Originally Posted by
OBoile
This isn't an official professional race. And no, most World Tour teams have ~30 riders and only some get to ride in each race. Phil, for instance, despite being on a World Tour team was not close to being able to ride in the Tour de France or any other grand tour. IIRC he got to ride Paris-Roubaix due to a last minute injury to one of the guys scheduled to ride but generally he wasn't riding in the big races. He was the equivalent of a bench warmer who generally only rode in minor races or as a filler in order to field a complete team. He made the minimum salary for the short time he was able to stay at the top.
If you don't know what "World Tour" means, perhaps you should be listening more and commenting less. Yes it is an official distinction. There are 3 tiers of professional teams with World Tour being the top.
The point is, the gap between the ~#5 male cyclist in the world and someone who was the equivalent of a minor league player is smaller than the gap between that minor league player and the top women.
Ok got it.. but your refutation that the fastest women are not faster than the slowest men was not supported by your evidence. And, you're right, I don't know what the distinction is between "elite" and "world tour" categories. Nibali is labelled as only elite but I have to imagine he's really world tour. And none of this speaks to why you're arguing that the field can't be mixed gender at the start. If all the women were to really finish at the back, then so be it. Do we really think that a women's team leads will always generally finish behind the mens' teams domestiques? This is a genuine question.