Woman competing in Tour de France [Archive] - Women's Cycling Discussion Forums

beccaB

04-01-2010, 05:49 AM

I received this e-mail from Trek Travel-

Worgull Breaking Ground at the Shack

Trek Travel President, Tania Worgull will join Team RadioShack and be the first female to compete along side the male competitors in this year's 2010 Tour de France. "This is groundbreaking," proclaimed Johan Bruyneel. "Worgull is such a strong competitor and we are thrilled to have her on the roster." Riding as an alternate on the Shack it is unlikely that Worgull's rubber will actually hit the French pavement during the race, but the fact that her athletic prowess awards her a position on the Team and into the most acclaimed cycling race in the world open's the door for other women coming up the ranks.

Worgull's career diversion from Trek Travel President to professional cyclist was a feat of fate. While riding with her husband in Santa Barbara, Worgull jumped on the wheel of a crew of cyclists riding in front of her--Team RadioShack. After unsuccessfully trying to shake her for 30 miles, over some of the steepest climbs in the area, the Team's Director, Johan Bruyneel, pulled her over to find out her story. A simple conversation led to a series of fitness tests that revealed Worgull had a freakishly high athletic ability; one so high that it allowed them to use a small fitness loophole which would enable her to compete in this year's Tour de France. "I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to be in this position," said Worgull. "The Team has been so supportive and they recognize the value that raising the profile of female cyclists will have for the industry. I'm just happy to be breaking new ground."

You'll be able to follow Worgull's professional development on MTV's MADE and see her live as she competes in this year's Tour de France.

Happy April Fool's Day! Your friends at Trek Travel.

shootingstar

04-01-2010, 06:44 AM

Has she competed internationally already?

This should be interesting.

beccaB

04-01-2010, 06:56 AM

I don't know if she has competed internationally, but I will be following this story.

KnottedYet

04-01-2010, 06:58 AM

You'll be able to follow Worgull's professional development on MTV's MADE and see her live as she competes in this year's Tour de France.

Happy April Fool's Day! Your friends at Trek Travel.

Ah, yes, Happy April Fools Day, everyone!

Pedal Wench

04-01-2010, 06:59 AM

Happy April Fool's Day! Your friends at Trek Travel.

You got me!

OakLeaf

04-01-2010, 07:04 AM

lunacycles

04-01-2010, 07:13 AM

I'm with Oak.

MM_QFC!

04-01-2010, 07:34 AM

Am I the only one who finds this offensive?

There are physiological reasons why women don't compete side-by-side with men in this type of event. But to make a joke of the idea just rubs me the wrong way.

No, you're not; I'm in full agreement: it's offensive.
To me, it's consistent with the practice of using male-generated derogatory terms that are female-specific, like a military drill instructor shouting in a recruit's face that they're "such a girl" or worse as in the slang terms for female genitalia and such...how about the seemingly innocuous term of "man-up"?
I'm the mother of 2 sons and have felt all the way along that I'm pushing against this sexist tidal wave just to teach them awareness and sensitivity from the woman's perpective...whew!

roguedog

04-01-2010, 07:35 AM

:cool:

i don't necessarily find it offensive but i do think it's in poor taste (and kinda stupid) coming from Trek who tout their WSD frames.

not funny (down thumb for trek.. not for thread)

shootingstar

04-01-2010, 07:48 AM

:cool:

i don't necessarily find it offensive but i do think it's in poor taste (and kinda stupid) coming from Trek who tout their WSD frames.

not funny (down thumb for trek.. not for thread)

I agree. If becca received the email as part of a customer email group, that's pretty pathetic.

Or someone was using Trek Travel's name indiscriminately, without their knowledge for this joke.

jp4995

04-01-2010, 07:53 AM

I can see how they would think it's funny, but I don't really think it's funny. Glad I don't own a Trek bike, it's saving me from writing a strongly worded letter to them. I might just write the letter anyways.

KnottedYet

04-01-2010, 08:17 AM

Certainly poor taste, and a bad move on Trek's part.

Look at the grumpy reaction Trek is getting from folks here. Someone in the mix should have thought a bit more before making an "official" April Fool's that might p.o. one of their major focus markets.

ny biker

04-01-2010, 08:32 AM

I'm not offended by it because it's just another lame april fools attempt. Really I don't know why people feel the need to do this sort of thing.

