While it took seven Belgians to dominate the Men’s Cyclocross World Championship race on Sunday, it only took a single Dutchwoman to dominate the women’s race. That’s seven times more dominanter, if my math is correct – which it always is.
Cyclocross fascinates me, mostly because it is completely insane. But I admit: I like the idea of combining Cycling and miniature golf. Put some canti’s on your road bike, take to the mud and woods, add some water hazards, sand traps, man-made climbs and jumps, and now you’ve got a sport for people who hate the way their faces look.
Marianne Vos took her fifth World ‘Cross Championship (a record) to further crowd here palmares with rainbow bands. She’s been World Champion in every discipline involving drop bars, many of them multiple times. She’s also won La Fleche Wallone more times than I can count (I can only count to three), National road and time trial championships, and the Giro d’Italia Femminile. She was even World Champion in Mountain Biking as a Junior. One could easily argue that “V”os is the best active cyclist in the world, bar none.
To that point, we don’t pay close enough attention to Women’s cycling. I’m as guilty as anyone; if I was going to pick the winner of a Women’s race, I’d likely pick Vos or Cooke (if she’s not broken, which she often is) or Teutenberg if the race is likely to end in a sprint, which I wouldn’t be able to tell you without first doing some research. And that pretty much exhausts my knowledge in terms of naming riders, which is disgraceful. After all, if one is to understand the great mystery, one should study all its aspects. (Yes, I just quoted Darth Sidious.)
With the ‘Cross season coming to a close, we’re ramping up to start the 2012 Velominati Super Prestige and with it, we are dragging ourselves into paying attention to Women’s Cycling: the 2012 competition will include women’s races with the points amassed counting towards the overall title.
We are also making some coding changes to the backend system in order to fix some problems which means we’re probably only introducing new problems without necessarily fixing the things that needed fixing in the first place.
We’re also adding more races like the Strada Bianca, changing the scoring model, and eliminating certain things such as free DNF swaps. Stand by for further updates and keep a weather eye on the VSP Page for the updated schedule and rules.
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For the record, I think women's racing is exciting. However, I agree with Anjin-san on this one... If I can only watch one event this year, it's not going to be Le Tour Feminine.
Interesting tweet from the UCI just now:
@frank
+1. Yes, big nerve. Of course I am used to it... the district I live in is the most liberal in the entire state. Capitalism here is a bad word...
@Calmante
Who's talking about choosing between the two? We're talking about it being a good sport that deserves more attention. Slightly different things.
This dude posted this awesome youtube clip earlier that you should look at:
@Ron
Or Roubaix, or Flanders...Right? Seriously, though, it makes you crazy to know what's happening in Europe and here in the states they even shut down Universal Sports.
@frank
I think we are in violent agreement on this, but given the mode of communication, we are missing each others point. Women's athletic events rock. I enjoy watching them, but from an advertising standpoint they do not typically draw the same number of viewers or high numbers of the really desirable demographics (can you tell I used to plan consumer product advertising campaigns in a different life?). Why? I think it's because they get compared to the mens event, which is typically faster, harder-hitting, whatever the proper adjective is to describe the sport. And as Calmante pointed out we have limited time to watch so we typically choose the highest performing option because it tends to be more entertaining. That's not sexist, just rational.
@Anjin-san
Are you in Vermont?
@Anjin-san
You live in The Peoples Republic of Carrboro?
@Anjin-san
I agree thats the issue, but I also I believe that kind of short-term thinking is what causes 80% of our problems in society. As I said earlier, Women's racing is today is comparable to Men's racing in the 70's or 80's. Lower publicity, lower wages, a less tightly-packed field. People using your logic then, would have said many of the same things about Men's racing that you and @Calimante are saying now.
But as awareness grew, so did the interest and then so did the advertising opportunity and so on until were we are now where the difference between the top and second-tiers are negligible and doping helps fill any gaps there might exist naturally!
Maybe there's a middle ground...
Fundamentally, the argument that Women's Cycling is somehow inferior to Mens due to speeds or lack of competition is flawed; it has to do with exposure and publicity, which is something that we - as fans - have some small degree of control over.
Even a sport like Alpine Skiing, if anything, the women's races are every bit as exciting as the Mens, and there we have all the same conditions in terms of strength and speed and (previously) depth of field.
@Buck Rogers
Ha! Cross mojonations.
@G'rilla
Info? mebbe (albeit unlikely, but never know) road trip worthy from pdx!