so i’m a triathlete and did my second crit yesterday, but it felt like my first. first real one was a few years ago, and i was the only female there and they mixed all the categories together in one big pack, so i naturally got destroyed. this one actually had a women’s race, but only five were in it. one dropped out, one trying to make the national team (insanely fast) other was one of the fastest women in ohio, and one who i beat. i stayed with them on the first 6 laps or so, then got dropped. the rest of the race i was on my own, so didn’t get much of a feel for riding in a pack. i live outside of columbus, OH, and am wondering where i can race with a bigger women’s pack. i know its kind of a joke since there aren’t many woman cyclists out there, but just thought i’d ask for advice.
Go to Superweek in WI next year. My twin nieces are W4s riding 5 races there this week and they said the fields are about 40 or so. One of them was even lucky enough to experience a crit crash, just like the boys do it.
Tim Tyler of Team Columbus puts on a ton of road races in Ohio. Not sure how many have womens only fields, but you can always call and ask him. Or checl with Christ Charnas and Leann from tri-tech multisport. http://www.tritechmultisport.com/
Above link has many road race listings too.
99% of the races have a separate womens category. Unfortunately, there are never more than 10-12 women in each field.
Well I can’t guarantee a large women’s turn out (I think we had ~10 last year), but there is a nice crit next weekend.
http://www.qcw.org/events/purtour/purtour_flyer_07.pdf
This is in Mason,OH… just north of Cincinnati. It is a nice course (closed loop, no cars!)
I will be helping run the race. Hope to see you there.
Mark