Watching Stephanie Makoujy line up for the Scarborough Crit #4 with the guys reminded me of a scene that played out on my front yard a few weeks ago. Down by the water, a gaggle of some 100 Canada Geese had gathered. Among them was a lone Snow Goose. Stood right out. Beautiful to behold. And, not wanting to sound all male piggy or anything, the same can be said for Stephanie. When it comes to riding her bike, Stephanie can slot her way into a favorable position among the charging peleton as comfortable as can be, looking as comfortable among the guys as was the Snow Goose among the Canadians. Now, I don't know how accommodating Canada Geese are when it comes to sharing worms and grubs from the lawn with Snowies, but I do know that the guys in the Scarborough Crit Series are very much on the non magnanimous side when it comes primes and podium spots. And that's a problem for Stephanie. Wrestling with the guys for position and sticking around through all the surges and attacks makes her stronger, faster and a better bike handler, but it is not giving her much of a chance to win.
In bike racing, or anything, learning how to win is important and takes practice. We of the Scarborough Crit Series would like to give all women a fair chance at winning a Series race. To do that, we would like to field an ALL WOMEN field, and for us to be able to do that we'd need a minimum of 10 women signing up. Why 10 women? Because we plan to have equal pay as per the men - $30-$20-$10 for 1-2-3 and two primes which, self evidently, costs money. Also one could argue that 10 people are necessary to constitute a FIELD of racers. The entry fee is affordable - $15, and one day USA Cycling licenses ($15) are available at the sign-in. The race would be 12 laps (15.6 miles) and would start this Sunday at 8:00am (ten seconds after the start of the men's B race).
For those not familiar with the Scarborough Crit Series, it is a 7 race series with race #5 this Sunday. The course is located in the Scarborough Industrial Park at the end of Lincoln Street in Scarborough, Maine. All entry sign-ups are "day of" entries. The course is a 1.3 mile oval with no technical corners.
So, ladies, please know we in racing understand that it is no fun to show up and get shelled 2 laps into a race. At race #2 we actually had 6 women show up but soon realized that the men were administering heavy psych damage as woman after woman was dropped from the pack. The proof of the damage was week #3 when just the lone Snow Goose landed on the start line. Let's make that a gaggle.
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