[NCNCA] Mentored novice fields/women's 5s

[soni andreini poulsen]

If having a cat 5 isn't going to work or happen for any multitude of reasons, there is another way we can help the situation.  Have more separate women's 3s races.  I know this may be difficult for the promoter who has certain cash flow requirements.  But one of the reasons we have 'career 4s' is that the cat 4s don't always want to upgrade.  Some of those 'career 4s' could upgrade, but why should they?  While there are some cat 3 races in road races, there rarely are in crits.  So if they upgrade, they are racing in 1/2/3 fields.  And cat 4 to cat 1 racing is a big jump.  There are some cat 3/4 races, but they can already do those as 4s.  If there were more cat 3 fields, I believe more 4s would upgrade to 3s, and the cat 4 races would be more like 'beginner' races than they are now.  So the new racers wouldn't be as  intimidated by the competitive and seasoned fields.  
 
Ok, so it's a chicken and the egg thing.  No one wants to have cat 3 races if the fields aren't going to be big enough, and the fields won't get bigger unless there are some cat 3 races to make it worth upgrading for.
 
Just an idea for some of the promoters and clubs who want to  help promote women's racing.  We don't need a women's cat 3 race at every race.  It would be a big step if a few races found a way to add that in.
 
Soni> Subject: RE: [NCNCA] Mentored novice fields> Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:33:56 -0800> From: jraphael at co.napa.ca.us> To: conejotoo at hotmail.com; ncnca at ncnca.org> > > The Womens' 5's are way too small a field for any race promoter to survive.> 
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