National women's road cycling coach Martin Barras says there is a ''lull'' in female talent coming through the ranks, and it's up to clubs to do more to attract women at a grassroots level.
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Canberra has traditionally been a good breeding ground for elite female cyclists according to Barras, producing a number of top racers, but he's seen that drop off this year.
''We're finding that across a few states, but it's more remarkable in Canberra because they were quite successful prior to that,'' he said.
''The battleground for us is very much the detection and development level, we're still not seeing enough participation and involvement of the women at grassroots-level cycling.
''And it's difficult; it's an argument for society at large … are you prepared to do something specific to try to make it more enticing for women?''
He said some state cycling associations have started initiatives to boost female membership from about 15 per cent and 20 per cent, but it needs more support.
''It's not good enough to just open the doors and hope that women are going to come in,'' he said. ''You have to go and seek them, make it inviting for them to get them into the sport, then you have to look after them as well. It's not good enough to send out women and say 'you're going to train with guys and that's going to be good enough and interesting and make for a great experience', it needs to be … more specific.''
Barras recruited 16 top cyclists to the AIS this week, including Canberra riders Alice Wallett and Olympian Chloe Hosking, who is home after a break from the European tour. They were participating in a study that looked at the impact of a high-calcium diet immediately prior to training.
''They sweat a lot of calcium and we have really limited supplies in our blood levels, so if you have athletes who are cycling for a long time … they may tap into their bone stores,'' physiologist Dr Megan Ross said.