One of the key insights from The Cyclists’ Alliance 2021 rider survey was that the number of professional female riders who were not remunerated had increased from 17% in 2018 to 34% in 2021. This is due, by the most part because no minimum salary exists for UCI Women's Continental Road teams.
Driving awareness of the hardship experienced by over a third of the women’s professional road peloton to fans through our owned channels and media is great for publicly advocating for and compelling the governing (UCI) to implement equal minimum ‘base’ salaries across both divisions of the professional sport.
However, awareness of the issue and advocating for change doesn’t provide an immediate solution for the female cyclists who are struggling to make ends meet as they invest the same amount of time to train and race for their UCI team and country as their paid counterparts.
Partnership with Flare
The Cyclists’ Alliance has partnered with Flare as a first test case to facilitate additional revenue streams for riders. Within this affiliate partnership, Flare will pay the TCA professional cyclist an amount of GBP 7 for every GBP 15 premium Flare annual subscription sold via the professional cyclist’s unique trackable affiliate code for as long as the user remains a Flare user.
TCA has created a professional and safe affiliate contract for any TCA professional cyclists that would like to join Flare’s affiliate program. The contract has been checked and reviewed by TCA’s legal team to ensure that the rights of the most financially vulnerable professional cyclists are protected and ensure they have confidence that the contract is suitable for signature.
For riders, this enables them to grow their revenue streams and increase their economic earning potential alongside their training and racing, without the need of procuring external services such as a rider agent and/or lawyer to source, negotiate and finalise these types of commercial partnerships. When the TCA surveyed the riders, 81% stated that they do not have an agent representing them. Although rider agents are extremely common in men’s professional cycling, the low or lack of salaries for the women’s peloton prevents them for working with agents who most often work on a commission-based model of the rider’s salary.
“As the wage disparity gap widens between the top tier of women and those trying to break into the top tier of professional cycling, it’s important that riders are empowered to monetize their athlete status to finance the beginning of their early career. If you’re already earning less than those you compete against, it quickly becomes a barrier as you can’t afford the same level of services to maximise your potential. It’s important for professional athletes to understand about the different options available to them to diversify their revenue streams so that they can be financially independent, and TCA will continue to educate riders so that they can be empowered to make informed decisions. We chose to work with Flare as the first company to test facilitating this affiliate model for our members as we also believe that this product can add value not only to our professional cyclists but to anyone who participates in cycling from commuters to recreational cyclists”
Lexi Brown, TCA Staff Member
In addition to the affiliate program, FLARE will offer all rider and supported members access to the premium subscription for one year. Using Flare will enable users with additional safety when out riding and reduced risk allowing medical or mechanical assistance to be arranged quickly and remotely. If an injury is detected, the app will alert emergency contacts and identify your real time location by using what3words. This means a quicker response time for medical or mechanical assistance.
Besides raising safety awareness with the aim of protecting all riders who participate in all types of cycling, Flare offers easy to use unique features such as on-demand SOS alerting, GroupSafe and hazard reporting features that can enhance safety for all users.
Kirk Ryan founder and CTO said:
“We firmly believe in equality for all, especially the right to feel safe. Unfortunately, as recent headlines have illustrated, this is not the case for many women, especially when outdoors by themselves. It’s a sad state of affairs to think that many women are feeling intimidated, vulnerable or threatened throughout their daily lives.”
One of the benefits of Flare that targets these issues is the built in SOS feature. This is an essential tool which allows users to discreetly call for help if they ever feel unsafe or threatened. This can be voice activated or a simple tap of a button. A live tracking link is then sent to all nearby Flare users and the user’s 5 emergency contacts so help can arrive ASAP.”
Kirk Ryan founder and CTO
At present Flare is the most accurate incident detection app available with a 99.99% accuracy, and now have users in 129 countries!
ABOUT FLARE
Flare is an outdoor activities personal safety app that was launched in November 2019, after one of our founders was seriously injured whilst out cycling. Flare intelligently monitors outdoor fitness activities and raises an alert if you are unresponsive and require assistance. Flare is dedicated to providing easily accessible, lifesaving technology for all. We help provide peace of mind to loved ones, whilst helping businesses protect their employees whilst outdoors.
Website: https://www.flaresafety.com
Email: contact@k-safe.com
Twitter: @flaresafety
Instagram: @flaresafety
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flaresafety
ABOUT THE CYCLISTS’ ALLIANCE
Run by former and current pros, The Cyclists’ Alliance is a foundation, funded purely by donations and subscriptions, that provides holistic support to professional female cyclists during and after their careers. We work hard to secure fairer pay for female athletes, resolve disputes with teams, provide emotional and economic support, and elevate the appeal of women’s cycling.
We help our supported riders in many ways but our ultimate goal is a single word. And it’s not too much to ask. Fairness.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
info@cyclistsalliance.org www.cyclistsalliance.org
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