Louisa Wall: Mum knows best in cycling drama

With Mother's Day only a week away, it was interesting to note the rather varied reaction to the comments made by the mother of New Zealand Commonwealth Games cyclist Liz Williams, who outlined the "destructive and unsafe" environment of drinking and abuse in our national cycling team.

Patricia Williams spoke from a position of wanting to hold the sport accountable when she told of her complete indignation at the treatment of her daughter at the Commonwealth Games, which she saw as symptomatic of the way women are treated within New Zealand cycling.

What two of her daughter's teammates, Marc Ryan and Tim Gudsell, did was not revealed, but they were spared direct sanctions and are required only to seek counselling and to attend a session with a sports psychologist, with a year's probationary period.

This was presumably because the incident was not deemed sufficient or significant enough to warrant alternative action by the sport's governors.

Patricia Williams felt that this incident was just the most recent case among other incidents and would rather have seen a fuller investigation into the whole culture of Cycling New Zealand.

The CyclingNZ judicial panel which investigated the March 19 incident cleared Liz Williams of any wrongdoing but refused to reveal details of what had happened.

And it is relevant that Liz Williams initially said herself that the incident was a non-event.

So, we are left to speculate that she became the victim of some sort of unsavoury antics by her male teammates, which were fuelled by alcohol, and that CyclingNZ thinks some counselling is all that is required for Ryan and Gudsell not to repeat them.

Patricia Williams thinks that this course of action is not good enough, given the problems of the cycling fraternity, to compensate her, her daughter and women involved in cycling for the indignity they have suffered.

We are used to criticism about the use of alcohol and casual sex as part of sporting culture, especially within the domains of rugby and league, but the mention of such things in cycling - one of our glamour sports from the 2004 Olympics - is absolutely foreign.

Alcohol and casual sex are important issues, and for a parent and her daughter to have the courage to talk about such inherently destructive cultures is healthy.

Good on Patricia Williams for sticking up for her daughter and many other daughters.

Life within cycling for Liz Williams is going to be tough. Fellow Games rider Tammy Boyd has already said Williams had made herself unpopular with teammates after the much-publicised incident.

Why is she the unpopular one? Probably because she may be perceived as having "asked for it" by being in the situation with these two teammates so late at night and after they'd been drinking.

But no woman should ever have to put up with any abuse from her male teammates, in jest or otherwise.

Some of us may want to shoot the messengers, but the message surely has some validity given media reports and our knowledge about the incidence of such cases.

I trust CyclingNZ and all those involved will have the courage to transform a negative culture, in whatever degree, and that Liz Williams is able to be part of a successful New Zealand cycling team in the future.

Until this is sorted, it will stand in the way of more moments of glory for cycling, so it is in the interests of the sport to sort it out.