Having read Inrng’s piece on the average professional male cyclist I wondered how it differs for women’s cycling. What does the average female cyclist look like? Where are they from? How old are they? There are 368 riders registered across 33 UCI teams with an average age of 24.7 years. That’s 3 years younger than the average for men, which perhaps you might expect with UCI regulations stating that the majority of riders must be under 28 (Thanks @RogerH for pointing this out). Italy leads the way with the largest provision of cyclist with 59, leaving the Netherlands distant second with 40.
The USA displaces other “old world” cycling nations like France and Belgium to take 3rd place. China have the same number of athletes as Germany although this is a slight anomaly as all 15 Chinese athletes ride for the same team: China Chongming-Giant, which also has the joint largest roster of riders for 2013. Outside of the top 15 nations there are a further 48 riders from 23 different countries.
Oldest and youngest riders
Born in July 1962, Suzie Godart is the oldest rider. The Luxembourgeois rides for Team Pratomagno, the same team as her daughter Trixi Godart. At the other end or the spectrum is Italian, Veronica Cornolti. Riding for Servetto-Footon in 2013, she only turned 18 on 30th December 2012. Despite only discovering cycling at the age of 32 Godart was already Luxembourg MTB Cross Country champion before Cornolti was even born.
| 10 oldest athletes | |||
| Name | Team | Nation | DoB |
| GODART Suzie | Team Pratomagno | LUX | 20/07/1962 |
| PITEL Edwige | S.C. Michela Fanini | FRA | 04/06/1967 |
| SCHLAGER Claudia | Squadra Scappatella | AUT | 13/03/1968 |
| GOMEZ Sandra | Team Pratomagno | COL | 30/12/1971 |
| STOLBOVA Svetlana | Team Pratomagno | RUS | 02/01/1973 |
| MILLER Meredith | Tibco – To The Top | USA | 26/12/1973 |
| LUPERINI Fabiana | Faren – Let’s Go Finland Team | ITA | 14/01/1974 |
| KUPFERNAGEL Hanka | Rusvelo | GER | 19/03/1974 |
| LAWS Sharon | Lotto Belisol | GBR | 07/07/1974 |
| TEUTENBERG Ina | Specialzed-Lululemon | GER | 28/10/1974 |
| 10 youngest athletes | |||
| Name | Team | Nation | DoB |
| CORNOLTI Veronica | Servetto Footon | ITA | 30/12/1994 |
| ROBERTS Amy | Wiggle-Honda | GBR | 24/12/1994 |
| VALENTE Jennifer | Exergy Twenty16 | USA | 24/12/1994 |
| PEPIN Roxanne | GSD Gestion – Kallisto | CAN | 22/12/1994 |
| JDANOVA Kamila | Team Pratomagno | UZB | 22/12/1994 |
| LABRIE Audrey | GSD Gestion – Kallisto | CAN | 18/12/1994 |
| DEFILE Corinna | Servetto Footon | ITA | 15/12/1994 |
| BORTOLOTTI Simona | Servetto Footon | ITA | 06/12/1994 |
| ARZUFFI Alice Maria | Faren – Let’s Go Finland Team | ITA | 19/11/1994 |
| FERRARI Isabella | Servetto Footon | ITA | 03/11/1994 |
Oldest and youngest teams
The teams of the oldest and youngest riders are also the oldest and youngest teams. Pratomagno has an average age of 28.7 whilst Servetto-Footon are so young they almost still need a chaperone, having an average age of just 19.8 years.
Pratomagno have 3 of the top 10 oldest riders whilst Servetto-Footon have 4 of the youngest 10 riders. So perhaps their positions on the scale are not a surprise. However, just by omitting Suzie Godart from the Pratmagno team list (not that you’d want to, she’s great!) would move the team out of the top 3.
Meet Simona
Of course all riders are individuals but if you had to pick “Miss/Mrs Average” based on the above criteria it would be Be Pink’s Simona Frapporti. She’s Italian, riding for an Italian team and is just a few weeks younger than the average age of 24.7 years old*. Simona had a successful 2012 on the road including top 10 finishes in 2 stages of Giro della Toscana and 5 in Route de France including the stage win on Stage 4.
* There are a few riders closer to the average age but are from nations which contribute smaller numbers of riders.
All ages are based upon the day of this post 18/01/13.
