Fiona Kolbinger, overall winner of transcontinental ultra cycling race

[VortexofBloggery]

road.cc/content/feature/265103-who-fiona-kolbinger-medical-student-who-has-become-first-woman-win

Interesting info about female sports endurance in ultra long distance in this article. Why don't women compete in the Tour de France? Not gruelling enough?

What an amazing achievement.

So she’s a woman? Yes, I’m jaded.

Yes a real woman! Well done Fiona.

This is a remarkable achievement. Congratulations Fiona.

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.

An amazing win. There is increasing evidence that women can do really well in these endurance events. I watched Louise Minchin (BBC presenter) this morning talking about taking part in the Norseman triathlon.
Great to see women participating and succeeding like this.

I'm hoping this win will increase scrutiny on male/female advantage in sport. At what distances do females improve to the point of advantage over men (as the article seems to suggest). Here we have a woman (one of 40) racing against men and winning. I'm also thinking of Sharon Gayter's recent ultra marathon win. This woman's win is a positive thing and proof that distance (like sex) matters. Cheating cyclepaths look even weaker in the face of this achievement.

Omg she is awesome. We have been following this dh is mad keen cyclist and his friend in the race. Dh blown away she’s “phenomenal “ according to him. Dh friend bailed from the race in tears. She is hardcore! She’s able to cycle 19 hours a day the men cannot match this.

Many Huzzahs - what an achievement!

This could be an interesting subject to bring up at cyclepath's trans athletes talk in Oct (eventbrite)....

So awesome! Article on CNN cites a bunch of actual science studies about women’s biological advantages in ultra event.

Amazing achievement.

This is a really impressive and inspiring performance. However there's no evidence that there is any distance at which women become faster at running or cycling than men. Women do sometimes win very long events overall. Partly because of the small fields and partly because in multi-day events non-physical factors play a significant role.

Sharon Gayter hasn't had a 'recent ultra marathon win'. She's set a very impressive women's record for running from John O'Groats to Lands End. Her time is still more than two days slower than the 2nd fastest men's time (the fastest men's time is widely suspected not to be valid).

An ultramarathon, also called ultra distance or ultra running, is any footrace longer than the traditional marathon length of 42.195 kilometres (26.219 mi).

She set the record for women.

I'd call that a win.

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)?

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.

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.

@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.

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'.

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.

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.

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.

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

• 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

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 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).

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.