Currently there is no Tour De France (https://www.letour.fr/en/) for women so a women’s team called the ‘InternationElles (https://www.internationelles.com) ’ decided to cycle the whole course but start a day before the men’s race in order to raise awareness about this inequality.
The InternationElles (https://www.internationelles.com) team are riding each day alongside female team Donnons Des Elles Au Vélo (https://www.donnonsdeselles.net/accueil) J-1 – the French group of riders who launched the riding challenge five years ago and have continued every year since. This year, the teams are hoping their new collective power will send a clear message to the sporting world – to give women’s cycling the equal opportunities it deserves.
Pippa was part of this international team of women who set out to show the world why women should be a part of races like this. In this podcast we catch up with Pippa who shares more about joining the team, the planning and preparation before and during the race – the 2019 Tour route will be the most mountainous in the event’s 106-year history. And unlike the men, the female teams will have to cycle alongside cars and other vehicles that wouldn’t ordinarily be permitted during the official tour.
Pippa shares more about her love of being in the mountains and what the magical moments where while out riding. Pippa gives us an incite into life on the road during the tour from Brussels to Paris, 21 stage, 3,460kms as part of an all women team of 10.
Show notes
• Learning more about Pippa
• Cycling the Tour de France – a day before the men!
• What is the Tour de France (https://www.letour.fr/en/)
• Why this challenge is so important for women
• 21stage race, starting in Brussels and fishing in Paris
• The InternationElles cycling team and fighting for equality
• Who is behind the InternationElles and how she became a part of the team
• The logistical nightmare of the race
• riding with 23 women to fight for equality
• Being in Brussels before the start of the race
• Dealing with the nerves before the race
• Getting into a proper routine while on the road
• Hitting the mountains and loving climbing especially in Stage 6 of the Tour
• Getting to Paris and completing the journey!
• The last day in the mountains and the challenges they dealt with
• Wanting to cross the line together as a team
• Dealing with weather challenges
• How her body coped with the physical demands
• The mental side of the challenge
• Team work and what her role was
• Rest and recovery routines
• Having no time and having to focus on the practical things
• What Pippa would have done differently if she did it again
• The press, and the support for equality
• The Tour de France and the group they have set up to launch a women’s event
• Why as individuals we cal alls do something
• What’s next for Pippa
• How her family supported on the tour
• Being away from her son
• A documentary? A film?
• This is our time – advert
• Final words of advice and why you need to believe in yourself
Throughout the rest of August, we will have our regular Tough Girl Tuesday episodes coming out.
6th Aug – Dr. Tamie Jovanelly – World Explorer, focusing on major river systems including the Nile, Amazon, Mississippi, & Ganges.
13th Aug – Dr. Joyce Azzam – First Lebanese women to climb the 7 Summits & going after the Explorers Grand Slam!
20th Aug – Monika Sattler – Management Consultant turned World Record Holder – 1st Women to cycle the Vuelta a España – 3,058km with 49,337m of climbing!
27th Aug – Wendy Searle – Attempting to break the women’s speed record for solo expedition to the South Pole, November 2019.
Plus – I will be catching up with members of the Tough Girl Tribe – for Tough Girl Extra who will be sharing more about how the tough girl podcast has changed their life! They will share the episodes that stand out for them, they will share more about their own journeys and what the tough girl podcast has inspired them to do!
