The science argument is the bit im struggling with a the moment – IIRC, a former man just needs testosterone suppressants for a minimum of 12 months to be classified as a woman, with wedding tackle in tact. I cant see how that alters a life time of a mans physiology enough that they no longer hold a strength advantage.
This would be my route to that Elite license 😉 . I’m a less than spectacular second cat, but we regularly race women who can race down a category. I also train with a female first cat road racer in our club. I’m 20 years older and male. That puts us on a roughly even par.
In the geeky world of TT’ing, there is of course standards for men and women of all ages, and positions are awarded for time below standard. An octagenarian regularly smashes the VTTA results. However… when it comes to actual times, I’m almost as fast as the current female record holder over 12 hours. And faster than the legendary Berly Burton. You can level the field, just like golf.
McKinnon had a meteoric rise from no cycling to Elite world champion in about the same time it took me to get to thrid cat. From a background of badminton rather than the more traditional cardivascular rowing. She quotes power to weight ratio as being the same or even below others, but on the track it’s POWER that is king in sprinting events.
The science is really whether a lifetime of testosterone exposure can be mitigated with a relatively short period of non-exposure. I personally do not think this is possible. The inter-sex arguments are not the same.