Would there be an advantage for a woman to enter a men’s only race as opposed to a mixed race? None whatsoever. Would it affect the top results? Not at all.
Could there be an advantage for a man to enter a women’s only race? Absolutely. Does it affect the results? Totally. Unless there is money involved, it can only be for delusional ego tripping reasons at the expense of genuine women.
Biology isn’t PC. For stating the bleeding obvious, Zwift is only playing fair. As pointed out already, enforcement is still somewhat missing. It is shocking though that it is actually required.
It goes beyond advantage for men entering womens events.
Part of the issue stems from how SRAM does womens only events and provides the opportunity to win a groupset, but doesn’t follow up with rides open to all. That being said Canyon SRAM is one of the biggest womens protour teams out there, and they are giving back to the sport. While on the mens side I cant even name a protour side using SRAM.
And as mentioned well above is that sometimes the route/distance for womens only events is a better choice for distance, elevation, and just route.
However be that as it may, that is not an excuse for men to just enter womens only events. Further it is likely that those men who do enter womens only are of the “rules apply to the other guy” crowd.
I took part in the Women only Virtual L’Etape du Tour du France yesterday morning and despite exactly the same distance being advertised for any gender at the same time (and then again for every two hours throughout the weekend) there were still men riding in our group. It was pointed out to the male riders that they were in a woman’s event but they were unrepentant and even moaned about the attitude of some of the women riders towards them (funny thing that!). I’ve read all the comments below and see that Zwift acknowledged that there was a glitch in earlier rides but they don’t seem to have sorted it. There’s absolutely no reason why those men should have been riding in a woman’s group. I certainly was not up with the leaders but I was racing and it was dispiriting to see men passing me (especially on the descents). Is there a way to tighten this up Zwift organisers please?
Hi Andrea,
it would be nice if Zwift would make a comment on this situation, but generally they just stay rather quiet on the forum.
It could be a good idea to contact their support team, as they will reply. I raised an issue with them recently and they were very prompt to reply.
The page is support.zwift.com
what’s the point of any categories or unisex races anyway ?
Often I enter a D race and there are people putting out an average of 3.7W/kg and are listed as B on swift power, “winning”
Another time I rode in a “social” group, 1.7W/kg (on flat) ride of over 100Km, the “leaders” were over 2 hours in front
there will always people who “mistakenly” enter the wrong ride !