Women racing in Cambridgeshire this weekend have expressed outrage after race organisers announced they will start after hundreds of general sportive participants because women in last year’s race were slower than some sportive riders.
Organisers of the Tour of Cambridgeshire UCI Gran Fondo race and sportive, on Sunday 3 June, announced the sportive riders expecting to ride faster than 21mph will start 16 minutes before women in the 19-44 race category, and the over-60 men, to avoid women racers who are dropped from the main group gaining an unfair advantage by drafting faster sportive riders. The men’s race starts before the general sportive, which is set to attract 8,000 riders in five self-selected speed categories.
Female participants say contending with hundreds of general sportive riders, many of whom may ride at less than their stated 21mph speed, will unfairly impact women in the race by blocking the road, impacting their potential to race each other, and potentially increasing the risk of crashes.
In a blog post setting out final event, information organisers explained changes are because “the winner of the 19-34 Female age group averaged 22mph, whereas the front of the 21+mph [sportive] group averaged 27mph.” This, it says, gave dropped riders an unfair…
