Webcor Womens Pro team, 2010. Photo courtesy of Greg Koch, gkphotography.net
Ever notice how most of, if not all of, the press coverage of cycling, road or mountain, is about the men? If you didn’t know any better you might believe that there are no women in the professional ranks of racing bicycles. On May 16, the Amgen Tour of California took off from Nevada City, and worked its way down to Sacramento, to finish the first stage. Seven days later, it finished down in Southern California. At the press conference, held on May 14, no mention was made of women racing in Sacramento. As it turns out, there was a rather hotly contested women’s race at the downtown finish area. The Sacramento Grand Prix is actually a pretty big criterium, or circuit race, for professional women riders. The following is an article from my examiner.com column, about that race:
“Last Sunday the 2010 Amgen Tour of California left Nevada City and wound it’s way down to Sacramento, arriving just short of 4 hours later. The race ended in Thousand Oaks down in southern California today. The winner of this years ATOC is Michael Rogers of HTC-Columbia.
What isn’t well known is that while the men were working their way to Sacramento last Sunday, a professional women’s criterium was taking place along the finishing circuit in Sacramento.
80 women rode in what was officially called the Sacramento Grand Prix. This is the first year for the SGP, and hopefully it will be repeated next year. Of the 80 women riders, 30 of them hold national and world titles, an amazing statistic. Some of the women in the race are aiming to ride in the 2012 Olympics, and are coached by former Olympians.
The race was 60 minutes and consisted of twenty 1.4 mile loops around the capitol. This race is billed as the largest women’s race in the United States.
The winning team was Peanut Butter and Company Twenty12. 17 year old Coryn Rivera led her team to the first place finish.Colavita-Baci came across in second, led by Modesta Vzesniauskaite, and Webcor Builders was led to the third place finish by Joelle Numanville.
Interviewed after the race, 22 year old Canadian Numanville of Webcor Builders said that there were lots of attacks throughout the race, and it was simply intense. Webcor Builders race director Karen Brems, an Olympian, said that Numanville has been riding 9 years, and that this is her first year as a pro.
The Webcor team, like most of the other women’s teams, is international in make-up. There are 3 Canadians, one Austrian, and 4 American riders on the team. Brems says that the team will be racing throughout the spring and summer. The next race for the women is June 6 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, followed the next weekend by a race in Ottawa, Canada.
The young women riding the pro circuit are every bit as deserving as the men to be on the front pages of the the zines, blogs, newspapers, and magazines of cycling. This column will continue to follow the Webcor Builders team and the women of the pro teams.”
Now, it seems a bit out of place that with women riding professionally that the mainstream press really doesn’t bother much with what they do. The womens races, if you follow bike races, are every bit as intense as the men’s. This rider will continue to highlight the Webcor Womens Professional Cycling Team as time goes on.