Today in Mansplaining
British Cycling’s head coach Shane Sutton thinks Emma Pooley should take a year off from the sport. Maybe that will make her less frustrated with the way in which women’s cycling is governed.
Right, because Pooley could not possibly have legitimate grievances. Because you know, women.
Instead of engaging her in a constructive way, Sutton says Pooley would be better off leaving the sport and dismisses her criticisms as illegimate and motivated by bitterness. If that ain’t mansplaining, I don’t know what is.
Pooley is no slouch at pro cycling. She has a world championship title in the time trial and she’s picked off several world cup wins. In 2011 she finished second in the Giro Donne in a scintillating battle with Marianne Vos. That was some seriously good bike racing. If Pooley is wrong for cycling, I don’t want to be right.
I had the chance to talk to Pooley last fall in the context of the upheaval at Garmin-Cervélo. It eventually worked out with the partnership between the managements at AA Drink and Slipstream. But that agreement lasted just one year. Last year Pooley told me she loved racing her bike, but she hated the off-season uncertainties of finding a team.
With her AA Drink-Leontien.nl team stopping, it’s not a huge surprise that Pooley might be feeling a little frustrated.
Hey Coach Sutton, let’s talk about why one of the top riders in the sport is thinking about leaving it. And maybe we can start by not blaming her for being frustrated with the lack of support from sponsors and from institutions like the UCI and the national federations.
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