Problems with women's cycling

[BBRoberts]

I see Etrusa race was canceled completely. Lost Grimpers, lost Montreal Cup and the Tour, lost AgmenTOC women's races. What will be next? There is a decent start to a three part blog/post/reply about problems with women's cycling here.

http://www.kerry-litka.com/main/word...omens-cycling/
http://www.kerry-litka.com/main/word...cling-part-ii/
http://www.kerry-litka.com/main/word...ycling-part-3/

BBRoberts

 

[Skip Madness]

Part 4 is now up here.

There are some interesting points, although the guest-written second part is fairly contemptible. It's generally a bit US-centric, though, in its criticism of women racers and the women's racing structure, and doesn't (or hasn't yet) address why the top level of the European sport is still so vulnerable.

The stuff about loyalty and responsibility is although interesting only anecdotal from what seem to be comparatively low-category events, and the stuff about the lack of a female Jens Voigt begs the question regarding television coverage - Voigt is popular and well-known precisely because people get the chance to see him on the telly. Naming top female domestiques isn't going to be easy when all too often you have only result sheets and sparse written reports to go by (nevertheless, someone like Sharon Laws is already well-regarded).

When the first Costa Etrusca race was cancelled it looked like a disappointment, but with all three races now off - as well as the additional cancellation of the GP Pasta Zara a couple of weeks ago - I think it confirms women's cycling's status as being in crisis. The Trofeo Costa Etrusca was a major warm-up event for Cittiglio, and now I wouldn't be surprised to see the two new Spanish races or the Chrono de Gatineau fail to get off the ground. We had a lot of disappointments last year, and yet this year's UCI calendar looks emaciated compared even to that.

 

[BBRoberts]

Top domos who made a career out of cycling would be Kim Anderson, Meredith Miller, Judith Arndt, but now she is a team captain. Others would be Mirjam Melchers, how Anke Wichmann for the Germans, there are quite a few, if I perhaps researched this for a few hours I could find many more. Nice reply, thanks.

 

[resal1]

Thanks for the links. I think that little lot together with the comments was some of the best stuff I have seen. As with any open forum lots of nutty comments to be excluded, but well worth the read. I loved the bit about the SKY team and no women's squad. That is what still makes me anxious for the team GB girls. If the Americans can see just how huge an insult it is, then why isn't it being picked up by the GB media ? At the moment the BBC cycling coverage seems to be the dream extension of the Murdoch empire, with the written press following their BBC "betters".

 

[Skip Madness]

If one good thing has come out of the current malaise, there does seem to be more focus in the online community of women's cycling followers, as far as I've noticed anyway.

So which races that were provisionally laid down for the UCI calendar this year have fallen through?

The Boucle was planned by Vélo-Féminin, although that was pulled effectively by the UCI with the presentation of the calendar.

Races that were on the UCI calendar that have since been withdrawn:

GP Brissago
Costa Etrusca x3
GP Pasta Zara
Montréal World Cup
Tour de Grand Montréal
Tour de PEI

Any others? (Quite putting aside that domestic calendars - as BBRoberts points out - are affected too.)

Top domos who made a career out of cycling would be Kim Anderson

She was the first who came to my mind, actually. You could also add pretty much all the top Spanish riders (Vilajosana, Iturriagaechevarria, Tirado) when they've been riding in Italian teams. The one Spanish rider who could rely on being a leader was Maribel Moreno, until a certain mishap...

 

[BBRoberts]

Obviously Kristin Armstrong and Amber Neben have been domos in the past as well as team leaders, but really, the list of good domos is probably pretty long if you really want to shake it out. Probably no need to go into that since it might get a little boring, but on the races canceled domestic?

Its a war zone over here, a cycling holocaust. We lost 8 classics just in California alone. On the NRC calendar, I won't list the carnage, but the biggest to get the boot last year was Toona. Gila was almost canceled and Redlands was hanging by a thread until the new crew took over. It was unclear if the new crew could hack it, but they did. When the three biggest domestic tours are in trouble, you know something is rotten in Denmark. Toona will be back this year, but I see Mt. Hood was chopped. Stay turned for more hacking, or whacking...

