Sanctuary Series Success
Words by Sam Bolton, Race Director. Pics by Mark Uzii, Damien Wyer, Toby Brown, escape.cc
It started as a question on Facebook. Where are all the women? Why aren’t they racing at the crits this season? A discussion followed and all the usual reasons were given: not enough time, too expensive, kids’ sport gets priority, not fit enough, injured etc. etc. These answers were nothing new to those who had asked the question ‘why’ before. And yet, nothing in the crit ecosystem had changed significantly to reduce the barriers for women.
Why don’t we run our own crit series? Vanessa asked. A crit series run by women, for women, where we actually do we what we want to do. What the women want.
Based on facebook discussions and conversations with prospective riders, 4Five+ developed a wish-list for the series:
Cheap: keep entry fees to a minimum
Safe: take it off the road and away from cars, so that’s one less thing to worry about. Limit the number of riders in each race to reduce the risk
Welcoming: create an environment that’s friendly, open, and not intimidating
Timing: most crits are on Sunday mornings. Why not run a twilight series, Saturday evenings so the family can come along, have a bit of a picnic and enjoy some racing?
Encouraging: provide mentoring and coaching sessions for new riders
Supportive: create a teams competition so riders can come along with their friends and race
Allow team members to ride in any grade, to make it easier to form teams with friends
Flexible entries – allow substitutions to cater for riders’ busy schedules
Options: provide a creche so mum can ride and the kids can be entertained
And there was more, we thought of all sorts of ideas: give points to teams that provided volunteers, to encourage partners and friends to come along and help. Run it as a handicap so everyone has a chance of winning. Keep it short and sharp, three races over six weeks, 20 minutes each race.
We took it to our sponsors, who loved the idea and did all they could to help. We took it to AusCycling and the other clubs, who all did what they could to support us with equipment loan, mentoring and publicity.
And so the 4F Sanctuary Summer Series was born.
4Five+ had one aim in creating the series: to provide a fun, safe, encouraging environment where women could enjoy racing. Where women are the centre of attention, and their needs are prioritized. We were trying a lot of new things, nothing like this had been done in WA before – what if no-one came? We thought ‘starting small is OK, if we get 10-15 riders turn up we will be happy’. We got more than that. We had 77 riders register over the course of the series, hitting field capacity of 60 riders in Round 2. That’s more women turning up to race than at any other crit race all season. And the cross-section of riders was fantastic: D Grade was hugely popular, there was a strong contingent of women under 23, and it was great to see large numbers of our triathlete-cousins testing the crit waters.
Every event was fun, relaxed, casual and a great evening out. And the wish-list? We nailed it.
Results
Sanctuary Summer Series Team Prize: 1. XSpeed 2. Spotty JAM 3. Fine Young Cannibals
Rider 45+ 1. Anne Bramley 2. Dennise Laurence 3. Sue Beattie
Rider of the Series - Erin Hall
An event like the Sanctuary Summer Series doesn’t happen without an army of volunteers. Thank you.
Alison Duffy, Ann Clifton, Anthea Stacey, Ben Thorman, Cheryl Dal Passo, Claire Sibbel, David Menarry, Deb Kempe, Finlay McRobbie, Fraser McRobbie, Gary Hurren, Greg Murray, Iain Dow, Clive Jones, Ian McRobbie, Isak Manning, Janine Kaye, Jethro Nagle, Jo Boulton, Joe Winfield, Jodi Earnshaw, Joe Winfield, Jon Hanson, Julian Johnson, Kate Byrne, Marc Robbshaw, Brad Kaye, Richard Barville, Sabine Bird, Sam Bolton, Sam Flockhart, Sarah Noble, Shirley Vine, Teneal Attard, Vanessa Johnson
Thank you to our generous sponsors. Please support them when you can!
The Sanctuary - a safe place, which helps people who have survived, violence, trauma and mental illness
Just like it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to put on a cycling race - thank you to the following clubs and organisations for your support of women's cycling:
AusCycling - Western Australia
