Only 8 entries for Nat Womens Circuit Champs (so far)!!

[De Rosa]

I must admit before I write anything that I don't know anything about women's racing and its problems. However as a potential organiser of women's racing I get the impression that, sometimes, races have low entries, there is a wide spread of ability so a lot of not so strong riders are put off (I wouldn't volunteer to ride against Britain's best elites as a 3rd cat so would you?), some get dropped very quickly and there can also be negative racing. And yet there are many women who would love to race regularly for the fun of it at a reasonable level.

Isn't this crying out for handicap racing?

The top 10 or so women effectively only race against each other anyway so you could give a good prize for the scratch group to make it worth their while. The rest could be handicapped quite effectively as most are "known" to race organisers and officials. The race could be reasonably short so all could finish it but with the handicapping encouraging eyeballs out racing and no negativity - so everyone gets a workout. And wouldn't that start to encourage others to race knowing they could at the very least have their own race within a race? And you could tweak the handicapping to give the not so strong riders a very real chance of winning the overall unless the scratch riders really gave it 110%. Everyone benefits.

Just wondering.

I would probably tack a 35 mile handicap race onto the end of our Buckley event next year if I thought there was genuine support.

[Thomo]

[DM]

HB has banged the nail on the head. Those women who race take their racing just as seriously as men and so will ride events they feel are relevant and that fit in with their plans. If there's not enough women at an event it's either because it hasn't been publicised enough or the event is not right for them.

The idea of a handicap race is a sensible idea. I think it's always going to be difficult to guarantee support though just because of the relative low numbers of women racing. The women's team series is well supported but they come from all over the country, so a local handicap race would probably not get the support.

[De Rosa]

Why do they come from all over the country if a lot know they are going to get dropped? Can't quite grasp why some don't prefer handicap races when it could be made to work. Not being disparaging about your comment - just genuinely interested.

[Andy V]

Just did some rough number crunching bsed on BC licence holders

Women with a licence=181
Men with a licence=2099 (not inc 4th with no points)

So with a field of 55 women thats about a 1/3 turnout of all licence holders.
Now for the men to be the same you would need 693 entries .

HB is correct,many also support there Husbands/Boyfriends as events.

Just for a women rider to ride the team series events & the brutons she will need to make 2 trips to Ireland,1 to Scotland then travel from the South Coast via Wales,the north west and the midlands to support the racing

How many men travel these distance,less the premier riders,but even they do not have to travel overseas to get a race in the series.

Thomo & De Rosa you have some great ideas also,send my your thought's via pm-I shall pass them on and make sure they all get put into a document looking at improving women's racing currently at the work in progress stage.Same goes to any women riders send your views to myself or Steve Ellis or Jenny Greton.

[lay zee]

handicapping would be a great idea, the series at milton keynes worked really well, you just need judges that aren't 90yrs old (or just act like it) and don't know whats going on so the results are all wrong, because then people will have something else to complain about.
_________________
always off the back!

[Gary K]

Hopefully no-one thinks I am against women's racing, as I'm not, but I just thought that with it being a National Championship, some riders (more than 8 at least) might have it as a target? If some sharing of info and ideas and a bit more co-ordination comes out of this thread, then all the better too. God forbid someone might even organise another race!!!

If the series events are getting full fields, maybe it's a question of location, dates clashing or time of year that the Nat champs has such a low entry.

I still feel sorry for the organiser though as it must be such a big commitment to volunteer for a Nat Championship event?

[Thomo]

Good point Gary, a National Champs must be a target for more than just a handful? Then there would be the local riders who will ride it anyway as it is local... Something must have gone wrong somewhere?

Paul

[Andy V]

[StuartBen]

Various points:
The Hillingdon series is not run as a handicap as the Thursday Prime coaches said there was a demand from women riders, especially triathletes, for experience in bunched racing. Handicap races may well turn into neo-time trials.

At Hillingdon we always tell new riders, women or men, that if dropped drastically they are better advised to drop the complete lap quickly and join in the bunch again for better experience. But don't contest or get in the way of the finish sprint.

The number of BC licence holders is irrelevant. We were aiming particularly at non-licence holders from triathlon and time trialling, where there are quite a lot of women competitors. Licences were not needed, although recommended as the next step. It was considered that the occasional presence of experienced racing women would add to the learning.

At the recent men's National Criterium Championship, which had 84 entries despite unfortunate clashes at the top end, a very good number of riders told me that they "expected a kicking" but wanted the chance to ride a national championship against the potential champions. I found the same attitude many years ago at Paddington track where, in a big sponsored series, riders wanted to see how many laps they could last against the then champions. Some learned by the experience and went on to win championships themselves. This series was on Friday evenings. If that is true of the men why not women?

If a woman rider can take two days off work to help officiate at a men's race, one wonders why an extra hour off work on a Friday afternoon to race herself would have been impossible to avoid Friday night traffic? As stated before, Friday evenings are the only ones available at Hillingdon. Perhaps another London circuit could offer another evening? We do not have exclusive rights and would be happy if it worked elsewhere on another evening.

The support race was NEVER intended for women riders, ONLY for male novices. I was horrified at the second of the evenings to find that women riders had been accepted because some male supporters were exploiting BC regulations and we had not spelt out the conditions. We had originally assumed that entrants and their supporters would appreciate the intention of what we were trying to do IN THEIR INTERESTS. What could novice women possibly learn from racing against novice men?

The sum total is that we have proved in two years there are not enough women interested in racing in women-only events at Hillingdon on Friday nights at Hillingdon for whatever reason. And I regard some of those reasons as very flimsy indeed. We have tried but our efforts are better directed elsewhere. Others are welcome to continue trying and perhaps Bill will do so. Whether women do so remains to be seen.

[DM]