If you happened to be in Matlock this lunchtime, you may have noticed a bit of an event going on! If you weren’t there, and were wondering what all the fuss was about i.e. cyclists, spectators, sirens, police motorbikes and cheering schoolchildren, it was the Women’s Tour – a professional women’s cycling race, which had a whole stage planned in Derbyshire, going from Ashbourne to Chesterfield via Buxton, Youlgreave, Winster and Matlock.
The riders included Lizzie Armistead, Britain’s cycling world champion and professional teams from all over the world. Some Derbyshire Record Office staff, along with hundreds of others all along the route, were cheering on the riders on the Queen of the Mountains race up Bank Road in Matlock.
Of course, this is really also a shameless excuse to promote our current exhibition ‘Have bike, will travel,’ displaying the best of our archive and local studies material. The exhibition runs until the 30th July.
We now have a family quiz sheet and ‘I love cycling’ badges to give away, with the badges courtesy of the Smarter Travel Team at Derbyshire County Council.
Derbyshire Record Office 
Let’s hope they come back again and that we see more women’s events like this one locally and nationally. It would be great to do another exhibition in the future and be able to feature more women in it!
I’m glad that the women’s event is getting more press. Women are not properly represented in the media when it comes to sport.