🧵On July 1st, a 58-year-old man formerly known as James Phillips, now going by the name "Kathryn," won the 50-59 age group "women's" title at the 2025 USA Cycling Masters & Junior Road National Championships.
Phillips' entrance into the race was hidden from other competitors. Female racers who entered the women's category specifically so they would not have to race against men where blindsided by a large man lining up at the start and finishing on top of the podium.
For anyone unfamiliar with what has been happening in women's cycling, this may come as a shock and an outrage.
For those who are aware of what has been going on, while no less outrageous, this is just another day. This is simply the tip of the iceberg.
There are at least 100 men who have participated in "women's" bike sports including events in BMX, mountain biking, road races, gravel races, cyclocross, and track racing.
These men have entered at least 3,410 "women's" events, placing 1st in no less than 711 and making the podium in 1,443.
At least 9 of these men have been "women's" national champions, and 30 have ridden professionally or in the "elite" category. One man was part of the Olympic team at Tokyo.
Let's look at a few examples of the discrimination that has been happening to female athletes in cycling…
Dubbed by the lead organizer as “the last great American bike race," the Mission Crit race held in San Francisco attracts racers from all over the world as one of the last fixed-gear focused races in the U.S. and is considered a sort of "national championship" for fixed gear racing.
The event has two categories: "men's" and "WTFNB". The men's category, of course, being for men, and the WTFNB for "women," "trans-femme," and "non-binary" racers, in other words for both women and men.
There is no race for female athletes despite the organizers trying to encourage more women to join.
In 2019, the Mission Crit 6 WTFNB race was won by male cyclist Casey Williamson aka "Evelyn (Evie) Hound."
Williamson switched to the "women's" category of cycling in 2017 and had been "dominating" other races as well.
Word seems to have gotten around that B-level men could win big in the WTFNB category because at the following Mission Crit 7 race in 2022, the entire podium was comprised of men:
1st place - Apollo Leonard, 2nd place - Liam "Li" King, 3rd place - Luke "Avery" Masri.
A fourth male, Jordan Johnson, finished behind in 20th, still in the top half of the racers.
Leonard said his win was "especially exciting" because he'd only been racing for two years.
The Mission Crit 7 podium had two categories: men with short hair and men with long hair.
The day after the Mission race, Leonard, King, and Masri again entered the WTFNB division at the Cross at the 'Sticks race, this time Masri in 1st, King in 2nd, and Leonard in 3rd.
Both the Cross at the 'Sticks and the Mission Crit race, in addition to the Red Bull Short Circuit, were part of the Mission Crit Triple Crown in which Leonard, King, and Masri placed 2nd, 3rd, and 4th with Jordan Johnson in 12th of 50 riders.
(Although, I'm not sure how those points were added up, as their scores for the three scored races put them 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.)
Leonard and King seem to have been racing buddies, both also racing at the Hellyer Velodrome in 2023 in the "women's" cat, going 1st and 2nd in at least 7 events.
(Masri and King pictured below)
In 2023, Casey "Evelyn" Williamson and fellow male athlete Michael "Tessa" Johnson dominated the "women's" racing scene in Chicago, going 1st and 2nd in at least 6 races that season including the 2023 Illinois State Championship just days after winning the Racing-Athletic Relay Cross race as a male duo in the "female" category.
Of the 56 totals events Johnson has entered, he has only missed the podium in 8.
Williamson was reportedly in a "throuple" with another male athlete who participated in "women's" racing, Austin Killips.
Killips had also been dominating the cycling scene, making the podium in at least 50 races despite using dirty racing tactics and being an outright cheat.
At a competition in December of 2022, Killips was caught on camera shoving a female competitor with his bike during the race.
In 2023, Killips won the Tour de Gila, the first time in history the female prize money for the race had been equal to the men's.
Rather than giving male and female athletes an equal share of the prize money as they had advertised, all of the 1st place prize money went to men.
Killips took another large prize at the 2023 Belgian Waffle Ride, stealing $5,000 from female competitors after finishing over 5 minutes in the lead.
In 2024, Killips was called the "fastest woman" to finish the Tour Divide, a route between Canada and New Mexico. It is not possible for Killips to be the fastest woman, as he is a man, but he is celebrated as such.
The real women's record belongs to Lael Wilcox.
In 2021, Hannah Bergemann hosted the first-ever Hangtime women's jump jam. The event was meant to gather the best female free riders in the country to celebrate their talent and foster mentorship amongst them.
At the end of the weekend, three awards were given to "well-deserving" riders. Two of these awards went to men.
Male rider Avery Martinson walked away with the Rider's Choice award after throwing "backflip after backflip" and male rider Blake Hansen took home the "Best Progression" award.
Yes, an event gathering the best female riders in the country decided to celebrate these two men instead of the actual female riders. Nowhere in the write-up of the event is it mentioned that these two riders are male.
Martinson has stolen more than praise from deserving female athletes. He's also taken money prizes in the Ultimate Freerider series as well.
pinkbike.com/news/video-and…
This photo from the event actually disgusts me. This encapsulates perfectly the brainwashing and discrimination occurring here, girls being told to look up to and model themselves after a male athlete.
These girls are limited by their female bodies, but are being taught from a young age to compare themselves to male performance, giving them unrealistic expectations and setting them up for failure from the start.
They are also being told to look up to male athletes who are fetishistic cross-dressers who cheat to win prizes and awards rather than real female role models.
