Fiona Kolbinger, overall winner of transcontinental ultra cycling race

So women are more strategic and mentally tougher than men and that allows them to succeed in ultra-endurance sports?

I just felt a fresh wave of rage at all the snide bastards who've implied that female athletes need to work harder or improve their attitude and they'll be able to compete on a level playing field with transwomen. How dare they insult women like that.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-49284389

Interesting take on women and ultra endurance events

The women's alternative to the Tour de France is called La Course.

Started in 2014, it consisted of one or two stages, until there was uproar last year when it reverted to a single short stage.

They are working on it:

There were a bunch of terrific women doing the Tour De France this year*, a day ahead of the men, I think largely to try to get momentum behind a full stage women's race.

*it looks like one group of French women have done this every year since 2015 - Donnons des elles au Velo and this year InternationELLES joined them: www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/48873611

I tried to keep an eye out for coverage but missed it - I'd bloody LOVE to watch a women's TDF event on telly.

(Fantastic fantastic achievement by Fiona Kolbinger)

www.islabikes.co.uk/knowledge/news/beryl-burton/

Coming soon!

"to be clear women could compete in a female TDF with no issues, but not in the same race as men"

Isn't it ironic that transwoman Natalie Van Gogh, at the age of 44, can still get a 3rd place against the best women racing cyclists in the World.
This is turning sport into a farce, it has to stop.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natalie_van_Gogh

In the recent UK National 24 hours time trial championship, there were around 90 competitors, all highly trained endurance cyclists. Both competition records were broken on the day and Christina Murray who set the new women's comp record of 478.42 miles finished in 12th place overall an incredible result.

www.ttlegends.org/mens-womens-year/?mile=24&gen=0&y=2019

to be clear women could compete in a female TDF with no issues, but not in the same race as men

" Why don't women compete in the Tour de France? Not gruelling enough"

no, women have an inferior lean muscle mass to men. women have more fat, and at an elite male fat % women would be dead.

men's bodies are more efficient at hauling them up mountains and women have no chance.

events like these can be won by women because they aren't about the best cyclists, they are about sleep deprivation etc.

I think for an event like this the non physical effects are very significant

Without discounting the existence of physical factors that may make women better at endurance sports (I wouldn't be surprised if there are some biological perks to having a body that has evolved to carry a human or two constantly for several months), we know that when grit and determination are more important than physical strength, women can win.

I know 3 day eventing is often seen 'posh sport', but there is nothing 'feminine' about being thrown from a horse, and women compete and win against men in solo round the world yacht races.

However, there is no evidence whatsoever that Kolbinger's brillianct performance means that a woman will some day beat Usain Bolt.

Why don't women compete in the Tour de France? Not gruelling enough?

Women do compete in multi stage events, and there have been women's Tour de Frances, but you need sponsorship and co-operation to organise an event like that.

It's only really this year that anybody has taken much notice of the Women's FIFA World Cup, and that is largely because there is such strong support for women's football in the US.

Money talks.

I think for an event like this the non physical effects are very significant. There is no set route, only checkpoints that they need to go through. It is down to the competitors how long they sleep for. It is totally solo, so no support crew. As much as anything in events like these it is really difficult to find out what the limits are on endurance. As such, there is a lot of potential for records to be smashed. (For example, the coast to coast walk record is just under 40 hours, but when it was set it knocked over 7 hours off the previous record.) That does not diminish her achievement at all but it does mean that it cannot really be used to say that women are as fast as men (plus the statistical factors already mentioned).

There is an argument that pregnancy is the most taxing 'endurance event' of all:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/08/pregnancy-endurance-test-human

• I would say that Beryl is our best athlete of all time, but how many people have even heard of her?

It's not currently available, don't know if it will be aired again but this was good:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p0fpl

Or there's this which looks like it is still up
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02k1swc

This is a fantastic achievement and another rare example of how women can beat men in ultra endurance events. As an ex cyclist (not "cyclepath" though , I remember when the late, great Beryl Burton was racing on the track, in time trials and on the road. She was phenomenal.
In 1967, Beryl achieved something truly outstanding, she won the Women's national 12 hour time trial championship, setting a distance which was further than the men's record, also set at the same event in the Men's championship. She did in fact, catch and pass Mike McNamara who broke the 9 year old men's record. Beryl set a distance of 277.25 miles and it was two years before the men's record exceeded that distance.
It took 50 years for another woman to go further than Beryl, and that was with all the aero advantages which exist nowadays.

