CYBERJAYA - The all-woman cycling event Women on Wheels returned for the fourth year on March 3 in conjunction with International Women's Day 2023 which will be celebrated tomorrow.
The event this year was supported by Specialized Malaysia in collaboration with South Puchong Cycling Club (SPCC), AFG, and QB Cycle.
The ride started at 7.30am with four different categories which are Group A, B1, B2, and C.
Group A, B1, and B2 rode a journey of 67km while Group C only travelled for 36km.
The event saw more than 150 riders in all ages started cycling from QB Cycle shop across Cyberjaya and Putrajaya.
Specialized Commercial Head in Southeast Asia Raymond Liew said the community needs to have events like this more frequently to encourage women to participate in this sports.
He said that this event has also received participation from Singapore who were amazed by the highly positive response from local riders.
He also mentioned that Specialized has played a big part in creating a more inclusive environment for women to enjoy cycling.
"From education to product creation, we have taken a more friendly and condusive approach towards women in this sports," he said.
Raymond also acknowledged that cycling historically has been quite a male dominant sport so this event is needed to invite more women to make them feel welcome and not intimidated by the sports.
"We used to sell bikes that are gender specific but we no longer do because this sports has got nothing to do with gender. It's all about body proportion, fitness, and so on," he explained.
While noting that safety is the utmost priority in any sports, he did have plans to organise an even bigger event in the near future with more participations from women.
"I think this sports should get to the point where everybody feels comfortable doing with no segregation of gender," he said.
"It's all about individual ability like we can see today ladies are really strong at the front leading the group," he added.
Raymond highlighted that the strong cyclist community is important in making sure that everyone feels included as they share the same struggle and experience with their peers.
Nur Hazwany Halim, QB Cycle owner said this is the fourth year of the organisation of Women on Wheels and this year's crowd was overwhelming which shows the rapid growth of the community.
"The participation was overwhelming, we did not expect people to sign up so fast and it's great to see the community grow," she said.
"When I started cycling back in 2012, there were very few women riders but now it is great to see the crowd is getting bigger and more women take up cycling," she added.
She explained that Women on Wheels which was initiated by AFG, started with only a small group of friends and it evolved until today.
Hazwany who is also the representative of SPCC said they received the biggest crowd this year, noting that they want to make it a bit more grand in the future.
She said that to encourage more women to take up cycling, the club has been focusing more on endurance training to help women get started on the sports.
She also said that these types of events help riders to connect with each other by meeting up physically, not only through online platforms.
She was hoping that the club will be able to go forward with their plan to visit Kundasang, Sabah and collaborate with the local team to organise an event like this.