Originally Posted by
Doge
When you posted about mixing it up with Cat 1/2 I thought that meant a race, and having never seen that, I was interested, and wanted to look her up. The groups are too far apart for the fastest women to compete (meaning contend) in a men's Cat 1/2 race of significant size.
We can go pages as to why, but you only need to look at results and speeds to see that is true. This is a bit like comparing MMA to boxing. They are different.
As in any non-open class field there are exceptions that make that competitor have an apparent advantage over their class. Yet another reason I don't like the class/grouping system.
It is a race, albeit a weekly series. The field is mostly 1/2/3 dudes. She finishes behind the 1/2 guys but with the 3s. Not an enormous field but for me it's still impressive. Another cat 2 girl who the pro actually coaches was allowed to do a 1/2/3 circuit race with the guys, she finished in the field for that one.
I know lady pros aren't going to beat equally well trained male racers for obvious reasons, I was just sharing an anecdote that, at least locally, the fastest ladies can humble all but the fastest men.