Quote:
Originally Posted by Everard
I think we need to accept that the Golden Age of WNBR is now firmly behind us.
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With all due respect, I'm not convinced. People on here have been forecasting that for a couple of years now, not least riders who've posted hoping to influence the behaviour of photographers. But I genuinely don't see any definitive decline.
Yes, 2014 and 2015 were stand-out years across most UK rides in terms of numbers of female riders- probably largely because both were great weather-wise. The weather in 2016 was really grim, and despite that, in 2017 Bristol had its highest ever number of partially and fully nude women; Manchester came close to matching its highest.
What
is maybe changing is the number of photos easily available, and this is in line with what participants want. Personally I'd much prefer to have fewer photos of more women than more photos of fewer women. Yes, Cardiff had a weird year this year, but tbh for me it's only ever been a couple of notches above the naturist-only provincial rides, and has yielded top class stuff rarely (again, 2015 was
lovely). It
did have a decent number of female participants this year- a not unusual number- just hardly any photos for the various reasons that have been speculated.
2017 was a solid year across the UK rides, despite or maybe even because of the stranger political backdrop. I can't speak for international rides, and my guestimates of the huge London and Brighton numbers are not infallible. But I've read lots of predictions of 'peak-WNBR', and the reality looks very different to me, at least. We may have a better idea in a couple of months when the dates are set and FB ride pages posted, but again- especially so in 2014 and 2015- there is very little correlation indeed between the number who sign up on FB, and the number who actually ride.
Just my tuppence worth!