I won't go on about how long it's been since I've updated this blog, but it's been about a minute.
If you've been following Vanderkitten or any of the team's updates, there's been a ton happening. New additions to the team: Melodie Metzger, Virginia Perkins, Jen Reither, and an east coast addition (thank gawd), Laura Bowles. Jeff is our new racing director this year, and I think the job will be a great experience for him career-wise and a new dynamic for us as well. New sponsors, including Storck Bicycles and SRAM, have made such a difference and have me 200% motivated! It's all good.
Aside from the team, Morgan Patton (Team Type 1) and I have taken over the Southeast Women's Cycling series this year. The 2009 series is set, and we're committed to getting more women in our region out to the races. After Morgan and I had to race with the Cat 3 men today in Union City because there were only three girls who showed up, we're convinced that there are women out there who want to race, but something is preventing women from showing up to the races. I'm of the mindset that training is good, but racing is better 99% of the time. When I talked with Liz this afternoon, she said that there were 40 women who showed up to a regional race in California. That's insane! What an amazing opportunity for quality women's racing. The southeast hasn't seen numbers like that in a really long time, and how good would it be for the sport to have representation like that here? So we're working to find out where the gaps are, and how to fill them. But if women don't come out to support their own racing to start with, then there's no room to complain when women get a shoddy deal. We are our own limiters. It's kind of like voting: no vote, no voice. And that doesn't have to be the case.
Next Stop: Tour de Tuscaloosa
3 hours ago
5 comments:
The Seattle area regularly has 30-45 Cat 4 women, plus another 10-20 each in Cat 3 and Cat 1/2.
I'm in Greenville, SC and so far this year, turn out is looking really good. Granted, Greenville has a stable cycling community but it was encouraging at our first races of the season to see all the women. There were about 15-25 each in the Cat 4 and then Open Women groups at our first races of the season...not huge, but numbers definitely seem to be up from last year... ya'll should bring some of your racers this way and join in! :)
It's so hard to tell why that happens. I can see why promoters get upset w/ the ladies! On the other hand, in Philly this weekend there were like 50 girls prereg for a race!! The money is not great but the course is loads of fun (lemon hill). Good luck w/ the series!
Leigh,
I think it's a chicken and the egg thing. I'm a cat 4 female in Atlanta. We're lucky if we get a 3/4 field. Even at that, the 3s are so strong we get stomped. So the fields remain low. Which causes the strong 3s to not be able to accumulate points and upgrade. So there's a glut of talent at the 3/4 level so to speak. That seems to be what's happening. If fields were Cat 4 only, it would help and I think more women would come out if they were assured they were not going to be combined with another field. That's just my 2 cents!
We also appreciate all SEW is doing!!
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