Shane Sutton

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beastie

Guru
Location
penrith
 
Nicole Cooke complained that Sutton never came to watch any women's road races at all, everything was geared to the male riders. When you consider the high profile herself, Vicky P and Laura Trott contributed to the emergence of cycling as a major sport in the last decade the treatment the girls get is woeful. It's as if they are no more than just eye candy - and it's not just among the hierarchy in the sport that that attitude prevails, many of the comments posted on the internet about female riders (By cyclists) concentrate on how shaggable they are. Nicole Cooke had to suffer years of sneering comments about her looks, mainly I suspect from pot bellied male munters she wouldn't look twice at.
 

Berk on a Bike

Veteran
Location
Yorkshire
On the BBC Sport website: British Cycling have announced an "independent review" following the allegations of sexism made by Jess Varnish.
 

dellzeqq

pre-talced and mighty
Location
SW2
Not only did BC not want any women to race at their home World Championships, they were prepared to break UCI rules to prevent that from happening. They were prepared to fund all aspects of my trip to Scotland to race the relay, but not prepared to let me stay around to race. Why on earth would that be their stance? To this day I can only conclude that it was as simple as me being a self-produced rider, who spoke her mind and challenged their decisions. I had, on various occasions, been seen to “show up” their funded riders by beating them when riding for GB, and the British Championships each year had become my proving ground where, time and again, I fended off a funded rider to take the crown. I guess they didn’t want to be shown up anymore. This aspect is pertinent now with Jess Varnish who is out to prove them wrong. BC will do anything they can to prevent her being able to do this.
Jenny Copnall. Blimey!
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Trial by media, exactly what is required before the Olympics.
It may be an inconvenient time, but BC can hardly ignore these accusations any longer!

If it were just one or two disappointed riders who didn't make the team, then maybe sour grapes could be behind this, but to have a former World and Olympic road champion, track stars, paralympians and mountain bikers all saying the same thing ... :whistle:

Robert Millar did a short stint as a coach for BC after his retirement. He came along to a training camp I attended in Spain and told us about his experiences. The tales from his pro career were very interesting, but what he said about the way that BC was run was very illuminating! That was over 15 years ago but it sounds like a lot of the same things are still going on.
 
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