Hello and welcome to the tough girl podcast extra I’m your host Sarah Williams the tough girl podcast extra is when we go back and speak with our previous guests today I’m absolutely delighted that we’re going back to speak with pppa Lion so Pippa came on the tough girl podcast at the beginning of
July 2019 where she shared more about her life her love of sports her love of urance and how she got into cycling she then went on to do the race around Ireland in 2017 had a baby in 2018 and also shared more about her next big challenge which was the tour to France
Pippa then headed off and over the past four weeks has been riding in the tour to France um the day before the men’s team as part of the international L’s a group of 10 women who have taken on the tour to France in order to raise awareness about the lack of equality and
The fact that there isn’t a women’s tour to France and that women aren’t allowed to participate in this race so on this podcast episode we’re going to hear more from Pippa about how the race went what it was like what she learned from The Experience Enjoy tribe I am so excited that we are catching up with Pippa lion he’s going to be sharing more about the international L’s and the tour to France Pippa how are you doing I’m good I’m um a bit in shock I think everything seems very real I’m standing in the same place
That I was last time I spoke to you and I keep having to remind myself what’s just happened in the last four weeks it’s been a crazy four weeks to say the least but do you for people who maybe haven’t listened to the first episode do
You just want to tell everybody just a little bit more about you and your background so my background I currently live in Australia just outside Sydney um I’ve always been involved in sport um at an amate level dabbled with a bit of trail running mountain biking and
Currently lots and lots and lots of Road riding tell everybody what challenge you have just completed I along with 23 other women 10 of those in my team the Internationals have just completed the tour to France a day before the men massive massive massive congratulations
This is what we um we talked about in our first episode we talked more about you your background how you got into cycling and some of the other different challenges that you’ve done but we also talked about this challenge doing the tour to France and then you went off and
Did it and so we’re catching up with you now for those who are listening who maybe don’t know what the Tour of France is and um who don’t know that women can’t ride in the Tour of France do you just want to share a little bit more about
The race The Challenge and how it came about yeah so the tour to France is a 21 stage uh race in and around France this year it started in Brussels and then wound down into the Alps Pyrenees Alps and then uh finish in Paris so it always
Finishes in Paris it’s always 21 stages and since 20 2001 I believe there’s been no women’s stage race this year there was a one-day women’s race uh as part of the tour to France so myself and the rest of my team the Internationals plus the French speaking team the Don and
Del’s road to fight for equality to fight for women’s grand tour in the summer in Europe love it love it love it oh love it so much I mean I still I I said this on the last podcast interview when we spoke I was still really really
Sh when I found out that there actually isn’t like women don’t cycle in the Tour of France it’s not just the case of the women aren’t just shown on TV and it’s not just covered in the media it literally doesn’t exist who is behind the international lves like how did it
How did it come about how did you get involved in it there’s a French team the donand Del oo which translates to give the girls a bike they’ve actually been doing doing the tour a day before the men for The Last 5 Years um it started with CLA and her partner Mata and
Another couple of their family members riding and it and it’s grown huge since then so they had a team of 13 a few of the girls in my team the Internationals applied to join the French speaking team and it soon became clear that there was a a huge demand from the international
Side wanting to join and and get involved in this project so they decided to make an international team and Sarah Anne who I’m in the valo with in Australia uh cycling women cycling team she applied and was then approached um when they started talking about an international team she then asked myself
And Julianne uh another one of my fellow vus and roped us into it and yeah things kind of spiraled from there we settled on a team of 10 Nicola our fearless leader um had the unenviable task of sorting the logistics out so he planned the entire thing he
Booked accommodation for 14 of us all through France and another thing you may not know is that where a stage of the tour finishes isn’t necessarily where the next stage starts so we had a lot of um transfers from the end of one stage to getting close to the start of the
Next stage so a logistical nightmare trying to plan that so it’s Sarah an’s fault um as is my common comment when I get involved in these stupid things but yeah we we ended up with 23 women riding alongside each other to fight for equality oh I love it so much so from
The 5th to the 27th of July 2019 you started in Brussels riding to Paris by 21 stages a total of more than 3,400 km take us to Brussels take us to you know the the day before the start line what was it like you know catching up with
All the girls meeting all the rest of the members of the team can you sort of describe that time yeah and when I think about this it feels like an ABS absolute lifetime ago yes so I went out to Brussels um with my mom and her husband Tim and my
Little boy morson and we were there on the Monday we arrived um due to meet the girls the rest of the team um who apart from ja and sarahan I hadn’t met before um sorry I did meet a few of the girls ran to me on a ride a week before but I
Hadn’t met them properly so I was with Mom and Tim at our accommodation just around the corner from where we were going to meet the girls and was so nervous just all of these thoughts going through my mind why am I doing this how can I leave my boy how you know I’d
