Overheard at Rosena Ranch Criterium on Saturday

They were running the women's Cat 1-2-3 and the men's juniors 17-18 at the same time. It was a long, elliptical course with u-turns at either end of a slightly curvy, slightly uphill/downhill four-lane road that has been built for a residential area with no houses yet. They started the women's race and let them get down the road, turned and headed back, and then started the men's, like a giant track with two teams riding opposite each other. It was their inaugural race and at the end of the men's juniors, on the straightaway sprint for the finish, uphill, about 200 meters down, the announcer said was a bad crash and to make room for the emergency vehicle to come out onto the course.

I was taking pictures so I headed down to see what I could get and I stood across the street on the sidewalk, out of the way of the emergency vehicle, but I could hear the motor lead guy who had pulled over and was signaling for the women's peloton behind him to move to the center of the road. He was talking to a race official who had stopped to help the boy who had crashed (lost his front tubular, broke his left collar bone). He called out, "You know, you never see the women run each other into the barriers."

As the women approached and passed, he got back on his motorcycle to resume his leadout position, but I heard him tell the referee, "The men want to race against their friends. The women want to race with their friends. It's a totally different dynamic."

Naturally, I thought of all of you and I wondered if those of you who race feel particularly competitive - like, aggro competitive - or if it's more about the camaraderie for you.

I've never raced except for riding the bike leg of a tri relay team, and I'm not especially competitive at all. Just wondering what you all thought about what leadout motor guy said.

There were at least two other crashes, both in men's races, both resulting in some injuries - one bad road rash and the other I'm not sure about, but the guy was hurt. That one took out several riders.

Nothing like that in the women's race, and they were going pretty fast, too. They just weren't slugging it out in the u-turns, apparently.

Roxy

Men are fearless. We are not.

Men can be reckless. we tend to be more thoughtful.

Young men in cars tend to have bigger car wrecks. Young women today seem to get in as many accidents as the young men; but, the difference is that the accidents are less severe.

And this goes for cycling. Men are fearless, and many tend to be reckless. Yes you will see more crashes in men's race than in women's race.

Maybe its my imagination but accidents always happen with men's cat-5, and cat-4s. Somebody breaks an arm or collarbone.

Well I shouldn't be putting down men cause I have broken both my collar bones in my younger and wilder days. :p :p and right now I'm seeing a PT aka physical torturer (LET ME HELP YOU STRETCH!!). Actually, the one Wahine recommended is one of the best I've ever seen and he is actually very gentle and very nice. In fact I'm seeing him this Thursday. :p

Way back in my racing days, I was not a particularly aggressive rider. Then again, I never actually won a race....hmmmm.

I have raced with/against some VERY aggressive women, and seen equally devastating crashes in the women's field as the men's. I have a couple of female racing friends who can never race their bikes again due to concussions. I know others who have broken collar bones, pelvis, ribs, etc.

While I, personally, am risk averse, there are others who are not. Being able to ride smart and defensively is part of racing, regardless of gender.

I also co-direct our junior boys race team - they crash A LOT! It's a combination of no fear, lack of experience and raging hormones :D.

Just a different perspective from a female racer who hasn't crashed, but has been elbowed and pushed into barriers/tape on more than one occasion :D.

SheFly

raises hand - pushed off of the road by an aggressive move in a race before.... then again I am also very small and very light and very susceptible to even a small aggressive move.

I will agree the women out here are probably not equal to the men in mean spiritedness, but we have our share of aggressive racers and dirty tactics. We've had a discussion going on within our team just recently about what type of team *we* feel we want to be and how to deal with it when we feel other teams are acting unfairly (there was some blocking happening in a race - it's actually almost amusing because the person from their team who was off and up the road honestly doesn't need dirty tricks like that to win.... there's few people in the peleton right now who can challenge her anyway)

I think some of it may have to do with the size of the fields... our women's fields have grown pretty large out here - now it's not a simple and easy thing to have a good position on the road. You really do have to "fight" to not be at the back of the pack. We've definitely had some crashing - and some of the crashes haven't been pretty. I do have several friends who have stopped racing because of injuries. Not all the crashes have resulted from aggressive riding - some have been plain bad bike handling or pack skills.

Our club branched out to also have a race team of men and now a couple of women want to give it a go. They are now being coached and I have to say I really like this guy. He is constantly telling them that racing is not just the ride but mental and teaching them how to ride smart. He does not want any crashes. Most are moving up a Cat this year. They came in 1st and 2nd in their group last year. I think you can ride aggressive and smart at the same time and in the end, become a winner also.

Just came across this great read: http://marijndevries.nl/?p=4457#comments. It certainly doesn't jive with the original observation about women racers :D.

SheFly

I still think that men tend to be far more aggressive and far meaner than women. And the put downs and insults they hurl at each other, not that we don't do it.

Just to set the facts straight, my current PT visit has really nothing to do with cycling. It's just well, I'm in lot of pain and no mobility like its glued together. :mad:

And my second collar bone break just over ten years ago is from a training ride. :mad:

I guess the point is, I was pretty aggressive as a rider and paid for it. But on scale of things, I'm still far tamer than the men.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SheFly

Just came across this great read: http://marijndevries.nl/?p=4457#comments. It certainly doesn't jive with the original observation about women racers :D.

SheFly

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Holy moly. Does not jive. Not one little bit. Ha! I love the photography at the top. Beautiful pictures.

Roxy

I used to be a fairly aggressive rider...but now that I am older I am more cautious and don't push the limits. I have only raced a few times and had fun but found that I enjoy just riding without the race aspect.

When I raced, there were aggressive riders and they won races. There was also an a whole culture of backstabbing and petty rivalries in the women's racing scene. It pretty much turned me off from participating in the sport after 4 years in it. Oh, and never winning was a turn-off, too.

Not sure if the pettiness and backstabbing was part of the mens's racing culture. I didn't get the impression that it was.

Yeah, I learned there was some pettiness and backstabbing going on as well--and here I thought we were all good friends and it was friendly competition! I knew something was wrong when I kept getting accused of being extremely competitive. It didn't sit well with me and I couldn't figure out why until I found out about all the nasty talk and backstabbing going on!

I have since separated myself from those people. Biking is my happy place. Racing is where I challenge myself. I have friends in the racing scene, but I keep them at arms length . . . for now.

That being said, I do have a couple of friends that I enjoy racing with and I have a few that I enjoy racing against. The difference is their personalities. Some of them enjoy the competition, the others enjoy the companionship.

I think the guys take things less personally, and that's the difference. And they are reckless. A psychologist once explained to me that: Girls fall on their head and they learn a lesson, to be more careful. Boys fall on their head and they think it was a fluke.