History of women's racing?

[velogirl]

Streever, you might be more effective in gathering information if you share your identity. What's your name and where can we find your blog?

Lorri

Hi all,

I'm currently working on a series of blog posts about women in racing, because if I'm writing about it, I know I'll be reading it and following the races. I think cycling--like all other aspects of life--can only be improved by having equal access and greater diversity, so I'm trying to increase my awareness of it beyond the male dominated sphere.

[streever]

Hi Lorri,
my apologies, Streever is actually my name (David Streever)--I use it for everything and didn't mean to be opaque. I didn't post my blog straight-away because I didn't want to be "advertising" or promoting it, and, honestly, it has only one post really (it is pretty sad.) It is at "itsaboutthebike.com".

Thank you for the advice, I appreciate it!

[velogirl]

All good. I actually found you quite easily by putting together your Twitter handle and location and googling that. Looks like you have quite the background in advocacy and transportation. So, why the interest in women's cycling? What do you hope to achieve?

Lorri

[streever]

I think that will be more clear when I finish writing the first post: the thing is, I think that traditionally women are excluded from a lot of sports, by a combination of really systemic issues. Between lack of funding and lack of coverage, women's sports don't draw the same participatory interest that male sports seem to draw.

I don't think I can change that on a global or even regional scale, but I decided that as much as I bemoan societal problems and inequalities, I was as much a part of the problem as anyone else because I wasn't following women's cycling myself--although I enthusiastically follow men's, I simply wasn't paying attention to women's cycling.

My thought was that by setting a concrete goal for myself (write one short 1000 character piece a week) I'd be exercising my writing and also following women's sports. I was also really inspired by a series of articles a good friend of mine wrote--she herself is a woman bike racer, and wrote a series on women athletes preparing for the Olympics which you can read here: http://www.thedailymuse.com/author/pan-pan-fan/.

Basically, I'm hopeful that I can get myself to focus more on the incredibly strong athletes, who work so hard, with so much less glory and money than the people I've typically followed, and hopefully learn a lot in the process. If writing about women in bike racing gets even one other person to have a similar realization to mine, I'd be really happy!

[velo]

To add to what Eden has said, I used to race, but my last race was over 10 years ago. Not much has changed since then, I guess. Some observations from back then, that may or may not still apply (but since you're looking at it historically, it may be relevant)... I was a Cat 3 and was near qualifying for Cat 2 status when I quit. Even at that level, event organizers offered only non-monetary primes for the women. I won things like shoes, jerseys, etc. but locally (midwest), there was not enough participation to warrant cash prizes for the women. This lack of participation was due, in part, to what Eden has said. There is not even a women's master's classification for racing, which means that older women, who may NOW have the time to train are not going to race against young, fast riders. Being lumped all together is a detriment to the sport for women. It's also dangerous for crit racing. Crits are tight, fast, and require good handling... putting rookies in with women who are Cat 1 - 2 or even Pro makes it very dicey.

This is how it was THEN. It sounds like it has not changed, which is very frustrating because I would have thought that it would have in the intervening years, especially with such a rise in the popularity of the sport.

Actually, in the midwest, I would say that Mountain Bike and Cyclocross racing are perhaps more welcoming for women. Mountain biking races I have seen have a little more separation of categories, better participation, and cash prizes, which all make it more enticing (thus better turn out). I was just at a cyclocross race, which had a really nice cash pay-out for women. Good to see that!

[Eden]

I can definitely agree about cash prizes, at least anything substantial... those are pretty rare even in the 1,2 fields - enough so that we still tend to make a big deal out of it when the cash for the women equals the men (the race my team puts on always tries to do this - the team's sponsors put up enough to equal what the promoter pays out to the men). There's Exergy in Idaho who has intentionally set out to promote women and put up the money and Baker Stage Race in Oregon, where a local woman business owner puts up the money to match the men for the 1,2's at least.

There are master's classifications - at least for the state championship races and most TT's. There's a caveat here - the masters are not necessarily *slower* than the non-masters.... If you are given a choice to race master B's or 4's you may find the B's field to be a little stacked with 50+ 1,2's

No one enjoys combined crits - the 1,2's usually make them hot and fast at the beginning to intentionally drop the 4's because they don't usually want them there. The 4's get a couple of laps and get pulled - no fun either. The rare strong ones that can hang, generally aren't experienced enough to handle the tight packs and the cornering and can cause chaos. These are the girls who often get alienated because they get yelled at - a whole lot.... They start thinking that bike racers are bunch of stuck up b*s, just trying to boss them around. I've seen very young ones that are still pretty emotionally immature and still at that stage where they feel like they are immortal, really not understand that they are a danger - they just think the other women are jealous of how strong they are and trying to keep them from winning. It's not rare to see these girls quit too - when they might with a little experience and coaching be able to be quite good.

I think part of the appeal of cyclocross is that no one gets left behind - it may sting a bit if you get lapped, but it's nothing like having that follow car pull away in a road race and then you are on your own. They do have more separation in the categories too (the last one I went to had 1,2's 3's Master 3's 4's, Master 4's Singlespeed - and maybe more to choose from). With timing chips (which we are using out here) it's not too hard to separate out the races, even though they are all out on course at roughly the same time. The promoters can basically run as many fields as they please at 5 min intervals. There's not as many officials needed, no cars and no dealing with time limits on how long roads can be "closed". The prizes for some categories aren't exactly anything to write home about - oatmeal was a series prize, but hey it's something (and I think it was the same for the boys).

[streever]

Actually, in the midwest, I would say that Mountain Bike and Cyclocross racing are perhaps more welcoming for women. Mountain biking races I have seen have a little more separation of categories, better participation, and cash prizes, which all make it more enticing (thus better turn out). I was just at a cyclocross race, which had a really nice cash pay-out for women. Good to see that!

That is good news, and gives me a positive angle to write about in some stories! I like hearing that. I will definitely spend some time looking into cyclocross too!

[pll]

I am just disheartened after learning that the Giro d’Italia Femminile may lack funding in 2013:
http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/...or-2013_267215

The Tour de France Féminin was discontinued in 2009.

[streever]

I will definitely include that, Pll! Thank you. That is really disheartening: when you look at the origins of the sport (no races for women) and see races start (60-80 years after the first organized races for men), you think things are getting better. Then, I see the Giro d'Italia Femminile and TDF Feminin discontinued, and I think it really isn't improving much .

[streever]

Lorri, I wrote you a response which was held in moderation: I'm not sure why, but I apologize, I didn't mean to leave you without an answer!

Quite simply, I was really inspired by a series of articles a friend wrote for the Daily Muse (I think this is why it got held, so I am not re-posting the link: you can search for Pan Pan Fan, Women Olympians if you want to see it, it is a series of profiles on young Olympians getting ready to compete). I read that, and thought, what a shame that there is so little coverage of women in cycling!

Then I realized that I was part of the problem. By only following men in the sport I love, I was missing out on a lot of bike racing. My thought was that I could at least change myself and my perspective by seeking out women's bike racing. I don't expect to change many peoples perspectives, but perhaps naively, I think I could at least influence a few people to start paying more attention to other participants in the sport!