Already been away from my husband for 3 weeks I think um at that stage yes I just feeling really really nervous ja arrived on the Tuesday and we went for a ride and she came over to um our place for dinner so that kind of helped calm
The nerves a little bit and then yeah on the Wednesday morning went over to the accommodation that that we were going to be staying at and met all the girls and everything was crazy you know we had two Vans to sort out we had to work out how
To pack how many bikes did we have 10 plus a spare one so actually 12 bikes we had to get into these Vans plus all of our food plus all of our bags and everything so it was kind of a hi this is me and then off we went trying to
Sort everything out then it was the next day then it was stage one of the tour and it it felt like a bit of a a weird leading because we did one stage that was from Brussels then the next day was the time trial then it was only really
Day four that we actually started backing up our big rides so it was kind of a weird lead in we were still in the same accommodation for three nights um so we didn’t really get into our proper routine the main things I remember from that was the immediate camaraderie that
The whole team had we had Jimmy from attacus Who provided our kit and he’d come out to do a photo shoot with us when we were given our kit for the first time and we just had so much fun there was a um a kids climbing frame in the
Backgound in the back Garden of the accommodation that we were staying at and we were all climbing on there and you know having our photos done on there and messing around there was there was already lots of banter and lots of lots of camarad with the team so I think that
Was really good and that really helped me to relax knowing that this was going to be fun I mean it was going to be hard but we were going to have a lot of fun doing it yeah I just want to go back and talk about the nerves that you are
Having because I can’t imagine what must be going through your head before the start of an event and a challenge like this you know it’s it’s a it’s a big challenge it’s a physical challenge it’s a mental challenge as well as adding in the traveling outside of the outside the
Racing how did you manage those nerves what what were you doing to help yourself remain calm remain focused I think we didn’t really have that much time to get nervous to be honest and there was a lot of what are we doing why are we doing this how is this going to
Work and I think everybody was really good because everyone aired their concerns and made it normal it wasn’t like everyone was kind of like oh no I’m fine I’m fine and you know leaving other people to feel bad everyone was in the same boat and we were all just I think
We’re just a bit in disbelief as to what we were doing and the fact that it’s come round and that it’s starting and now I I just feel that we pulled together as a team right from the out and Yeah and everyone just kind of everyone was feeling the same and
Everyone was sharing their feelings and that’s the main thing nothing nothing really built up because everything was just straight out there there was there was no filter but I think that’s an amazing way to actually to support other women it’s not about putting on this it’s on this
Front it’s about being authentic and and sort of accepting those feelings and being like actually what we’re doing is Monumental and the world is going to be watching you there is a lot of pressure on women who do things for the first time because you are represent you know
It shouldn’t be like this by the way but you’re you’re out there representing women on on a world stage which is 100% where they should be but it’s a huge amount of pressure on you and the rest of the team so 21 stages which was the
Stage that really sort of stands out for you I enjoyed and I think it was stage six which was um llan de belf which was one of the first times that we hit the mountains I like climbing I enjoy the mountains for many reasons but I I enjoy
The climbing on a bike um and llan to B Bel Fe had been flagged as the toughest stage you know the pros have been saying that this is going to be the toughest stage in the tour it had some ridiculous gradient climbs I think there was a 22%
Climb or you know section some of it was on gravel these were ski runs that we were climbing up um and the tour has never actually done the entire climb so it’s the first time that it’s done the super plch to belfi which is the the
Very top bit which is on gravel and just ridiculous gradients so I think in my mind I was quite Keen I was Keen to get into the mountains anyway but also Keen to get the toughest stage of the tour under my belt because then I knew if you
Can do this then you can do anything you know you’ve done what’s been flagged as the toughest stage and also we just came together so well as a team in the mountains everybody was so you know helping each other out really encouraging really getting people through there were tears at the top
Because it was so hard and when a few of the team came through there was quite a few of us at at the top and we created an arch for them to come through we were shouting we were screaming it was just awesome it was the first time that we
Really had that really really tough challenge but we all came together and it was yeah really emotional and a really big achievement what were the magical moments that that stand out for you those bits which just like still just like oh my God obviously Paris surviving riding in Paris for a start
And just getting to the AR of Triumph and being there as a team but before before that when we got to teen which was stage 20 so essentially the end of the tour really it was the last day in the mountains all we needed to do then
Was get ourselves to Paris which we knew wasn’t going to be a tough ride particularly it was short it was around 70k because we didn’t do eight loops around the shaniz so in our minds that was that was it that was the last proper stage of the tour and we it wasn’t
Without incident we decided so we were climbing up the last climb which which was a 33 km climb and we were climbing up there and it was 38° it was boiling um so you know pouring water on ourselves trying to keep cool trying to cool down and then about 3K from the top
