Jane West

Lowcountry VW Racing Team, Womens Cat. 3.

Goose Creek, SC

Hear Jane and her family talk about bicycle racing.

Jane West is one of Charleston’s fastest women.  She finished first in the Category 4 I’On Races in 2005 and 2006, powering her carbon composite bike at 30 miles per hour around the turns on the technical I’On Course.  She races for the Lowcountry Volkswagen team.   If you’re looking for her, keep your eyes out for a red bike with red tires, and look quickly, because Jane races fast and hard.  That got her a gold medal for women racers aged 40 to 44 in Yamasee South Carolina back in 2006, one of many trophies and medals Jane’s collected.

Many of the women like to slow down on the corners, but Jane likes to dig in and keep her speed up.  She knows the races are won in turns.  Her daring work on the infamous turn three, where racers at I’On gamble, win and lose, got her to the finish line first.  She can sustain the long sprints that make up time moving South on Ponsbury and West on Sowell at I’On.

Image, Left- Jane takes Turn 3 at I'On.

Jane is no little girl.  A mother with  teen age daughters of her own, Jane started racing later in life than many of her younger competitors.  She stays ahead of them by training on the long, hard rides with the men and the willingness to push harder than her competition.  Jane’s daughters love to come to the races and cheer Mom on.  The I’On race, with its narrow streets and porches full of noisy, cheering spectators is a favorite for all three of them.

When she's not cycling, Jane is a Professor at Trident Technical college.  She holds a PhD. in Mathematics.

Jane chose carbon composite for her bike because she likes the way it absorbs some of the shock of her hard riding, including the tight turns over the cobbled corners in I’On.  The give in the bike helps keep the rubber on the road.

As much as Jane loves racing, and winning, she wants more competition.  She encourages other ladies to give cycle racing a try.  Speed in the women’s courses continues to advance.  Tactics there are now as complex and competitive as any found when the boys are on their bikes. 

In 2007 Jane moved up to the faster and more competitive women’s racing in Category 3.

Jane isn’t afraid of long, demanding rides.  She helped pioneer a new “metric century” training route which covers 66 hilly miles beginning and ending on the sleepy main street of little Cameron, SC in February 2008.

Jane  started out 2008 with pancakes and coffee with other members of the team at fellow Cyclist John Glover’s home downtown at 7:30 am on New Years day before a group ride out to Park West in Mt. Pleasant and from there out into the Francis Marion Forest on Steed Creek Road.  Many leg burning hours later, she was back home, after having warmed up for the racing season ahead, honing the skills of rotating the lead with other team members to conserve energy for that final burst which reaches the finish line.  When she got home, she wrote, “I must admit, the New Year's ride was a little harder than I bargained for.” to the team’s Yahoo mail group.

Right- Jane at the starting line

Having worked off the egg nog and fruitcake, Jane was soon pushing fellow team members to join her on the Polar Bear Metric Century in Davidson, North Carolina a few days later.  She’s just back from another hard, competitive race in Greenville  in March where she took both her daughters for a fast, family weekend.  That and a lot of other hard, long training, has made Jane ready for the 2008 I’On.  She’s well known in the local bike racing community and a popular, approachable member of the team at the parties held as part of the I’On event.  Jane has a few fans to cheer her on this year outside the family, but the loudest cheers always come from her girls.

Jane’s glad for the encouragement for her, and the other riders.  She’s the first to encourage others, always ready to help.  Just don’t look for any mercy on turn three from Jane, where Ponsbury turns into Sowell and races are decided at I’On.  Jane’s come a long way, thousands of miles, each one of them headed towards the finish line on Shelmore Blvd., next to Maybank Green.

 

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