Originally Posted by
Dan333SP
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.
That is about what I see.
I raced with Connie Carpenter and Rebecca Twigg at the Acton RR - cat 4, maybe 3 can't remember. Both were faster than me up the hill, not so much down :-)
I think most know there are differences, but some I meet don't.
What I find most have less idea about is juniors. The fastest USA amateur national level races are usually juniors. That surprises many.