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Jacquie Phelan gives the low down on women and bicycling at Velosport in Berkeley

Geoffrey and I headed to Velosport after work to hear Jacquie Phelan, the former women’s mountain bike champion, discussing her experiences as a woman in the world of mountain bike racing. Here are a few highlights:

At 15:35: “I am a racer… I’m intensely competitive. I’m more motivated when I can tell the person next to me has an issue with me passing them. It’s like getting a caffeine suppository… Maybe it’s the testosterone… There’s got to be a safe place for that to come out… So you don’t actually beat people up…”

At 22:00: A woman in the audience who has worked with Jacquie in the past relates a story of Jacquie pulling her Eldridge Grade (Mount Tam) with a bungie cord.

At 28:00: Jacquie tells a story about Honda sponsoring the Safe Routes to School program in Marin Country. The son of Joe Breeze notices that, in the instructional DVD she was required to play, all the cars are Hondas except for the one that mows down a little kid on a bike.