In an e-mail to Life Time Grand Prix athletes, the race assortment organizers launched {{that a}} no-drafting rule shouldn’t be going to be utilized this 12 months.
In gravel racing, the boys’s and women’s fields, elite and beginner alike, all cope with the race course throughout the similar time. This has led to quite a few factors and controversies, considerably for the women’s skilled space. For one, the start frenzy and mingling fields suggest that the riders should navigate heavy guests sooner than they’ll race their very personal race. Secondly, on account of inter-field drafting is permitted, some women riders have capitalized on the presence of male riders to realize a bonus.
An occasion of this tactic occurred all through the 2023 Unbound Gravel race, the place Carolin Schiff capitalized on an acceleration made by Dutchman Ivar Slik to interrupt free from the pack. Likewise, many women inside the chase behind her moreover used the drafts of males in an effort to realize ground. Whereas this system is all through the rules and has confirmed worthwhile, it has moreover drawn criticism. Some argue that the current racing format impedes women from competing independently, free of interference or assist from completely different lessons.
In an effort to cope with the mass start guests, the seven Life Time Grand Prix events this 12 months will see separate staging and send-offs for the elite males and elite women lessons. These time gaps fluctuate from a few minutes to a full half hour. That’s, however, most helpful for the elite males, whose race is now absolutely free of inter-mingling of lessons, or at least until the sharp end of the elite women’s space catches up.
In an effort to generate a additional even collaborating in space – when having a separate race altogether isn’t potential – some riders have generally known as on race organizers to implement a no-drafting rule. This rule would prohibit riders from one class to draft off riders from one different class.
After months of debate, consultations and deliberation, Life Time presently educated riders {{that a}} no-draft rule merely isn’t doable.
“…we in the long run actually really feel we will’t implement a set of drafting tips which may be potential to implement over the applications of our events completely and fairly,” Life Time’s Promoting and advertising Director Bekah Sands states.
“Whereas that is in all probability not the selection a couple of of you’ve got been hoping for, your points on enforcement have been heard loud and clear. In the long term, we don’t want to roll out a rule that we will’t accurately implement all through our large applications.”
Sands continued with an assurance that Life Time is dedicated to advancing women’s racing by implementing separate begins for the women’s skilled elite space the least bit of its events with wider time gaps inside the events ahead.
For lots of riders inside the skilled peloton, the separate race begins shouldn’t be adequate and the announcement obtained right here as a disappointment.
Sofia Gomez Villafañe, a former Unbound winner and defending champion of the Life Time Grand Prix assortment, took to social media, writing, “Finding out an e-mail like this breaks my coronary coronary heart…
“I truly believed [the race organizers] have been going to find out a method to provide the elite women a race that might be shielded from start to finish and by no means allow any males to impact the race dynamics or finish consequence.”
She expressed gratitude for the separate race begins and elevated time gaps in 2024, however moreover states that an equal race different in gravel racing stays to be a strategies off.
“I actually really feel like on the end of the day it’s solely a logistical inconvenience to supply the women the race we deserve,” she writes.
Deanna Mayles, one different Grand Prix athlete, echoed Villafañe’s sentiment, writing: “I’m moreover disillusioned. I’d personally prefer to have the similar different/ experience that the doorway of the boys’s race will get. Would utterly change the dynamic and the women would should be additional strategic about timing efforts inside their race.”
Notably, the UCI has managed to stay away from this battle from the start by having the women and men elite fields race on utterly completely different days. Whereas logistical constraints forestall this the least bit events, it stays a topic of intense debate as gravel racing continues to professionalize and riders’ careers are at stake.
