THE third annual Edinburgh Festival of Cycling will take place from June 11-21 and is set to shine the spotlight on inspirational women in cycling.
Here we highlight some of the key events which are part of this year's programme.
TAMARA VON WERTHERN: CAMPAIGNING PLAYWRIGHT
Author Tamara von Werthern will give a dramatic reading of her play, The White Bike, which was inspired by the death of Eilidh Cairns from Northumberland, who died aged 30 after being run over by a lorry as she cycled to work in London six years ago.
The White Bike uses witness statements, personal accounts from family members and also taps into von Werthern's own cycling experiences to create a powerful portrait of a life cut short too soon.
"Being killed in traffic as a pedestrian or cyclist is such a random senseless death that it could literally happen to anyone," says von Werthern. "I cycle the same route as Eilidh and her death really brought home to me how vulnerable we are on our roads.
"The 'ghost bike' erected in Eilidh's memory was such a striking image, I wanted to find out more."
The White Bike: A Play by Tamara von Werthern is on June 11 at 6.30pm
EMILY CHAPPELL: CYCLE COURIER TURNED ADVENTURER
It may sound like a busman's holiday for a woman who spends her days as a cycle courier, but over the past four years Emily Chappell has utilised two wheels as a means to explore some of the world's most remote and inhospitable regions.
After an 18-month crossing of Asia, passing through Balochistan, the Taklamakan desert and the mountain passes of Qinghai and the Karakoram during 2011 and 2013, Chappell cycled across Iceland last year before turning her attention to the American continent.
Earlier this year, the London-based adventurer completed a winter journey from Anchorage to Seattle, riding through the snow and ice of the Alaska Highway, and camping in temperatures as low as -40C.
Next month she is set to compete in the 2015 Transcontinental Race with the goal of cycling from Flanders to Istanbul in 15 days.
That Emily Chappell: A Cycle Courier Takes on the World is on June 11 at 8pm
JULIANA BUHRING: ROUND-THE-WORLD PIONEER
Since becoming the first woman to cycle around the world in 2012, Juliana Buhring hasn't rested on her laurels.
In 2013, the British-German endurance rider took part in the inaugural Transcontinental Race, the toughest unsupported event of its kind in Europe, from London to Istanbul. Buhring was the only woman to compete, finishing in 12 days and placing ninth overall.
Last June, she was among 45 cyclists who contested the debut Trans Am Bike Race, covering 4,322 miles along the route of the famed TransAmerica Trail.
Her story was charted in a documentary film, Inspired to Ride, which followed an epic journey and saw Buhring battle leg-sapping climbs in the Rockies, fierce winds through the Great Plains and the perilous switchbacks of the Appalachians. The film screening will be followed by a Q&A with Buhring.
Shannon Galpin: pedalling a revolution in Afghanistan
Juliana Buhring: Inspired To Ride is on June 12 at 7pm
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