Women's Racing
South East Cycling is committed to improving the quality
of women's bike racing in the South East Region with
the help of the Surrey League and other race organisers.
Our first aim is to increase the number of women competing
in all aspects of bike racing.
In the past, and due to a lack of women's participation,
race organisers have been grouping all women together
in one big field regardless of experience. This has
led to less experienced riders getting dropped from
the pack early on in a race and therefore ending up
riding on their own for the remainder of the event. |
| This problem robbed beginner level participants
of a true racing experience, of learning how to ride
and corner in a pack, reacting to the pack's ebbs and
flows, and concluding in a sprint finish.
This provided a major disincentive to racing, and women's
participation suffered accordingly. In an effort to
solve this problem and attract more women to the sport,
the Surrey League put together a series of Women's races
using the safe circuit at Goodwood Motor Circuit. |
|
These events are held throughout the
year and allow women riders of 4th or 3rd cat level
to participate under the watchful eyes of more experienced
2nd, 1st or Elite cat riders. The aim of these races
is to help develop beginners by teaching them what to
do and what not to do in a race. These events also help
with positioning, bike handling and helps strengthen's
riders confidence in a bunch.
Apart from the South East Region, the Central Division
also promote a series of Women's Handicap events which
are held in March at the Milton Keynes Bowl. The South
Division also promote women's races at all of their
circuit events, ie Thruxton, Mountbatten Centre and
Castle Coombe.
Women's South East Regional Road Race Championship
2011
This years event will be held on Saturday 21st May
and is open to all catagories of rider. The event kicks
off at 12.30 and is organised by the Kingston Phoenix
RC. The race length is around 43 miles/68km's with the
HQ being at North Hall, Loxwood in Surrey (RH14 0SF
).
Entries can be sent to Simon Mitchell at this address:
23 Fulford Road, West Ewell, Surrey, KT19 9QZ. Please
make cheques payable to: British Cycling South East
Region. The cost for the event is £14.00 pre-entry
or £20.00 on the day. Email: si@kprc.org.uk
Read
more (further info to follow soon).
Women's South East Regional Road Race Championships
2010
Thirty five riders lined up under a hot Surrey sun
for the 2010 edition of the Women’s South East
Road Race championships on Saturday, 22nd May. Roads
were quiet and the pace of the race began at a fairly
low tempo as riders had been advised of poor road surfaces
on some parts of the course.
1st Lucy Chittenden
2nd Elise Sherwel
3rd Claire Beaumont
Full results on the Regional
News page. |
National Women's Team Series - Website
Women's racing reached an all time low in 1999 when
the BCF decided to handicap the Bruton Series, an action
that saw a general decline in the number of riders,
followed by a decline in the number of races (3 Bruton
Series events scheduled for 2000); indeed in August
2000 the general feeling was that the Bruton Series
should be allowed 'die'.
Following a meeting with the BCF in Leicester in 1999,
Jenny Gretton and I met in the car park and spoke about
the poor state of women's racing; and after about 30
minutes an outline of the Women's Team Race Series was
formed. |
|
This discussion was
followed in the weeks afterwards, by Jenny and I by
thrashing out a few rules, contacting potential organisers
and the first ever Women's Team Race Series was held
on 30 April 2000 in Bedford - there were 2 other races
in the Series that year with the much missed Maurice
Broadbent organising in Bangor and David Gretton in
Nottingham. |
Also, please take the time to read our
Cycle Racing on
Public Roads notice. This will open a new browser
window. |
