About this Research Topic

Background

With the return of the women's Tour de France, women's cycling has truly taken a new trajectory in 2022. The World Tour circuit has become more extensive, the minimum salary set by the UCI has increased, rights have been improved (access to maternity leave), media coverage has increased, training and competition conditions are getting closer to those of men and allow the world's best road cyclists to practice under more professional conditions. However, beyond the elite of the World Tour, progress is very slow. The Cyclists Alliance's annual survey still reveals a great disparity within the women's peloton, with 23% of professional cyclists receiving no salary for the 2022 season. This finding is even more striking for other cycling disciplines: track cycling, cyclo-cross, BMX, MTB...

The improvement of the situation of women's cycling is underway but must continue. Working conditions must be improved, the precariousness of female riders must be reduced and the important management functions (coaches, sports directors, managers, etc.) are still predominantly male and women must have greater access to them. In parallel to the actions carried out at the level of the sports authorities (UCI, organizers, media, etc.), the sports sciences also have a role to play by offering the actors of cycling scientific expertise for a better understanding of the specificities of women's cycling. At this stage of development, women's cycling must be studied using transversal and multidimensional approaches. Physiological, biomechanical, psychological, sociological, historical, or economic aspects... are necessary to describe precisely the specificities and the current situation of women's cycling and to participate to its development. Thus, the objective of this research topic is to collect a maximum of data focused on the specificities of women's cycling (amateur and elite levels) whatever the angle of analysis.

Contributors are welcome to address their work as original research, case study, review, perspectives and commentary/opinions on women cycling regarding the topics listed below (non-exhaustive list):

• Factors determining performance, including technical, physiological, biomechanical, psychological and nutritional factors
• Talent identification
• Medical specificities (injuries, illness, monitoring...)
• Physiological specificities - Gender equity/equality (including salaries)
• Careers and transitions
• Condition of training and work
• Financial aspects and economics
• Organisations policies, governance and management
• Coach-athletes interaction in performance project
• History of women cycling
• Societal and community support/barriers to women cycling

Keywords: women cycling, specificities, state, development, performance, multidimensional approach

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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