Jolt

04-01-2010, 09:05 AM

Desert Tortoise

04-01-2010, 09:25 AM

Oak and MM QFC have good points. It's irritating when people look at men's strengths as the be all of strength and then dimish women's strengths.

Yes, men and women are different and men do tend to have more muscle mass thereby making them physically stronger. That said, there is also mental strength and endurance. Men have some serious competition from the women in this department.

From ultramarathoners to stay at home moms, all of this stuff takes serious endurance to do on a regular basis. On a side note, when men mock women who stay at home to raise kids and ask "what do you do all day?" I respond with, "If staying at home with kids is so easy, why don't more men do it?"

I digress, sorry. Several times I have heard Navy Seal instructors talk about the difficulty and challenges of being a Navy Seal. Yes, you do need to be very physically fit but even the biggest, strongest guys drop out if they don't have the mental strength and stamina for the job.

Another example, when the USA was competing with Russia in the space race and wanted to be first in space, they kept trying to find ways to get the men to withstand the rigors of space flight. In the testing, they also used women. Guess who fit better into the tiny capsule and who endured the pain better? But the thought of women astronauts before men was too much and so the Russians did it first, and with a woman. If I remember correctly, the story/book is called "The Mercury 13: The true story of 13 women and the dream of space flight"

So to mock womens' abilities (and use it in deragorty terms at times) as something less than mens is offensive. Especially when people believe it.

oz rider

04-01-2010, 03:23 PM

Another vote for poor taste. And a useful demonstration of Trek's attitudes to women.:rolleyes:

moderncyclista

04-01-2010, 03:44 PM

I'm not "that" offended.

I don't think Trek meant to jab at women with this. Many companies are doing April fool's jokes. I have a lot of other things in the world that I can be indignent about. Unfunny joke to be sure, but what else do you expect April 1st? I'm tired of hearing everybody is pregnant, divorcing, etc on facebook too. Just isn't funny to me. I'm not offended though. I just wish a woman was competing in the Tour de France. That would be cool.

WindingRoad

04-01-2010, 06:48 PM

Yeah, that wasn't really funny at all. I would chalk it up to a brain fart but it does really illustrate the collective thoughts of the people working for Trek. Somewhere along the line they thought it would be funny to take a shot at women athletes, Heeelloooooooooow. To me that could only have been thought up and decided appropriate by a bunch of men. Not cool.

ny biker

04-01-2010, 06:53 PM

Another vote for poor taste. And a useful demonstration of Trek's attitudes to women.:rolleyes:

There must be something wrong with me because I've read it 3 times now and I don't see how it says anything about their attitude toward women.

smilingcat

04-01-2010, 07:05 PM

I think more companies need women on their marketing decision making.

Trek's lame attempt is the latest but not the last. Look at iPAD from Apple. Really!! if there was a woman on that decision making, I don't think it would be named iPAD. geeze. Some of the men I'm sure were married and I'm sure they have come across a pad or two... I really liked the iSLATE for the name but that

Naw. Trek's April Fool's fall flat. It's not funny, and I'm so desensitized to sophmoric remarks like this, I just yawn.

Boyz, lets see how tough you really are with the original epilator. the "streaming" coil of spring that would catch your body hair and rip it out. I don't think they are tough enough for that. I learned it the hard way.

As for the right stuff, pilots should be small, light and short. Shorter person can withstand G's far better than a taller person. The heart has to fight less to pump the blood to the head. The old belief of good looking tall, macho man is all wrong. Besides, which gender is better able to multi-task? well okay guys have better spacial and directional sense than women. part of evolutionary development. Men went out to hunt, and they better know how to find there way back to the camp. Those who could, survived. Those who couldn't, went the way of evolutionary dead end.

MartianDestiny

04-01-2010, 07:13 PM

There must be something wrong with me because I've read it 3 times now and I don't see how it says anything about their attitude toward women.

Not just you, I don't get the issue.

If anything it's complimenting her abilities in my mind. April fools "jokes" are supposed to be BELIEVABLE enough that you have to do a double take or read through to the last lines (where normally April 1st or similar is mentioned). If they were demeaning women athletes then this wouldn't have been much of an April Fools stunt (it wouldn't have been "believable" in their minds).

