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- cross-posted to:
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The governing body said the fine was for “unseemly or inappropriate behaviour during the race and damage to the image of the sport”.
The governing body said the fine was for “unseemly or inappropriate behaviour during the race and damage to the image of the sport”.
The UCI could fuck up a wet dream. They actively harm the advancement of bicycling. Whenever the UCI starts administering a race type, that whole industry sector is permafuct. Disc brakes (regardless of how one might feel about discs) were banned for many years, resulting in delay of that technology despite the demand being there. Recumbents are a superlative bicycle design for most humans, but thanks UCI ban.
One of the main reasons gravel bikes have innovated so quickly is because the UCI has yet to stick its stupid nose into the races. But they’ll be along shortly to ruin the fun.
I would love to see the restrictions on frame design removed. I want more Lotus 108s and Cervelo P5Xs A recumbent racing league would be awesome, both fared and non-faring
Oooooh! I’d watch this. Hell, I’d probably get back into racing. And I don’t even like recumbents that much (but still think they are the superlative design for most people). Without the UCI interference, we’d see some crazy cool stuff. I feel like the best we can get right now are the recumbent speed/distance records.
UCI takes a classic approach to racing so that the bikes don’t become the story, and that’s ok. Recumbents are weird, and nobody is stopping you or anyone else from creating a recumbent league. There has already been a gravel UCI WC since 2022 as well. Disc brakes weren’t universally praised immediately either - it took years for the pieces the fall into place, like carbon rims, wider tires, through axles, etc. and now everyone uses them. I really fail to see the harm here over “slow” adoption. You can’t please everyone.
The UCI is also transphobic and doesn’t let trans women compete with cis women.
The UCI’s stance on trans women is not transphobic. In line with other sporting federations, they have found that going through male puberty gives a person who transition afterwards an advantage over cis women. So, they have decided to have prioritise the fairness of competition. There are plenty of valid reasons for criticising the UCI, but this is not one.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lindseyedarvin/2024/04/25/transgender-athletes-could-be-at-a-physical-disadvantage-new-research-shows/
Did they also find that short women have an advantage over tall women? How about lighter women having an advantage over heavier women? How about women having an advantage for having more muscle mass? How about people with androgen insensitivity syndrome? Or XX male syndrome? Intersex people?
My point is people will always have advantages somewhere (and there’s no clean place to draw the line); no two people are built the same, which means you absolutely can have – and do have – trans women (who went through a male puberty) with no advantage over cis women. The UCI won’t even allow those women on a case-by-case basis, which is absolutely 100% transphobic.
An actual solution is to divide racers up by skill class and stop gender segregating sports, and to stop caring so much about who wins, but that will never happen as long as money is involved.
Everyone cries about “fairness to women” and “fairness in women’s sports” when what they mean is “keeping sports exclusively for cis women”; trans women are women, but almost no one cares about fairness for them.
Trans women are women. And I will continue to treat them as such. But if we do not discriminate within competitive sports, most disciplines will be for men only. Because sexual dimorphism. Not good. So we have a league for women, that let most women compete for their medals and titles independent of the mens’ results. Much better. Not perfect, better. Are there enough for a third category? A fourth? Life sucks.
But you don’t have to care about winning over others. You can get on your bike and compete against your previous times. And you will probably do so in mixed company. In casual races, all competitors are often despatched together.
Or if you really want to compete, even though you don’t fit into the boxes neatly, try equestrian sports. The boxes are much roomier. The saddles are also much more comfortable, and your sex and gender does not matter.