by Kristi Roberts
Comedy Central: The 800-pound gorilla of the women’s peloton, these girls have the experience, the legs and the numbers to take home pretty much whatever they want. The Cup is theirs to lose. –Liz Seward, CRCA Women’s Preview, nyvelocity
You know how it is. You roll up to the registration table one early March morning, and there they are. The Big Team. You thought they had a lot of riders last year, but it looks like they’ve been recruiting over the winter. Shit.
They are the 800-pound gorilla (thanks, Liz!). You feel squashed before you even register. Is the race fee another waste of money? Maybe you should just bag it and go out for brunch ….
You know what? We get it. We know how it feels. We’ve been there—the new girls, the cat 4s thinking, “oh, man, there’s So-and-So. She brought her whole team. How are we ever going to beat them?â€
But we did beat them. That’s how we got here. Maybe you’ll beat us, and next year you’ll be the big team.
You have to take the long view: before Comedy Central there was Aquafina, who had all the strong riders. Before that was Sony Music, in their hot pink uniforms. And before that? Way back in CRCA pre-history? The Screaming Yellow Zonkers. Half the Zonker girls went on to ride pro. One, Elizabeth Emery, went to the Olympics. You want to feel your heart sink? Watch Elizabeth ride up out of the early morning mist, only to disappear on a race-long solo break as soon as the starter yells “go!â€
The genesis of our team today was a few women from the New York Cycle Club who approached the original Setanta (back when it’s members all had authentic Irish brogues) about racing with them as a women’s squad. In 1995 there were so few women racing in the CRCA, they’d threaten to cancel our race if ten women didn’t register. Ten bodies doesn’t even give you a pack to draft. If the race splintered we rode in clumps of two or three.
Team Setanta was four or five cat 4’s in dog-ugly green jerseys desperate to build our ranks, but so many women turned us down our original captain, Ellen Richard, instituted a team rule against recruiting. Everyone we asked to join would show up a few weeks later on Team Sony. Being rejected sucked.
For new riders we turned to the New York Cycle Club’s SIG training program. If they promised to race, we tried to sign them up before they got their license and figured out who Team Sony was.
Good lord, they’re everywhere!!
Here’s what we learned, the big Comedy Central trade secret, the foundation of the team today: recruit attitude first, strength second.
We wanted to win the team cup away from Sony. Desperately. That meant we needed women who took risks. One of our best riders today showed up in 1997 on a rickety pink bike that was two sizes too big for her, attacked the field, and didn’t look back. We coasted behind her for a lap, letting her dangle, chuckling at how … well … cute she looked. She wasn’t strong, but she put it out there. She was exactly the type we wanted on the team: with an attitude like that, the physical strength would follow.
For years we worked together on tactics, tactics, tactics. We emailed strategies back and forth before each race, feeling more and more anxious as we refined each draft.
Then we won the Team Cup! More than once! One year we won it because we had recruited from the Cycle Club one of those phenoms who goes from cat 4 to cat 2 in one season. Basically, she won it for us. But we learned something important from having riders like that on our team—they’re not always great for team morale. The bulk of our team was doing cat 3/4 races; our shooting stars had different goals (rightly so). They didn’t need us to help them win—they won on their own—so it detracted from the fun of racing as a team.
The team (by then Women’s Sports & Fitness) really came into its own after we lost our strongest rider to another CRCA team. It left us more closely-balanced, strength-wise, and it also left us pissed. Remember the woman on the pink bike? The first team cup race of the season, she grew wings and outsprinted our former teammate. It didn’t happen just once either, it happened enough that, combined with our focus on tactical riding, we were able to win the team cup. As a team. It felt great.
And now, we have more new-timers than old-timers. A majority of our women’s goals are the big regional races, so they want the support of a big team.
We still want the Team Cup though. We’ve worked a long time to get to this place! But some of you other teams are looking pretty strong, too . . . please don’t feel squashed by the 800-pound gorrilla. Race us—make it hard!
To wrap up, here are some of the things we’ve learned over the years:
Recruit cat 4’s
Because they turn into cat 2’s.
Recruit people you want to hang out with
The phenom with the entitled attitude isn’t worth the headache. You want to be able to race hard, then go out to breakfast with your teammates.