I don't find it particularly amusing but that's probably more from a poor execution standpoint (now Fatty's this morning was pretty good, at least from a funny writing perspective), I'm not offended by it though.

lunacycles

04-01-2010, 07:32 PM

There must be something wrong with me because I've read it 3 times now and I don't see how it says anything about their attitude toward women.

Er, they are implying it is a joke to think that women can compete with men.

I am not overthinking this. Or dwelling. Just observing.

Trek420

04-01-2010, 08:05 PM

Guess Trek doesn't know their racing history either ;)

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=10230

ny biker

04-01-2010, 08:31 PM

Er, they are implying it is a joke to think that women can compete with men.

I am not overthinking this. Or dwelling. Just observing.

No, I saw it as pretending that a non-professional would be so very very fast that she would miraculously be chosen as an alternate for Johan Bruyneel's TdF team. Which is ridiculous regardless of whether the non-pro is a man or a woman. For so many reasons that have nothing to do with how fast said non-pro can ride.

But maybe I just have been following Bruyneel's teams too closely over the years, up to and including this one.

Not to mention, the joke involved the president of Trek Travel. If Trek Travel was run by a man, I'm sure it would have been about a man.

Anyway. I really hate April fools crap. Waste of my time.

XMcShiftersonX

04-01-2010, 09:34 PM

Also, I don't think it's impossible for a woman to do the stages of the Tour de France... I'm sure some of the best women pro cyclists are more than qualified to do it, if they wanted to and trained for it, they're just not allowed to currently, which is the real tragedy (at least as I understand it, but I'll be honest, I don't pay attention to all the ins and outs of it). It would be nice to see women compete in races like this, and I would hope it's not out of the realm of possibility for the future.

andtckrtoo

04-02-2010, 05:56 AM

MartianDestiny

04-02-2010, 06:18 AM

I'm usually not offended by such jokes, but this one does rub me the wrong way. I don't care how they meant it, it does come off as "Ha ha, silly people, thinking a mere woman could POSSIBLY be in the Tour de France - oh get real." If they wanted to make a point about an unknown riding getting a spot on the team - use a man. I don't think this kind of sexism has a place in any US company.

I think the joke was in very poor taste and I'm glad to support Cannondale and Surly over Trek now.

But that's just as sexist "use a man". Seriously, this stuff does go both ways. They chose to use the PRESIDENT of Trek Travel; it couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that she's overseeing an entire branch of the company and is clearly highly respected and valued to be offered such a position (and incidentally in charge of the branch that happened to publish this) and probably had something to do with it (or at the very least approved it). Nope, gotta be because she's a girl and that makes it somehow more absurd :rolleyes:

99.9% of guys aren't physically capable of riding in the Tour, 99.9% of girls aren't either. Really lacking to see the distinction in why one is more absurd than the other if you take the WHOLE of recreational/no-pro cyclists (or population) into account (and not just the pros, which, you will realize, they DIDN'T use a PRO women cyclist...)

beccaB

04-02-2010, 06:29 AM

OK, maybe I'm just gullible but I didn't even catch that as an April Fools joke. What I mean is, It didn't even occur to me that they would pull something like that. I'm in a real steam here because I have a Trek 7.7fx on order. It should be in by next week. If the corporation would stoop so low as to pull this on me I'm going to have to cancel my order. I'm very upset about it and even more sorry I generated this thread. But even worse would be nobody knowing about it. Did anyone else get that original e-mail? I really don't know how to proceed.

VeloVT

04-02-2010, 06:39 AM

My take on this: it's probably true that the joke was intended to be about the president of the company and not about women, but there is enough latitude to reasonably misinterpret it that they should have killed the idea anyway. It's a little bit like that New Yorker cover with the Obamas dressed as militants/extremists with a picture of Osama Bin Laden and a burning American flag behind them in the Oval Office. The cover was actually poking fun at the fear-mongerers/hate-mongerers, NOT at the Obamas, but the image was so powerful that the fear-mongering message subsumed the irony/subtext. While the cartoon was actually quite clever and punchy, putting it on the cover was a bad decision for the aforementioned reason. Sometimes you have to look at all of the messages that you could be sending, and not just the message you intend to send.

