Female riders in the Tour???

Joe S. said:

Are there female riders in the Tour de France?

No.

--
Luigi de Guzman
http://ouij.livejournal.com

Joe S. said:

Are there female riders in the Tour de France?

No. IIRC there was a separate event for women, but I don't think its
currently being run.

--
Mike Kruger
In Puritan New England, Christmas wasn't even a legal holiday until 1856

"Joe S." <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Are there female riders in the Tour de France?

dey belong inna kitckn barefut makin' babies

anon.

Joe S. said:

Are there female riders in the Tour de France?

Not unless the drugs have /really/ serious side-effects.

Joe S. said:

Are there female riders in the Tour de France?

Nope. In bicycle racing like the Tour, power to weight ratio is a huge
determiner. Physiologically this excludes females.

--
Dane Buson - [email hidden]
"Roses are red, violets are blue,
I'm a schitzophrenic, and so am I."

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Are there female riders in the Tour de France?

No, they don't have the balls... (or ball in the case of a past
participant).

In article <[email hidden]>,

Dane Buson said:

Joe S. said:

Are there female riders in the Tour de France?

Nope. In bicycle racing like the Tour, power to weight ratio is a huge
determiner. Physiologically this excludes females.

This thread got me wondering if there are any
women Kierin racers, so I looked it up:

http://www.keirinberlin.de/Keirin_Racing_En2.html

"In 1969 women racers were taken off the Keirin registers.
Women's racing was stopped due to a lack of interest
which resulted mainly from the lower level of performance,
in comparison to men's Keirin."

That's too bad, 'cuz I know women can compete spectacularly.
I mean, look at Missy Giove for example.

BTW, have you sneaked a peek at that Yuba Mundo utility bike yet?
http://yubaride.com/utility-bicycles-models.html

Whaddaya think? Okay, okay. My ulterior motive is to
get somebody to acquire one and post a review. I can
be such a snake-in-the-grass at times.

cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

(Tom Keats) said:

BTW, have you sneaked a peek at that Yuba Mundo utility bike yet?http://yubaride.com/utility-bicycles-models.html

Whaddaya think? Okay, okay. My ulterior motive is to
get somebody to acquire one and post a review. I can
be such a snake-in-the-grass at times.

cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

Made by a branch of xtracycle, so the performance chareteristics would
be similar. Probably more solid due to single frame.

Dane Buson said:

Nope. In bicycle racing like the Tour, power to weight ratio is a huge
determiner. Physiologically this excludes females.

Except Chinese swimmers. Some of them should give it a try.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Michael Warner said:

Dane Buson said:

Nope. In bicycle racing like the Tour, power to weight ratio is a huge
determiner. Physiologically this excludes females.

Except Chinese swimmers. Some of them should give it a try.

Pro Women's softball can be hell bent for leather.
I'm pretty sure many of those players can give some
of the MLB guys a fair run fer their money.

But stage races such as Le Tour are all about keeping
going despite depleting the resources of the body.
Men & women deplete (and expend power) differently, so
it just wouldn't be a fair competition to combine genders.

Maybe women competitors don't have as much opportunity to
compete in road race venues as men? I dunno. I do
recognize that women have a very strong presence in XC
and DH competition -- venues which are much more technical
in terms of handling terrain, than stage road races.

Locally, women /do/ compete in circuit road races.
Many of 'em come from the XC and DH world, where they
have already established some highly respectable creds.

cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

"Joe S." <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Are there female riders in the Tour de France?

They have their own race:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Grande_Boucle_F%C3%A9minine_Internationale

BobT

Tom Keats said:

But stage races such as Le Tour are all about keeping
going despite depleting the resources of the body.
Men & women deplete (and expend power) differently

I haven't heard that. I thought the fundamental problem for
women was that they need more overall body fat to
remain strong and healthy, and therefore can't match elite
men in PTW or endurance.

