This post may be sponsored or contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. See my full disclosure here
Gone are the long sunny days of riding all day. While we all miss the sunshine already, being indoors means more time to read and plan next seasons rides. Since you can’t be outdoors all the time, I’ve rounded up 14 cycling books written by women to help keep you motivated and inspired throughout the off season. I hope the words of these women inspire you and push you to the next great adventure in your cycling journey.
Under The French Blue Sky – Nicole Marie Davison
Not only is Nicole the first woman to write a book about adventures of the TDF, she rode the course and chronicled the effort in a daily journal which she then transposed into a 332 page book. I recently purchased the book not expecting anything more than a light read while on a plane. WOW, was I surprised as I started reading at wheels up and by the time we got to San Francisco I was 100 pages in. I literally felt like I was riding her wheel through the stages. The prose and description of the sights, sounds, emotions and feelings of an experienced rider being transformed into a real “cyclist” was amazing, while still capturing the beauty of the countryside made this a book that I completed in 3 sittings a “must read.”. BTW/ she is a local bike shop owner and all net proceeds go to charity. This book will clearly be appreciated by those who ride a bike and for those who just want to read a terrific adventure story.
Queens Of Pain – Legends and Rebels of Women’s Cycling – Isabel Best
Author Isabel Best says, quite simply: “Women’s cycling gets such scant mentions in cycling literature you’d be forgiven for thinking it had no history”. Best’s book sets the record straight. What follows a punchy and engaging introduction, are stories of glories, victories, rivalries and extraordinary feats of human endeavour, stories of trailblazers, rebels, record-breakers, and legends of our sport, lost to the fragile ego of the patriarchy and officialdom. Forgotten, ignored, erased from history. But not anymore. Women’s cycling has a rich history, but one which has been lying dormant for years. Best has brought the legends of women’s cycling back to life and made sure they will not be forgotten again.
Mind The Gender Gap – Tiffany F. Lam
Tiffany Lam fell in love with bicycling while living in Washington, DC, reveling in the freedom to get around the city, liberation from street harassment, and connecting with her community and with other cyclists, especially as part of her local advocacy group’s “Roll Model” program. After writing her masters dissertation on the gender gap in cycling, she was motivated to share her own story and those of other women bicyclists. This zine collects diverse women’s perspectives on their experience getting around on two wheels and is sure to motivate, activate, and inspire you to get out there—not just to ride, but to reach out to others and build a better bicycle community!
How to Build a Bike: A Simple Guide to Making Your Own Ride – Jenni Gwiazdowski
“With a few simple tools and a bit of inspiration, anyone can build a bicycle that will bring many years of happy riding. This book will teach you the right skills, how to choose the right components, use tools confidently and ace the technical bits to end up with a unique and totally bespoke single-speed bike. Learn how to dismantle a vintage bike for its frame and parts, measure it all for a perfect fit, assemble it with new parts into a safe and stylish new bike, and finally pop on a bell or basket. This is your complete guide to building your own ride.” – Amazon
The Road Less Taken – Lesson from a Life Spent Cycling – Kathryn Bertine
This book is a fascinating read for about 75% of it, and then it’s a compilation of previous essays that gives the impression that they were thrown in to give the book some length. It’s hard to decide whether the author is just amazingly dedicated or just a little unbalanced, but her stories are inspirational, and she really does convey what it’s like to toil at an athletic profession that has little glamour and often no support. For anyone into road cycling, it’s a very interesting glimpse into the women’s side of the professional sport. This book wasn’t intended to be “a year in the life of me”, but it would be interesting for the author to do such a book, because she does write very well and with a lot of passion. She could give readers a very good picture of the sport from the inside.
When Lizzie Armitstead announced her book release, I had to grab it. Armitstead, now Deignan, takes the reader to the heart of the most demanding of endurance sports and the challenges faced: from sexism and the fight for equality, to doping and the incredible sacrifices and self-belief required to self-coach herself to world titles. While the writing and editing isn’t great, you can overlook it as her story is one to honor. Born in Otley, West Yorkshire, in 1988, Lizzie won her first medal in the Junior World Track Championships in 2005 after being talent spotted at school, before going on to win silver at the 2012 Olympics Games in London. Three years later she was World Road Race Champion and began 2016 as one of the favorites for a medal at the Rio Olympic Games. From the rolling hills of Yorkshire through to the treacherous climbs of the Vista Circuit in Rio de Janeiro – through setbacks, life lessons and ups and downs of a professional life in cycling – Steadfast is an intense and inspiring story of sporting triumph.
Back in the Frame: How to get back on your bike, whatever life throws at you – Jools Walker
I’ve been a long time follower of Jools Walker, aka Lady Velo, and am so proud of her soon to be released book. Because it is on pre-order at the moment, here is a snippet from Amazon…
“Jools Walker re-discovered cycling aged twenty-eight after a ten-year absence from the saddle. When she started blogging about her cycle adventures under the alias Lady Vélo, a whole world was opened up to her. But it’s hard to find space in an industry not traditionally open to women – especially women of colour.
Shortly after getting back on two wheels, Jools was diagnosed with depression and then, in her early thirties, hit by a mini-stroke. Yet, through all of these punctures, one constant remained: Jools’ love of cycling.
