Kristin
I'm relatively new to the bike racing scene having just started this
season, but I have to say that all the women whom I've raced with have
been amazing people. Bike racing can be very intimidating to
beginners, especially women (IMO), but I have been very pleasantly
surprised. Everyone is very supportive, and I love the fact that
whenever I pass someone or am passed, I hear a "good job!" or "great
race!" So to anyone considering racing for the first time, do it!
Since the field is regularly only 10 to 15 people, you have a pretty
good chance of placing. I would also love to see more MTB races, as
I've discovered short track is pretty much the most fun I've ever had.
Kristin
On 7/20/07, Mike Murray wrote:
> To be more accurate, there are increasing numbers of women that are
> purchasing membership but attendance at some specific event by women has
> been decreasing. Of the OBRA annual members slightly more than 15% are
> women, which is actually up somewhat from previous years. There are almost
> 400 female annual members. I remember just a few years ago we were able to
> cover both juniors and women with the 200 series of annual numbers because
> there were less than 100 women and juniors combined.
>
> To look specifically at attendance:
>
> In 2006, before cyclocross, there were 86 days of racing that had women
> specific races. These days yielded 2252 women rider day. There were an
> average of 14.4 riders in these races.
>
> The numbers so far for 2007 are; total days 62, rider days 1478,
> average/race 11.5. I suspect by the end of the season the numbers will be
> roughly similar.
>
> Historically a higher percentage of women members have attended races
> compared to men. In general about 10% of the available market will turn out
> to any given race. For women's race this has, in the past, been closer to
> 20% for many races. As total numbers of women members go up I expect that
> the percentage that attend a specific race will move more towards the rate
> seen with men.
>
> Some of the problems with getting inadequate field sizes is constructing the
> fields without consideration of the potential number of riders that will be
> in that field. The membership numbers and age distributions for women are:
>
> Road
> Cat. # <30 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-50 50+
> 1 7 1 1 3 1 1 0
> 2 21 5 5 6 3 2 0
> 3 57 12 14 12 8 7 4
> 4 249 78 40 43 32 30 26
> no road 25
>
> Mtn Bike
> Pro/Expert 10 5 11 11 3 2 1
> Sport 50 13 9 12 9 5 4
> Beginner 101 43 11 21 14 8 4
> no mtn 189
>
> mean age 34.8
> minimum 8
> maximum 63
>
> You can see that if you put on a Cat 1/2 women's race and EVERYBODY shows up
> there will only be 28 riders in the field. Since there will never be 100%
> attendance so the expected attendance for a 1/2 women's race would be 3-6
> riders. Conversely it is easy to see that if you want to have high
> attendance you limit participation in the race to just Cat 4 women; this is
> the largest group by far and including the faster categories merely
> decreases participation by the slower ones.
>
> I will be interested in seeing the results of survey below. I expect that
> we will be able to look at it and use the information to create a better
> product.
>
> Mike Murray
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: obra-bounces@list.obra.org [mailto:obra-bounces@list.obra.org] On
> Behalf Of uma kleppinger
> Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 21:46 PM
> To: obra@list.obra.org
> Subject: [OBRA Chat] Oregon Women's Bicycle Racing Survey
>
>
> Hello OBRAland:
>
> As you are all very aware, the number of women racing in Oregon has been
> dwindling. For a state possessing the largest number of registered racers
> per capita, why is such a low percentage of our racers women?
>
> In conjunction with several preeminent women racers and women's race
> supporters, we've created a survey to try to gather more specific
> information about why women race or not, and what factors contribute to
> which races women participate in.
>
> I know that many women who race do not read OBRA chat/emails, so team
> leaders, I am asking for your help... Please forward the survey link to your
> women riders. And everyone, please feel free to forward the survey link to
> women you know who may be interested in racing, whether or not they
> currently are an OBRA member/racing.
>
> http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=5EuLTsyhyMiwp9I92MLgRA_3d_3d
>
> Thanks for your help in creating a more vibrant women's racing community.
>
> Uma Kleppinger
> velodevi@comcast.net _______________________________________________
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