Teen girls’ cycling project wins Shimano cash

The aim of the Beauty and the Bike project is to provide a series of and fun events for secondary school girls to help overcome the negative images they may have of cycling.

The Shimano Cycling Concept Award is an annual contest, now in its seventh consecutive year. This year, more than 100 project proposals were sent in to stimulate bicycle usage especially in the important age group of 5-16 years old.

The jury consisted of three editors of cycling trade publications: Jack Oortwijn of Bike Europe, Carlton Reid of BikeBiz, and Michael Bollschweiler of Germany’s Radmarkt, and Harald Troost, PR officer of Shimano Europe BV.

Beauty and the Bike sessions offer participants free health and beauty advice and practical solutions related to looking and feeling good when arriving by bike. In addition, they incorporate messages on the health and fitness benefits of cycling. The project also provides facilities and equipment to create dedicated changing and storage areas for use by girls that cycle to school.

The project was conceived by Emma Osborne, Sustrans’ Bike It officer for Exeter:

“As a young woman who cycles, who promotes cycling to school and who cycled to school myself, I want to target teenage girls to show them not only that cycling is a brilliant way to get around and keep fit but that you can arrive looking and feeling great too

“I want to highlight the benefits of cycling in a way that appeals to girls’ interest in health and beauty and to overcome girls’ negative images of cycling… Perhaps more importantly, I want to help raise girls’ self esteem such that they grow to realise it is OK to look ‘less good’ some of the time.”

Bike It is a Sustrans project, funded by the bicycle industry, backed by Cycling England with the support of the Department for Transport.

www.sustrans.org.uk/default.asp?sID=1102425335218