beccaB

04-02-2010, 06:51 AM

I called Trek travel who sent me the original e-mail and asked to speak to the person in charge of that e-mail and was actually directed to Tania Worgull's voice mail. I left a message about how upset I was and about how poor taste this is and left her my phone number if she has the courage to call me back. I was told that she actually generated the e-mail. I'm really upset that I actually fell for it. Yes, I know about the gullible thing. I also wear my heart on my sleeve and have given to causes I later found out were bogus, thus changing my attitude on charitable giving. This certainly changes my attitude on the Trek bicycle company, although my husband thinks I should sit on it and calm down before I cancel my order for the new bike.

beccaB

04-02-2010, 06:53 AM

I don't watch MTV, so maybe that would have been a reference to this being a joke, as far as following her "story"

shootingstar

04-02-2010, 06:58 AM

This certainly changes my attitude on the Trek bicycle company, although my husband thinks I should sit on it and calm down before I cancel my order for the new bike.

Agree with him --just wait for Trek's response.

Don't take this too personally --a tendency of many women re: jokes/pranks. Alot of guys laugh off this stuff, when they do it among themselves. After all, I nearly fell for it myself, since I wondered who this 'woman' was.

I do think this was delibrately planted into our forum to see our response..a women's cycling forum.

beccaB

04-02-2010, 07:03 AM

Tuckervill

04-02-2010, 09:31 AM

There must be something wrong with me because I've read it 3 times now and I don't see how it says anything about their attitude toward women.

I'm with you.

If a woman was invited to ride in the TdF I would be really really surprised. I wouldn't doubt her ability because if someone knows something about it, and who can compete in it, it's the teams who do. I really doubt it is going to happen any time soon, if ever, so if it is such an unprecedented thing, they're not really poking fun at inability of women to compete in it. It's just too far out of the realm of possibility and that's why it's humorous.

Karen

ny biker

04-02-2010, 09:50 AM

I think it's even worse that this was actually perpetuated by the woman herself. You'd expect this of men. Fow a Woman to do it in unacceptable.

I think this is a gross generalization. I don't "expect this of men." I know men who are more sensitive to women's feelings than some women are.

malkin

04-02-2010, 10:11 AM

Last year's one about some rider getting carbon bone replacements was way better.

XMcShiftersonX

04-02-2010, 10:43 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_France_F%C3%A9minin

Just thought this was interesting...

beccaB

04-02-2010, 10:53 AM

I think this is a gross generalization. I don't "expect this of men." I know men who are more sensitive to women's feelings than some women are.

Yes, you do have a point. Just venting angrily I suppose. I was and still sort of am still- excited about getting my new bike, and became upset that something was bursting my bubble. I didn't want my bubble burst. I don't think this whole thing would carry so much weight with me if I wasn't in the process of making a major purchase of a trek bike.

My daughter explained it to me fairly well. It's amazing that kids grow up and the parents can glean some wisdom from their nearly adult children. She is a musician and plays a very finely made musical instrument. She said that if the company did some stupid stunt she wouldn't stop playing that instrument or refuse to buy anything else from that company ever again.

PinkBike

04-03-2010, 08:58 AM

i received this email also, as I am on their mailing list.

it got me for a second, then i read the "happy april fools day" and realized it was a joke.

i'm not the least bit bothered by it, and this coming from someone who is extremely sensitive to the us-vs-them mentality.

maybe if a guy were to see it he would think, yah right, a woman couldn't ride the tour. of course "he" couldn't ride the tour either. but maybe also if a guy reads this forum he thinks we're way over-reacting. i think we are too.

most of the guys i work with know they couldn't do what i do - ride centuries, ride every day, ride to work - and they tell me so.

my take on the email was that it referred to an ordinary corporate exec not specifically a woman. they even showed a picture of a radio shack rider facing behind him and her face was superimposed over it. i thought it was cute.

OakLeaf

04-03-2010, 09:34 AM

my take on the email was that it referred to an ordinary corporate exec not specifically a woman.

Except that's not how it was phrased.

...the first female to compete along side the male competitors in this year's 2010 Tour de France. "This is groundbreaking," proclaimed Johan Bruyneel. ... open's the door for other women coming up the ranks.