The more I think about it, the more furious I am that the Hillsboro race organizer used Beth's accident as the reason/excuse for chopping the women's 4 race in half. He notes that Beth raced Hillsboro last year.

You bet she did. She raced 44 miles with her brakes rubbing on her wheel and she still came in sixth. She was such a strong and dedicated athlete, she took such joy in racing.

So making the Hillsboro race MORE like the race that she died in, in the name of safety, is just wrong. It's insulting! And it's frightening. A one lap race is so much more likely to be LESS safe than a two lap race.

And I am SO SICK of the women's races always being cut down. They never cut down the men's 4s races. God forbid. [Or the men's 3s -- but they think nothing of cutting the women's open.] I'm sick of being "understanding" of the excuse that the women's fields are so much smaller. Well, SO WHAT!? We still deserve a real race. You'll never grow the sport if all we get are one lap road races and 20 minute crits. Juniors get longer races.

I'm sick of women getting the shaft. I train hard and long, just like the men, why is MY race sacrificed!?