History of women's racing?

[Crankin]

I read the article on the professor; I have to say her prior experience was nothing like Evie Stevens. While neither of them trained for cycling, Evie was a serious competitive athlete in more than one sport as a teen. The other woman sounded more like me... I did a little weight lifting and aerobics before I started cycling!

[streever]

Thanks for the continued news!

I wrote my first piece--it is a brief history of women's cycling--and next week will be posting one on current racing. I'd love any personal experiences about cyclocross or modern racing. If you'd like to share any photos, that would also be great! just let me know, and I'll give you credit and a link.

I really got quite a bit from you all in terms of where and what to look for--I put in a link to teamestrogen in a comment as a reference to encourage my (admittedly puny) readership to come here. I really appreciate how much everyone has shared, even just anecdotes, because it gives me areas to do more research in and review. Thank you so much for your warm welcome!

I won't post the direct link again (because it gets me flagged as spam automatically), but if you are interested, it is the first story in my link from my earlier post. Many, many thanks again.

[snapdragen]

Hi Steever! The forum is set so new posters can't post links or pictures without it going to moderation. I can't remember how many posts you need before this stops. Go ahead and try posting a link, if it doesn't show, send me a PM, I'll release it. You won't get flagged as a spammer unless I or one of the other Mods does it manually.

[streever]

Thank you!

the site is http://www.itsaboutthebike.com, and the story is http://www.itsaboutthebike.com/conte...9s-bike-racing

Thanks all!

[e3rdpower]

I like the article! I can contribute a little bit to local racing today. I just started racing last season (road) after many years of riding and attending races with my husband, who races. We had both come back from being away from the bikes for several years, and I decided to see just how fast I could go, handle my bike, and learn.

I live in Florida where there is an active effort to increase women's participation in races. We are, of course, limited by small fields. There are many strong female riders, many of them are too intimidated to try racing. Partly because we have many crits here, a few circuit races, and a handful of road races. Also, our fields have been so small in many cases all women's categories have been combined, or the women have been put with the masters men. Some of the guys don't like racing with the women, so that can cause some frustration for all parties. Some new racers are intimidated by the fact that they will be racing with Cat 1/2 riders, and as previously mentioned getting shelled off the back in the first few minutes isn't really motivation to return.
So, to combat that, for the upcoming season there will be women's cat 4 races, and the 1/2/3 will be combined. Hopefully this will allow for learning, safety, and upgrade ability so that everyone will be happier.

[pll]

Yay! The Giro Donne may go on in 2013. Cross your fingers:

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/...ederation.html

[nuliajuk]

No mention of women's racing is complete without a look at Beryl Burton, the amazing British cyclist who competed at a high level for decades. She was once the overall British 12 hour record holder - not the women's record holder but the record holder.
http://bikeraceinfo.com/riderhistori...yl-burton.html

[Laguna]

Y'all might find this Competitor podcast with Inga Thompson very interesting. She was a very top level pro in her day and discusses her experiences and the inequity in the sport.

http://competitorradio.competitor.com/

[Kernyl]

As a cross racer, I do agree that I believe cross is better for women. In most races in my region, we have two W's races, cat 3/4 and cat 1/2/3 and sometimes even a masters race. I also believe that many of the races are offering equal payouts to M and W.
BUT, this is in the US and it creates a problem for the European pro women. They come here to race because of the better payout (they are trying to support themselves afterall), but then their home federation may have a problem with them not competing in enough "home" races.

Here is a video of Julie Krasniak, one of the best female French cross racers (as well as overall female cross racers), explaining why she may not be able to compete in Worlds for that reason. The French federation may not give her a place on the team because she didn't do their series, which is much shorter and pays less than the US Grand Prix series. So it's a catch 22.(Also, the FF is not taking as many women to Worlds as men...they won't even let her go if she pays her own way!)

http://www.cyclingdirt.org/speaker/1...Julie-Krasniak

Sorry if this posted twice. A little internet issue here.