Here's the hard reality regarding women's racing in the US vs. men's - the numbers aren't there.
  • I went to a local 3-day stage race last night and there were EIGHT women vs. 135 men.

  • I raced in an MTB race this past weekend: 23 Pro men starters vs. 3 Pro women and 43 men vs. 1 women starting the Cat 1 race.

  • At the Fitchburg race (NRC) the numbers were a bit closer: 129 Pro 1 men, and 97 women in the 1/2 race. (To compare equally, if we combine the men's 1/2 like they do for the women, there were 204 men)


Without the same numbers of women racing, you see things like combined fields, shorter distances, lesser prize payouts and not as much attention. in the Tour of California, they shortened what was intended to be a 3 stage race to a crit, and gave that race a whopping 5 minutes of TV coverage.

I don't agree that this is discrimination, as others have also said. I think this is a case of people (promoters, sponsors, etc.) investing their dollars where they will see the highest return.

And FWIW, I race Expert MTB, Elite Women's Road and Elite Women's Cross (but no track, sorry!).

SheFly