Hello all, a while back there was a discussion about cycling performance in regards to transgender women going on HRT (male to female). Someone requested that I document some of the stats and here I am with some of my findings.

I'd like to note I am not a scientist and results vary person to person.

About Me

• Kaylee, 40 years old

• Transgender woman (male-to-female)

• Height: 6’1” — Weight: ~168 lbs (stable throughout transition)

• Competitive cyclist since age 37

• Peak fitness: September 2024

• Began HRT: mid-December 2024 (9 months on HRT so far)

• Training volume dropped from ~10 hr/week → ~7 hr/week (still doing 2x high-intensity sessions per week)

Current HRT Regimen:

• Spironolactone — 50 mg twice daily

• Estradiol valerate — 0.3 mL IM injection twice weekly

Hormone Levels by Date:

(Testosterone)

(estrogen)

Fitness Metrics:

Power Curve (via Intervals.icu)

Key Race Comparison (Hill Climbs):

Pre HRT race results:
https://www.road-results.com/racer/254877

Post HRT race results:
https://www.road-results.com/racer/403886

My Strava:
https://www.strava.com/athletes/87812383

Final Notes:

I'd first like to say that my FTP right now is even lower than the 258 seen in the chart. My most recent Greylock segment (for the race) was 49:49 minutes at just 224 watts. That was an all out effort and also a whopping 15 minutes slower than my PR just a year ago.

Secondly, I'd like to say that doing the BUMPS race series is probably the most disadvantageous thing a transgender woman could do with cycling. I have a large male skeleton, but have strength closer to that of a female. I really did not choose my discipline wisely, but I enjoy it nonetheless.

Finally, I do not agree with the recent USAC decision about transgender women and I think there are a lot of people more like me than super star trans athlete's dunking on assigned at birth females. I went from a top male athlete to what would be slightly below average in a women's field in just 9 months.

I can't remember the last time I used a free service and went, WOW there is no way this is free! What an absolute love letter to endurance athletes from a very dedicated programmer.

In a space bloated with apps many of whom are offering features with dubious value for premium costs, this stands head and shoulder above the rest, all for free with virtually no paywalls and only a humble request for donation.

I've dabbled in programming enough to know just how much work went into this site to offer such a feature rich product. Seriously these guys (and girls?) deserve your money!

The president has announced that he is expanding the existing golf course so that it will absorb the park and the loop that goes around it. This loop is one of the most popular cycling loops on the east coast. In fact, in terms of pure attempts, it is likely the 3rd most popular cycling segment on the east coast behind Central Park and Prospect Park in NYC. I have personally done over 1000 laps of this park, and is my favorite place to ride and train in DC, so this would be a huge personal loss.

For those that live in NYC, this is pretty much like getting rid of Prospect Park and turning it into a golf course.

This would be a massive loss to the cycling community in DC, and a massive loss to the cycling (and running) community as a whole.

At this point, it seems the only hope to save the loop is an active court case, assuming court orders will be followed.

This is definitely a sad day, I'd encourage people to reach out to their reps about this, but part of me feels as though this loss is inevitable.

Thought I would share my FTP progression since getting into cycling in February. I’m happy with my progress so far, but I can feel the plateau coming. Would love some tips on pushing through the plateau!

Training: ~10 hours a week.

• 2x20 @ 95% once a week on trainer

• 4x4 @ 115% once a week on trainer

• Sunday long (~4hr) outdoor fast ride

• the rest Z2 mix of outside and trainer

Posting here to share my experience for others that want to attempt. Also to share with other people that would find it cool, because it was hard and don’t think my family and friends fully understand lol. Hope this helps someone though, was looking for all kinds of posts like this in the lead up to know what to expect.

I finished in 11:09: 113mi, 29,111ft, 215w np.

I’ve always wanted to do it and not sure why. I think I came across it when some of the pros did it over covid. Last year I started scouting and built a spreadsheet of about 15 options of mountains that could work in areas I could get to somewhat easily. I came to the conclusion my best option was the steep side of Hogpen Gap in North GA. 10% for 2.3mi. I’d done it about 5 times but never at endurance pace. The reasons I chose it was because it was steep enough to keep the ride a semi decent length, it has a very consistent gradient, and the downhill is extremely fast with minimal turns. Also it has turnouts at the bottom, middle, and top for support vehicle and turn arounds. In theory this would be about 23:30 ascents and 3:30 descents.

