welcome everybody i'm tom flora editor

of seattle bike blog and I'm here with

Anna Maria Brooke I am alone

and we're going to talk about a the fact

that it is the year 2020 and the largest

cycling event on the planet is men's

only and Anna Maria who formerly worked

at cascade bicycle club is now living in

Portland and is going to ride the entire

tour a day before the men and so I was

hoping I guess how did this come up how

did you start to get into this so

there's a group of well it started with

one french woman about five years ago

who decided like you know the time was

now to also have a women's Tour de

France and so she just wrote it herself

the whole thing and then the next year

she had some friends join and then more

friends and eventually we are now five

years later and there are three

different women's teams riding it so I

got a french team an international team

and a Dutch team and I was approached by

a documentary filmmaker about how it is

that we're in 2020 and there's no

women's tour de Franz and what's women

cycling like and everything and then she

was like wait a minute aren't you Dutch

don't you ride a bike mostly not kind of

so like you should come ride with us

Dutch team so I did I decided to go and

and join them because why not right it's

just I mean as a cyclist it's a total

dream to ride the tour obviously and as

a second journalist especially a women's

cycling journalist I feel very strongly

about equal opportunities in sport and

the fact that there is no Grand Tour for

women is kind of outrageous in this day

and age yeah and so you're planning to

write about it yeah we try to drum up

some interest before as we're doing now

and we'll be you know blogging and

flogging and doing the whole thing just

to raise awareness about the fact that

we're doing it but more than anything

like the fact there is no Grand Tour for

women and also just to inspire people

that they can't do these things I think

the reason there is no women's suitor

Francis complex obviously but it's

mostly around the idea that there's no

money in it like for the organizers and

how do people think that women just

can't do it and so we're gonna prove

that even amateurs like ourselves who

are women or that we can definitely do

it and I mean obviously the men have

tons of financial and physical support

all on the way and I guess I'm assuming

you do not have that okay just just hand

it to you anyway

how are you I mean it must be expensive

to do the whole tour I mean that's a

pretty long arduous ride you know how do

you fund all your support that you need

and things like that yeah I mean it is

very long so it's 21 stages over the

course of 23 days there's a couple rest

days in there it's 2,200 miles 160 4000

feet of elevation so we're gonna be on

the bike like 8 maybe 10 hours a day for

21 days and we're racing funds through a

GoFundMe page I'm just doing some

crowdfunding to get support from people

and then we've got some sponsors lined

up already and we're looking for more

sponsors obviously because it's a lot of

lodging in very busy French towns as you

can imagine during the tour support

vehicles and food so much food as you

can imagine that's gonna take so many

calories to sustain us so yeah we've got

some sponsors fortunately already and

the rest we're still looking for we've

got ten women on our team and like said

that will be 30 women total there's also

a documentary career that's following us

and we've got professional staff and a

photographer with us of course all these

people are doing it either on a

volunteer basis or we're trying to offer

a small stipend to our staff that's

helping us so like a swan your

nutritionist and the photographer they

all get a small stipend great and I mean

I assume that roads will be open let me

like like on the on the actual tour

everything's closed course and

everything

won't be that way for you yeah they'll

be setting up the course during that

time and yeah so we'll be very careful

we also are inviting people to come with

us since this is not a closed event we

actually want to get more people out

there and and so we invite people to

come right a day with us and see what

it's like and what it takes and so if

you uh if you happen to be in France and

you want to come right along that infos

also on our on our website but yeah

that's great and yeah it's it's mostly

just about inspiring people to go chase

these dreams and uh just tell the story

of women's cycling and the fact that

there is no Grand Tour and when I went

to mentioning you know the whole salary

and lack of funding in women's cycling

in general this is just about the

opportunity you can go and write it

right yeah I mean the men get paid to do

it and you have to pay your own way

right yeah well I mean we're doing it

obviously it's non racers but even

professional professional racers they

all have 50p on the peloton has a second

job because they can't do it so yeah

where we're trying to get the word out

while letting our legs do the talking as

well right

and have you had any response from you

know the organizers of the Tour like I

mean obviously they know that this is

happening it's been happening for years

but um yeah yeah they haven't always

been the biggest fan over the last five

years they've they've tried to sue a

team before for doing it

for and for using the word Tour in their

advertising material they're really the

organisers ASO hasn't been very good

towards women's racing and they don't

particularly love the idea of us being

out there and riding the roads and yeah

promoting this aspect of their or lack

of their race yeah are there other

organizations that are working towards

having a women's tour like kind of like

