FW: Women 1/2 fields in OBRA racing

a.miles

2010-02-07

Hi!

I'm a cat 3 and new to portland and to OBRA, so this will be my 1st year
racing here. I agree with Heather & Anne. While it's nice to have a
separate 3s race, it should not happen at the expense of a 1/2 race.
Scoring the 3s separately from the 1/2s makes sense though. (Getting
dropped in a road race sucks, but hopefully there will be enough 3s to form
a chase group and since the scoring is separate it won't matter anyway.)
Really it would just make me sad to not have a 1/2 race.. what would we 3s
have to look forward
to? Let's all stick together, race together, even if it means i get
dropped by the fast ladies!

Anona Whitley
Ironclad Performance Wear Cycling

On Sat, Feb 6, 2010 at 7:25 PM, Anne Linton wrote:

> Hi Heather
> I also am a new Cat 3 racer and like the idea of a cat 3 only field in a
> lot of road races but NOT if that takes away from a Cat 1,2 womens' field...
> In terms of Crits I like racing with the 1,2 women as I am more of a
> sprinter and like their experience and don't care that much about winning as
> I do about having a good fun and safe race...But on long road races with
> lots of climbs I get dropped and would like the fact we could have Cat 3
> separate but NOT if that means the Cat 1,2 women don't get a race. Since Jen
> Akeroyd is my teammate and a Cat 2, I support you adding the 1,2's into our
> race at Cherry Pie if you can score them separately from the Cat 3's which I
> assume will be easy with only a few Cat 1,2's.
>
> I will pass this along to the rest of Sorella Forte Cat 3 women to have
> them give you their input as well.
> Anne Linton
> Sorella Forte Race Team Captain
> On Feb 6, 2010, at 3:03 PM, Leibowitz, Flo wrote:
>
> I'm forwarding this message from Heather, the Cherry Pie promoter with Jim
> Fischer. Cat 3 ladies especially, please read on.
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Heather Paris [heather-faye@comcast.net]
> *Sent:* Saturday, February 06, 2010 1:58 PM
> *To:* sunny.gilbert@gmail.com; Leibowitz, Flo; jenakeroyd@hotmail.com
> *Subject:* Re: Women 1/2 fields in OBRA racing
>
> Could one of you please post the e-mail below to the OBRA women’s list
> serve? My subscription is slow in coming
> Thanks,
> Heather
>
>
> Hello,
> It was brought to my attention today that there has been much discussion
> about the cat3 women’s field at the Cherry Pie and the fact that we did not
> offer a cat1-2 women’s field this year. If you are interested in why we, as
> promoters, made this decision please read on.
>
>
> Since Jim and I took over the Cherry Pie in 2007 we have had an average of
> three cat 1-2 women each year. The lack of participation by the cat 1-2
> women was the ultimate reason we decided to not offer that field again this
> year. As they say, actions speak louder than words and we heard what was
> being said, the cat 1-2 women are not interested in racing the Cherry Pie.
> When we announced that there would not be a cat 1-2 women’s field in
> December we got three replies from unhappy 1-2 women racers.
>
>
> At the time it was our understanding that the cat 3 women REALLY didn’t
> want to race with the cat 1-2’s. To respond to this issue we chose to break
> out the 1-2 from the 3’s. With only three 1-2’s we could not justify
> offering a separate 1-2 field since we would loose money and a race of three
> really isn’t a race.
>
>
> I have taken the time today to read the posts about this subject and was
> surprised most women did not realize that by having an exclusive cat 3
> women’s field it would effectively eliminate the cat 1-2 women’s field at
> many races where there is a small showing of cat 1-2 women. The results from
> the survey are interesting since it was taken by women who now know what
> will happen to the cat 1-2 women if an exclusive cat 3 women’s field is
> offered. I really wish this new understanding would have been brought to
> our attention, as we are trying to provide what is most requested from the
> racers who attend our event. The only women we have heard from so far are
> cat 1-2. We have not received any feedback from cat 3’s who have changed
> their minds about wanting an exclusive women’s cat 3 field.
>
>
> Personally, I am a new cat3 racer and enjoy racing with the other
> categories. I just figured I was an outlier and decided to go with the
> majority of cat3 women who wanted an exclusive cat 3 field.
>
>
> So what do we do? We really need your input since this decision was made to
> make the race better for the cat 3 women. If the majority of cat3 womenGi
> now want to race with the 1-2 we need to know by Wednesday and we’ll see
> what we can do.
>
>
> Heather Paris
> Heather-faye@comcast.net
> _______________________________________________
> OBRA_Women mailing list
> OBRA_Women@list.obra.org
> http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra_women
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> OBRA_Women mailing list
> OBRA_Women@list.obra.org
> http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra_women
>
>

--
A . M I L E S


Anne Linton

2010-02-07

Hi Heather
I also am a new Cat 3 racer and like the idea of a cat 3 only field in
a lot of road races but NOT if that takes away from a Cat 1,2 womens'
field...
In terms of Crits I like racing with the 1,2 women as I am more of a
sprinter and like their experience and don't care that much about
winning as I do about having a good fun and safe race...But on long
road races with lots of climbs I get dropped and would like the fact
we could have Cat 3 separate but NOT if that means the Cat 1,2 women
don't get a race. Since Jen Akeroyd is my teammate and a Cat 2, I
support you adding the 1,2's into our race at Cherry Pie if you can
score them separately from the Cat 3's which I assume will be easy
with only a few Cat 1,2's.

