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    Nom de pixelLauren Evans
    6/27/16 12:43pm

    This is awesome. I am a cyclist, and one of the reasons that I don't race is because there is so much misogyny in the sport. It isn't like football or anything, but there aren't big women's races like the men get. Women have to start last at coed events. Or women's versions of races are shorter because, you know, we can't handle the distance. It makes me extremely happy to see her win one of the most grueling races around, and fuck anyone who thinks she needs to apologize for beating a man with no sense of direction.

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      SeabassyNom de pixel
      6/27/16 12:47pm

      Go her and go you for cycling even with all that BS around. I can NOT believe he asked her to finish together! I absolutely maintain he wouldn’t have asked that of a man. I used to run half-marathons and would always start the race with my training partner, but she was usually faster and would finish minutes ahead. One race she was really struggling, even needing to walk for minutes at a time. She’s my partner, we trained together through all sorts of crap, so I walked with her and coached her to finish the race. Three months later when the same thing happened, but reversed, she literally waved as she was passing me and said, “Sorry, but I’m on my way to a PR, see you at the finish line!” I was pissed. But a race is a race is a race, and I never slowed down to help her again.

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      ThirdAmendmentManNom de pixel
      6/27/16 12:49pm

      Yeah I really hate the culture of cycling and running, but not nearly as much as the triathlon culture. Sorry you have to deal with the misogyny I’m not sure how I could handle that.

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    LushLauren Evans
    6/27/16 12:36pm

    So torn here. I’m full ‘fuck yes!!!!!’ to this amazing woman for this accomplishment, while simultaneously feeling a huge ‘fuck YOU’ to the men accusing her of cheating.

    I’m a triathlete, and I love hearing/reading stories of women taking dominating stances in endurance sports like this (though now triathlons seems like a piddly 1km race compared to that). Sure, men have a bit of an advantage with usually being larger, more muscly, and with some different hormones/chemical balances that tend to help in athletic situations, but that doesn’t mean women can’t kick ass and take them out. I revel fully in kicking men’s ass in the pool when they’ve got a foot on me and probably twice the muscle.

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      Nom de pixelLush
      6/27/16 12:45pm

      Will you give me swimming lessons? I am a triathlete who is a craptastic swimmer but very strong cyclist. I freaking love it when I pass men going uphill on the bike and they can barely catch enough breath to swear.

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      BlueJeansLush
      6/27/16 12:54pm

      There’ve been a few pieces out lately suggesting that women may actually have a physiological advantage for long (by which I mean weeks instead of hours) ultra-endurance events. Here’s a NY Times piece on a woman who set a trail record that has the following to offer:

      Samuel Cheuvront, a research physiologist for the United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, agreed. “I can’t think of any reason why men would have an advantage over women at these lengths,” he said. “At distances over 2,000 miles, you are negating the benefit that males have due to increased muscle mass and aerobic capacity.”

      Cheuvront was quick to point out that in long-distance swimming events measuring more than 20 kilometers, women consistently outperform men. In part, this is based on the increased buoyancy that women have, which comes from a higher body fat percentage.

      This would not be an asset on land as it is in water, but Cheuvront sees two competitive advantages that women may have, especially in a self-supported effort where water may be scarce and where the athlete is constantly at a caloric deficit. First, they generally have smaller frames, which decrease heat production and produce less water loss. The second reason is that women have higher estrogen levels, which give them the potential for greater use of more abundant body fat stores.

      In other words, those extra 10 pounds most women would love to shed coupled with the frustrating fact that our recommended daily caloric intake is less than what it is for men could make all the difference in an F.K.T.

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    deerlady83Lauren Evans
    6/27/16 12:48pm

    .....I don’t think I would have rode with him either.

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      deerlady83deerlady83
      6/27/16 12:50pm
      GIF

      I would have been like this.

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      Charlotte29 aka Rob Kdeerlady83
      6/27/16 1:09pm

      Of COURSE not. Like she said, it’s a fucking race. Like, sorry you mismanaged your race strategy bro-dawg, but too bad so sad.

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    yoohoooLauren Evans
    6/27/16 1:26pm

    things that stand out in the article,

    “I set my alarm for 20 minutes. I woke up and set it for another 20 minutes and woke up after 10. At that point I started feeling pretty awake.”

    “Wilcox said she averaged four to six hours of sleep per night until the final three days, when she slept a total of six hours”

    “Wilcox and boyfriend Nicholas Carman have been cycling the world for nearly a decade. They work when they need money – Wilcox recently worked at the Bicycle Shop in Anchorage — and the rest of the time they ride their bikes”

    235 miles a day, thats a four hour journey by car at 70 mph! Yeah you get to travel, but thats kinda not sane (for me anyway)

    but what an incredible accomplishment, cant imagine the feelings after something like that

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      Nom de pixelyoohooo
      6/27/16 1:53pm

      I could never function on so little sleep.