We decided we were going to regroup and we wanted to all ride together to cross the line uh together as a team so that was fine we said yeah we agreed that the van would go up and we’d stop about a kilometer before the end and then we’d
All ride together so we got there then the John DS moved the van on and there was all sorts of dramas there luckily a couple of us grabbed our rain jackets CU it was starting to get cooler but then the weather just turned um and this was the weather that actually shortened the
Race for the male Pros because there was landslides and all sorts of things so it started to rain the few of us that had had congregated headd under a bridge to try and Shelter From The Rain then we were getting cold if a couple of us hadn’t got jackets before the van was
Sent off so we’re kind of huddling in Penguin Style then we started to ride again then we stopped cuz the van was another place and the van said oh no this wasn’t the top the Top’s another 500 meters up they not not at the finish yet we really wanted to wait for the
Rest of the team but it was getting really cold and you know the weather was really turning the rain drops were getting big there was Thunder there was all sorts going on so we decided to keep riding anyway then um the last two team members came around the corner so we’re
Like ah this is amazing we’re going to finish together it was raining it was freezing but we rode over the line we didn’t know where the line was because there’s no actual Finish Line we just kind of carried on riding until what we thought was the Finish um and then
Everybody got off the bikes and we just had this massive group hug everyone was crying the crew were there they were crying it was it was just awesome and for me I think we did a Facebook or an Instagram live video at that stage as
Well and it was that was one of the really special moments we’d done it we’d nailed a massive climb you know a huge day in the mountains and we’d essentially finished the tour so that was awesome just that group with all the girls was was amazing so can I just
Clarify because I saw pictures of like you know the landslides and everything else so the women’s team got through and then the landslides happened so therefore the men doing it couldn’t actually complete the whole course yes so we actually did the full course of the tour to France and the professional
Men didn’t is it bad I’m like I love that so much yeah so we um we had two climbs in the Heat and the descents or the end of the ride at teen was thunder and lightning the day before that at the top of the mountain there we summited the
Mountain and again it was super hot and then as soon as we started descending it was thunderstorms there was rain there was it was pretty horrendous and actually one of the parts that I’ve been looking forward to the most riding from valair um maybe that was to tetin I’m
Getting confused with mountains but that bit that I’ve been looking forward to riding was awful it was raining like really heavily raining cold it been 38 degrees 39 degrees when we were climbing and we descended in 15° so you get cold descending anyway and with the change in
Weather that was freezing although we avoided the effects of the weather we still had to ride in the rain and in the cold having been super hot an hour or so earlier we did actually ride the full tour and yes we did more climbing and more distance than the men yes love it
Absolutely amazing girl power all the way I’d just like to talk about like your body in terms of you know the physicality of doing the challenge obviously you’ve trained hard put in the hours you’re going out there you’re doing these big climes 22% occasionally you’re dealing with the heat 38 degrees
You’re dealing with the rain the thunderstorms how is your body coping because there’s only two rest days throughout the tour and there’s a lot going on how did your body cope everybody had some sort of niggle a few people worse than others there was a lot
Of saddles s going on but everybody did amazingly our bodies just adapted it was incredible every day we were just like how are we doing this how are we getting up every day and riding 200 kilometers and doing these big climbs and these big gradients and how are we doing it we didn’t
Know it was yeah I think the body is an amazing thing and I think it just adapted and it got used to it got used to what it had to do you know we we were wearing compression we were doing recovery stuff taking our recovery but
Then we were sitting on a van for 40 minutes an hour we were sleeping in rooms that were super hot because there was a heat wave in France we often had the Loft level in the jeets that we were staying in so there was no airflow we
Were often waking up a lot more dehydrated than we’d gone to bed we definitely didn’t help our bodies as much as the per you know the the pros get the physios and the massages and and all that sort of thing so yeah the the body’s amazing we all held up incredibly
Well there was a few painkillers taken at certain stages a couple of the girls had problems with their backs you know just being in that position for a sustained amount of time there was a couple of exploding kneecaps or it felt like they were exploding some general
Twinges that we’d never had before which was actually more of a worry than the things that we’d that we knew about and we knew how to coat with Lucy B some tape the physio tape with her and a couple of the girls ended up having that
Put on and that that helped that was one of the things that we were most astounded about was how the body copes and how well we could we recovered every day and you know we could walk up steps no problem we were tired but it wasn’t like other training rides I’ve done or
Other events that I’ve done where I couldn’t walk afterwards yeah huge challenge lots of pressure on on the body but also let’s talk about the mental side of things because a lot of these big physical challenges the elements of the of the mind is so important and so powerful and and you
Saying you know how are we doing this how are we waking up every day to go out and cycle these 200 km and the body is an amazing amazing machine or even with all these little little niggle although I didn’t like the sound of the exploding kneecaps but talk us through all the
