International women's day has always felt a bit weird to me and I was not quite sure how to tackle it. The line 'every day is international women's day' always felt more relevant having spend my entire career in a male dominated field and growing up competing in a male dominated sport.
Last year, I decided to take action instead of slogans and quotes. I thought that there is no better way than to highlight women who help elevate women who ride bikes within my community in Vancouver. It was done as a series of Instagram stories - One women, every day leading up to international women's day. None of them knew about this in advance and the reactions from them and from the community was so great, and so rewarding.
This year, I decided to do the same thing, but this time highlighting women who work within the cycling industry, in technical roles. There are a lot of roles within the cycling industry and women are underrepresented in most of them. Relatively speaking, women are a bit better represented in roles such as marketing and design, but there are so few women working within the industry as engineers, aerodynamicists, frame builders, bike fitters, bike mechanics, ownership, etc.
Visibility matters. If women see other women working in technical roles, ones that are so men dominated, perhaps they will see themselves in those roles too?
Here are the 6 women I featured this year. I added relevant articles and links where appropriate - If there are additional links I should include, please get in touch and let me know so I can add them.
Vanessa Lebrun
Vanessa is the only exception to the technical role criteria, because she is a Vancouver local and does so much for women in our local community. She works as the marketing coordinator at Steed Cycles and has been working within the cycling industry since 2017, working at Giant in a variety of roles.
She has been a driving force in consistently creating more events for women who ride bikes in Vancouver, and was great to collaborate with when I organized the Rapha 100 women's ride in September.
It is refreshing to see someone contribute in the way she has been. No fluff, no slogans, no trying to do it all herself, instead collaborating and taking action to support women who ride bikes.
Georgena Terry
I don't think you can not talk about women in technical roles within the cycling industry design without mentioning Georgena Terry.
She is a mechanical engineer (Carnegie Mellon university) who started building bikes in her basement in the 80's, and the first to create bikes for women. She is also the first to create women specific saddles (and handlebars) in the 90's (Terry Cycling). She is a true trailblazer for women in the cycling industry
Fun fact: I posted an article about women specific bikes a few years ago and to my shock and honor, Georgena herself commented on it.
Here is a recent article highlighting Georgena's work and contribution to the bike industry as a whole and to women who ride bikes:
Scottie Barsotti
Stella Yu
Stella Yu founded Velo in 1979. Velo is a Taiwan based company that is the largest saddle manufacturer in the world, producing saddles for many of the brands you know and ride.
Velo also develops their own saddle lineup for resale. For example, MEC branded saddles, among other brands, are Velo OEM saddles. Some of the saddles that come on your bike, are very likely Velo saddles.
Stella started as a bike assembler in the mid 60's and she saw a gap within the industry, so she went ahead and filled it in a way that is truly impressive and impactful.
I am personally in awe of the impact Stella Yu has had on the cycling industry and what she has built (and still building) at Velo.
Here are a few article about Stella and Velo:
off.road.cc Staff
James HuangErgon’s Female Specific Saddle Development Team
Ergon's female specific saddles have been developed by women, for women.
The partnership between the Canyon-SRAM women's tour team and Ergon for their female specific saddle lineup is well known. What's less known - While most brands involve women in the design and testing of their female specific saddles, Ergon takes it a step further.
Last July, at the Science and Cycling conference in Lille, I asked someone who works at Ergon a few questions about the women's saddle lineup. He couldn't really answer them, which I found odd, and then he explained that women lead the development and design of the women specific saddles at Ergon, with little to no involvement from men.
Female sport scientists lead the development and design, not men. That made me appreciate Ergon as a brand even more - It creates opportunities for female sport scientists and riders alike.
I know a lot of women who love Ergon's women specific saddles - Thank you! If you're a female sport scientist working at Ergon, I would love to hear from you!
Side note, I wonder if the ergon saddles are manufactured at velo?
Mary O'Donnell
Mary is an aerodynamics engineer originally from Ireland, working at Trek Bicycles and Ku Cycling before hand.
Female aerodynamics engineers working within the bike industry are rare. I found a few I wanted to feature but went with Mary because I listened to her talk at the Cycling and Science conference last July - Her passion for helping female cyclists perform better and get more women involvement within the industry was very clear.
The talk discussed the need for female input in sport engineering, especially cycling, which is something I think is very important. In particular, it highlighted the fact that there are no female mannequins to use for aerodynamic testing, which is interesting and something I bet most cyclists never gave a second thought to.
Working in this area within the industry matters a lot, even if it might not seem like it. Thank you for your contribution and passion.
Click the button below to read her paper - 'Not Small Men: The Lack, the Need and the Implementation of Female Input in Sport Engineering, with an Emphasis on the Cycling Industry'.
Liv Cycling
As female specific bike brand, I just had to include Liv.
This somewhat ties into the previous feature, because Liv is the first brand to create a female mannequin for aero testing, as opposed to using a male mannequin, when they designed the newly release EnvieLiv. Given the timing, I would love it if this was a direct result of Mary's talk last summer!
Regardless of the argument for or against female specific bikes, which I covered before, providing women who ride bikes with options is so important and it potentially empowers them to make
Liv provides opportunities for women within the industry and for female riders and I really appreciate that. If you're a female engineer working at Liv, I would love to hear from you!
Hannah BusseyHappy international women's day! I hope you enjoyed these features. If you're curious, I shared my own story about my experience in the cycling industry a few years ago here.
Velo femme is very new, starting as a female bike fitter directory and resource hub for women who ride bikes in the middle of February 2026. If you want to support my work, consider subscribing and sharing!
