I’m a pretty mediocre bike racer, but this weekend, my name made cycling news. Not, like, a headline, but if you click on the results for this weekend’s NEPCX elite women’s race at Cycle-Smart International in Northampton, there I am on the same page as Crystal Anthony and Laura Van Gilder. I might send it to my grandma.

I’m a cat 3. There are easily 30-50 women racing regularly in the 3/4 fields of the northeast who are decisively better at cyclocross than me. I think they – all of them! you! – should be racing in the elite field at UCI races, too. Here’s why:

First, it’s easy. Somewhere between general and specialized knowledge of cycling regulations is the fact that what makes you “elite” is forking over the cash for an international license. The $90 sounds like a lot, but compared to the bikes and the kits and the travel and the entry fees over the ‘cross season, what’s another $90? You also have to learn how to pin numbers on your arms, which is no small task, but I have faith in the fact that you can find friends to do it for you.

Second, I was, in fact, good enough to do it: Saturday I had mechanical problems and had to run about a kilometer with my bike to get to the pit (n.b. the horrific experience of running/hobbling with your bike for an extended distance while trying not to look like a complete idiot is when you learn who your friends are), so I was pulled after two laps.

But Sunday, I finished on the lead lap, well within the UCI 80% rule – and several people finished behind me. Perhaps I didn’t do well comparatively (I got none of that cash money promised to the top 25), but I beat a few people who I always assumed were better than me because they had been stepping up to the elite start line long before I decided to.

If I can do it, so can everyone who has kicked my butt so far this year.

Third, and perhaps more importantly, it makes a statement. Something really awesome is happening in New England lately: women are showing up. Gloucester had almost 100 women in the 3/4 race on the first day. Providence was pushing 135 on both days. CSI had about 75-80 each day – almost exactly the same number of women that registered for Cross Crusade in Portland, except the latter had twice as many men. This is GREAT. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

But. But but but. When you take a step back and look at the bigger picture, its the elite races that get all of the attention. Those results go in the magazines, get posted on websites, and are more likely to live on into posterity. Those are the ones that the promoters put the most time, money, and effort into. Those are the ones that often pay equally.

Women are starting to carve out a niche for themselves, proving to race promoters and journalists and fans that they deserve the time and attention that they get on the schedule and in the prize money. But registration is still relatively low for the elite races, compared to both the men and the lower category.

What if those of us who are decent enough to pass for elites (and some who are way more than decent – you know who you are) did so? What if the top 25 women from the amateur field in any UCI race this year registered for the elite field? It would be sad for me because I’d get 55th rather than 30th, but overall it would be an excellent, ballsy move. People would notice. It would be Talked About. And it would be incredibly good for women’s cycling.

Or, you know, you could just keep angling for that podium/top 10 in the women’s 3/4 race, and I’ll continue rocking the bicep numbers like a pro.

Ladies bicycle soiree, circa 1900. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

According to an interview with McQuinn last week, “The AFC is now running just fine on daises and chocolates, as promised, and we are looking forward to the upcoming season.” Unfortunately, some of the bigger promises made by the organization’s founders, such as minimum salary requirements for all female riders, seem stuck with McQuinn’s old CX Sidi’s in Bruges. A spokesperson for the new organization — an anonymous Twitter account called @VeloHoHo — announced today that some changes will have to be made to the structure of the organization due to insufficient funding.

It is not yet clear what exactly the changes will be, as @VeloHoHo spent the morning jumping back and forth between tweeting the organization’s news, taunting @JohanBruyneel, and exchanging “Women’s cycling rules!” tweets with @Vanderkitten.

What is clear is that the minimum salary requirement is teetering on the edge of unsalvageable. According to @VeloHoHo’s furious tweeting, the $20,000 per year minimum will be instituted for every team except the once-mighty Solyndra2030. The team’s title sponsor announced last week it could not meet its financial obligations (something to do with Lance Armstrong forcing the CEO to mismanage his energy business). However, the company is still committed to seeing its name on every race through the end of its contract. As the AFC no longer have sufficient funding to remake its marketing materials without Solyndra, they have decided to honor the company’s wishes — at least until they successfully petition the EU for bailout money.

Furthermore, the Solyndra team will continue to function under a Women’s World Tour license, as the AFC is somewhat dependent on the well-connected director of the team, who has made it clear that she will enslave her riders before disbanding the team. She later backtracked and said she didn’t actually want to force her riders into slavery. “I meant more like indentured servitude,” she said.

The League has decided to overlook unpaid salary minimums for that Solyndra’s riders, believing that the women are better off living on ClifBars than finding themselves unemployed in January (it was also mentioned behind closed doors that it might not look good for the new league to appear to kick some of its top talent to the curb in its first month). A Solyndra rider who asked not to be identified dismissed the controversy, noting the money had not dried up yet. “My salary has been cut since last year, but I still probably get paid more than a cycling journalist,” she added dryly.

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La Pélotone is a Cyclismas column dedicated to Shane Ferro’s not-so-serious daydreams about a world that takes women’s cycling seriously. You can follow her on Twitter @shaneferro.

The AFC announced they were in talks to add women’s versions of the major classics, including Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, and the Tour of Flanders, all to be broadcast on ESPN. A representative for the AFC told Cyclismas that station executives, though they publicly stated altruistic reasons for promoting women in sport, were persuaded that their base audience might tune in once the AFC explained it more slowly: “Five hours. Of women. In spandex.” According to one witness, the reaction in the boardroom included the glazed-over eyes of 11 middle-aged white men and an eye roll from the sole female executive at the meeting.

“It’s not the way we wanted to win this one,” said the AFC spokesperson, “But this is American television we’re talking about — if you don’t go for sex, you’ve got to go for violence. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a convincing Tonya Harding in the peloton.”

Reached by phone, a top American women who wished to remain anonymous was in tears over the new $20,000 minimum salary, which will be mandated by the association. “It’s been five years since I had a day without ramen,” she said. She expressed hope that more people will tune into women’s racing once more women could afford to dedicate themselves to training full-time. “The speed of the peloton is probably going to increase by 5 mph on average, now that we’re going to be paid enough to eat.”

Asked to comment on the loss of women in the sport, UCI president Pat McQuaid responded, “What women?”

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La Pélotone is a Cyclismas column dedicated to Shane Ferro’s daydreams about a world that takes women’s cycling seriously. You can follow her on Twitter @shaneferro.