Candi Murray
I agree with Jim's comments entirely. My worry to the proposed change is
also that new and slower riders would be discouraged from racing in the 3/4
because of the increased pace and would not stick with the sport. The
largest women's field is the Cat 4 women field. There is a good reason for
this and to pollute the pool does not make sense.
Candi Murray
-----Original Message-----
From: obra-bounces@list.obra.org [mailto:obra-bounces@list.obra.org] On
Behalf Of Fischer, Jim E (Corvallis)
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 10:44 AM
To: obra@list.obra.org
Subject: [OBRA Chat] Proposed category change for OBRA Road and Crit racing
Folks,
OBRA is making a change to the women's road/crit fields to offer 1/2/3 as
well as 3/4 groups allowing the 3s to pick where they want to race. Please
send your comments (for or against) to Kenji.
I agree with the goal to increase participation by women in the 3s and 4s,
but I feel this will NOT have the desired effect.
The supposition is that there are 4s who've been upgraded to the 3s only to
find they cannot keep up with the 1/2/3 fields. This change will let the
slow 3s gain experience and fitness with the 4s before they start really
racing with the 1/2/3s.
The issue is with the upgrade criteria/implementation, not with the category
structure.
One issue with the current 4s field is that it's too fast to encourage new
beginner ladies to race because the fast 4s, while not having sufficient
points to upgrade, really need to be moved up to the 3s...and WANT to be
moved up. If 3s are allowed to race in the 4s, this discrepancy will get
worse. If the 3s can "race down" with the 4s, this will draw down an
already small 1/2/3 field at most road races. As the promoter of Cherry
Pie, the 1/2/3 field has barely had 10 riders for the past two years...most
of them 3s. This change would cause us to reconsider even offering a 1/2
field for the women.
If the goal is to increase participation...to grow the 3s, we need to grow
the 4s...and this cannot happen if the 4s are too fast to encourage new
beginner riders.
I suggest we do the following:
1.) Keep the categories as they are.
2.) Encourage/enable the fast 4s to move up, thus growing the 3s, and
encourage the promoters/judges to score them separately. (May require a
change to upgrade criteria and futher discussiona and a team rep vote in
January.)
3.) Encourage/enable the slower cat 3s to downgrade. Our lives and bodies
change, and we may lose fitness as a result. Downgrades offer an
opportunity for racing in an appropriate category while still having fun.
I'd be curious to hear other points of view if you want to share.
Regards,
Jim Fischer
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