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      deerlady83Nom de pixel
      6/27/16 2:21pm

      I was going nuts after being on death watch and waking up at all hours of the day and night. I might be finally recovering from that week.

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    Charlotte29 aka Rob KLauren Evans
    6/27/16 1:04pm

    1) YAAAAAAAAAAAS GIRL! I love uplifting stories like this.

    2) LOL at the runner up. Come ON dude! What a shitty thing to even ask of someone. Of COURSE she’s not gonna ride with you. It’s a fucking race. I mean.

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      Nom de pixelCharlotte29 aka Rob K
      6/27/16 1:33pm

      Seriously. I have given people water and other supplies during a race, but unless we are on the same team, I am not waiting for your ass.

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      oakbNom de pixel
      6/28/16 12:23pm

      Giving someone water and supplies on a race like this would be cheating, that’s not self-supported.

      I do this kind of riding. Offering to ride with someone is more about solidarity. But all the people who are like “lol wtf is wrong with this dude” have probably never ridden a bike more than a handful of miles so y’all keep trashing him.

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    Chuck SchwaLauren Evans
    6/27/16 12:39pm

    “Hey it looks like you’re going to win- what say you wait up and we finish together?” lol jesus christ are you fucking kidding me? Have some dignity, dude.

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      SodburgerChuck Schwa
      6/27/16 12:46pm

      Right? In what world was she gonna just say “Yeah sure, that sounds nice.” What’s in it for her? It’s not like the last 2 people at a poker tournament saying “Let’s split the pot 50/50.”

      What a dingbat

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      SheeshTheseNamesChuck Schwa
      6/27/16 12:49pm

      I find his request ridiculous, insulting, and embarrassing for him. What a jerk.

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    SterlingchainsawsLauren Evans
    6/27/16 1:10pm

    Cycling, in any capacity, is so heavily male dominated, hearing a gal kick such serious ass makes me so happy. I see strong, amazing women every day on their bikes, but they are recognized so much less than their male counterparts. Way to go, babecity.

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      fennelbreathSterlingchainsaws
      6/28/16 5:30pm

      You’re in Chicago, right? My favorite yoga instructor here is a pretty serious cyclist and I just don’t know how she rides around the city all day to teach classes all over the place. I’m in serious admiration of her.

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    Imperator FuriosaLauren Evans
    6/27/16 12:32pm

    Omg. I get tired just riding my bike around the park. What a BAMF.

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      StartedatthebottomnowweslightlyaboveaverageImperator Furiosa
      6/27/16 1:02pm

      And minimal sleep. I probably would have been very awful to the man that wanted to finish together. I am cranky without sleep.

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    wishfulthinkingLauren Evans
    6/27/16 12:43pm

    There are a lot of these extreme type races that are mostly populated by amateurs. I’m always awed at the amount of time, money and some people will commit for activities that aren’t part of their career and nobody really even knows about.

    They are engaging in top athlete training activities while maintaining full-time jobs, and then paying to participate in really expensive races often with really expensive equipment.

    I am just floored.

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      Nom de pixelwishfulthinking
      6/28/16 1:33pm

      One of the things that I find interesting about these races is that there are pros, and they race the same course at the same time as the amateurs. And sometimes the amateurs beat them. Can you imagine going to a football game (this analogy could go off the rails because I don't know anything about sports that use balls) and having several players who are pro and tackling or out running them?

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      wishfulthinkingNom de pixel
      6/28/16 2:40pm

      Well, I think in endurance sports (like iron man, marathons or those crazy 100-mile races), the difference between “pro” and amateur just amounts to an endorsement that *may* pay an entrance or two... perhaps with a hotel fee included. The amount of training between the two groups is identical. That’s the part that blows me away. “Amateurs” in sports like mountaineering, or any of these huge, long-term endurance races- taking long hours and thousands of dollars in travel and entrance fees - are done by people like me! People with full time jobs. One of the top woman marathoners is a woman who works not at a cafe or something throw away like that, but as a lawyer for I think the UN in Denmark or something like that.

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    I made a pigeonratLauren Evans
    6/27/16 1:03pm

    What do you do with your mind in races like this? How do you keep yourself from getting bored and/or going insane?

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      ThirdAmendmentManI made a pigeonrat
      6/27/16 1:23pm

      You pretty much have to be insane to do these races. I cycle a lot and the boredom is really my huge downfall (along with eating on a bike, God that’s awful). I really quickly go from “damn I can do this all damn day” to “oh my God I am so damn bored” in about 5 min.

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      Nom de pixelThirdAmendmentMan
      6/27/16 1:53pm

      Triathlete and trail runner here, and there are some training sessions where I cannot stay focused. It is really bad on trails if I have an important race coming up because I just stop to look at the flowers or admire a view if the weather is nice. If the weather isn't nice, I start looking for excuses to take short cuts back to the car. I don't know how she maintained focus day after day.

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