GET on your bike and join the revolution. That’s the message from author Hannah Ross, who is celebrating women’s pedal power at Ilkley Literature Festival.

Hannah went through two life-changing events in the pandemic - having a baby and the publication of her book, Revolutions: How Women Changed the World on Two Wheels, telling the trailblazing stories of women throughout history to the present.

“I cycled throughout my pregnancy;” says Hannah. “I just wanted to carry on doing it as it’s really important to me, and it’s good for my mental health. When the pandemic hit, it became the safest way to travel to hospital appointments.”

Many of us have memories forged by cycling. That first time without stabilisers, childhood adventures on two wheels, the exhilaration of hopping on a bike. But it’s the largely untold feminist history of cycling that Hannah felt needed to be told.

“I think cycling is seen as mainly male dominated. It’s generally represented in the media and sport as such, but there’s this incredible story of women cyclists, from the very beginnings of the bicycle, and those women get forgotten about,” she says.

Female cyclists often met resistance, from being pelted with bricks to being told cycling led to a manly gait, infertility, even promiscuity. Cycling was linked to the campaign for the right for women to wear trousers. “The women in the book have overcome resistance, whether it be women cycling in Saudi Arabia or Victorian women in the UK. I wanted to celebrate their stories,” says Hannah.

Her book looks at how the bicycle liberated women to become activists. Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst were members of the Clarion cycling clubs linked to the socialist newspaper of the same name and rode around distributing newsletters. “Women’s lives until that point had lacked movement,” says Hannah. “Victorian women were generally confined to the home, they weren’t encouraged to seek education or jobs, and certainly not be physically active. Then the bicycle came along and represented everything that was missing in women’s lives - independence, going places under your own steam. Symbolically, it’s a feminist invention.”

Adds Hannah: “We’re currently facing the biggest crisis history has ever faced with climate change, so the revolution continues. Cycling is a green, efficient way of moving around. There’s still a lot of revolutionary potential in bicycles.”

Hannah also explores the legacy of Leeds-born cycle racing champion Beryl Burton. “Her record was phenomenal, I think some are still standing. Beryl illustrates how professional women cyclists were not taken seriously at all. The fact it took till 1984 for women to cycle at the Olympics, whereas men had been doing it for nearly 100 years.”

Hannah also rallies against body-image inhibitions that women cyclists often battle with. “For women to get on a bike it’s political, but for men they just get on the bike. It’s crazy when you think about it. And that so many women worry if they wear the right clothes or look okay.”

One good thing to come out of the pandemic was a rise in bike sales - 2020 witnessed a great bicycle boom. Hannah hopes her Ilkley audience will be encouraged to take up cycling if they haven’t already: “I hope they find it’s not just men in Lycra,” she says. “There are incredible women who did extraordinary things, such as Victorian women who cycled around the world on their own, or women who raced on Penny Farthings against men in the 1880s. Women cycling isn’t a new thing, it’s always been there, we just haven’t given it the attention it deserves.”

* Hannah Ross will be interviewed by writer and radio presenter Simon Ashberry at All Saints Church, Ilkley, on Saturday, October 16 at 12.30pm. For tickets visit ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk