Re: [OBRA Chat] Calling Cat 1/2/3 women

I preregistered for PIECE of CAKE and Hugh Givens did not refund me when I couldn't attend so I will not preregister for any races except the TTs.

Lori Brault

On May 04, 2012, at 10:15 AM, Jan Moss wrote:

I don't think anyone will argue that I do my fair share of women's races and have for several years. Over the years I have seen huge fields and I have seen embarassingly small fields. I have always struggled with the question "where are the women?" I've heard it all, "I don't want to race with the 4's", "I don't want to race with the 1/2's" "I want to race Masters", "I don't race in rain, heat, wind" etc..... to all of these I have always said that we can not demand "fair" treatment if we do not consistently show up. No, I'm not saying 50-75 riders each race, like men, but if the senior women consistently had 25 women, we would not be having this discussion. I have never been able to figure out why our race numbers fluctuate so.
There are many teams in OR with women racers. I agree that we could be much more competitive. But that means that the women on those teams need to consistently race with each other. In order to work as a team, you need to race as a team. I struggle with this on my own team, so I know this is not easy to accomplish. I race a lot in WA and let me tell you it is expected that you will race often with your teammates. It shows. The teams in WA are much more tactical. I don't think we need special mentoriing or training, we just need time in the saddle during races.
Regarding the recent races. I have always done the Eugene Roubaix. Weeks ago (before the big brew-ha-ha on OBRA) i emailed the promoter to ask why there was no women's field. I got NO response. That is unacceptable, I should have received a response. Then there was the public outcry. Even then, when a women's field was posted the promoter did not encourage women to attend (in my opinion), it was more like he was forced to do it. I think he should have offered a reason for the omission in the first place an apology and an invitation to race. I chose (correctly in my mind) to go to a race that was guaranteed to have a huge competitive field in WA. I do not often do this, I usually choose to race in OR, but when a promoter is obviously not interested in my participation, I go elsewhere.
Regarding this weekend, I was planning on doing the race. The original flyer had the women racing in the afternoon. I made plans for Sunday morning. The race was changed. I emailed Jeff directly to let him know this meant that I was not coming. (not that my lack of attendance breaks his heart, but maybe he'll realize the impact of changing times)
Lastly, regarding pre-registration. Come on ladies step up. Every race that I can tell offers a refund if you are sick or injured, so the excuse of waiting until the day of race is moot. The process is simple and it is polite. If I was a promoter trying to figure out porta-potties, volunteers, etc.... I would want to know if people were coming or not. This takes a bit of forethought on your part, but do it.
Racing is fun, but I believe if we, the women of OBRA, do not continue to show up to prove our interest, we really have no leg to stand on to demand anything. I would certainly hate to see it go away..... then what would I do?
Hope to see more of you out there suffering with me.

On Fri 04/05/12 08:25 , "Candi Murray" cmurray@obra.org sent:

Ladies
I have been in discussion with a couple of races about which fields to offer. One event had the time allowed on course cut by the approving park and started to trim all fields that have had a small showing in the past. Out went Fixed Gear and Tandems. The next smallest field was the women 1/2/3