It makes me furious that I’m having to write this, but what happened to a good friend of mine last weekend shouldn’t be left to slide. Not least because she’s had the bravery to stand up and confront a blatant example of a serious problem in sport – particularly for female riders.
Amy Henchoz is an Elite level XCO racer and previous XCM national champion who’s represented the UK at the XCM World Championships. Last Saturday was arguably her biggest result to date though, taking tenth place in Elite Women at the UCI gravel race – the Gralloch. She was particularly proud as she broke free from a group of riders with two other racers with 15km to go before winning the final sprint. While she races elite, and trains and prepares as diligently and determinedly as a pro athlete, like most female racers she’s really a privateer. A racer who puts up with a huge amount – including inherent inequality to pursue her passion while also working full-time. So results like this matter to help her justify support from sponsors who help keep her racing. They're also precious payback for all that time she’s suffering on the bike through winter or doing interval sprints when she could just be riding for fun. And at the finish line everything seemed fine. It had been a good fair fight amongst friends and Amy headed away from the event elated, ready to ride an enduro the next day for some R&R.
