An Evening with Jacquie Phelan, AKA Alice B. Toeclips

Wednesday, September 20, 6:30, Downstairs at Redbones, Davis Square (55 Chester Street) Somerville. Come early to check in and order food and drink.

Limited seating so pre-register here (free)

Jacquie Phelan was a commuter/bike advocate before she discovered bike racing. She won her first race, was unbeaten for five years, and easily bested 90% of the men - the pack was unsegregated in the 1980s. Her old man (Charlie Cunningham) designed and built her unusual bikes.  That, along with her abiding fury about patriarchy, helped propel her successes. (Jacquie will happily accept “dough-nations” as she needs help with brain-injured  Charlie’s care).

She wrote about cycling during this period. Cyclist magazine, Winning, and BIKE (Life in The Fat Lane) were her main gigs, and she also contributed to French, Italian, Dutch, and Swedish cycling publications. She was a co-founder of NORBA (the National Off-road Bicycle Association). In 2001 she developed the skills-training for Marin’s Safe Routes to Schools program. She demanded to be inducted into the United States Bicycle Hall of Fame and got her way in 2001.

She is most proud of creating space for women in what was considered a man’s game, and founded the Women’s Mountain Bike & Tea Society, for both racers and recreationalists. In the 1990’s the club had four to five hundred members nationwide, with chapters in CT, AK, AZ, MT, MI, MA,NM and TX. A WOMBATS team participated in the famed Ore-Ida women’s stage races in Idaho.  The WOMBATS were enriched by Jacquie’s humor and indomitable spirit.

Illustration by WOMBATS member Sue Edwards, Pepperell, MA

Web Site: wombats.org

More on JP: Jacquie Phelan | Marin Museum of Bicycling and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame (mmbhof.org)

Co-promoters: Mass-Bike, New England Mountain Bike Association, Charles River Wheelers, Blue Hills Cycling Club, Bikes not Bombs, Boston Cyclists Union, New England Cycling Coalition for Diversity, Major Taylor Association, North Shore Cyclists, and Friends of the Bicycling History Collections, UMass Boston Archives.  The event will be recorded for the Archives.

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