Mental side either the planning and preparation beforehand what you were doing during how you kept motivated what was going through your head yeah I’d love to hear more about that I think I’m pretty strong mentally anyway think that kind of how I get through these things
Is that I just keep going and I I don’t really know how I think I just kind of once I start something I’m not going to stop it until I finished it we just kept going and I think every time you had a low moment somebody else in the team
Didn’t you’d always be either helping somebody else talking to someone else or they’d be helping you and talking to you sometimes just riding next to someone we didn’t talk sometimes just just having that person there it was a comfortable silence it wasn’t an awkward silence but just having somebody there going through
Exactly the same thing as you was enough and it was all you needed and again that’s one of the things that amazed me the most that we just knew you know sometimes Lou put her music on and we had music going up some of the climbs other times we were singing messing
Around you know joking sometimes we were just in silence but it was it was fine so I don’t think there’s anything we could or that we did to prepare but again I think it was just the team element and breaking it down oh after lunch we’ve done over halfway so we’ve
Just got do this again and oh this can’t be as hard as whichever climb we did yesterday or just making silly jokes or just kind of making light of it but definitely being in a team really really helped because there was always somebody there and they could tell by looking at
You how you were doing and yeah I think just knowing that everybody was in the same position as you it wasn’t just you it was it was your whole team’s in this together and the crew as well they were they were amazing they looked after us
You know as soon as we got off the bike Mona was there like do you want water do you need coke they were just there you know giving us bananas doing everything before we even knew that we needed it doing I think it’s the team I think the
Team was what got us through what would you say your role was in the team I don’t know actually I like to think that maybe I helped look after people I I think I’m quite good at sensing when someone’s having a bad time or um or
Struggling even if they don’t say it so you know Alex really struggled with the heat she was she doesn’t coope well with the heat so when it was hot I just kind of tried to make a joke about it or ride next to her and make sure she was okay
She actually poor girl got stung whilst we were riding along by we don’t know what so that was causing her quite a lot of pain whilst she was riding so I was just trying to take her mind off that yeah so maybe kind of just looking
Looking out for people I think that was potentially my role I’d be interested to see what the other members of the team would say tell us a little bit more about what you were doing for the rest and the recovery and how now you know you had a
Certain amount of time you traveling in a car you needed to get your rest and Recovery in before doing the whole thing again did you have routines in the evening were there certain things that you made sure that you were doing to make sure you kept your body in tiptop
Condition yeah so we I establish a routine fairly quickly I’m quite organized so um I quite like to have things set out every evening I would clean all my bottles out and dry them and then get my recovery powders in into them so that they’re ready to go for
When we finished U so then as soon as I got off the bike I would put the water into my recovery shake and have that and get changed and put my recovery tights on and I I also bought a little um USB smoothie maker and so I would have a
Smoothie with some protein powder and other recovery stuff in the van on the way back back to the next accommodation so that’s the kind of food side of it um I had a spiky ball that I would then use on my my legs in the van and really that
Was it because by the time we got back to the accommodation I think 7ish was the earliest that we ever got back you know sometimes we got back at 9: and then we had to get back have a shower so yes so have a shower then I would put
Clean recovery tights on to sleep in then we’d go down have dinner take the rest of your supplements and things and then go to bed that was it really then in the morning just try and eat as much breakfast as you can take your supplements and then get on the bike
Again so really there just wasn’t time to do anything more than that I don’t think I stretched more than twice the the option was stretch or sleep and sleep was definitely a priority yeah there just wasn’t any time you were always doing something there was no time
Just to have a lovely stretch or you know even a not so lovely stretch but just no time it was always about getting the Practical things done getting your bottles washed getting them prepared for the next day getting your food you know your bars and your gels and things in
The bag so that they were going to be in the van ready so that you could um refill your pockets when the van stopped yeah we we definitely did get into a routine but there was there was no extra space for for nice things unfortunately Looking Back Now and after going through
The whole experience and completing the challenge and and doing the 21 stages what would you do differently if you did it again I think the accommodation that we stayed in very very difficult to have sourced accommodation for 14 people but one of the main things was just how hot
It was trying to sleep and we were literally lying there in in piles of sweat trying to sleep it was that hot and I was paranoid I I didn’t sleep a night not in my compression tights because I just wanted to do everything that I possibly could for my legs to
Help them so they’d be able to to help me the next day so I think if we could have had fans or air conditioning or some way of cooling the rooms that would have made a huge difference you know some nights we were lucky to have 6
Hours in bed and if you couldn’t sleep for two of those then you know you’re running on 4our sleep and that’s when things get hard you don’t sleep you get more emotional you’re tired you don’t see the big picture just everything gets hard so I think if I could have improved
