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Want to race with long hair? Fine.

My ponytail and I don't get fined racing in other nations.

“Says here your number was folded,” the head referee tells me.

“I don’t fold my numbers,” I say, turning to show her the back of my cycling jersey and the two gigantic yet neatly pinned race numbers, splayed across the expanse of my upper back in their entire, unfolded glory. I am number 282. Clearly says so, in what appears to be Times New Roman, 400-hundred point font. Bold. Twice on my back and once on my bicycle.

“Hmmm,” she says.

I am at the sign-in table of the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic bicycle race in Massachusetts, a four-day stage race celebrating its 50^th anniversary. A wonderful event with marvelous competition and terrific organization. And slightly nearsighted refs. Today is day three, and on the sign-in sheet (where we are required to give our signature each day) my name is highlighted in florescent pink marker. So too are the names of four other female cyclists in the professional women’s category. I roll my eyes, as things like florescent marker stripes, asterisks, or underlines are usually indicative of penalties, disqualification, or fines. Or perhaps nearsighted referees. There is no penalty explanation written next to my day-glo name, and I am advised to check the wall. The referee points to a wall with sheets of paper taped to it. The wall tells me that I am “in violation of rule 4H7a” but neither the wall nor the paper say any more. 

“What is 4H7a?” I ask the ref. Random numbers and letters are another bad sign, and I immediately fear 4H7a is the H1N1 of the cycling rulebook.

“I don’t know,” she admits.

“Well, how much is the fine?”

“Twenty dollars.”

I wrack my brain over yesterday’s race details. Didn’t cross the yellow lines. Didn’t cause a crash. Didn’t litter. Didn’t cut the course. Didn’t take EPO. Didn’t use unsportsmanlike conduct. Didn’t yell at a referee. (Yet). Didn’t finish high enough for anyone to really pay any attention to me at all. What the heck did I do? I turn and walk away, shaking my head. Hell if I’m gonna pay a twenty dollar fine when the ref doesn’t even—

“Know what it is!” she calls after me. “Your hair. It’s too long. Probably covered the number. That’s an obstruction.”

 

 

In the bathroom near the race start, I take a handheld mirror and check out the back of my head. I have a low ponytail roped into a thin, tight braid. The ponytail is where it has to be, at the bottom of my scalp, as the mandatory helmet takes up the rest of my head’s real estate. The very bottom of my braid barely even tickles the top border of one race number. I hunch up my shoulders, and lo! The braid lowers itself onto half of the first numeral, the two, in 282. Oh good god, I think to myself. Is the economy that bad? Am I really being charged $20 for this… obstruction? I put my braid in a bun and race with the hairy knot in an uncomfortable, hot, snagging purgatory between my neck and helmet.

 

I am not a high maintenance woman. I am a bike racer. Half of my life is spent in cycling clothing, which is often made for men. There are bugs in my hair, dirt on my face, lugies on my shoulder (yeah, yeah, I know, don’t spit into the wind), and an unidentifiable layer of grime on my entire body for the majority of each day. I am okay with this. Just let me have my ponytail. Not because it’s part of my personal identity of femininity, but because it isn’t right to fine an athlete when the system is at fault.

 

 

Before we start taxing athletes for having long hair, we need to make sure that the error doesn’t lie within the “obscured” system. Let’s look at the paper race numbers. In the world of cycling, only USA-based events use race numbers that are literally double or triple the size of race numbers in other countries. All the other nations use small square numbers, usually 4in x 4in. The two numbers are pinned on the back pockets of the jersey, which sit at the rider’s waist/lower back. Hair length is not an issue, for men or women. Only in the USA do we have two numbers, some measuring 5in x 8in which race directors require we attach to our upper backs. For any cyclist, let alone females, there’s not a lot of upper back to begin with. Wear them any lower, and the numbers overlap—that’s another fine. Sure, the huge, high placed numbers are easier for refs to read. But with video playback at finish lines and multiple ways to tell professional cyclists apart (team jerseys, bike numbers, our faces, etc) I’m not sure we need three enormous sheets of paper pinned to our bikes and beings. So, why such a big size and placement discrepancy with our numbers? Because our supersized USA-manufactured race numbers include sponsor names and slogans. Instead of just “282”, our race numbers also read “Fitchburg Longsjo Classic, 50^th Anniversary” or “Citibank” or “Pete’s Pasta Palace.” That’s a lotta room, a lotta paper. I’m all for sponsorship and advertising—our sport relies on it—but when it comes down to a rider getting a fine for not being a proper billboard, then something’s wrong. My job is to race a bicycle. The refs’ job is to make sure we do it fairly. Not to hand out fines for ponytails. A race director might argue that my particular fine had nothing to do with the sponsor logos being covered by my ponytail, but that my actual number was obstructed at the moment I crossed the finish line. Ok. Well, in the event that half-a-digit of my three-digit, 400-point font number plastered onto three different parts of my bicycle and me, which was viewable to three different refs and also re-viewable on video camera, might not be legible… there’s still a common sense factor missing. All of the women in the race were given numbers in the 200s. Just as all the pro men had numbers in the 100s or lower. So, even though the last two (highly visible) digits of my number “-82” should have sufficed just fine in deducing I was female rider 282, there were three other context clues that clearly could have helped out those refs who were confused by my “obscured” number:

 

a)      I’m in a race surrounded by women

b)      I am a woman

c)      I have a ponytail

 

As for rule 4H7a, the USA Cycling rulebook decreesany“number or frameplate altered, mutilated, badly positioned, or covered at the finish” is entitled to a first offense fine of $20. Next offense, $35 and third strike and you’re out via disqualification. Technically, if my number only covered 1/6^th of my total race number, I should only pay $3.33.