The times were very different back then, and women wearing pants was very unacceptable.

Wiki sez:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessie_Reynolds

Women’s clothes at the time included long dresses and tight corsets, impractical for cycling;[9] so Reynolds instead wore a “rational” outfit of pantaloons “cropped and cinched below the knee”, with a shirt and long coat.[11][13][6] It is likely that the outfit was made specifically for Reynolds by her sister, Ada, who was a dress maker.[7] The outfit caused outrage,[7] with suggestions that it was inappropriately masculine and that she was cycling in her knickerbockers. The publicity traveled as far as America,[7] and the outfit was promoted by proponents of Victorian dress reform,[9] as Reynolds clearly intended.[7] She was active in promoting dress reform five years prior to the foundation of the local cycling dress reform club and continued to wear the outfit regularly.[7]

Cycling magazine wrote a scathing report on the “scantiness” of the outfit, complaining of loss of modesty and calling the feat a “lamentable incident”.[6] Similarly, the Yorkshire Evening Post pointed out that cycling was not a pleasant sight for a man, but that a woman’s “abnormal hips” made it worse.[5] The publicity, despite being negative, helped improve women’s rights[9] with the suffragette movement in particular noting it was a big milestone.[11] Further, it helped show that women need not be tied to the street that they grew up in and had a means to travel.[10] Another effect of the publicity was that Reynolds received love letters, including a marriage proposal from a stranger who was apparently significantly older than her.[7] Reynolds and her family took advantage of the celebrity status, with Reynolds promoting a number of female bicycles over the following years, always in rational cycling attire.[7]

There was cloth between her legs. That was the problem.

There’s only one layer of clothing covering her ankles!