Our sleeping conditions also the food that we had I think there’s a cultural difference between French and English Australian ways of eating we only have pasta once I was expecting to be eating pasta every day you know because it’s so good it’s so easy and it’s it’s so good
When you’re doing these big challenges and need the carobs so yeah I think if I could improve things off the bike maybe on the bike I would have liked to have started a bit earlier avoided a bit more of the Heat and then have a bit more
Time at the end of the day to actually relax and try and kind of decompress after the stage before then having dinner and bed but then in Australia we ride early so I’m used to that whereas I don’t think many other places in the world get up at 5:00 in the morning to
Ride but I think that would have helped us have a little bit more time at the end of the day just to kind of take things in and and and yeah decompress after that stage one of the reasons that you were doing this Challenge and being
Part of the international LS is to raise awareness to gather support to show that women can do challenges like this and that they deserve to have an event like this what was the Press like what was the support like did you get the exposure that you wanted throughout the
Tour oh we were absolutely Blown Away by the amount of media that we got it was crazy you know one day we in fact was it stage it was when we were in Brussels so between either stages one two or three we did an interview with BBC breakfast
We were live on BBC breakfast then we had interviews um with Australian radio stations we had we’re in the New York Times we were interviewed at the top of um one Climb by German TV they followed us around for a few days we’re on alaz English it was phenomenal the amount of
Media Outlets that wanted to to cover our story we um had a Jour list came and rode with us one day when we did C Talay and he’d written an article in the cyclist we had so much coverage we were totally overwhelmed by the amount of
Coverage and and along the way as well people were interested you know you’re talking to people and again they didn’t realize there wasn’t a tour for women and yeah the the amount of media that we had and the requests for interviews um as we were going going round as as the
Media kind of grew yeah was phenomenal we were we were absolutely stunned by it to be quite honest I’m so pleased and so happy because especially after the Women’s World Cup there is this demand and this it’s just this need that needs to be filled I mean I for me growing up
I never saw women on TV especially not something like the World Cup and especially not you know cycling the tour to France and I just think about these little girls Growing Up Now who can see you doing this and it’s just the most empowering thing ever for you for you
And the whole of the team to get this exposure but what can people at home do what can other women and men who are who are allies and supporters how can we support how can we make this change happen so the Tour of France wakes up
And it’s like actually do you know what there’s going to be a women’s tour to France we’re going to do it as it should be well we actually um I think I can’t remember when it was I think it was sometime in the second week of the tour
There was an article that was released saying that the tour to France organizers are looking to launch a major women’s tour and that they have set up a group dedicated to developing women’s cycling so they’ they’ve said that the race wouldn’t be at the same time as the
Men’s tour to France because of logistics but they have said that they will they’re setting up a cell to develop women cycling within the ASO who uh who organized the tour so yeah they’re saying that there will be a women’s tour to France or a women’s
Grand Tour I think what the public can do is if there is any women cycling or women in general in sport to support it because this was the excuse or the reason that was given when the women’s tour of France was stopped in 1989 was the lack of media interest and the
Logistical issues but the lack of it’s it’s that spiral it’s the lack of media interest and then there’s a lack of sponsorship but they’re saying it’s because nobody wants to watch it so I think it’s the same as the the Women’s World Cup if we can show that there’s a
Need that there is a desire for people to watch women’s sport then there’s no excuse then we’ll be able to get sponsored in there so there will be the money and then there will be the media interest it’s supporting women’s cycling at all levels there’s a lot more women’s
Cycling going on now and I think it’s just yeah if we can support it if women can get out there and get cycling and and make it normal make it normal for for women to get on their bike and and you know not even racing just getting
Out there and and being seen doing it make it normal and yeah support support the women’s RAC and the women’s sport on TV when it when it’s shown and and I think you know it’s about actions and it’s also about accountability so I love that that’s been that’s been said and
It’s now about the follow through like let’s let’s see them make you know words you know everyone can talk about it and people love to talk about what they’re going to do it’s like I want to see it actually happen I want the actions and I
Want to make sure that they are held accountable and to be honest we we all need to do our bit whether that is just retweeting follow you know follow all the all the women site place for women in sport retweet them read their blogs share their content comment on it watch
Their YouTube videos write to your media companies and who you who you sp write to the organizers like little things like that add up and I think sometimes people can feel very well you know there’s nothing that I can do and actually yes there is you can always do
Something and I think as well sharing you know there’s this article here that’s um about the to front organizers saying they’re planning to launch a major women’s event we need to I mean that’s been shared a lot but we just need to share that get it out there so
