passing in a race

[han-grrl]

Hey Ladies

Ok, so this is my fifth year racing and my first season as an expert

The endless dilemma, getting passed by the faster guys...

What is the ettiquette? Do i have to stop my own race to let them by? I just did a race this past weekend, and i was very agressive, telling them where/when to go, because the technical sections were mostly descents and not safe for passing. I ended up falling once because one grrrrr guy, tried to pass me on an inside line of a steep twisting descent, knocking me over.

I am always screwing up my own races because of my jitteriness when guys are on my back wheel.

Any advice?

Thanks

Han

[spokewench]

It sounds like you are doing the best you can - It is always a problem when they race men with the ladies. For a while in Arizona, they just raced all women together - IT was HEAVEN! A few ladies would pass you but not so many that you could not deal with.

I understand, the dilemna on a slim single track. I do the same as you, find a place where there is a little more room, move to one side and yell at the guy to go past. It usually works okay. If I am creating a really big bottle neck, I will find a place where I can ride off the trail, put a foot down, yell go go go, and then take off as quickly as I can after they three or four guys go by that are behind. That works okay and I usually don't lose much time.

It's sad that promotors don't address these concerns by racing women with women, but most of them do not. Usually, they just don't have the turn out in the women's races so they just don't cater to that segment of their racers. It really is too bad, cause racing with just all women is really great. Then, you can just worry about racing and not all that other stuff with the guys.

spoke

[han-grrl]

The whole bottle neck thing...with a short race course (some of them are about 5-6 km loops, so less than 4miles) and there is bound to be some spot where there is a bit of a bottleneck, and a few times, yes i can let one guy go but when TEN say "oh and me too" this completely stops my race. Argh!
BUT if they wait literally less than 10 seconds, a spot usually opens up. This past race i got a little agressive, and maybe that's just what i need to do. Hold my line until i am darn good and ready to let them go. I pay the same fees they do. So just because they are men or elite doens't make them more important than me. hmmf.