kerry-litka.com|small things considered

The following comment is from a woman who I raced with locally here in New England many years ago (I can’t believe it’s been that long).

Her points address the issues at the local, grassroots level – the problems and the solutions. In my opinion, it’s the most coherent thing that’s been posted on here yet and deserves more attention:

Thanks for opening up this discussion. I only dabbled in cat 3,4 racing myself what seems like eons ago, yet I have often puzzled over the disparity between men’s and women’s cycling. Some of the changes you mention (lack of separate 1,2,3 and 4 fields) didn’t seem to be an issue back when I raced, but I can tell you that after upgrading to a 3 the last thing I would have wanted was to be stuck racing with cat 4 women. Are you kidding me?? The whole point of upgrading is to get out of that mess and prepare yourself to start racing with faster women. Beginners should only race with beginners, mainly for safety reasons. And having cat 3 women in with the bunch isn’t fair for true cat 4s who need a less intimidating experience.

Anyway, settling category separation disputes is the least of women’s cycling’s problems. Unless you are about to run over a biker in spandex, you would never know that person is sponsored by “Jimmy’s House of Pancakes” and “Shimano” as indicated on the back of the jersey. Oh wait, anyone who buys bike parts can claim to be “sponsored by Shimano”. Those within the infintesibly small community we call cycling are attuned to various sponsors, team identities, and up and coming stars, but those outside of it, the majority of citizens and the ones with the money, don’t give a shit. So the big question is, “How do we make them give a shit without getting naked?”

If you explained to someone what it takes to race bikes, you might stop halfway and say to yourself, “Yeah, why do I race bikes? It’s expensive. It’s a huge time commitment. Nobody will stop me in the supermarket and congratulate me on a hard-earned win. Oh wait, I remember, because I LOVE it, that’s why.” If you are racing for any other reason, you won’t last five minutes.

Given the time and money involved, why does anybody love it? “I love spending $3000 on a bike, waking up early to train, being tired at work, buying enough groceries to support my horse-like appetite, and alienating my friends and family on the weekends.” Sounds crazy, right? But once the cycling bug has bit you, and you realize you love cycling; your life will never be the same again. When I first got my road bike, I didn’t know what to do with it, so I did a triathlon and almost drowned. Then I discovered this thing called a “road race” and decided to give it a try and figured out what my road bike was meant to do.

So the real question becomes, where is the love in (women’s) cycling? If we don’t love ourselves, no one else will and the love fizzles out because the costs are too high for most women to stick with it for long. The journey from cat 4 to pro is an enormous personal commitment and cycling is set up so that the goal is to “go pro.” There is little opportunity to race for the love of it and for personal improvement. Using your running analogy, look at all those people running 30 minute 5Ks in races. They are not there to win, they have no illusions about their ability to win on that day, yet they are still there and will be back again every year for the next few years, maybe getting down to a 25 minute 5k. Running a 30 minute 5K is probably the equivalent of the “citizen’s” category sometimes offered at cycling races. And the equivalent for pro women cyclists would be around 18 minutes. Currently women’s racing is so haphazard, even the path to becoming pro is inconsistent, with races being canceled and categories being combined or dropped. Think of all the runners consistently in the middle and at the back of a running race. Where is the cycling equivalent? There is none. You either have to get super serious ASAP or quit. There is no in between. If the only reason to enter a 5k were to try to become one of the top 5k runners in the US, most people would be discouraged and not even bother.

This is where teamwork comes in. A win should involve tactics and teamwork since races are not strictly “against the clock,” except for time trials. In men’s cycling the emphasis on teamwork is much greater than women’s cycling, mainly because there are enough men to have many competitive teams. A strong woman can ride away from a field with only one or two teams in it and a slew of unattached riders, especially since the one or two teams are probably unorganized anyway. Cycling teams are so transient, most teams never stay together long enough to learn how to ride together, so team tactics are less important than they should be. People think “team” equals sponsorship but team should equal a right to race. You can’t enter a soccer tournament by yourself.

We must foster teamwork to improve women’s cycling. I propose beginner women (cat 4) race as individuals to emphasize basic riding skills (you have to know how to ride a bike to be of any use to a team). Then, to race cat 3 you MUST be on a team and scoring will be similar to roller derby. Each team must mark their potential winner like they do the “jammer” in roller derby – put a cover on their helmet so that everyone knows who the jammer is for each team. So if the winner is not marked as a jammer, that team does not receive points because the team did not do their job. Team points will depend on the order jammers reach the finish line. Maybe each team should designate two jammers to spice things up with a little uncertainty. Upgrades can result from a combination of team and individual points. So if you are kick ass at leading out the jammer, you have just as much chance to upgrade as the jammer since you are equally important. Jammers would make road races and crits more exciting for fans. Increased fun = increased exposure and participation = increased overall public acceptance and sponsorship. Veteran racers without professional aspirations can hang back in cat 3 as “team captains” to teach new members how to race.

As a side note, women with excellent fitness sometimes move up the categories so fast they do not have the technical skills to safely ride in a huge cat 1/2 peleton. This has led to many crashes. The jammer strategy will ensure this person learns how to safely maneuver around others on bikes while working with a team instead of soloing to a win for upgrade points.

The cycling upgrade system is set up to bring talented racers to the top. It must also allow regular people, who love to ride or want to see if they love to ride their bikes, experience the fun and see personal improvement. Working for a jammer suddenly makes cycling sound way more exciting than a 5k. And also intimidating, which is why there will always be cat 4s. Coming up with a way to “fix” women’s cycling is not going to be easy. I guess if you love to run consider yourself lucky because shoes are cheap and the pressure to upgrade is minimal. On the other hand, if you love to ride your bike, stay away from racing unless you have an abundance of talent and money.