this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
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Why are these gendered? How stupid.
Let them all start at once, at one event.
Contrary to popular belief, it's not generally that women are banned from men's sports.
It's men that are banned from women's sports.
That's what the "Open" in many sporting events means. Anyone who passes preliminaries is free to attend.
That usually doesn’t work. It will give unfair advantages to women who manage to “catch the wheel” of a male cyclist and especially the ones who manage to hang behind an entire group of men.
It takes much less effort to closely follow a cyclist and even much less effort than that to hang at the back of the peloton than to ride by yourself.
Now of course you can make rules about female cyclists not being allowed to get closer than X amount of distance behind a male cyclist, but that is just much more complicated than simply separating the groups.
It is also the reason why they banned male pacemakers running in front of the top female marathon runners. It is unfair to the rest of the group who have to do the running on their own.
Ironman triathlons are a great example of a race where "drafting" is forbidden. Men and women compete on the same course at the same time, but every athlete must maintain a specific distance from others to ensure they are not gaining an unfair advantage by riding in another person's slipstream.
https://www.ironman.com/news/ironman-releases-2026-ironman-global-competition-rules
Regular triathlons as well. But the rules are different there than in regular cycling.
Yeah that's bullshit. Because the same thing happens in male-only races. Some people hang on to the peleton. That's racing strategy.
No, it's absolutely no bullshit. Normally you can either stay in the peleton and conserve your energy or you try your luck and break away but give up drafting. You can't draft behind something that's not part of the same race. For a female breakaway cyclist to use the draft of a male peleton is essentially like drafting behind a team car. That's not some clever strategy, that's cheating
Not if you think about this a little more than 2 seconds….
But sure, I will explain some more.
In a combined race, even the fastest women have something to draft behind that rides faster than they normally could: a man. That gives them an unfair advantage over the other riders who don’t have that same advantage.
The only thing faster than the fastest men is a motorised vehicle. And drafting behind that is also illegal.
Or simply put: the reason a woman can’t draft behind a man is the same reason a man can’t draft behind a motorcycle.
Ok, but every single race has people drafting behind others that are faster than them, right? Why is it a-ok for a slow man to draft behind a fast man, but it's cheating for a woman to draft behind a man?
Only the second person can draft, not the first. In this case the first person drafted, I think that's what this is about right?
Edit: oh shit I'm not a woman, so I am not allowed to participate
Yes. Behind another human cyclist. Not behind motorcycles or anything other that is faster than human capabilities.
The fastest women are always going to be behind a man? The slowest man is always going to be in front of the fastest woman? I don't know shit about competitive cycling, but I'd love to see some stats to support that claim.
Why would they pick the slowest man to draft behind?
No they would draft behind any man that is faster than them, but not too fast so that they will not be dropped.
why cant I be faster than a man on a bike?
youre saying I could never win a single race against any man?
Uhhh… what?