in an official capacity where someone

who can't you know participate could I

don't know sign up and learn more send a

little bit yeah I mean especially

cycling has basically the closest thing

to a union that they have is called the

cyclists alliance and they in addition

to fighting for equal opportunities they

also try to make the whole sport more

professional so offering you know better

wages help with contracts you know

parental leave health insurance all the

basic things that most jobs come with

and that are still completely lacking in

in women's cycling there isn't even a

like a minimum wage yet so they're still

fighting for the basics but Equal

Opportunities is one of those I mean

when it comes to visibility and

representation in sport especially in

cycling you can't think of a bigger race

than the tour right in it it seems like

so many other bicycle races do have

women's events it's weird that the

biggest one is the one that doesn't I

mean I guess well how common is it to

not have a women's event at all I mean

it's becoming ice it seems from my

perspective it's becoming less and less

common but maybe maybe I'm all wrong so

they actually there there used to be a

grand tour the during the Tour de France

lagron Buckland and the truth feminine

and organizer said there wasn't enough

interest so they candid and now they

have what's called the - la course pilot

sewer which is a one-day I'd say it were

like circus show from women they're like

on the last day of the tour women you

get to go right around the Shum seenu's

a you know something small they thought

it for the last couple of years that was

their token they're not two women and a

lot of us just don't think that's enough

yeah and they put on a lot of races

men's and women's races and they've of

the last few years come around adding

women's races to their one-day races but

yeah the big missing one is still the

tour and they do have the Giro the

women's ten-day tour happens to be at

the same time as the men's to the France

so that's also a bit of a conflict of

interest there they have you know the

the Grand Tour for women at the same

time that's the men's

right and yeah I guess what do you uh

what are you doing to get ready seems

pretty girly yeah it's it's pretty

daunting I mean I've done some crazy

things on bikes but never 21 centuries

in a row I mean as I basically go in to

you know doing the STP

over and over and over again with a lot

more climbing climbing than that but I

wrote my first century solo yesterday as

a training ride and that'll be one of

many many I'll be doing in the next

couple months just trying to get as many

miles and as I can and Portland is a

little bit Hillier or I mean there's

hills around more so than Seattle so

longer crimes so we definitely go an

uphill quite a bit yeah it's just

writing writing writing as much as I can

I mean you know I'm like a professional

I don't have I have a full-time job so I

have to fit in what I can on Saturday

and Sunday

right trying to get it done but as I

said it's more more anything it's like a

publicity stunt so we're not racing it

so I don't have to be in in top shape

but yeah I'll be spend a lot of time

with my bike he's not to be in pretty

good shape to survive it I think yeah

and you know it's not necessarily the

legs even it's the little things right

after 810 hours on the bike like the

shoulders the hands the yeah you know

seat bones like all of it yeah yeah I

mean that is just baffling I think how

many like just calories we're gonna need

yeah and unfortunately it's gonna come

in the floor most well not French Jesus

but bars that's unless the bars and far

less appealing food right so you said

you're an amateur so what do you do for

a day job um well I work in marketing I

worked with various different brands and

in the industry and one of which is

Colorado classic and they actually

flipped the script in that they

cancelled their men's rings and are only

doing a women's race which is unique and

really really cool and I love helping

them with that and their mission to

become one of the best women's races in

the world and

not just a race and talk but they also

really big I'm talking about the

inequalities in women's cycling and and

promotion and really focusing on the

exposure part of women's sports which is

lacking and so they offer free coverage

really good price money and support to

get the riders to the race as well

that's it that's great yeah they're

definitely a model that hopefully will

be adopted in this board more widely

yeah so you'll be writing about it how

do people find your work yeah I'll be on

social media it's am rook and then I

have a website a more calm as well where

I'll be writing about it and taking

videos and we've got some depending our

contracts with their sponsors we'll be

providing some videos for different

outlets and just tell them our story as

much as we can and then obviously

there'll be a documentary yeah maybe in

the next year or so great does it have a

title yet or how would people know no

there'll be a follow-up okay yeah after

the tour did she survives yeah I am

riding my bike from Seattle to Portland

and one go and on April like fourth or

fifth whatever that weekend is the test

the legs and since I'm gonna be in

Seattle anyway I figured I would just

ride home yeah so if anyone wants to

come for a bike ride

join me on on April 4th as I ride from

Seattle Portland not even that great of

course it's just purely out of the fact

that I need miles and I'm you happened

to be there that day so it's like well

alright home that's awesome

well great well thank you so much for

talking to me about this and good luck

thank you I'm gonna need it yeah