A CYCLING group is celebrating after enlisting more than 100 female members for a sport often dominated by men.

The Cowley Road Condors have taken to the streets to mark the impressive feat of signing up more than 100 female members since starting back in 2011, bring total membership to 261.

The East Oxford club has been working hard over the past few years to encourage more women to take up the sport.

Existing members say women are put off taking up the sport by a lack of confidence and female group rides.

Cowley Road Condors president Cheryl Reid said: "This is a fantastic achievement for a cycling club.

"The club was set up in 2011 by four blokes who started meeting for a ride together, and at the time felt there wasn't anything like that for them despite the number of cyclists in Oxford.

"They started evening rides and as the club started getting bigger introduced weekend rides as well.

"When I joined in the summer of 2014 there were 22 women and since then we have worked specifically to reach out to more women and get them to join."

To mark the milestone more than 30 men and women worked their way up Brill Hill in Buckinghamshire on bikes with celebratory balloons in tow.

Ms Reid added: "Cycling is often dominated by men and I think a lot of the time it is just through a lack of confidence.

"I have found people are also a bit afraid of how fast rides will be and worry they will get left behind, it is just a big unknown.

"But then I will speak to women and they'll surprise themselves with how well they coped and can't wait to go again."

The group has focused on enlisting more women over the past two years by staging spring and summer women only sessions in which the rides gradually get harder each week to build fitness and confidence.

It also stages women only maintenance workshops to teach riders how to confidently repair their bikes on the side of the road.

The 100th Cowley Road Condors member Natasha Williams, also ride leader at women's only club Isis Cyclists, said: "I did a couple of newbie rides last summer and I really enjoyed the camaraderie of the group.

"I like to think that I soar like a condor when I'm flying down hills."

For more details on Cowley Road Condors or to sign up see cowleyroadcondors.cc