Jim Anderson
2) It will be at the discretion of the promoter whether cash prizes are
offered in each category, or whether categories with low numbers are
combined, with cash prizes offered to only to those who place in the
combined category.
What is the need for CASH prizes in masters categories? theres usually
hardly enough cash to go around in local races here and most is kept for
any sort of profit. This is different of course if you have cash
sponsors. And would the cash sponsor rather support masters categories
or possibly the pro-1-2 races?
to demand any more cash in any categories, especially masters is very
tough.
--Jim
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Final installment (funeral episode) in the saga of the OBRA petition for
equivalent treatment of men and women---sorry to take so long, but I
have been email incapacitated for 3 weeks or so.
Mike, Jon and Jim are correct-I am the wrong person to be bringing this
up. Someone with more experience-Pam are you interested?-in both
racing and promoting is needed to get this right. (For those who no
longer have the faintest idea what the petition says, it is printed at
the end of this. I also forwarded Mike and Jon's criticisms for those
who have long since forgotten what they said.) Before signing off,
however, I would like to set the record straight. After the Jack Frost
time trial at the beginning of the season, I foolishly agreed to draw up
a petition requesting women be offered the same categories in each race
as men. The idea was to open people's eyes to the fact women are not
treated comparably to men in cycle racing in Oregon, even though they
are in most other post-collegiate sports, and to start thinking
creatively about how to remedy that situation without creating logistic
or financial stress for race promoters. Instead it has resulted in
vehement defense of the status quo. I tried to revise the original
reviled petition to encompass the concerns expressed, but in the
interest of keeping it simple did not put into the text all the issues
we discussed and agreed upon in the last round of emails. Most of
Mike's criticisms are about those issues---we agreed already that it
would not be logistically feasible to have separate starts for small
groups, and I asked whether smaller groups couldn't be combined to race
together yet be scored separately. Promoters also could state how many
racers were needed for a category, below which number categories would
be combined. We agreed that men's entrance fees could not be expected to
subsidize women's prizes, but women could still be given equal
opportunity to compete for place. Interestingly, everyone seemed to
agree that it would be pretty much painless to have equal men and
women's categories for time trials (and maybe it would ONLY work for
time trials)---but if would be painless, why didn't that just happen
long ago, before the women got pissed and decided to petition? And I
still don't understand, when Masters women earn BAR points in an event
that offers several categories for Men, but just "Women" for women, why
they can't have the option to have their BAR points counted toward the
Masters BAR.
Jon and Mike make the point that for a 35-year-old woman, there is
plenty of opportunity and choice in racing categories, and I agree. I
also agree that there is lots of opportunity for the elite racers of
both sexes. However, if we want to keep the larger numbers of citizen
racers showing up, and we want to attract new women to the sport, we
need to treat women equally to men. For the man of 40 or 45 or 50 there
is plenty of opportunity to genuinely compete against peers. That is not
true for the women as they get older. If bicycle racing is not fun
anymore, the women will drop out. And the few exceptional athletes
aside, it is not fun to only compete against racers a decade or two or
three younger. Same goes for new racers having to compete against the
full range of experienced women racers lumped into one category. So, if
no one has noticed, there is a high drop out rate for women in bicycle
racing. It is silly to expect lots of women to show up if someone
suddenly adds equivalent categories for women and men in one event---if
one cannot count on equivalent categories being available, the women do
not keep training to race "just in case," they simply drop out of the
sport. Even so, when equivalent categories are offered, as witness the
recent State time trials, more women show up for those categories.
Seven women over 50 signed up---I haven't seen that many at a race since
the World Masters---and every one of them said she would not have
entered if there were not women's categories for 50 and up. The 40-49
field was also quite robust. Real changes in women's numbers, however,
would be expected to happen over the next 5-10 years, not on a race by
race basis. Committing to a reasonable effort to offer equivalent
categories will help keep the woman racers currently in their late
thirties and early forties involved in the sport as they get older. I
don't believe cycle racing will attract new women unless it can also
hold on to women already involved. So if after a race you ask, "Where
were all the women?" the answer is: running, swimming, doing triathlons,
and having fun elsewhere.
The population is getting older, the baby boomers are late 40s through
50s, the elite racers form the exciting leading edge of the sport, but
big Masters fields help provide the broader financial base to support
the more elite. It really is in the long-term interest of promoters to
include the women in this financial base. And I don't think having or
not having "special events" for women or men is the issue; the issue is
whether women are offered the same opportunities as men in an event that
includes both. So, signing off, I still believe a woman's race fee
should get her the same opportunity as her male counterpart to race
against peers and earn BAR points---within reason.
Thanks to all who took the time to participate in this discussion, and
much thanks to all who offered support! And remember, there are not
really two sides in this discussion but just one-all of us want to keep
bicycle racing alive and well in Oregon.
Petition was pronounced dead at 6PM Sunday August 20, 2000.
The end.
Mahalo, a hui hou
OBRA petition, version #3 is below:
We the undersigned would like to encourage OBRA to continue to work
towards equal opportunity for both men and women, both older and
younger, in bicycle racing in Oregon, by adopting the following
guidelines:
1) Promoters are encouraged to offer equivalent racing categories to men
and women for all OBRA sanctioned events. Men only or Women only events
are excepted.
2) It will be at the discretion of the promoter whether cash prizes are
offered in each category, or whether categories with low numbers are
combined, with cash prizes offered to only to those who place in the
combined category.
3) It will be at the discretion of the promoter whether categories with
small numbers are combined for mass starts, ETC.
4) Equivalent categories for men and women will be maintained for
determination of ribbon awards and BAR points.
To respond to the whole group send to ob-@topica.com.
To respond to the list manager send to ob-@teleport.com
To unsubscribe send to obra-uns-@topica.com
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Jim Anderson
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