That everybody has seen what they’ve said so that they have to then they’re accountable they then have to follow through absolutely absolutely so what’s next for you well my bike hasn’t been touched since I since I got off it in France next for me I’m in the UK now for
The next week in a bit then I’ve got morson’s first birthday so that’s quite a milestone then going back to work so once I’m back in Australia I go back to work so because I’m still on maternity leave right now so yeah go back to work
And yeah then we’ll see we’ll see what happens next I think that’s going to be my focus for the next month or so is just kind of working out how life Works working and and morson’s daycare and and cycling and training in amongst that um I’m very much looking forward to going
Back to the gym I’m an ambassador at Joe’s base camp in Manley and I’ve not been doing my normal classes and things there that’s a strength and conditioning gym so yeah I’m really really looking forward to getting back there and and hanging out with all my my gym buddies
And doing some strength lifting some weights I have not done that for a long time so yeah I think that’s probably going to be my next strength obviously in a month sorry next uh goal um and amongst everything else you know want to get back on the mountain bike start
Doing that again because that’s been very much neglected and yeah just just getting out there getting morson in his little trailer and taking him mountain biking too yeah just maybe having a normal life for a little while yeah I just asked did your family sort of
Travel around with you or what was uh what was morson doing so my mom and um her husband Tim came out for the first they came out for the whole time but for the first two weeks they had um I could not have done it without them they
Had him um with them the whole time they basically found where we were going to be riding past so that they were on the road waving and and cheering as we went past before lunch they would then go to the lunch stop and so that I could hang
Out with morson for our half an hour lunch break and yeah I mean all the things that happened behind the scenes they were in contact with Rob one of our crew members and he basically told them where we were going to be stopping in fact they often went ahead and found a
Lunch spot for the team but you know I I didn’t have time to be telling them and helping them out whilst I was riding so couldn’t have done that without Rob making that happen so yes so I saw him every day um at lunchtime which was a
Massive boost for me and for the rest of the team as well actually they they enjoyed seeing his little smiley face and and having our little team mascot there and then my husband Joe came over for the last week and he was camping with Sarah an’s husband Warren and his
Parents so morson’s first camping trip and again they did the same sort of thing they came and met us for lunch and actually the two boys rode with us a couple of days as well which was really nice that was one of the things that I
Was worried about as well was was how it was going to work you know I’d not been away from for more than I don’t think for a night even before I started so it was all really unknown but it it worked out so well like I couldn’t have
Done it without my awesome awesome family but morson was so relaxed and and just kind of went with it that yeah it all worked out it was amazing best than I could have hoped for and just out of Interest was uh was there any film Cruise filming you is there going to be
A documentary like a film or anything like that coming out um there was a film crew that were out there however they’re making like a pilot or a little teaser I I’m I’m not sure what it’s called in the in the um in the industry but they’re
Making a two-minute teaser to then get funding to do a full documentary next year but they got a lot of fotage and we got on really really well with with the film crew that came over it’s an American film crew so I think they they’ll probably do something for us or
They might let us have some of the footage or or do something so yeah we’re hoping there’s a bit more there was also um scod came out and filmed when Dame Sarah story came out with her um five Academy athletes um so we rode with those those girls five young girls who
Managed to get into the academy and there’s actually a scod advert that this is our time advert that we feature quite heavily in So yeah so hopefully we can get some some more footage from those guys as well after we last spoke I went on to YouTube and watched the race
Around Island movie or video documentary what you want to call it about you know 40 OD minutes and it was absolutely fantastic and just thoroughly enjoyed watching it and so I know that many people would love to see to see like a short little film about what you’ve done
What you’ve what you’ve achieved we’ve definitely got a lot of footage we haven’t even started to collate all of that stuff yet I know that Rob did a lot of videos for Instagram and for that sort of thing but hopefully yeah we can get all of our videos and film and
Photos and things together and do something yeah just to kind of round it all off Pippa it is absolutely fantastic what you and the other women as part of international L’s have accomplished and achieved I’m just so proud that that you were out there representing women putting it out there showing the world
What women can do and why we should have equality in the T of FR so I just want to say a massive thank you and I’d love for you just to leave us with any final words of advice words of wisdom something that you’ve learned from going through that experience going back to
What I said before is if you believe in yourself and you believe that you can do it then you can you know we went into this totally not knowing whether we could do it I genuinely didn’t know if I was going to be able to complete the
Whole thing I didn’t know how it was going to pan out I didn’t know how my body was going to react and I think if you just keep plugging away and keep positive and just keep going you can achieve these incredible ridiculous things and just dream big I never ever
Thought that I’d be able to to ride all the stages of the tour to France and the most mountainous and do more than the proom mended because of the weather and yet we’ve done that so I think it’s Just Keep On Believing and and just don’t
