I recently wrote an article on female riders in fixed freestyle for the January Issue of Urban Velo. I can obviously say a lot on the subject as it’s something I’m quite invested in, but I really wanted to stay away from getting too one-sided and biased. So I decided to get the opinions of several of the female riders in fixed freestyle (Juliet Elliott, Cara Notestine, Christina Panteliodis, Katrina Medina, and Megan Marly) and then write from my own personal experience on the subject in order to get a more well-rounded perspective. You can check out the full article, including the responses from the other riders, here. It’s quite a long article, so if you’re only going to read a bit of it, read the closing paragraph:

My closing message to all the female riders is just this: I know it is really hard as a female to put yourself out there amongst all the guys, especially at first, but it’s something that must be done. We have the ability to be just as good as the guys, we just need to recognize this and raise the level of expectations we, and others, have for ourselves. If we all sit around and think, “well, no other girls are participating, so I won’t either,” then none of us will ever get out there, and things will never change. We have to just deal with the fact that we will be the first few females out there for a while, but find assurance in the knowledge that we will influence other females to do the same. If you want to ride, do it, don’t wait for others to lead the way. It’s an intimidating thing, but putting yourself out there might give the other women sitting on the sidelines that extra bit of confidence to get in the mix as well. To the guys, simply viewing and respecting us as riders would be so incredibly beneficial and greatly appreciated. Your support and encouragement truly does make a significant, lasting difference; it really helps a lot, so keep it up!

Just caught this rad photo over on Juliet’s blog. Killing it per usual, girl! Photo cred?

Cara just posted up some new photos over on her blog. I really like this nose bonk one!

Looks like Christina might be working on some nose manuals. Hell yea! Photo by Keith Teket

This post is obviously inspired by John’s Top 10 Fixed Photographers of 2010 post, but I just thought it would be cool to also give credit to the females who are really pushing the sport. So here’s my list of the top female fixed freestyle photos of the year in no particular order!