I also do not feel for Bridges. Bridges has competed in the male category this year. Bridges is accepted in the male category (arm in arm with team mates on the podium) and competitive in the male category. Bridges wants to compete in the women’s category for Bridges’ own validation, not to compete in the sport.
Bridges has been lucky thus far that organisations like the UCI had their heads buried in the sand hoping their pathetic policies would be enough to deter athletes from bothering, and now those organisations have pulled their heads out slightly and started to take some notice. Bridges was hopeful that they wouldn’t. Now all sports organisations need to go the way of USA powerlifting and ban males from women’s sport completely, because a) males aren’t women and therefore aren’t eligible and b) no amount of obfuscation around current levels of one hormone will ever remove the entire sex-based advantages.
What happened after USA Powerlifting took their stance? There was the usual tantrums from the TRA Twitter toddlers and then nothing. If you have the guts to do what’s right, and stick with it, the initial loud shouty fall out fades to nothing.
So come on UCI and others, stop trying to deter athletes with such policies, because you’re just setting yourself up for more shifting of the goalposts: just say no. No males in women’s sport.