Hello Ladies,
Just thought I'd throw in my two cents from a novice standpoint. I am 33, and have had my first road bike for less than a year. I love riding...and would be into joining a team or racing... But it feels, frankly, intimidating. So I just end up going on group rides and charity rides... I think if there was a centralized ladies themes website to promote veteran and newbie racers... With info on teams, events, and so on perhaps we would see more ladies like myself trying out racing and becoming more involved? This might sound kind of funny - but it seems like you have to know someone in the racing scene to get involved.
I dunno.

Anyhoo... Keep up the good work!

Best,
Brooke

Www.yonderhollerfamilyfarm.com

Sent from my iPhone

On May 4, 2012, at 9:29 AM, "Leibowitz, Flo" wrote:

> Karey, I think you have hit on something really key here.
>
>
>
> “…. because there are just not as many women racers as there are men, once you have 50 races on the race calendar, there aren't enough women to race every single race, so the field sizes are small. All things considered, if you have 1 racer, they may do 50% of all races (if they are pretty serious about racing). This means that there is 1 less woman at any of the other 50% of the races…”
>
>
>
> I am not in the 1/2/3 field. But if I were, this would ring a very loud bell. In a way, OBRA has been SO successful with promoting races, that its success here is ironically creating this situation.
>
>
>
>
> From: obra-bounces@list.obra.org [mailto:obra-bounces@list.obra.org] On Behalf Of Karey Swan
> Sent: Friday, May 04, 2012 9:26 AM
> To: cmurray@obra.org
> Cc: obra@list.obra.org; obra_women@list.obra.org
> Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] [OBRA Women] Calling Cat 1/2/3 women
>
>
>
> Hi Candi and all,
>
>
>
> This is definitely a loaded question and one that our team has talked about at length. We have noticed that it is becoming more and more difficult for women to race in Oregon. As you mentioned, more fields are being cut and the race distances are being shortened due to time/course/supprt constraints. Many times when a race promotor puts on a race he/she has no choice but to leave out or combine certain fields because of these limitations.
>
>
>
> The other aspect that we have talked about is that, because there are just not as many women racers as there are men, once you have 50 races on the race calendar, there aren't enough women to race every single race, so the field sizes are small. All things considered, if you have 1 racer, they may do 50% of all races (if they are pretty serious about racing). This means that there is 1 less woman at any of the other 50% of the races - and this stems to a lack of large field sizes in the womens fields.
>
>
>
> Often times, when a promotor cuts womens field, our first instinct is to get riled up - which is understandable. That being said, I'm wondering if a shift in race promotion/offerings might be our best bet. By this, i mean to offer a more limited run of races that have womens fields, but makes sure to let everyone know in plenty of advance which races may not offer a woman's field. If this was the case, yes, there would be less races for women to have their own race, but if these are excellent courses and good distances, they would draw a larger crowd of women. In a nut shell - less may be better.
>
>
>
> In regards to the new race this weekend, I think pre-registration is another animal. There isn't much incentive to pre-reg, in my eyes. I mean, what if I get sick the night before - or whatever the case. I think it is a bigger deal if you know the field is going to get full - but I don't think Pre-registration means much to the ladies. By the time you register and pay the fees, the pre-reg incentive price isn't worth doing it ahead of time (this is just my two cents). We have about 5-6 women racing on Sunday, none of which have pre-reg'd and I know there are other teams headed over that are in the same boat.
>
>
>
> Anyway, take it for what it is - I'd love to hear other women's feed back. I strongly promote beginners racing and mentoring and having fields available to everyone as well as Elite level racing - but in this case where we are dealing with smaller fields, I do think that less races on the calendar would result in larger field sizes. I think it would also be wise to look at when these races are offered (as far as promoting goes) because a lot of the 1/2/3 women attend larger races throughout Washington and Northern Cal, which I also think is great!
>
>
>
> Thanks
>
> Karey Swan
>
> Director - WCWC Team p/b Ninkasi
>
> 541.556.0454
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 8:25 AM, Candi Murray wrote:
>
> Ladies
>
> I have been in discussion with a couple of races about which fields to offer. One event had the time allowed on course cut by the approving park and started to trim all fields that have had a small showing in the past. Out went Fixed Gear and Tandems. The next smallest field was the women 1/2/3.
>
> We in OBRA are trying to encourage new riders, trying to encourage race organizers to offer events for the Cat 4 and Cat 5 riders to get them into the sport. And now that those fields are growing to split the Women 3 out. But how can we grow the sport if the riders at the very top are not turning out?
>
> This week there is a new road race, I just checked pre registration and currently there are 1 Cat ½ women and 2 Cat 3 women signed up. Where are you all? The time, money and energy to put on the events and offer you separate fields seems to be slipping away and unless you all become much more proactive I fear that the Cat 1/2/3 women fields will all be combined with the men.
>
> Let’s not let this happen. There are almost 70 Cat 1/2/3 women north of Corvallis. Why are there only 3 signed up for the Monitmore race?
>
> Candi
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OBRA_Women mailing list
> OBRA_Women@list.obra.org
> http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra_women
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
>
>
> ------------------- __O
> ----------------- _\ ---------------- (_)/(_)
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OBRA_Women mailing list
> OBRA_Women@list.obra.org
> http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra_women