Quote Originally Posted by SheFly View Post
The other challenge is to teach new women skills, and to maintain contact with them through the season to ensure they have picked those up, and are progressing. Kind of like a mentorship program. One of the things our club realized last year is that learning from an experienced FEMALE racer/rider builds more confidence and self-esteem.

Ok, how about from me? I'm not a racer, and I've only seen 1 women's race in real life (CAT4 crit - about 20 women raced that day). I'm one of those that would LOVE a women's group in my area for the above reason I quoted from SheFly. I know that I'd love racing. I can be fast, I'm strong, I'm very competitve...but I'm almost 40, generally shy and super intimidated by the crazy male cycling community around me (which is HUGE). If we had a women's group that had a program for riders who wanted to race, I'd be way less intimidated.

I think skills would absolutely help...and not just for racing. Skills for group riding, for general road and moutain riding, for climbing in the mountains an hour from here, etc.

To do that locally, like Salsa, I'd want to know how to start something like that in our local area and how to effectively get the word out. I think it would be also important to know how to keep all levels interested. I see it often here, but we have one women's group ride locally. In the spring, we have a mix of skills...but as the season wears on, only the slowest riders continue to show up for this ride. My guess is that the better riders split off to find their own groups to ride with, but that makes it really hard for a good rider to enjoy the group later in the season. Information on how to effectively keep all levels interested (and informed) would be helpful.

And then, from someone who has NO experience with racing, I'd need to know how do you secure sponsors, how to you drum up interest from non-riders, how to do put an effective 'season' together (scheduling tips) and lastly, probably how to throw/host an event?

Did I ramble on too much?