Garcia

Exactly! Well said Meg!

________________________________
From: Meg Mautner
To: Candi Murray ; OBRA
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 8:41:17 PM
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] Proposed category change for OBRA Road and Crit racing

I agree with Candi and Jim. I don't see how combining the 3's and 4's helps out either field. It would seem that the 4's (already a big field) would get discouraged by having to race with the 3's. The 3's don't gain any experience by riding with the 4's. In a 1/2/3 field, the 3's gain the experience of the stronger riders. They've been upgraded based on their ability to race well. It's bike racing; it's supposed to be hard.

Meg

On May 12, 2009, at 10:58 AM, Candi Murray wrote:

> 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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