Women in Mixed Races

bexslack

The structure of the top races isn't helpful for club racers either DeVlaeminck. Two of the top road events each year are the Ras and the 3 days of Bedford. It's pretty hard to do well in either of those unless you have a very strong team behind you. If you turn up as a solo rider or with a couple of others from your club whose hearts aren't in it you won't be competitive as these events include TTTs which typically have a significant bearing on the GC. Claire Galloway won Bedford this year as she's a great TTer and had a strong team in the TTT. She's not a sprinter.

maryka

I don't have a real problem with true elites and elite-level teams (e.g., Claire Galloway and her team, they also race lots on the continent) being formed for the purpose of racing as a team at big races and doing well. I just wonder why local/grassroots/2nd-3rd-cat level teams form. They then complain that they can't race in local leagues because it costs too much to join and/or they don't have enough people to promote a race (which is usually part of joining a local league). *Sigh* it just frustrates me because it's a vicious circle. If women's teams don't or won't join league or help promote races, then there will be fewer races for us because fewer women will race them, and therefore there's no reason to join the league...

I'm not calling out any particular team here, just that in recent years teams have come and gone and yet the number of decent road races for women around London doesn't seem to be increasing. Some leagues like Crystal Palace have brought in a system where you must marshal in order to qualify for points/prizes/money in the races you do, and lots of smaller teams are able to come up with marshals for a night so that seems to be working quite well. But larger road races seem to suffer when women join teams because they are less likely to race in them (SERRL, Surrey League).

We started the LWCR in 2010 as a way to get more women out racing at the same races, rather than have a smattering of racers here and there at various events. We piggyback on races that already exist though, and while we've had some new organisers approach us to put on a race for the league, we've also had some really disappointing turn-outs and that means some of the races that existed in previous years have left the calendar now (primarily in the SL, where women's races just became men's races instead where they could count on a full field and at least recoup the costs of the HQ!)

Again, I don't know what the answers are, but women's teams as a whole aren't being super proactive in helping solve it when they coax riders away from clubs and then don't help to promote races at the level they are racing (i.e., local club level -- because when it comes down to it, most women are firmly club 2nd-3rd cats and not elites!)

mamba80

this is all very well going about women joining teams etc but as Bex said - most women racers are coming from other sports, Sports that got them in the main, as youngsters and unless BC tap this and get more f/ youths, into juniors and ultimately women, then this debate will be running in 10yrs time.

DeVlaeminck

Why does it matter if riders come into the sport from youths and juniors or as 30 somethings ? From the point of view of producing elite riders obviously it's an issue - but in terms of getting the numbers racing up so that it supports a decent calendar of races I don't see that it's an issue.

mamba80

well, regions and clubs have been trying to get more women to race for yrs and its not worked, nor will it.
there are few women coaches, few in admin roles and so on, so in the main, its men telling women what they should do... a cry though the ages
elite riders breed more interest, provide more inspiration, women who have raced as youngsters but then give it up, are far more likely to return to the sport after kids or careers.

Its a long term thing and if you read the BC vision for women 2020, BC realise this as well.

With the women joining teams, clubs even do that to youths, a promising girl racer, persuaded to join a club 120miles away, all on the promise of "I can get you into an Olympic development program" of course you can !!!! and her parents believe it
leaving the local club with "why even bother helping youth riders?"

upton

As it's to do with women and mixed races, thought i'd pop this question in.

Can a 3rd cat woman race with the 4th cat men?

proto

Yes

Have a look here (towards the bottom of the page - 'Events Classification'):

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/road/a ... ifications

samg123

Just to let everyone know, the first event of the winter series at Odd Down is now up on BC: https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/event ... cuit-Races
The women's race currently has 5 sign ups so it'd be great to boost that number a bit and prove to VC Walcott that there's definitely demand for women's racing. I know that some of the girls in my club (Bristol Uni) want the events to keep running but haven't got the time/ money to enter at the moment.

There's also some work being done to promote competitive riding in the South, join the group and get involved: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1424613061088707/

CarleyB

In the North West a lot of things have changed this year.

Women entered on the start line for Pimbo RR, the first event .... 71. Yes, 71.

This was down to one woman pushing Cycling Development North west to put on more than the token 5 races and upping it to 7.

This lady then went about setting up a seperate 4th Cat league within the league, so effectively it is now a race within a race. Enticing more new ladies in.

Off the back of this we then did women's only coaching. 3 hours coaching and a workshop. We were fully booked for 3 seperate events over 3 seperate circuits.

Many of those women we coached have now entered the league, we gave them the confidence to say, yeh, we can do this.

We, as women, showed them, you can race with families, you can train for these races in however much time you have as long as you know what you are targeting.

We did it and the proof is in the race entries. we have a dedicated facebook page for these women. Where they can get further info, from training, to kit bag, to seeing if they can get a lift to a race.

Many of the ladies won't RR but will do Crits. We publicise women only races. Encourage organisers to put women's only races on then tell the women about it.

Pross

Good work in the North West.

It was the season opener in South Wales yesterday and that had a women only race but I'm not sure what the field was like (weather wasn't great to be fair). When I first started racing women were a rare sight in races. We would have 3 regulars in the mixed 3/J/W races - all were international riders and one was a Commonwealth gold medallist. I now see far more 'serious' women cyclists on the road but don't very often see more racing locally than I did back then so single sex races must be the way to go (those I do see race regularly locally more than hold their own and finish in the points in Regional A and B races).