Proposed Rule Change for Women's Categorization

Ian Sullivan

A Glimpse of What Women’s Racing in the ECCC Could Be

• On the first weekend attendance in the B and Intro categories was fantastic

• We saw a combined WB, WI field of 88 women on Saturday and 85 on Sunday

• The total women's field sizes were 106 and 100 respectively

Attendance At Women's' Races Throughout 2009While it does appear that the attendance stabilizes it is substantially lower than we had seen in the beginning of the season. After the first three races the total number of racers never reached 80% of what it did the first race.

Where We Sit Now

• Currently you need to be equivalent to a category 3 racer to race in the A field. This is to ensure that everyone that qualifies for nationals (practically any A racer) has a certain amount of experience, as to not be a menace at nats. As a result the Women A fields have 8-14 women and the Bs have mid 40s.

Result

• The result it that there is a bottleneck in the Women’s B field. There are a solid number of girls who are good and strong, but they are canceling each other out, and making it hard for any of them to upgrade. Essentially you have the B+ racers the B racers and the girls that just bumped up from Intro.

Bottleneck• It is unlikely that simply through the passage of time that we will be able to make

the bottleneck disappear.

• Many WB and WI racers do not race outside of the ECCC.

• 20 points is 3 mass start wins, given the frequency with which the women race this is challenging, and compounded by the quality of the front end of our fields.

• For the bottleneck to clear we would need to see either more women racing outside of the ECCC or, fewer high quality WB racers (ultimately counter productive).

• A huge issue with the bottleneck is that since the A field is so small, there is nowhere to hide. A girl who takes her upgrade then faces the very real challenge of significantly lengthened races, and the reality that the groups she will race in are twos and threes. This dissuades some girls.

• An en masse increase of the size of the A/B field would mitigate some of the fears of upgrade, by providing larger groups and more opportunity for drafting.

The Goal

• Simply put, there should be a place for everyone in the ECCC

• Racing should be hard...• There should, however, be a way that racers

are able to at least have a chance of hanging on in most of the races they enter

• To achieve this the categorization of women’s racing should change

• The Way We Are:• A’s=Cat 3 or Lower• B’s=anybody• Intro= anybody

MenA=Cat 3 or BetterB=Cat 4 or BetterC and D, Intro=anybody

• Proposed:• A’s=Cat 3 or Lower• B’s =Cat 4 with at least

3 top 5 mass starts in C’s or cat 4 race

• C’s = Anybody• Intro=anybody

Proposed

How This Will Affect RacingPotential negatives:• A/B races will be more

‘dangerous’ for the elite racers. Chance of decreased participation.

• Cuts away at the largest most consistent field, WB

• Girls who take the option of racing the new B might have a harder time getting their points to be a 3.

Potential positives:• Increase the size of the marquee

women’s field. Could add prestige.

• Makes the transition into racing less daunting. There would be an achievable challenge after intro

• A way better distribution off the racers we have.

• Hopefully it would encourage retention of women’s racers

A SomewhatTemporary Solution

• With any luck this is only short term (a couple of years)

• The compelling force for this move is to foster nascent women’s racing

• The hope is that this will unleash competition and participation at the lower and mid end of what is currently Women’s B and fuel the proposed WA/B field to the point that they can sustain separate fields