No, but there's a pretty wide chasm between "underneath all helmets is a face and a person who deserves respect, dignity, and a safe space to ride bikes" coming from the only person who actually has any reason to be aggrieved and:
I feel like disagreeing with the current UCI rules is one thing, but suggesting that someone is "sick in the mind and ego" for competing in a class in a bicycle race that they're eligible for is another. As is continuing to refer to her as a "guy". Cool, by all means have your position about pronouns, but is it that hard to respect people enough to refer to them the way that they want? Continuing to do this in spite of a person's wishes doesn't make you some heroic truth teller, it just makes you a jerk.
-There's two other people financially affected as each class got paid out for the top 3. Which is also kind of crazy with it being so large the payout is only top 3? Also for the professionals that are in let's say the top 10, results do matter with sponsors etc.
-I fully agree that the start of this thread is distasteful. I'm 100% against this woman from winning in the female class as the entire purpose of the class is to give a class to the women who have a biological difference from the men. There's no reason to be distasteful about it and as any serious subject should be discussed in a serious manner. Be a dick about your tire insert choice, but this is not the subject for that behavior. The Kalmyk isn't changing any opinions coming out of the gate like that.
-If women who finish below this person disagree with it, Paige has set a good example of how to properly put out the message. I'm sure there's a huge amount of riders that disagree but are silent as they don't want a backlash.
-I do wonder about the thoughts of the winner. While they may feel they are a woman, do they feel that they won by 5 minutes because of the hard work they put in, or because they were born a male? There's a distinct advantage that no twisting of facts can be denied at this point.
-I like cycling to be all inclusive and would love if there's a spot for everyone. But I don't think MtF transitioned people in the female class is it.
-If the winner signed up like many of the people doing this is as a fun/challenging ride and finished mid-pack I doubt most people would care.
If BWR had eBike classes this year but someone took at the rules and realized the regular class didn't actually exclude eBikes, brought one and then won by 5 minutes and collected the 10k prize? Sure it's allowed by the rules but it's still not right and the rules would be changed the following year.
