“If Sky really wanted to make an impact on cycling they’d put together a women’s team,” Pooley added. “And they could put women’s cycling on television. That would make a huge difference, not just for their team but also in terms of sponsorship for all the teams.
“I’ve been on two women’s teams that have been attached to men’s teams – Cervelo [the bike manufacturer] and then Garmin-Cervelo. With Cervelo it was fantastic; they put our results on their website, they cared about us and were interested in us, they wanted to develop the sport and that’s because we had a main sponsor who were interested in women’s cycling because, guess what, women also buy bikes. It’s not rocket science.
“Then with Garmin I don’t think they really had much interest in us and it showed. But I agree that the UCI should encourage women’s teams.
“Unfortunately, though, there’s no point in having teams if there aren’t any races. There real problem in the past few years has been races getting cancelled. And that’s, also, because the UCI doesn’t encourage them.
"—
Oh, Emma Pooley, she’s so great! Read this article, she doesn’t pull any punches!
