THE RAAM WOMEN By Vic Armijo January 16, 2015 We’ll have quite a field of women in RAAM 2015. So far five solos have entered plus one 2-rider ream, two 2-rider mixed teams, five 4-rider teams, eight 4-rider mixed team and for only the second time in RAAM history, an 8-rider all women team. Women have been a part of RAAM since the second race in 1983 when Kitty Goursolle, winner of the first Furnace Creek 508, started only to withdraw after 800 miles when a support vehicle was involved in a serious accident. The following year’s RAAM saw one of the most exciting women’s races in RAAM history when Shelby Hayden-Clifton and Pat Hines finished in a too-close-to-call sprint that was scored as a tie—both were credited with first place at 12 days, 20 hours and 57 seconds with Elaine Mariolle coming in third a day later. In the following years such racers and Susan Notorangelo (3 wins), Mariolle, Casey Patterson, Cindy Staiger, Nancy Rapaso and Cathy Ellis scored wins before the arrival of Seana Hogan who then dominated the rest of the 1990’s, amassing six wins (1992, 93, 94, 95, 97, 98). After her last win Hogan stepped away from RAAM and UltraCycling until coming back to race RAW in 2012. She had an unsuccessful RAM attempt in 2013. Issues with an old knee injury kept her out of last year’s RAAM but she’s slated to give it another go this year and she’s encouraged by this year’s strong women’s roster, “Entries were down to like one or two per year for a while,” she said, “It’s nice that it’s come back up again. There were times in the 90’s when we had 5 or 6 racers. We need more women in UltraCycling. It’s a hard thing for women to do because women are in their prime in their 30’s and that’s when they’ve having kids. It’s hard to recover from babies and hard to train once you have them.” Julie Lyons of the team “Love Sweat and Gears” has a deep passion for RAAM, she’s done it twice and this year will do it again on a 4-rider team. When asked to comment on this year’s strong field she replied, “I think it’s great. I think it says a lot for women that for women who are willing to take a risk, to get on their bikes and try something new.” Among those solos and teams slated to race this year are many rookies. Lyons offered this advice to them, “Always expect the unexpected and no matter what kind of plans you have there are things that are probably going to fall apart—but stick with it. Finishing is probably the best feeling ever. It’s a great feeling of accomplishment no matter what happens.” Among those rookies is the entire roster of the 8-rider team “Bike Like a Girl,” only the second all women 8-rider team to enter RAAM. (The first was 2007’s “Team Donate Life – Heels on Wheels,” who finished in 7 days, 15 hours and 35 minutes—RAAM’s registration coordinator Deirdre Malone Greenholz was a member of that team.) For Bike Like a Girl the race will be a homecoming of sorts—6 of the team’s members are from the Annapolis area. The team was formed by six women who train together for triathlons who then recruited two more members. Their mission is to raise money for three organizations which promote cycling; the World Bicycle Relief Fund, Women’s Cycling Organization, and Bicycle Advocates of Anne Arundel County in Maryland. The World Bicycle Relief Fund provides bicycles for people in African countries to take crops to market and children to school. The Women’s Cycling Association strives to bring gender equity into the male dominated sport by funding the providing funds to girls ages 10-14 to attend cycling camps. The Bicycle Advocates of Annapolis Anne Arundel County works to create a safer bicycling infrastructure in the team’s hometown. The RAAM organization is excited and encouraged by the strong 2015 field, a sentiment that was summed up perfectly by Julie Lyons, “I think that RAAM and RAW are incredible opportunities to compete. I am so thankful that these races exist—I would have never attempted anything of this magnitude on my own. So I’m very excited that there are more women. I love having the competition out there. It will be so much more fun than in the past with so many women’s team out there. We’re all really pumped about that. We love to compete as much as anybody else. I’m just so happy that women are taking an interest and that women are getting on their bikes. I’m excited to have such a field this year. It’s going to really make it so much fun!”
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 19:33:54 +0000
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