Apple: Women of Keirin Cycling

Keirin, directly translated as ‘racing wheels’, is a motor-paced track race on brakeless bicycles in which cyclists ride in excess of 40mph. The racing is in short heats and involves lots of physical contact with frequent crashes. Women were only introduced a few years ago, with the intention of increasing the popularity of Keirin as the culture of gambling diminished with Japan’s younger generations, and the men and women of the academy aren’t allowed to interact. 

The life of the racers can be incredibly solitary, professional racers can compete up to 100 times a year and during each racing period are moved from city to city with no access to phones or the internet, and no contact with their families. The suspicion is that interaction with the outside world could lead to wrongdoing, so riders are put up in hotels at the velodromes, which are very much like business hotels where each of them dines alone.