But be choosy
Some people just like the jersey, but never come out to race. Others think they already know it all, and won’t listen to coaching. More headaches. Not good.
Ride together at least once a week
Some teams never do. Isn’t that weird?
Have one common team goal per season
The team cup? Fitchburg? Pick something that the whole team can contribute to, even if you’re riding in different categories.
You don’t need a sponsor to be a good team
We rode in Women’s Sports & Fitness jerseys for a year or two after that magazine folded (after that we joined Metro). So what? We had fun. Sponsors don’t pedal your bike for you.
Give it time
The more people ride their bikes, the better they get. Give your riders time to develop.
Enough is enough
Five determined teammates can be better than a loosely-affiliated, twenty-woman squad that never shows up. You don’t need numbers, you need passion.
Be aggressive
Attack even if you think you won’t make it. You got dropped, but did your effort help the team? Good. Or maybe the field will misjudge you, and they’ll let you go, and then forget you’re out there, and you’ll win. That’s cool. That’s bike racing.
Be an aggressive team
If you are, you’ll be able to recruit good riders. Racers will be impressed by you and want to join up.
Keep it in prespective
In the scheme of things, CRCA races are like Little League. Relax. Have fun!
BRILLIANT (and sage) suggestions, Kristi. These time-tested tidbits of wisdom work for squads of women AND men. Thanks for taking the time to pen this one, and best of luck this season (and in the future).
That’s pretty interesting, but isn’t it true that 2 of your top 3 finishers in last week’s race were recruited from other teams in the last 6 months?
this is a very good thing
more input from the women’s side
good job Kristi
the was – the is – and the what could be…
no Mary, that’s not true. Sarah’s been on the team since 1997 and Ellen for 2 years.
Mary,
Only one in the top 3 was recruited in the past 6 monthes. Sarah is a seasoned vet of the team for years now.
no, mary, it’s not. first place caryl did just join us. we heard in the fall that her team was not going to exist in 2006, and we asked her if she would like to join. i was the 3rd place finisher, and i have been on the team since 1997.
to sexist pig: i sure don’t recall "chatting" in that break. 4 laps at TT pace and i was happy to be breathing.
oops–can’t count. You’re correct. But I was writing about earlier stages.
whoa, i didn’t realize comedy central was handing out paychecks…they must be fat ones to get poeple so excited about their "recruiting."
kristi, nice piece!
Your top 3 finishers were Caryl, Sarah, and Becky. Two of them were on other teams 6 months ago. It just seems kind of silly to write an article about the virtues of building from within, when you’re doing just the opposite. CC will be strong this year because they took one of the top sprinters from Lipton and poached the best all-arounder on Radical.
we won the cup last year racing against Caryl and Becky.
Mary
No one took me from Lipton the local team dissolved. I wanted to ride on a local team that had subtance and the will to go hard.
Mary, I think you’re missing the point. The gist of the article is, ‘we built the team from the ground up over many years’. Now that CC is the strong team they’re able to recruit riders the way Sony used to.
ok, mary, i am curious about words like "poached." what’s that about? kristi makes the good point that we won last year by beating caryl’s and becky’s teams, and in fact as liz points out we won by consistent placing rather than by multiple wins. we haven’t won this year; we’ve won one race…and kristi did a good job of recounting how past years went. last weekend we had 7 of our 9 racers show up. good for us– we like to race. there were a lot of teams whose riders did not show, for whatever reason. when they do show, and with some new additions to the women’s fields (which we are really happy about because it will be more interesting) the cup is up for grabs.
as kristi said, we hope people come race us for it. we like to race. were you there saturday? i hope so– i am looking forward to meeting you.
If a team of people with serious day-job is going to be good as a team in regional racing — like having, say, 4 or 6 riders typically show up at races out of town, it generally needs to have about twice that many riders on the roster.
CC has been strong regionally the last few years — now it will be even better.
Pig — the real measure of CRCA women is what they do in races all over the place — not just club races. There’s been a lot of cool stuff the last few years — from two diff cat 4s on Radical Media winning stages at GMSR to a bunch of riders on CC and Lipton riding the big race in Philly. A win at Unionvale, one of the best regional road races. And lot of other hard riding and racing.
Fun recap of a topsy turvy history. Looking forward to seeing the gorilla ride aggressively locally and mixing it up mightily regionally.