Biggest shock?

Grande Boucle, no doubt!

 

[Skip Madness]

Are the races in El Salvador going to come back in the future, I wonder? Last year's cancellations were down to a dispute between the organiser and the national federation, but I can't remember over what. I was hoping they'd be back for this year, but no such luck. El Boquerón was one of the few really tough mountain-top finishes that the women's calendar would see.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

This is dreadful. What I don't understand is why the Women's circuit doesn't mirror the Men's. Surely, for day races at least, if the infrastructure is there in place for men's events, it would be much more efficient to have a women's race the day before or after. The cost would be much less than organising a totally separate event...

 

[resal1]

A few years ago the circuit lost the Amstel Gold that was organised on the same day, on a shortened version of the men's course, like the Fleche. In the pre-race press release of the year the women's event was axed, there was the local mayor of the town making a statement. She was saying how pleased they were to ensure equality for all at the race. Provision had been made for handicapped viewers to see the finish. The were going to be with her at the finish line. Not a whisper of wiping out competitive access to over 50% of the population. I wonder how she would have felt if she was told. "Sorry darling, no high heels here. The Mayor's job is strictly for the boys. There's a mirror over there, go and do something with your hair or lip-stick or something. Don't blub now. Its just one of those things, us men have decided we don't want you girls here. You know we know best". Screaming outrage, would rightly have followed. The fact that she didn't know there was a women's event that had been axed, is a testament to the commitment of the male dominated, sporting press to refuse to give any oxygen to the women's scene. The organiser had obviously tried and thought the effort/return ratio was wrong.

Our friends at SKY hold the key. Do they televise the women's Fleche or did the televise the women's amstel when it was on ? No. What we did get a couple of years ago was a 20 minute compilation of the Felche put together after the event, in a format that was not to the usual high quality standards of SKY. In the last couple of years there has not even been that, unless I missed it, (Please correct me if I am wrong).

No. This show needs some good publicity about the inequities going on. Are the shareholders of the sponsors aware they are supporting organisations who are so misogynistic and yet could with little effort do so much good ?

Easy, easy, catchy monkey, has failed.

 

[Skip Madness]

Not sure about the Flèche, but Flanders used to get an occasional (highlights package) airing on Eurosport. Don't recall seeing it last year, though, I'd have stuck it on the YouTube page had I done so.

Besides Amstel Gold, there was also of course Milano-Sanremo which has lost its women's race, which too used to be run on the same day as the men's.

What annoys me about ASO is that they organise the Women's Flèche... why don't they do the same with Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège? I'm no fan of the 140km maximum rule, but even that would still allow all three five-star pavé secteurs from the men's race.

 

[BBRoberts]

Don't know about El Salvador, but I believe Etusca was run by Silvia Parietti parents, or relatives. She retired, wondered if they decided to retire too. I heard there were family problems. I believe Ronde Van Drenthe or some simliar Dutch classic is run by Modesta's parents. I guess whe she retires, they probably will too. Cycling often seems to be family affair but Modesta races in USA now for Colavita.

 

[BBRoberts]

Part 5 is up...
http://www.kerry-litka.com/main/wordpress/2010/02/17/the-problem-with-womens-cycling-part-v/

 

[resal1]

All of the parts now have many useful and informative comments, that are well worth the time invested to read. Parts 1 and 5 particularly so. Well done Skip, many good points.

 

[rich p]

Don't take this the wrong way but, apart from a nationalist pride in wanting the Brits to do well, not even many cyclists on this forum give a lot of thought to womens' cycling?

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Not enough. But it's a bit of chicken-and-egg thing isn't it? If there was a strong, competitive, well-funded and visible women's circuit more people would be interested...