Women's road and criterium racing is tough and typically only the strong survive. My definition of "survive" is sticking with the sport and not quitting. Here are some common reasons women drop out of road racing compared to other sports:
1) Unlike triathlons, marathons or other endurance sports, road races—whether on country roads or street circuits—do not enable someone to go for a personal best time. In road racing, if your personal best isn't on par with the peloton's pace, you get spit out the back of the pack. This is demoralizing and causes a lot of people to quit before they ever get a chance to improve.
2) Another obstacle (literally) in road races is the crashes. Sooner or later, everyone crashes. Injuries range from road rash and broken bones to facial disfigurement, paralysis and death. Be careful out there and wear a helmet!
3) The sport is expensive! Kits, team dues, bikes, components, mechanicals, shoes, helmets, glasses, gas, hotels, entry fees, coaching, massage and doctor's bills. . . and the first place woman might take home $100 if she's lucky. In order to compete you must be a) a rock star racer b) have a high paying job with flexible hours; or c) be supported by a parent, spouse or trust fund.
4) Most of the racing season in Florida is 120 degrees and there's
no swim portion of the race.
5) The good new is, once you overcome all of these obstacles, you become part of a beautiful sport with a great social network of women like you; women crazy enough to overlook 1-4 above.
Hopefully, the Florida Women's Cycling Network will provide and opportunity for women to grow in the sport before they get dropped, sustain injury or go broke.
Please tell us why you race?
2 comments:
I found this post to be very interesting. I'm a triathlete who started doing bike TTs this year to improve my speed. At the TTs earlier in the year there were about a dozen women who showed up. The last two, only half as many. I hope it's not a similar trend in attrition. I'll continue to race even though I'm one of the slower females out there because I just finished with my best race time to date yesterday!
Congrats on your best time, and keep coming out as the more women will encourage others.
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