What a truly brilliant article – even if I don’t know what racing bikes is!
Go Ladys! Love the article, hopefully it’ll give the unsponsored riders out there motivation to put together a team, and train like crazy (men or women). They’ll understand the feeling, when their day comes, and they come up with the win.
Its nice to see women participating on the site as well, go you.
We need more articles from you—BRILLIANT!
Great that it’s all tactics, tactics, tactics but what was up at Grant’s Tomb when your sprinter was left all alone on a break against a better all around rider who didn’t have any teammates. Was a decision made to settle for second and not even try to chase to make a race of it? You had 8 riders in the race and have to do better than 2nd and 6th in races like GT before you deserve being called an 800 lb gorilla.
J’s got a point. Being able to put together an aggressive chase group is a better measure of a strong team than blocking to secure 2nd place. CC had the numbers, more than twice the size of any other team in the race, to pull in the breakaway. If I was the CC coach I’d use the CRCA races to see how hard you can drive the pace. That’s the ability you’ll need to compete in the bigger regional races. Blocking especially against weaker fields in the club races isn’t going to develop anything useful.
I think they start the women first to give them a head start, so the get passed on lap 1 or 2 and not on lap 5 or 6 at the end of the mens race. I’m not being nasty, I think that is true.
So then why don’t they simply start the 4s first? Then you wouldn’t have any problem with passing.
If the As or Bs start first then they lap the women in lap 5-6. thats why they started sending the women first. It’s not sexist, it’s true, that’s why they changed the order.
regarding Grant’s Tomb . . . I wrote we worked on tactics, did I say we got it right all the time? No.
CF if right about the starting order. The women’s field used to get caught by the men just before or duging our sprint. Many times, when the race starts, the women’s field is neutraliized until after the men pass.
the comments about GT are pretty legitimate. we were happy about some things and not so happy about others. what can i say– no excuses. but fwiw, weren’t blocking.
as for the park races and getting passed. also legitimate. my pov on that is that the cat 4 field is bigger and deeper,; the women’s crca fields have a range of fitness and experience, and it shows. but please don’t criticize the way the women’s field rides. we do have a range….and i would argue it’s better to encourage the women who do come out and race and help them learn the ropes. as kristi says in the article, back in the day we were scraping for 10 women at a race. last summer we had races with over 30 in the field, which is exciting on many levels and makes for a better race.
It’s good to see that crca is having more women’s race I think this should encourage more women to try racing . I know for a fact that a lot women don’t want to start racing by entering a race with 50 men and 3 or 4 women in it.
Not that the B-field so strong it’s big field and there is always a group of strong riders in this field that either will or should or in some cases really faced to upgrade. Just take a look at the lap times so far this year in the B field.
Sarah makes excellent points. Increasing the number of women and juniors racing should be the major "special" projects of CRCA. But the goal of increasing the women’s field isn’t in sync with helping the top women. There’s a core of very good riders. Sarah and several others held their own at Liberty, the only UCI women’s race in the US, last year. Most beginning men wouldn’t have too good an experience starting out in Cat 1/2 races but that’s what we’re asking women to do. What can we do to help the top riders get ready to win in regional races and get more women staying in a sport that can be a bit intimidating?
Michael and Sarah make good points. I would argue that while the woman’s lap times are slower, it is still harder to win a woman’s race than a B race. The best women are in that race and the best men are in the As
Have you seen a women win the men’s B – field lately ? Last year Tom Auth went from winning a B race to winning the Club Championship . Look at the TT times . Or at times at Bear Mtn ect .
I don’t claim to know much I’m just going by the facts .
I’m not saying that a women could win a B race. I just meant that a women’s CRCA race is higher level racing for women than a CRCA B race is for men.
Hey Kristi – great article! nice to see the women’s racing getting some press out there (finally! thanks NYV)
But I have to ask…can’t we all just get along? Way too many petty comments about and complaining about CC being too this or that. Who cares?! let’s just get out there and race our bikes.
Kimille,
How about racing harder? Women’s racing is generally 20-30 girls sitting around waiting not to win. While the Comedy Central team isn’t perfect (they should have attacked the field at Grant’s Tomb), they make racing more interesting than most of the girls out there.