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I want to race on my age group. The age group break downs for women don't seem fair. The time of day given to women are not fair. The prize winnings are not fair. I missed out on Title Nine benefits & see the women after me have gotten very few benefits when it comes to cycling. I don't mind whatever title they give it - seniors, old geezers or whatever - I just want to be competitive & have fun. Got ideas? Know someone I can talk to? I'd like to join an older women's team in Dallas, TX...:D
What type of racing are you looking to do?
I'd like to do Time Trials, road races & crits - 50-54 age group. I know about the Senior Games. I qualified for State at a Regional Race, but I'd like to learn more & actually do more. The hours given to "older women over 30" are usually in the early afternoon during the Texas heat of Summer. They want to challenge our sensibilities in the 100 degree weather. This makes me so mad I want to start our own local women's races, but need to work for a living.
I am in the same boat - not any masters racing here for women - as a 42 year old racer (41 chronologically until October!!!) I am racing against 20 somethings!!!! I hope to go to senior nationals for track racing (yikes!!) this year for individual events as well as team pursuiting. I also road race and time trial - and the only time trialing racing that are age specific are in Charlotte for me at the Lowe's Motor Speedway.
Debi
dlschusler.blogspot.com
(thanks for reminding me Brandy to post a link to my blog - that I have been good about keeping up with as of late!!)
Our state championship races all have Master's categories for women, but those are about the only ones. At that there's only A's and B's, B's is Cat 4 35+ and A's is Cat 1,2,3's 35+ If you are over 50 you can race down a category (so you can do B's...) BUT - some of our strongest racers out here are in their 40's and even 50's ....
diz, it's really a chicken and the egg proposition. there just aren't enough masters racers to justify masters fields in most areas. even here in northern california (the largest racing population in the US), we rarely see masters racing with the exception of the occasional 35+ field.
heck! in most parts of the US, women are still fighting to get separate category racing.
for safety reasons, promoters can only have so many racers on a given course at the same time. this limits the number of fields they can run in a given day.
where you will see masters womens' racing is in mountain biking and multi-sport.
Even the men don't get a lot of master's categories until you get to the national championship races (they do it by 5 year increments there, for both men and women).
Men usually get A/B's and C/D's or 1 combined masters field, depending on the race. The fields work similarly to the women's, where higher cat men at 45+ can race down a category (and they sometimes have D's, where any guy, any cat 50+ can race, but I don't think I've ever seen a separate D's field - even at the state races they race with the C's and are scored separately)
Looks like I'm SOL for this Dallas Area. I plan to have fun in the Regional Senior Games. You are correct in everything said & done. I'm going to check the Web Sites listed under your answers. I just may start something here in Dallas. It irritates me that much, that something good has to come out of this Senior cycling. Does anyone out there know of any guidance as to getting started. Hey, if this was an International dancing thing I'd know who to start contacting. I'm just brainstorming now... Do I start from my local cycling clubs? I know of only a hand full of women who raced or might like to Yea, that's a start! Yo! E-mail links & forums. An other ideas? Do I write-up a Proposal type statement? Now I'm getting excited!