Quote Originally Posted by SheFly View Post
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.