In 1966, 21-year-old cyclist Margaret McLachlan cycled from Sydney to Melbourne in 58 hours and 33 minutes, breaking the record – for both men and women’s cycling – at the time. The more she cycled, the more men she beat, the more she was seen as a strong emerging rider.
Perhaps a little too strong – because that same year, the NSW Amateur Cycling Union (NSWACU) restricted her licence, before she was given a full ban from the group in 1967.
Why? While there was no formal reason given, the cycling union’s secretary at the time, Charles Manins, told Women’s Weekly that having McLachlan in the group violated the NSWACU “rules”.
“Mrs McLachlan can’t hold a licence because it’s against our rules – which don’t permit women competitors,” Manins said in the Women’s Weekly article.
“We don’t think we’re any different from any other sporting union in this – can you think of anywhere women can compete against men?
“We are certainly not prejudiced against her, or any other woman cyclist – it’s just that this is a man’s association, and that’s that.”
Nearly six decades on, 80-year-old Margaret McLachlan OAM finds humour in her hardship. And while women’s sport has grown and continues to grow, the Leichhardt local is still waiting for her four cycling records that she broke whilst banned from the NSWACU to be recognised by the peak cycling body, AusCycling.
“I don’t see why they shouldn’t,” McLachlan told Women’s Agenda, “because I have the signed documentation to prove what I did. I had an official timekeeper.
“But they just seem to have their heads in the sand.”
Where is the recognition?
Over the next two years following her ban from the NSWACU, McLachlan rode from Canberra to Sydney in 12 hours, 5 minutes and 19 seconds, and then from Sydney to Newcastle in six hours, 14 minutes and 30 seconds – breaking both records at the time.
In 1968, McLachlan also set the first Australian women’s one-hour unpaced record, riding 20 miles and 717 yards (32.843km) in an hour.
For each of these rides, McLachlan invited the NSWACU to oversee the race. And for each of the rides, the NSWACU declined to attend.
McLachlan is undoubtedly a trailblazer for women’s cycling, and women’s sport in general. But admittedly, she never did any of it just to advance women’s sport.
“The reason I started doing these record rides was to get recognition for cyclists. Not for women cyclists – for cyclists,” she told Women’s Agenda.
“And it was only when they banned me from racing that it became a women’s issue. They made it a women’s issue.”
In late 2020, 19 different riding and cycling organisations across the country amalgamated into the one peak body, which is now known as AusCycling.
AusCycling told Women’s Agenda in a statement that the process of collating the sport’s history and recognition of athletes was “paused” while the new organisation tackled the “enormous task of creating a single body to represent all riders and cyclists”. This meant also creating one single AusCycling Hall of Fame.
“It quickly became apparent that there were many athletes, both women and men, who deserved nomination and recognition,” AusCycling said.
“It was also decided that a relatively small number of inductees would be announced each year so that their stories and achievements could be properly acknowledged and recorded.
“When the AusCycling Chair, Craig Bingham, learned of Margaret’s story last year, he immediately asked the History and Heritage Committee to consider her nomination as a pioneer of women’s cycling. This was supported by the AusCycling CEO, Marne Fechner.”
AusCycling said the next tranche of road cycling inductees will be announced at the Road National Championships in January next year.
‘I’m not holding my breath’
Recognition for McLachlan’s achievements have come elsewhere. She was given the Medal of the Order of Australian (OAM) for her contribution to Australian women’s cycling in 2000. McLachlan is also the co-founder of the sport cycling’s NSW Women’s Commission (with Gai Cridland) in 1980 under the late Alex Fulcher.
This weekend, Sydney’s Inner West local council is recognising McLachlan’s achievements in cycling and in women’s sport. On Saturday, the council will unveil a plaque at Marrickville Oval in her honour, before Dr Marc Sebastian Rerceretnam will give a lecture on the subject at the Marrickville Library later that afternoon.
While McLachlan said acknowledgement of her records would have meant a lot more to her 40 years ago, she is hoping AusCycling will respond to her four broken records from the 1960s.
In February 2023, McLachlan and her supporters wrote a letter to AusCycling, CEO Marne Fechner, and Chair, Craig Bingham, calling for her records to be recognised. McLachlan hopes to hear back from them.
“But I’m not holding my breath,” McLachlan said.
“In some ways, I really don’t care. It’s not going to change my life. Because I know what I did.”