In Back in the Frame Jools talks to the other female trailblazers who are disrupting the cycling narrative as well as telling the story of how she overcame her health problems, learned how to cycle her own path and even found a love of Lycra shorts along the way.” – Amazon
Saddle, Sore: Ride Comfortable, Ride Happy – Molly Hurford
Riding shouldn’t be uncomfortable. You shouldn’t be getting saddle sores every ride. Cramping shouldn’t make you cry on the bike. And you shouldn’t be wearing your underwear with your bike shorts. Enter ‘Saddle, Sore’: the first guide to answer all of these embarrassing, awkward or just plain weird questions that you have about the bike and your nether regions. In this second edition, gynecologist, doctors, naturopaths, saddle makers, chamois designers, pelvic floor specialists, midwives, team soigneurs, and more, come together to provide their best tips. You’ll learn how to diagnose and treat saddle sores, how to choose a saddle and chamois, whether a pad is better than a tampon, what causes numbness on the bike, how to get back to riding after pregnancy, and so much more. A definite book to have on hand to reference to.
The Girls Bicycle Handbook – Caz Nicklin
The Girls’ Bicycle Handbook is for women cyclists everywhere who need practical no-nonsense advice and information on cycling, but don’t want to dispense with style in the process. Whether you’re a committed bike commuter or a complete novice – blogger, entrepreneur and passionate cyclist Caz Nicklin gives the low-down on making cycling part of your lifestyle. From choosing the right bike for your needs to looking stylish and comfortable whatever the weather, and from combatting dreaded “helmet hair” to road safety and fast repairs, The Girls’ Bicycle Handbook tells you everything you need to know about life on two wheels.
What Goes Around – Emily Chappell
Ever wondered what it is like to be a cycle courier in London? And a female one at that? Emily gives up her predetermined life in academia to work initially as one of two females in a courier company in the capital. As anyone can imagine, it is a hard job through all the seasons, from the biting winds and rain of the Winter months, through the irritations of plane tree pollen in Spring, to the heat of Summer. And of course the vagaries and at times vitriolic behaviour of other road users is undeniable. It is a profession that is ‘unseen’ by most of us and one whose companion is constant solitude. The life of a cycle courier is certainly not for the faint-hearted!
Every Women’s Guide To Cycling – Selene Yeager
More women than ever before are jumping on their saddles to enjoy one of the fastest growing sports in the country-and to improve cardiovascular fitness, control their weight, and liven up their social lives. At the same time, cycling remains very much a “man’s sport,” an intimidating world that can be difficult for women to navigate. Selene Yeager covers all the basics-for all ages and fitness levels for women to learn how to find the perfect bike and other essential equipment. They also learn how to shift, spin, climb mountains, and get back down. There are also training techniques that take it up a notch and nutrition guides of what to eat off-and on-a bike. Yeager goes into competition craziness-race information and strategies. Why guys who work in bike shops act the way they do and more! This book is great if you enjoy partaking in sportivs, racing, and knowing how to manage your body and bike.
Velocipede Races – Emily June Street
This book weaves in the history of women and cycling into a fictional story about one girls journey into her emancipation. Not only is this the first novel that I’ve read that weaves in these themes, it also comes with many firsts: first steampunk novel, first YA steampunk feminist/bicycle racing novel. I could not put it down until I was finished, and I want to read it again! I loved this book so much I did a review on it. Here is one of the best paragraphs, there are many, but this one will stick with me forever:
“This is what I am. I’m a jockey. I ride velos. I ride velos as well as any man. If I stay quite, if I keep it a secret, I’m just being a coward. Don’t you see how it is? Someone has to break the box. If I don’t show them what I can do, if I pretend to be a man forever, the box is not broken. But If I say, yes, I’m a woman, and I did this thing that on one believed I could do, then I’ve made room for someone else to do it, too. I have to make space where there is none, just like in a velocipede race” (p. 212).
Our Bodies, Our Bikes – Elly Blue
Our Bodies, Our Bikes is a resource and companion for women who ride bicycles. Through personal stories, how-to guidelines, and factual information, contributors explore the intersection of cycling and women’s health, from bike fit to clothing, from periods to childbirth, from media representation to gender presentation and reproductive rights. Our diverse contributors demystify and elucidate women’s issues in cycling in a practical, friendly, and down to earth manner. In case it may put off some potential readers, there is no male bashing or anti-male sentiment; only a perfectly reasonable disdain of the sexism found in advertisements and sometimes in “bike culture”. Rather, the stories are clearly (and not surprisingly) focused on the love of bicycles and the freedom that comes from being a cyclist of any type, whether you’re making a many-miles long commute to work, or riding for casual pleasure.
A lively look at women’s history from aboard a bicycle, which granted females the freedom of mobility and helped empower women’s liberation. Through vintage photographs, advertisements, cartoons, and songs, Wheels of Change transports young readers to bygone eras to see how women used the bicycle to improve their lives. Witty in tone and scrapbook-like in presentation, the book deftly covers early (and comical) objections, influence on fashion, and impact on social change inspired by the bicycle, which, according to Susan B. Anthony, “has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.” The bicycle played a most important part in liberating women beginning with the invention of the safety bicycle in the early 1890s. This book is written for young people but it makes interesting reading for people of all ages. Heavily illustrated and the pictures help tell the story.
This Road I Ride – Julian Buhring
There are many reasons why this book is so good. But if I had to specify one thing in particular, in the way that book reviews tend to do, I would say it is the absolutely seamless blending of the ordinary and the extraordinary. An incredible journey masterfully recounted — both Juliana’s on the road journey as well as her life journey. She describes the hazards of the road, the weather extremes, the breakdowns, the challenges that all long distance cyclists can relate with. And she also captures the charm and allure of the countries and cultures she traverses along with the varied personalities she runs into and the kindnesses she receives. Buhring reflects on the insights for and from life that she has gathers as she pedals. There are no long boring passages about bike technicalities or endless numbers and calorie statistics which one would ordinarily associate with someone who is into long distance bike riding. Some of my favorite parts of the journey are when she has just had a long day (you know, cycling around the world) and nothing feels better than a few shots of whiskey or a cold beer!