Elite NorCal team elevates female cyclists

BY SASKIA FREEDBERG staff writer

“I was racing road (cycling) in NorCal and I was very frustrated with the lack of opportunities and the lack of support that women are getting,” said Bay Areabased professional cyclist, Helena Gilbert-Snyder, of the Norcal Interscholastic Cycling League. “And I really just decided that I wanted to try to change that.”

Over the course of six months, Gilbert-Snyder spoke with sponsors, scouted athletes, and put together Monarch Racing, which “in normal people words, means that it’s a women’s team that races at the pro level in the U.S. in road racing,” Gilbert-Snyder said. Previously, there “was not any opportunity for women to race at the professional level in the U.S.,” Gilbert-Snyder said. “You either had to be a professional cyclist living in Europe, or a hyper talented cyclist since day one who was already identified by professional level teams.”

In road cycling, “You can’t just register as an individual at a professional level road race, because you need to be on a team to do so,” GilbertSnyder said. Without elite teams to compete with, promising young female riders don’t have access to the races and can’t create a career for themselves.

Annie Whalen, one of seven riders on the team, has seen this lack of opportunity for female cyclists since she started riding during 2020, as a third year University of California, Los Angeles student. Soon after beginning, “I wanted to try to do it professionally,” Whalen said.

Gilbert-Snyder began riding as a senior at El Cerrito High School, one of three girls on the team. She put biking “on the backburner for the first year or two” of college, but then decided she wanted to ride seriously.

Whalen and GilbertSnyder met at a race in 2021, backstage before the podium ceremony and “then we just got along immediately,” Whalen said. Last season, as the only two women on a domestic elite cycling team, they were not entirely happy with their experience. Whalen said, “It was really just a lack of attention on us when we were the only women and we also had different goals than the guys did.”

Many of the competitive teams for women in NorCal have “petered out,” or do not attend national level events or have the funding to cover the costs for riders.

“Women are going to gravel or into mountain biking if they want to chase those really elite level opportunities … there’s this massive hole in road racing,” GilbertSnyder said. Monarch Racing is one step towards leveling this inequality. Whalen looks forward to creating a “motivating and sustainable,” comradery with the women on the team who share her goals, noting that it was harder to form these bonds with male athletes “because their experience was so different than ours, their opportunities were different.”

The team will race together but not train together regularly. Most riders work with a private coach and have a day job or are still in school.

Gregory Kennedy, a board member at KaiVelo, a California based cycling foundation that owns Monarch Racing, said that it would be “amazing if we get to a place where not only were they full time, but they were world class athletes that were able to compete in the top events and cycling around the world.” GilbertSnyder hopes that Monarch will soon have a team of development riders, as well as sponsors who are able to provide equipment.

“Everyone in cycling, and especially on this team this year, have been privileged in some way,” Gilbert-Snyder said. “(To) bring more riders into this sport and support them the same way that we were supported at some point is super important, and really ties into the core of what this team is about.”