A NEW DOMESTIC ELITE WOMEN’S ROAD RACING TEAM

Hello everyone. I want to introduce you to Monarch Racing – a new domestic elite women’s road racing team based in Northern California.

Why did we launch this team?

Because currently, talented women or those with an appetite for top-level road racing are stymied within the NorCal area.

While they might find early success in mountain biking and gravel, there are only a handful of pro-road women from the area to look up to, and youth riders don’t see road racing as an athletic pathway.

Adult women see years of barriers, exclusion, and dismissal of women’s road racing. Monarch Racing seeks to change that.

As much as this team was created for the opportunity, it was also created as an act of defiance. Monarch Racing is an emphatic counter to the status quo for all the women who’ve been told no or who’ve never had the opportunity for the years of exclusivity and male dominance in cycling.

I hope that other racers, riders, casual spectators, or others who stumble across our team find something they identify with. Whether it’s with one of our riders who is in her 30’s and picked up bikes a few years ago, another who graduated college and hopes to make it to the professional level, or simply that this is a team of women who have all faced conflicts, barriers, doubt, but still aren’t afraid to have lofty goals and do daunting things.

And to be clear, this team is not just about racing. All riders participate in community events created by the team or initiated on their own, aimed at introducing new riders into the sport, supporting existing riders, or sharing our resources and stories to enable and inspire others.

While all of us have faced barriers in our athletic careers, we’ve also been incredibly lucky from the generosity of others, the support of individuals or companies, plain luck, or privilege. Sharing as much of that as we can with others or passing on the same emotional or physical support that we’ve experienced that enabled us to get to where we all are today is part of Monarch Racing’s core values.

Each month, at least two riders will write blog content for this website (and it will also be in our newsletter – sign up to get the latest updates and content!). The prompts are open – will you get poetry? Race recaps? An experience from a group ride? Find out over the coming year! Hopes and dreams?

Thanks for reading. Hope to see you around!

—Helena Gilbert-Snyder