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McLane women's races and SportsBasement Online
Tue, 03/07/2006 - 11:19am
Hello, Folks --
This morning I sent the following message to SportsBasement Online in regards to their handling of scoring for the women's races at McLane this weekend. In addition to the incidents below, they have not as of this moment posted even preliminary results for the Pro/1/2 women's road race, though all but one of the men's fields have at least a partial list up. In my opinion, the lack of respect they gave to the female racers (who paid the same entry fees as the men and who raced just as hard) is completely unacceptable. I hope that some of you feel the same way and will contact them through their website to express your displeasure at this development.
I am posting this on the main forum as well as the women's forum because I feel that this is an issue that concerns the community as a whole. If anyone feels that this issue should stay in the women's forum (which I have a sneaking suspicion is not read by 90% of the forum participants), please consider that such a response in and of itself is symptomatic of the greater problem at hand.
Thank you.
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Regarding the McLane Pacific Cycling Classic results:
I am extremely disappointed in your lack of quality results for this event, specifically in the Women's 3/4 packs. By not having a camera set up in the criterium and missing all results beyond eighth place (including two places that were worth prize money), you give the impression that developmental women's racing has no value. That is completely unacceptable. I ask that you go back through and list those women who started the race and acknowledge that their omission was your company's fault. Further, I believe you owe all those women an apology.
In regards to the Women's 3/4 road race, in a field of 70 women it is completely unacceptable to not publish results beyond 23rd place. Over half the entrants and finishers were left off your posted results, though they raced just as hard and paid just as much to race as the top 23 finishers. I ask you to go back and do the job that you were paid for -- list the complete results for all the races. I am especially disappointed in your company's apparent bias against women's cycling and I encourage you to rectify and take responsibility for your failures.
If you do not address this concern I believe you will hear from many women who are disappointed in your lack of committment to sportsmanship and gender equity in cycling. The ever-growing community of woman cyclists is a vocal one, and I anticipate that you will hear from many women who feel that they have been disrespected by your company's treatment of their results. If this issue continues, I personally will write to every race promoter I know to encourage them to find other providers of online registration who understand that they have a responsibility to the entire racing community, not only the higher and male categories. I encourage you not to ignore your responsibilities to every racer out there and I look forward to hearing from you on this matter.
It's sad no one responded to the women's forum on this issue, so I am. The due respect for women racers is still evolving. As the father of two junior girls, there been times this year that their results have often been overlooked (see Juniors forum for details). But it is getting better, and they're not talking about retiring any time soon.
As for registration, SBO still could do better. For example, if a rider is entered twice in the same event, the computer doesn't notice it, but a registrar would catch it. This would open another spot on those fields that always fill up before race day. Also, it takes so much longer to register online when you add the time to boot the computer, open to the website, fill in the necessary cells, and go through the "steps" to get confirmation.
The first time I used SBO was in 2004 when I entered Taylor for Junior Track Nationals. It took me over 45 minutes before the process was done!
(Mail in registration takes me about two minutes, including writing out the address. And I don't waste energy from a computer system.) Now your only other choice is to hope the field isn't full by race day, a chance I care not to take with something as important as Nationals. By the way, she got a silver at Natz in 2005 at Trexlertown, PA. No way I'd drive that far without being she she was in. Online makes it easier for the promoter, but it sometimes leaves the racer outside looking in.
It's good to see some promoters allowing other options than just online registration. It shows they care to service the clients--we racers.