Engaging, empowering, and improving with Every Woman Cycling Team
April Howe had been cycling for only about two years before she put on the pink.
“I would go out on a weekly group ride,” she says. “And there were always these women dressed in pink kits. They were all well put together, and they just seemed fun to hang out with and talk to.”
After reading the mission statement of Greenville’s Every Woman Cycling Team (EWCT)—summed up as, to engage and empower women of all cycling abilities and support them to achieve their fitness ambitions—“I thought, ‘I could really get behind that,’” says Howe. She joined the team in 2017, and she has served as its co-president for three years now, proudly wearing the eye-catching pink cycling kit.
EWCT is serious about the phrase “every woman,” says Kimbrelly Kegler, the team’s other co-president. “Whether you’re 20 and weigh 80 pounds, or you’re 60 and you’re a larger woman, and everyone in between, if you like being outside on your bike, everyone should feel comfortable riding with this group of women.”
Founded in 2008, EWCT started racking up points in the area’s competitive cycling circuit, competing in events like the South Carolina Road Race Championship Weekend, the Hincapie Spring Series, and the Greenville Cycling Classic. “You want to see as much pink on the podium as possible,” says Kegler.
The team still has a number of competitors representing EWCT in speed races in the area, and many members are now earning points in endurance events like this season’s Lake Norman Fondo and regional 100-mile century rides. Two members plan to travel to Korea to ride this fall, Kegler says.
Competition and Community
As important as excelling in competition around the world may be, EWCT also drives hard to make a difference in its home community. The team has sponsored the “Yes UCAN!” Ride to benefit the Upstate Community Abilities Network, part of Prisma Health Roger C. Peace Rehabilitation Hospital, which offers numerous adaptive sports for disabled participants. For Howe, one special memory was fitting helmets for the young riders in the Boys and Girls Club of Greenville who had just received their new bikes.
The team maintains close ties to the Greenville Spinners Bicycling Club, partnering for an annual bike and helmet giveaway, and members continue to volunteer with Prisma Health, riding alongside adaptive cyclists on the Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail.
For Howe and her teammates, EWCT is a perfect way to make a significant impact in the community with an activity she loves.
“These are powerhouse women,” she says. “Most of us are juggling busy work lives and family and trying to exercise and just feel empowered. All of them bring something bigger and better to the table. You really want your free time—if there is free time—to be spent on something meaningful.”
The more you see flashes of pink zipping by on two wheels during Upstate cycling events, the more the message is getting out, says Kegler.
“In all the places where we go to ride, we show up in our kits, highlighting that there are women in the Upstate who like to ride,” she says. “We support each other. We support all women in cycling.”
Find out more at Every Woman Cycling Team on Facebook and @everywomancyclingteam on Instagram.
Every Women Cycling Team Mission
ENGAGE women of all cycling abilities to EMPOWER us to represent all women in cycling such that we IMPROVE our capabilities to achieve fitness growth ambitions.
