I almost hurled when I read this article posted last week on Velo News.
Amgen Tour of California organizer AEG appears set to launch a women’s elite time trial to accompany the men’s event in Solvang in May. According to several sources, invitations for the SRAM-backed event went out a week ago, and the purse will be paid based on the number of men the women beat.
Why not just make the women race in bikini’s too? Oh wait, the sponsor’s logo’s wouldn’t fit so well on a two piece.
I don’t get it. I mean, seriously? Boys against girls? Girls can do anything boys can do! Are we in 5th grade gym class? I’m not saying these women can’t beat the men, but what the fuck does that have to do with the payout? I hope this was just an idea some asshole thought of and I am glad Velo News found out about it and posted it. I also hope AEG ToC gets enough shit that they won’t actually go through with this nonsense. Unless they pay them a sick amount of money for each man they beat. I kinna doubt that though.
I don’t understand why the women can’t have their own race and why they can’t just give them a decent payout. They manage to do a great job in some of the Cyclocross races – UCI3, USGP – why can’t they get their fucking shit together for road racing?
I asked my friend Low Brow to weigh in on the subject this time around. She is super smart and had some intelligent opinions I wanted to include in this post. Low Brow is also working on a documentary about this very subject and has done some research.
“To have your performance rewarded (and in turn VALUED) in terms of how it “measures up to “ male performance as the “standard of achievement” sends a very specific message: whether you trained just as hard, spent as many hours, and have dedicated yourself as much, you are devalued unless you meet the male standard criteria…
Obviously, in a sport such as cycling, the goal is, more or less, to cross the finish line first. And yes, male physiology gives us the general predictable outcome of males having faster speeds, more power (although one sports physiology researcher I recently interviewed went on to discuss the ability of women to outperform in ultra distance endurance events due to ability to metabolize fat differently, but I have not been able to verify the research myself yet). And indeed, a woman of equal approximate level in the profession beating male cyclists is quite and accomplishment. However, my assertion is that to make a direct value judgment based solely on comparison to male performance as the STANDARD or GOAL of the event, and to PAY ONLY based on this value determination creates a statement that has permeated our culture layers deep: Females are thus judged as being only as good as the male traits and behaviors they can emulate or “live up to” or in this case, top. In essence our work is only equated as valuable as much as it can be measured by the male norm standard. This particular race blatantly demonstrates this in direct value of the payouts. You only get paid if you measure up to our males.”
These women are more bad ass than you.
Tour of Flanders pictures from CyclingNews.com
After coming across this post on PodiumInsight, I was stoked. Lyne Lamoureux has done her homework and knows which races she will be supporting. This is hella good news:
The SRAM Tour of the Gila is offering up more money to the women ($19,000) than then men ($18,400) while the Tour of Toona is making it equal, $55,000.00 purse for the women, and the same amount for the men.
Then there’s this lame crap.
The CapCrit p/b WCSA in Washington DC on October 2 which lists on its website a purse of $15,000 for the men and $250 for the women.
Some race promoters get it, and other’s just think it’s 1952. I say it’s high time these women and their managers take a good long look at the races that support women with equal payouts and fuck the rest. Easier said than done, I know, because…..
This is a Man’s World – James Brown
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwuO2dfqrF4[/youtube]
…read aeg sports/messicks concept statement & it’s fairly benign…there is no attempt to create ‘women vs men’ spectacle or controversy through the format…
…perhaps it should be a separate prize list for the women ‘with’ a substantial added bonus for any women beating the men’s times…
…these guys will have 6 days of racing in there legs & the women’s field is an invitational of some of the top time-trialists in the country…it is an opportunity to showcase a limited number of the best women riders in front of huge crowds…
…it can be a case of ‘win/win’ or it can be a case of ‘let’s piss on our own sidi’s’…wonder how it’ll play out ???…
wems an mens are diff. they should be defined as such but share the same system of measure within each group.
@Mikey re #49 – I’m not sure I follow your point on the accessibility angle (not to say I am digging my heels in to disagree, I am just not following). Can you elaborate? My initial gut reaction is that viewers/fans want to see superheroes, larger than life, etc (from both male and female athletes). Granted, I am basing this purely on anecdotal evidence and personal opinion, nothing more… so there is a lot of room for rebuttal there. Just interested in hearing more of your idea on this.
@Mikey – def agree on the stand out aspect of WTA’s massive success though (although I would think LPGA is up there too).
@Low Brow— “accessibility” is an oblique argument, but I think it’s credible. The idea is that we’re watching an athlete do something we might do, we can relate. I agree that “super heroes” might be what I want to watch on Mont Ventoux, etc., but in ladies’ tennis, it’s literally the absence of the 150 MPH serve that makes it watchable.
So it’s “Drunktennisplayer” now? I just can’t seem to keep up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUfdiLXxIb4&feature=player_embedded
@57 – yowsa – what the fuck were they doing over the yellow line? thanks for posting that. i had no idea they had a cat 4 division for that race. hot damn.
looks like a dirt road to me. definitely there’s no yellow line though. girlfriend bladed into a soft patch of dirt on the right shoulder then vectored left back in into the bunch.
…watch it real close…it’s like a ‘speed wobble’ with no real traction in the dirt…
…initially her front wheel slips to her left which prompts her momentum & weight to carry her to the right…she tries to straighten it up, oversteers & the wheel instantly washes out to the right, throwing her onto her left side so quickly that she rolls sideways on her back with the bike still attached, taking out the other two riders…
…reasonably high velocity, hard-pack dirt road with gravel patches, road tires…definitely a combination that requires skills acquired over time…
…tour of the battenkill…pro-am…64 miles, pave’ & dirt…floyd landis rode to 2nd last year…
rump-shaker’s Video embedded:
and damn if that wasn’t a god smack. I watched it about 10 times and that shit looked like a loosing battle right from the start. Damn.
we get dq’d here if we cross that yellow line.
Ugh, I can’t watch it.
@Mikey – Thanks for clarification. Now, forgive me if I’m oversimplifying here, but how do we reconcile this accessibility point that you are making (for womens tennis) with the argument posed by other participants in the overall debate, stating that female cyclist will not (and some have said should not) gain equal compensation or market viability, because they do not reach the same speeds as the men out there on the road?
@Low Brow— aye, there’s the rub; as several have pointed out, the clock doesn’t care if your male or female. Thus, the TT doesn’t compare well to tennis.
It’s a matter of tactics. In tennis, the ladies play a serve-and-volley game because (almost) no one has a killer serve. Not much tactics in a TT.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUfdiLXxIb4&feature=player_embedded the video is private? what is with that?
…low brow & mikey…what’s going to be interesting now that there is a straight up $10,000 to be split between the 12 women riders, however the organizers deem fit for the placings, you know there will be a reference as to how the women would have fared had the original format been followed…
…& personally, i’m interested as fuck to know…
…the whole issue is like handling the proverbial hot potato while standing on the proverbial slippery slope, if i’m allowed to mix my metaphors…
…but something i noted was that a number of the women that will actually be racing were very specific about seizing the opportunity, even in it’s original format because they realize there aren’t as many chances for women’s racing with the economy being what it is, so this was a gift horse they weren’t going to look in the mouth…
…in a bad economy sometimes idealism & reality don’t always equate…