BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
SheCycles.com is edited by MTB racer and journalist, Bex Hopkins.
Hopkins started racing MTBs in 1993, joining the Mud Dock Trek team in 1995. She raced with this shop team for four years, racking up a number of national podium places.
Now she’s also a roadie and a trackie.
"My first proper journalist job was in 1997 as a staff writer for Mountain Biker International magazine and I then went on to work across sister magazines Cycling Weekly and Cycle Sport until 2000," said Hopkins.
"I decided to work freelance from then on and produced a number of TV series about mountain biking, BMX, and other extreme sports for Channel 4, ITV2 and Sky Sports."
Publisher Simon Whiten said the site is "dedicated to everything womens cycling and reflects the growing popularity of cycling among women as a means of getting or keeping fit, and the increased acknowledgement of this by the major cycling and clothing manufacturers with their women specific ranges."
The site will be broad-ranging, covering women’s road racing, MTBing, track riding, "even a jolly down the towpath at the weekend," said Whiten.
The cycling division of Magicalia has a turnover of £500 000 and is growing at 60 percent a year.
"This makes it the clear leader online and gives it market strength on a similar footing to the print magazines in the sector," said Whiten.
Most of my experience to date is magazine based, but I believe that there is a wholesale shift towards the internet taking place, as both readers and advertisers realise that the limited shelf life of a magazine cannot compete with the instant, bang up to date nature of online, perfectly suited to keeping up to date with a fast changing sport like cycling.
Bikemagic.com has 86 626 signed-up members. In July, 139 542 unique users visited the site.
RoadCyclingUK.com has 15 600 members and had 57 427 unique visitors in July.
