Womens CX Race why Bother?

Last year when considering the next Cycle Sport Pendle cross races the thought occurred to have a ladies only race, when I floated this as an idea on my FB page & twitter Cheryl King of CKingImages Photography dropped me a line and said do it and she would sponsor it. Easy as that? NWWCA organisers meeting and the idea got a rather non plused reaction, why do it, they won't ride, women are happy to race amongst the men were a few of the observations that were made around the table. I really wanted the race to be counted against the league, however that wasn't going to happen, (slowly slowly catch the monkey), but by the end a few organisers were starting to see that it wasnt such a daft idea and the thought of a mini series to run along side the league next season was floated. All eyes would be on the Ladies race at Waddow - nothing like a little pressure. So Alan aka crossjunkie & I set out to create a course that would allow ladies to taste cx racing without it being too difficult or testing, but was that enough to simply design a course that would hopefully appeal? The answer I think was no, so we decided to try to start some ladies only training sessions that would help with techniques required in cx and to give ladies a chance to aquire them with other ladies. The first session we had ten ladies pitch up and learn how to dismount, remount, tackle a hurdle and ride around in mud. All left with a smile on their faces and nothing brocken. over the months we ran more sessions at various locations and covered corning, descents, starts and getting riders to flow with their bikes, each session had around 10 ladies attending. So was it worth it???? At the outset I was hoping we would get 10 ladies on the start line, then as the weeks went by and more interest seemed to be generated I thought we might get 15

image thanks to CKingImages 21 - yes 21 ladies gathered on the start line. I had 4 ladies contact me who for various reason couldnt make it on the day. The racing was great to watch and the faces were fantastic to see

Many thanks to CKing Images for sponsoring the event & for the fantastic photos you see here, plus the encouragement to put the event on. So next season the Ladies Race will be on again, better than last time, more ladies having a go and lets get more people supporting the race more cow bells more cheering more noise If you are thinking of adding a ladies race to your event stop thinking about it and do it