Two other men who have dominated "women's" mountain biking are Michael "Michelle" Dumaresq and Anton "Kate" Weatherly
Michael "Michelle" Dumaresq was placed on the national team for the UCI DHI World Championships in Kaprun after just the first 3 races of his life (all in the "women's" category).
Dumaresq was the women’s Canadian National Champion in downhill MTB in 2003, 2004, and 2006 (he did not compete in 2005 due to scheduling conflicts with the NOBRA race series).
It’s likely Dumaresq would have been the women’s national champion every year he competed, including his first ever full season in mountain bike racing, but in the 2002 championships, his chain fell off and he had to stop to put it back on. He still placed 3rd.
Dumaresq was the "women’s" UCI Master World Mountain Bike Champion in the 35+ age group in 2006 and 2007.
Competing as “Anton” in the men’s open and under 19 divisions, Weatherly failed to accomplish anything of note and is described as finishing “mid-pack” as an average rider at best.
He decided to switch to the women’s division for the first national series event in 2018 at the age of 20. His second race in the women’s division, he beat former world number two Shania Rawson by more than 30 seconds.
Despite being described as “non-sporty” as a kid, sickly and undergrown with a chronic lung disease called brongchietasis, racing against women, Weatherly has finished 1st 21 times in 43 races in the elite and open categories, making the podium in 30.
This includes first place finishes at the 2018 and 2019 New Zealand Downhill National Championships and the 2024 MTBNZ New Zealand Enduro National Championships.
The hormones Weatherly was taking cannot be blamed for his poor performance against men, as he was finishing 25th of 25 (dead last) in the U17 Cat as early as 2013 (2013 NZDH Round 5), a full year prior to the start of his “transition.”
Just one year after finishing 17th in the open cat (46th overall) against male peers in a regular-season NZDH event (Round 3 – Wellington), Weatherly was a national “women’s” champion and placing in international UCI races.
In the Pacific Northwest of the United States, there are quite a few men in women's cycling races. One of these is Jimmy "Jenna" Lingwood, a father in his 40s.
Racing as “Jimmy” in the men’s category, Lingwood entered at least 65 cycling races between 2006 and 2017, placing in the top ten 3 times (best finish of 6th) and placing in the top twenty no more than 13 times.
After changing his name to “Jenna” and switching to the women’s division in 2018, he has since participated in over 133 women’s races, placing 1st at least 41 times and top 3 over 84 times.
In 2017, racing in the Men’s Cat 3 35+ Masters race at the River City Bicycles Cyclocross Crusade, Lingwood placed 62nd out of 82 racers. In 2022, he placed 1st in the Women’s Cat 1/2/3 40-44 race at the USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships.
He placed 5thin the Senior Pro-Cat 1/2/3 national championship race.
Lingwood has competed in many races at the Jerry Baker Velodrome alongside Ivan "Claire" Law, Jordan Lothrop, Henry "Eva" Lin, and Henry "Henrietta" Watts.
Two other men who have also raced "as women" at Jerry Baker are Kyo Zero "Zee" Mars and Rhys "Rachel" Mckinnon aka "Veronica Ivy."
McKinnon is perhaps the most well-known man to compete in women's track racing. He won the "women's" UCI Masters World Championship title in sprints in both 2018 and 2019, setting the world record for the 30-39 category in the 200m sprint in 2019.
He has stolen over 41 first place finishes, but is perhaps even more well-known for his unhinged social media rants where he once hoped women who disagreed with his participation in the women's category would "die in a grease fire".
He also claimed on national television that he was a "biological female" because he calls himself "female" and he's made of "biological" stuff.
McKinnon has never won anything of note against male peers despite only pretending to be a woman when he was 29 years old.
Another man to have taken a "women's" national title in track racing is Robert "Sara" Stearns.
Stearns began racing against women at the age of 60 in 2012 (possibly earlier). He doesn’t appear to have prior racing history against his male peers and like many other males who “identify” as women, had not shown interest in the sport prior to adopting a “female” identity.
Stearns has taken over 9 medals at the USA Cycling Masters Track Nationals including at the 2022 Masters National Championships where he took 1st in the Sprint, Pursuit, and 500M Time Trial events in the 70-74 age category.
He currently holds the United States National records in the 70-74 age category for the track time trial 200m flying start and 250m flying start events.
Stearns has also participated in the UCI Masters Track World Championships, taking a bronze medal in 2018 in the 500 meter Time Trial.
At the 2018 UCI Championships, Stearns voiced his disappointment with the UCI over the change of age grading from 60+ to 55+, claiming it was unfair that he would be racing in the 55+ category against women ten years younger than himself rather than six (he was 66 at the time.)
He decided to withdraw “in protest” from the tournament after being paired with a 56-year-old woman, claiming the best he could do was fifth (it seems he only races if he can win).
Stearns believes it is grossly unfair for a 66-year-old man to race against a 56-year-old woman (it is), but believes himself to be the one at a disadvantage because of the slight difference in age rather than the larger difference in sex.
Stearns is celebrated as a “woman” in the male-dominated field of aviation and was a board member of the Northern California Velodrome Association (NCVA) in 2017.
As I've said, this is just the tip of the iceberg. With over 100 men in women's cycling and almost all of them winning just as those I've mentioned above, it's impossible to cover all of them in a single thread.
The examples above are a small taste of the men who have been destroying this sport for women. For more examples, please check out @i_heart__bikes
The UCI has thankfully decided to include a women's category of cycling to celebrate female athletes, but lower levels of cycling still have not.
@usacycling does not believe female human beings deserve accomplishments in sport.
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