I would say that Beryl is our best athlete of all time, but how many people have even heard of her?

www.casquette.co.uk/people/queens-of-pain-beryl-burton

So this is just a unusual case where the men just aren't as good as the women, rather than the women having an advantage.

I can't prove it, but I'm fairly sure this is the case.

I'm struggling to put this into words, without drawing diagrams and using phrases like 'small n samples', but I'll have a go. In events which are really popular (for instance marathon running) the difference between the fastest man and the fastest woman in a major race is probably fairly representative of the difference between fast men and fast women in general. However in these niche ultra-endurance events you can get cases where the best man is very good (for a man) whereas the best woman is excellent (for a woman). And the excellent woman beats the very good man.

The number of women doing ultra-endurance events is small (having the confidence to do something 'out there' does seem to be an issue). And the difference between world records will likely get smaller as more women do them. But there's no evidence that the difference is going to disappear, or change sign.

In the mid-pack (where I live...), women do often seem to out-perform men of similar raw ability, by executing (i.e. eating, drinking, pacing,) better. However at the sharp end, the best men don't all screw these things up.

By "unusual case" I mean that the numbers are so small that the averages don't play out, not that it's unusual that women are technically better at something! That sounded better in my head.

These women (Fiona Kolbinger, Sharon Gayter, Jasmin Paris) are extremely impressive. Using their performances to claim that women are equal to (or even better than) men at ultra distances (IMHO) in fact undervalues their achievements.

Thanks dapoxen. So this is just a unusual case where the men just aren't as good as the women, rather than the women having an advantage.

Possibly it then illustrates something else we know where women need to be amazing to have the confidence to tackle something like this, whereas decent men will have the confidence to have a go at it despite not actually being particularly impressive.

I'm like Rosa and a little jaded so just waiting for our favourite cyclist to use this win as evidence for TW competing in women's sport.

I said this when I heard this on the news earlier. One-off events or solo extreme 'runs' prove nothing at all wrt the ridiculous notion that men should be allowed in women's events because they have 'no advantage'.

@vortexofbloggery it was a solo attempt at a record, not a race. You don't win something in which you're the only participant.

@sonicversusgynaephobia I'm a (female) scientist and ultrarunner. There's no data or robust theoretical arguements to support the assertion that women are faster at endurance events than men. The difference between men's and women's world records are of order 10% from events that last 10 seconds through to tens of days/months. When women win events overall it's largely because they're (relatively speaking) better than the men who have entered that particular event. Another recent example which gained a lot of press attention was Jasmin Paris winning the Spine race, a 268 mile foot race along the Pennine Way in Winter. She's a world class fell/ultra runner, the men she beat are all national class. Non-physical aspects (e.g. pacing, organisation) do play a role, but they're not the dominant factor.

These women (Fiona Kolbinger, Sharon Gayter, Jasmin Paris) are extremely impressive. Using their performances to claim that women are equal to (or even better than) men at ultra distances (IMHO) in fact undervalues their achievements.

Fantastic achievement, congratulations Fiona! It will be interesting to see if this win inspires some proper scientific research into whether females really are better suited to ultra-endurance events than men, and if so whether the advantage is physiological, biomechanical, psychological or some combination of all those factors.

As for the Tour de France mentioned above, my guess is the women could compete well in the climbing stages which are all about power to weight ratio, and on the descents which are about technique and cojones, but women would be at a massive disadvantage in the sprints and time-trials which are all about flat-out power.

I did have to listen carefully, jaded as I am

I think the average cyclepath prefers something less arduous and easier to win.

Congratulations Fiona . Definitely Awesome.

Anyone more sporty/sciencey/medical than me explain whether this is something that is down to (eg) women's higher fat stores which can be dug into on endurance events which men don't have? Or is it just that women are just tougher than men and better at enduring pain for longer (cf childbirth)?