Give up it sounds pretty corny but it really is as simple as that just yeah just just go for it pppa thank you so much for coming on the tough girl podcast extra to share more about the Tour of France more about the international L and more about cycling
For equality absolutely inspiring thank you so much thank You hey tribe what an awesome episode and how amazing to catch back up with p but I think what her and the rest of her teammates have done as part of international L’s is absolutely incredible I just want to share a little bit more from their website about about
The tour and what they’re doing so this is from International ls.com whether you’re a cyclist or not everyone’s heard of the tour most of that is down to the fact it dominates the media every year with live coverage and raise reports broadcast around the world throughout the event yet there’s
No stage rates that even comes close to that kind of attention in the Pro women’s cycling calendar nor one that offers anywhere near the same prize money it’s disappointing how can we expect women cycling to flourish if it’s not given the same opportunity to there are loads of amazing female pro cyclist
Role Models out there but there’s a total lack of exposure around them because there aren’t the big races to support them we want this challenge to empower more females to ride bikes but we also want better representation for the amazing female Riders we have at the
Top level of the sports so that more women and girls can see them and be inspired by them because you have to see it to be it currently the only event women can compete in at the tour is a one-day race called lacourse by tour to
France while the men ride 3,460 km over 21 stages and to battle it out for a total prize pot of2 million lorse is 120 km 75 Mi and has a total prize pot of just £19,000 the international team are riding each day alongside the the female
Team dond El oo J1 the French group of riders who launched the riding challenge 5 years ago and have continued every year since this year the teams under are hoping their new Collective power will send a clear message to the sporting world to give women cycling the equal opportunities its deserves British
Ridder Louise Gibson said it’s no longer a question of whether women can complete events like this we’ve already proved that the question is when will we be given the opportunity to compete in them there was once a stage race for women in France so why not now or why not work
With a professional female teams and invest in creating something new Gibson goes on to say we have to question why aren’t we seeing more cover coverage of women’s cycling events you just have to look at the women’s football to see that the no one watches women’s sport excuse
Just doesn’t work anymore so you know I meant I talked about the Women’s World Cup and this is just one of the comments you know the Women’s World Cup semi-final between England and the USA was the UK’s most watched TV event of 2019 so far 11.7 million people tuned in
10 years ago they’d have said women’s football could never attract those kinds of numbers attitudes are shifting and we have to stop using the tired excuse that the interest just isn’t there to justify not cover ing events because if cycling doesn’t progress we’ll soon be left in
The dust while Sports around us do the women doing this also hope to highlight the huge disparity in men and women’s prize money in existing races so I absolutely 100% support what the international eles are doing I think it is incredible to be out there raising
Awareness I’m doing my bit by you know speaking to Pippa having her on the podcast sharing her story with all of you to make you aware that there isn’t a female to France and that it’s just something that women aren’t allowed to participate in so hoping that this incredible media coverage that they’ve
Received over the past couple of weeks will continue and that more women will get involved in cycling that more women will be inspired to take on a new challenge if you’re wanting to be inspired by more incredible women then please do go and visit tgir challenges.com on the website you’ll
Find links to over 200 episodes of women that I’ve been speaking to since 2015 there’s a whole variety of different women different challenges different experiences that they will share with you they talk through the challenges but they also share the fears that they’ve overcome to get get to that place they
Share more about the journey what they’ve learned along the way they also provide you with top tips and advice for you and making sure it helps you to step outside your comfort zone please do make sure that you subscribe to the tough girl podcast we have got some awesome
Episodes coming out in the coming weeks normal episodes come out on a Tuesday at 7:00 a.m. UK time and bonus episodes come out on a Thursday at 7:00 a.m. UK time so make sure you hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss out so next week we’re going to be hearing from Dr
Tamy janali who’s a world Explorer focusing on the major river systems including the Nile Amazon Mississippi and the Ganges on the 13th of August we’ll be catching up with Dr Joyce aam the first Lebanese woman to climb the seven Summit and she’s also going after the Explorer Grand Slam on the 20th of
August we’ll be speaking with Monica Satler her Management Consultant turned world record holder the first woman to cycle the vut Espanol I can’t say that name but um it is 358 km with 49337 M of climbing on the 27th of August we’ll be catching up with Wendy s
Who’s attempting to break the women’s speed record for a solo expedition to the South Pole in November plus we’ll also be catching up with members of the tough girl tribe for tough girl extra who will be sharing more about how the tough girl podcast has changed their life they’ll be sharing the episodes
That stand out for them they’ll share more about their own Journeys and what the tough girl podcast has inspired them to do thank you so much for listening to tough girl podcast have an amazing day wherever you are whatever you are doing give it 110% take that first step do it
Today take action now and give it your all take care lots of love and I’ll speak to you soon bye yeah