I will pass this along to the rest of Sorella Forte Cat 3 women to
have them give you their input as well.
Anne Linton
Sorella Forte Race Team Captain
On Feb 6, 2010, at 3:03 PM, Leibowitz, Flo wrote:

> I'm forwarding this message from Heather, the Cherry Pie promoter
> with Jim Fischer. Cat 3 ladies especially, please read on.
>
> From: Heather Paris [heather-faye@comcast.net]
> Sent: Saturday, February 06, 2010 1:58 PM
> To: sunny.gilbert@gmail.com; Leibowitz, Flo; jenakeroyd@hotmail.com
> Subject: Re: Women 1/2 fields in OBRA racing
>
> Could one of you please post the e-mail below to the OBRA women’s
> list serve? My subscription is slow in coming
> Thanks,
> Heather
>
> Hello,
> It was brought to my attention today that there has been much
> discussion about the cat3 women’s field at the Cherry Pie and the
> fact that we did not offer a cat1-2 women’s field this year. If you
> are interested in why we, as promoters, made this decision please
> read on.
>
> Since Jim and I took over the Cherry Pie in 2007 we have had an
> average of three cat 1-2 women each year. The lack of participation
> by the cat 1-2 women was the ultimate reason we decided to not offer
> that field again this year. As they say, actions speak louder than
> words and we heard what was being said, the cat 1-2 women are not
> interested in racing the Cherry Pie. When we announced that there
> would not be a cat 1-2 women’s field in December we got three
> replies from unhappy 1-2 women racers.
>
> At the time it was our understanding that the cat 3 women REALLY
> didn’t want to race with the cat 1-2’s. To respond to this issue we
> chose to break out the 1-2 from the 3’s. With only three 1-2’s we
> could not justify offering a separate 1-2 field since we would loose
> money and a race of three really isn’t a race.
>
> I have taken the time today to read the posts about this subject and
> was surprised most women did not realize that by having an exclusive
> cat 3 women’s field it would effectively eliminate the cat 1-2
> women’s field at many races where there is a small showing of cat
> 1-2 women. The results from the survey are interesting since it was
> taken by women who now know what will happen to the cat 1-2 women if
> an exclusive cat 3 women’s field is offered. I really wish this new
> understanding would have been brought to our attention, as we are
> trying to provide what is most requested from the racers who attend
> our event. The only women we have heard from so far are cat 1-2. We
> have not received any feedback from cat 3’s who have changed their
> minds about wanting an exclusive women’s cat 3 field.
>
> Personally, I am a new cat3 racer and enjoy racing with the other
> categories. I just figured I was an outlier and decided to go with
> the majority of cat3 women who wanted an exclusive cat 3 field.
>
> So what do we do? We really need your input since this decision was
> made to make the race better for the cat 3 women. If the majority of
> cat3 womenGi now want to race with the 1-2 we need to know by
> Wednesday and we’ll see what we can do.
>
> Heather Paris
> Heather-faye@comcast.net
> _______________________________________________
> OBRA_Women mailing list
> OBRA_Women@list.obra.org
> http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra_women


Leibowitz, Flo

2010-02-06

I'm forwarding this message from Heather, the Cherry Pie promoter with Jim Fischer. Cat 3 ladies especially, please read on.

________________________________
From: Heather Paris [heather-faye@comcast.net]
Sent: Saturday, February 06, 2010 1:58 PM
To: sunny.gilbert@gmail.com; Leibowitz, Flo; jenakeroyd@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Women 1/2 fields in OBRA racing

Could one of you please post the e-mail below to the OBRA women’s list serve? My subscription is slow in coming
Thanks,
Heather

Hello,
It was brought to my attention today that there has been much discussion about the cat3 women’s field at the Cherry Pie and the fact that we did not offer a cat1-2 women’s field this year. If you are interested in why we, as promoters, made this decision please read on.

Since Jim and I took over the Cherry Pie in 2007 we have had an average of three cat 1-2 women each year. The lack of participation by the cat 1-2 women was the ultimate reason we decided to not offer that field again this year. As they say, actions speak louder than words and we heard what was being said, the cat 1-2 women are not interested in racing the Cherry Pie. When we announced that there would not be a cat 1-2 women’s field in December we got three replies from unhappy 1-2 women racers.

At the time it was our understanding that the cat 3 women REALLY didn’t want to race with the cat 1-2’s. To respond to this issue we chose to break out the 1-2 from the 3’s. With only three 1-2’s we could not justify offering a separate 1-2 field since we would loose money and a race of three really isn’t a race.

I have taken the time today to read the posts about this subject and was surprised most women did not realize that by having an exclusive cat 3 women’s field it would effectively eliminate the cat 1-2 women’s field at many races where there is a small showing of cat 1-2 women. The results from the survey are interesting since it was taken by women who now know what will happen to the cat 1-2 women if an exclusive cat 3 women’s field is offered. I really wish this new understanding would have been brought to our attention, as we are trying to provide what is most requested from the racers who attend our event. The only women we have heard from so far are cat 1-2. We have not received any feedback from cat 3’s who have changed their minds about wanting an exclusive women’s cat 3 field.

Personally, I am a new cat3 racer and enjoy racing with the other categories. I just figured I was an outlier and decided to go with the majority of cat3 women who wanted an exclusive cat 3 field.

So what do we do? We really need your input since this decision was made to make the race better for the cat 3 women. If the majority of cat3 womenGi now want to race with the 1-2 we need to know by Wednesday and we’ll see what we can do.

Heather Paris
Heather-faye@comcast.net