At forty years old, Caroline Worrall found riding, which was like finding a superpower. She was always the fastest rider in the bunch, to the point where she would occasionally ask herself why everyone else was moving so slowly. On one of her first rides, she won a sprint race against a group of men while riding flat pedals. After increasing to frequent 50- to 60-mile rides after five years, she started to have soreness and swelling in her labia, which caused her to take extended breaks from riding—up to one month at a time. Over a ten-year period, she tried at least thirty saddles; none were helpful. In the meantime, the tissue thickened to the point that she was unable to use padded shorts during lengthy rides. For a moment, she considered surgery. She lived in Gainesville, Florida, and rode largely with guys. There was nobody with whom to discuss it.
Riding California’s Highway 1, Jacqueline McClure, then 26 years old, traveled 100 miles in 2009 on her mother’s vintage steel Panasonic with down-tube shifters. She received a men’s Specialized S-Works saddle from her first professional racing team, which she rode for nearly two seasons despite having constant sores. She ultimately changed saddles, but the sores on one side worsened and became permanently swollen. The bike fitters, who were nearly often men, looked at her with wide eyes when she told them. A gynaecologist once enquired, “What happened to you?” She said, “I ride a bike all day,” in response. McClure, who is 40 years old, hasn’t competed in a race in three years and rides far less now than she did, but up until recently, her labia were uneven. She claims that it “makes you feel a little broken as a woman.”
Hannah Knapp, 29, began riding a bicycle during the pandemic, just like a lot of Americans. She was instantly enamored with it, but she could never ride her hardtail mountain bike for more than ten miles before experiencing excruciating saddle pain. Veteran female riders assured her that this was typical and that she would eventually adjust. But it was still hurting six months later. Her boyfriend took her to a fitter after noticing how much chamois cream she was using. She was, as it turned out, two inches too small for her sit bones on the saddle. She could instantly increase her mileage by swapping it out, but the damage was already done. She soon had a painful, firm bump on the left side of her crotch. Her doctor suggested oral antibiotics because he didn’t think it was caused by cycling. After that failed, Knapp at last located a dermatologist who had observed similar lumps in triathletes. He removed a lump large enough to fit in her hand. When she saw her doctor again, she sobbed with relief. Now she was able to ride a bike. She wasn’t insane.
Specialized debuted a groundbreaking new women’s saddle technology in 2019. Because the saddle density was intended to be matched to the rider’s contact places, the product was dubbed Mimic. A long-overdue discussion regarding women’s saddle problems was sparked by the news coverage, which also revealed one of professional cycling’s dirty little secrets: some women have such severe damage to their genital areas that they need to have labiaplasties in order to continue riding.
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