the project – and Elvin make up the current executive board, with Slappendel the director, Small the vice director and Elvin the communications director. This is just an interim board, with a vote on new members due in the next 18 months. Setting up the board was a balancing act between those that have the ideas for improving women's cycling but also the confidence and position to make that stand.
"I have worked with many riders who have ideas, but when I think of riders who can say to their sports managers, 'what the fuck are you doing', or 'this is not the way I wanted', or 'this goes against my values', there aren't so many. I was looking for riders with specific values that I thought had an opinion and lived up to their opinion or values," explained Slappendel.
"There are a lot of smart girls in the peloton and I don't know them all personally. We are also an interim board, we will vote for a new board within 18 months. I'm really happy to have riders on board, or recently retired riders, that want to make the effort and want to help."
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