Quoted message said:

Maybe women competitors don't have as much opportunity to
compete in road race venues as men? I dunno. I do
recognize that women have a very strong presence in XC
and DH competition -- venues which are much more technical
in terms of handling terrain, than stage road races.

Yep, that makes sense. FWIW, I've found that women are much
less likely to abandon or not turn up to a ride because of bad
weather, tiredness etc. I suspect they're tougher than us in
other ways :-)

">

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

But stage races such as Le Tour are all about keeping
going despite depleting the resources of the body.
Men & women deplete (and expend power) differently

I haven't heard that. I thought the fundamental problem for
women was that they need more overall body fat to
remain strong and healthy, and therefore can't match elite
men in PTW or endurance.

It's the extra body fat that gives women the edge in endurance sports. Think
long distance swimming, for example.

Pat said:

It's the extra body fat that gives women the edge in endurance sports. Think
long distance swimming, for example.

Isn't swimming a special case where extra body fat and lower bone density
are helpful because they increase buoyancy? You'd have to show that over
a range of sports and lab tests, and I don't see how fat helps endurance
except at very low levels of exertion.

Pat said:

Go over and read about the theory behind the Atkins diet, then. By starving
themselves of carbs, it forces the body to utilize fats for energy. Some
theorize that is why our ancestors tried to be fat--to have stored energy
for the lean times.

From what I've read, the theories promoted by the Atkins crowd are bunk,
and the diet works because /proteins/ make us feel fuller than carbs for
the same energy content. The higher fat intake isn't beneficial, and can
cause health problems.

Of course stored fat is useful, but only at low levels of exertion, such as
when walking or generally staying alive. We can't burn it very quickly.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

It's the extra body fat that gives women the edge in endurance sports.
Think
long distance swimming, for example.

Isn't swimming a special case where extra body fat and lower bone density
are helpful because they increase buoyancy? You'd have to show that over
a range of sports and lab tests, and I don't see how fat helps endurance
except at very low levels of exertion.

Go over and read about the theory behind the Atkins diet, then. By starving
themselves of carbs, it forces the body to utilize fats for energy. Some
theorize that is why our ancestors tried to be fat--to have stored energy
for the lean times.

Dane Buson said:

Joe S. said:

Are there female riders in the Tour de France?

Nope. In bicycle racing like the Tour, power to weight ratio is a huge
determiner. Physiologically this excludes females.

Hmm, not exactly. Physiologically, this power-to-weight ratio thing
excludes many of the males who are entered in the Tour. Notice the
large numbers of sprinter types who don't make it over the mountains
and drop out. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a woman to win a
field sprint, but there are certainly women who would have a far
easier time finishing the race than many of the men who actually start
the event. Have no illusions about fast female climbers, they are just
plain fast climbers. For proof see the only venue where men and women
line up together, endurance mtb races. There the strongest females
regularly beat a substantial portion of the men's pro-elite field.
Power, yes. Endurance, yes. Toughness, yes.

The reason women don't race in the Tour is so tender audiences don't
have to deal with psychologically mind-bending sights like a 76-year-
old Longo climbing away from Tom Boonen on the Galibier, just before
Boonen drops out.

Robert

Quoted message said:

Hmm, not exactly. Physiologically, this power-to-weight ratio thing
excludes many of the males who are entered in the Tour. Notice the
large numbers of sprinter types who don't make it over the mountains
and drop out.

Ah, but isn't that also a question of the /kind/ of power they have -
too few slow-twitch muscle fibres, and unhelpful muscles in places
like their arms? A little guy like Robbie McEwen ought to be a good
climber, but AFAIK he suffers nearly as much as the big, heavy
sprinters.

Michael Warner said:

From what I've read, the theories promoted by the Atkins crowd are bunk,
and the diet works because /proteins/ make us feel fuller than carbs for
the same energy content.

Yep, and also cutting out carbs means cutting out a lot of foods,
another reason why people on that diet tend to eat less.