Post by gpickle on Nov 21, 2005 11:35:11 GMT -5
Howdy, Pardners!
Its been a long weekend here at the ranch of clearing the land, baking bread and reading about bike racing. As I was in the midst of an article about the cross races in North Carolina Cootie stopped by and wondered aloud, "Where are the podium boys?" She was referring to the photos of the race where they had two podium girls for the elite mens race but no podium boys for the elite women’s race. I had no defense of the race organizers, but I would probably enjoy being a podium boy. Okay, I would definitely enjoy being a podium boy.
The point is, women’s racing is second fiddle to men’s. There has been lots and lots written about this over the years, both looking to build equality between the pelotons and also looking to keep things just as they are, or even marginalize women more. As one gentleman pointed out to me in Vermont years ago, "Women are not the best athletes, period. They are the best athletes in their SEX, yes, but they are not the best athletes." Having been dropped by women numerous times in the past I feel qualified to declare that Vermont resident, well, stupid.
I became very aware of this issue a few years ago when I was dating an elite level woman bike racer. She was really fast. It was discouraging to see her travel to races expecting to get a good challenge and face tiny fields. When ten women would show up they would get excited because that was a big field! Prize money was always lower than mens, too. She could win her race but if I finished top 10 I would win more money than she did. Another big issue in women's bike racing today is race distance. Women routinely race shorter distances than men do. Where an elite men’s road race will cover between 85 and 120 miles a standard elite women’s race is about 70 miles. Look at local racing and you can see road races of 20 miles and criteriums as short as 25 minutes! One of Missouri’s best woman bike racers commented that promoters and organizers were afraid longer races might cause a woman’s uterus to fall out. Many racers will choose to stay home and just go for a good ride rather than travel to a race. It is a sad situation. Just today it was announced that the 2006 San Francisco Gran Prix has been cancelled. There were rumors that it would not be run in 2005 but the promoter managed to make it happen. How you ask? By eliminating the women’s race, of course!
So what can be done to improve cycling conditions for women whether they choose to ride for pleasure, fitness or competition? It seems a bit more complicated than just having bicycle companies manufacture bikes just for women, as nice and quaint as that sounds. Maybe rather than slick marketing some money could be diverted towards a few high profile women cyclists to act as spokespersons for women’s cycling. It is hard to miss the connection between successful racers like Greg LeMond and Captain Armstrong and a rise in both racing and recreational riding in this country. There is an incredibly long list of superstar women racing bikes and many of the best are English speaking and are based in North America. I think raising the profile of these women will have a direct impact on encouraging others to ride and maybe, if they like it, race. Maybe the IBC could contact a few of Iowa’s best women riders and see if they would be interested in doing some promotion efforts? Lisa Vetterlein in Des Moines recently set a new human powered land speed record. She’s fast!
The problem of getting women racing is going to be very tough to address and I have other ideas that I will share later but Cootie warned me that if I made this post too long very view of our IBC discussion forum friends would take the time to read it. So I will close and promise to write more soon. There are groups tackling this issue. Check out: www.womencyclists.com/ for more information.
Thanks for your time!
gpickle (on vacation)
Its been a long weekend here at the ranch of clearing the land, baking bread and reading about bike racing. As I was in the midst of an article about the cross races in North Carolina Cootie stopped by and wondered aloud, "Where are the podium boys?" She was referring to the photos of the race where they had two podium girls for the elite mens race but no podium boys for the elite women’s race. I had no defense of the race organizers, but I would probably enjoy being a podium boy. Okay, I would definitely enjoy being a podium boy.
The point is, women’s racing is second fiddle to men’s. There has been lots and lots written about this over the years, both looking to build equality between the pelotons and also looking to keep things just as they are, or even marginalize women more. As one gentleman pointed out to me in Vermont years ago, "Women are not the best athletes, period. They are the best athletes in their SEX, yes, but they are not the best athletes." Having been dropped by women numerous times in the past I feel qualified to declare that Vermont resident, well, stupid.
I became very aware of this issue a few years ago when I was dating an elite level woman bike racer. She was really fast. It was discouraging to see her travel to races expecting to get a good challenge and face tiny fields. When ten women would show up they would get excited because that was a big field! Prize money was always lower than mens, too. She could win her race but if I finished top 10 I would win more money than she did. Another big issue in women's bike racing today is race distance. Women routinely race shorter distances than men do. Where an elite men’s road race will cover between 85 and 120 miles a standard elite women’s race is about 70 miles. Look at local racing and you can see road races of 20 miles and criteriums as short as 25 minutes! One of Missouri’s best woman bike racers commented that promoters and organizers were afraid longer races might cause a woman’s uterus to fall out. Many racers will choose to stay home and just go for a good ride rather than travel to a race. It is a sad situation. Just today it was announced that the 2006 San Francisco Gran Prix has been cancelled. There were rumors that it would not be run in 2005 but the promoter managed to make it happen. How you ask? By eliminating the women’s race, of course!
So what can be done to improve cycling conditions for women whether they choose to ride for pleasure, fitness or competition? It seems a bit more complicated than just having bicycle companies manufacture bikes just for women, as nice and quaint as that sounds. Maybe rather than slick marketing some money could be diverted towards a few high profile women cyclists to act as spokespersons for women’s cycling. It is hard to miss the connection between successful racers like Greg LeMond and Captain Armstrong and a rise in both racing and recreational riding in this country. There is an incredibly long list of superstar women racing bikes and many of the best are English speaking and are based in North America. I think raising the profile of these women will have a direct impact on encouraging others to ride and maybe, if they like it, race. Maybe the IBC could contact a few of Iowa’s best women riders and see if they would be interested in doing some promotion efforts? Lisa Vetterlein in Des Moines recently set a new human powered land speed record. She’s fast!
The problem of getting women racing is going to be very tough to address and I have other ideas that I will share later but Cootie warned me that if I made this post too long very view of our IBC discussion forum friends would take the time to read it. So I will close and promise to write more soon. There are groups tackling this issue. Check out: www.womencyclists.com/ for more information.
Thanks for your time!
gpickle (on vacation)
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