You quite clearly missed the point. When you see how a 17 year old jumps over extremely difficult barriers with ease, it is an embarrassment to women, that NONE of them even TRY to jump over ANY other barrier in ANY race on the calendar. I wasn't expecting women to necessarily jump yesterday's barriers (which i made clear, twice).
No, I don’t believe I missed your point at all. I just disagreed with your statement and let it be known... it’s the Aussie in me. You’re coming across as having difficulty in accepting someone else’s opinion and you don’t need to use CAPITALS to exaggerate your point. I had a CEO who used to do that and it was extremely annoying too.
You’ve clearly missed my point so I will expand on it. Especially as most think I have a problem with women.
In my opinion, Yes there is a big gap between the best Women Elite riders and Male riders, even some 17 year old Male riders but it shouldn’t be considered an embarrassment or deficiency on a technical level. Should Elite Women share the same course as the Men – yes. Should Elite Women be riding hour long races like the Elite men - absolutely. Should Elite Women be paid the same as the Elite Men – Yes, why not? Should it be expected that Elite Women compete against the Elite Men and lap the Same course at the same pace, jumping the same jumps, ascending the Same hills at the Same rate, bunny hopping massive ditches and when they don’t, consider them an embarrassment – no, I don’t live in cloud cuckoo land. Now before you come flying back at me and say you didn’t imply that. My point is that the Men have a distinct advantage over Women in certain areas that require Power, muscling a 7 kilo bike around and over obstacles as well as Technical skill and the ability to recover from it in an instant. Comparing their attributes on a course that is tailored to challenge the likes MVDP is nonsensical.
I did however, notice one Female Elite rider, in the top 20 position, jumped the ‘easier’ barriers today. So why didn’t Worst, Sanne Cant or Alvarado jump them? I don’t know. Maybe it was because that even though the barriers were nothing like as difficult as the uphill ones yesterday, they didn’t feel it necessary to take a risk or exert that precious energy of trying to bunny-hop them and potentially face plant. If it was just one barrier, I’d imagine most of the Women riders would have a bash at it. But it’s the combination of 2 barriers in quick succession that make all the difference in my opinion.