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Great Britain’s Emma Pooley has called for women cyclists to rally together in order to grow the sport. Specifically, she’d like to see more representation in the Union Cycliste Internationale, the sport’s governing body. As one of the most successful women cyclists of the last decade, she’s witnessed improvements in the organization, but “It’s a little depressing that year after year you see teams and riders disappearing.”

Also at issue in the women’s side is the movement for the UCI to enforce a minimum wage. Last year, Pat McQuaid, UCI’s president, stated after the World Championship road race in Copenhagen that he didn’t think the women’s game had developed enough to warrant a minimum wage.

Some believed that he was reacting to the specific World Championship race, which was a tepid, conservative affair until Canada’s Clara Hughes lit the fuse with an audacious solo raid. At the time of McQuaid’s comments, all three inhabitants of the podium - Giorgia Bronzini (Italy), Marianne Vos (The Netherlands), and Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Germany) - had indignant responses. Recently, Australian Chloe Hosking (Total Rush-Hyster) called McQuaid “a d**k”, for which she was fined. “She put it quite bluntly,” acknowledged Pooley, “but the UCI isn’t there to just ride on the back of the men’s sport.”

Pooley, now riding for the Dutch team AA Drink-Leontien, will target this year’s Olympics in support of Britain’s sprinters. She won silver in the 2008 Beijing Olympics time trial.