Monson, MA - The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

[SheFly]

Wow, that's messed up.

Yup. He was pretty defensive. Apparently it was our fault for getting lost - despite the pace vehicles taking a wrong turn, as experienced racers we should know that it is our responsibility for knowing the course . It's not like this happened a good way through the race - they took a wrong turn BEFORE MILE 2!

He also made some comment about the "extremely slow pace" of the women's field, which boggles my mind - we had an AVERAGE of 20 mph when the crash happened, so not sure how much faster we should have been going on a hilly course....

I have since found out that this particular promoter doesn't have a good attitude towards women's racing in general.

Oh well. We decided we are safer not doing this race anyway.

Robyn - the next three weeks are brutal for me at work. Let's try to get together after the 4th of July.

SheFly

[mimitabby]

I hope you find another promoter. Nothing's worse than being treated like second class citizens.
I'm glad you weren't hurt worse.

[equus123]

omg that's an absolutely terrible story. i'm very sorry to hear all of this. the best thing you can do from now on is tell everybody you know about this particular promoter and ask them not to attend his races. don't support that kind of behavior.

geez. that is pretty crappy. ....and they wonder why it's tough to promote women's racing. it's because we're being treated like THAT.

[ohmyspokes]

SheFly, are you familiar with the Cycling Made Real program?

It's probably worth it to at least let your local coordinator know what happened and the promoter's response.

Here's the link for the New England group:
http://www.newrs.org/

[Eden]

Yup. He was pretty defensive. Apparently it was our fault for getting lost - despite the pace vehicles taking a wrong turn, as experienced racers we should know that it is our responsibility for knowing the course . It's not like this happened a good way through the race - they took a wrong turn BEFORE MILE 2!

He also made some comment about the "extremely slow pace" of the women's field, which boggles my mind - we had an AVERAGE of 20 mph when the crash happened, so not sure how much faster we should have been going on a hilly course....

The first part is technically true - it is the responsibility of the racer to know the race route - on my team if its a route we've never ridden before we always try to pre-drive the course before the race. It also gives you a heads up about any sketch parts of the course - bad turns, gravel etc. Wrong turns have happened here even in some of the men's elite races and if you follow the car there is no mercy.... (we've also had corner marshalls let riders off the back go the wrong way without saying a word....)
BUT
it does sound like this promoter was very lax in a number of ways. Here he would not have been allowed to run your field without a lead car, follow car, and two officials. They don't necessarily have to provide neutral support, but we've never been sent off without at least wheels in/wheels out and someone who can call the finish line via radio if a racer gets into trouble. Of course if you fall behind the follow car you're on your own, but they are generally good about sweeping the course and there are almost always races after the women so there's always cars out there if somone gets into trouble.
It certainly sounds like the promoter just has a problem with women's racing. 27 really is not a bad sized field for women's racing, especially at this point in the season, and your speed sounds more than reasonable.

[equus123]

To add to my comment above... I make the suggestion because there's a promoter around these parts that doesn't care much for women's racing and this certainly reflects in the lack of women's races (if any) or prize money/merch or women's races going last - in the dead heat of the day. ...stuff like that.

My teammate did one of their races last year in the early season and had to join the men's 45+ I think (that or the men's 4/5's). Anyway, some dude didn't hold his line and she got taken out. Long story short - she broke her radius clear through. For starters, there was no medic, EMT, or ambulance at this race [aren't there supposed to be??]. Then second, she was sitting around for AN HOUR AND A HALF before help came for her.

From her experiences that day, our team nor other women's teams (and a few guys) signed up for this guy's races. There doesn't seem to be too much we can do because it's not like he neglected a women's race that was scheduled. There just weren't any at all. So the best thing we could do was not to support this guy.

[ChainsOflove]

Wow that is in stark contrast to the situation at the Housatonic race. There was an ambulance on site, from what I could see. also FOUR Sram cars. I guess the support was all at this race!

That's nasty about the women's Cat. I recently heard something similar, however, that they eliminated the lowest women's cat from cyclocross nationals. I know there was an outcry but I haven't heard the resolution of it.