Yes this is what I’ve been saying all along.

Some men deny that there is a significant physiologic difference between men and women, they argue like that one guy here does that because they know *one* woman capable of riding faster than they personally do, that ergo *all* women should be able to because they’re lighter and more aero or maybe just they believe most women lack the skills to hang on or they don’t train hard enough. This belief set is not that uncommon, I’ve had it articulated to me in real life on more than one occasion.

Most men, however, understand there is a physiologic difference but they don’t really understand specifically what that difference in such that even when they *dont* want to drop women they still do. Because they are maybe looking at their power meter or assessing their own RPE and they are intending to “go easy” but they don’t know exactly how easy they need to go to make the ride sustainable for a woman. I’m not talking about a hard group ride where the idea is to ride each other into the ground. I’m talking about the easy social ride where the intention is to go out and stay together as a group.

Great example is the “social pace” club century ride. No drop. “We want everyone to join.” But on the way home, up hill, into the wind, the group repeatedly surges power into the 250 watt range and all but two women fall off the back. The men are not trying to drop the women, they just don’t realize specifically that say 215 watt surges would work better if the intention is to keep the group together.