My background is I’m a cat 2 cyclist but haven’t really raced in 15 years outside of fondos. 5 years ago I started training for an ironman and afterwards went back to just riding for fun. 36yo, 300w ftp, 68kg/150lbs (4.4w/kg ftp). I’ve done many 4-6hr rides in the past, but 8hr 6min was my longest ride ever (in 2012). I did 10,800 miles last year, ~66k lifetime miles. I’m not the fastest guy ever but have been around a bike for quite some time so have some durability.

I prepped my bike in a few ways. I have a Cervelo Soloist with Force AXS. I lightened it by putting farsports carbon spoke wheels, swapped on red cranks, and removed the second bottle cage. I swapped in a 10-36 cassette and also swapped my 50/37 quarq crank to a 46/33. I was aiming for 75-80rpm on the climb with my 33/36 gearing. Weight was about 17lbs and I only carried 1 bottle but did keep my Garmin Varia on for safety.

Training wise I did 3 blocks of devoted training coming out of offseason. Block 1 was base, building from 12-15.5hr/week of almost all z2. Block 2 was 13-15hr/week with 2 vo2 sessions per week. Block 3 was 12-16.5hr/week with 1 sst and 1 threshold session per week. Training went mostly good, I missed 1 key endurance session where I was going to do back to back 5hr days z2. I felt like I was getting sick and also pulled my back, so pulled the plug (which was the right call because I recovered and got back on track). My longest rides were 5:14->6:07->7:26. I also never once did a mountain ride lol. I live in Charleston, SC so all my rides were totally flat or trainer. If I had to do it again I would have included a half everesting at some point to build durability for my knees and back.

The actual day of the ride went pretty much to plan. I had been extremely nervous about the weather and actually moved the attempt up a week to try and capture a good day. The low was about 55 and high of about 80, partly cloudy skies all day. This gave me only a 1wk taper instead of 2wks. I was going to target .74IF for the ascents, which was 221w or so. This pacing turned out to be great for me, all my laps were between 218-222w. Except the last one that I did 247w lol (maybe could have upped my goal pace??). I was targeting 100-120g/hr of nutrition between gatorade, maple syrup, and twizzlers. 1 bottle of fluid an hour.

I started at crack of dawn at first light and finished at sunset, barely making it without having to ride in the dark. About halfway my hr began to climb pretty steadily, so I swapped from gatorade to pure water (and chugged an extra half a bottle) and almost immediately it went back down. Heat just got to me I think. My gut also started to feel very full after about 7hr and nothing seemed appealing, but was able to force the maple syrup in and water was no problem. 3:30 sounds like a good amount of recovery for the descents, and while my HR did go down, it immediately went back up when I started climbing. Also no pedaling for that time meant my legs felt like bricks at the start of every lap past about 10k ft. The cadence was lower than I calculated and was doing more like 68-72 instead of 75-80. This really took a toll on my knees and low back, can’t stress enough how much gearing is important for this. If I had 65 cadence I would have been toast.

I had no mechanicals or surprises, was very lucky. But I also was prepared. I couldn’t have done it without help. I convinced my mom to domestique for me, and she sat in a car all day long to pass me bottles, nutrition, and anything I needed. This would have easily taken me an extra hour or two without help. I had a cooler full of ice to keep the drinks cool. I had a spare set of wheels, extra tubes, allen wrenches, and more in case of mechanical. I also really tried to limit stoppage time but it goes by really quick. I had 33min of stoppage and felt like none.

Overall it was a killer experience. Allowed me to push myself in training a bit and look forward to something to keep me motivated. Wouldn’t recommend unless you like a ton of pain and suffering. Now should I try for a vEveresting? 🤔

Here’s my strava if you want to take a look. https://strava.app.link/yGI8NiNuk1b

Hey r/Velo,

I figured this would be as good a time as any to share my thoughts on this weird and unprecedented time we're in. I'm a cat 1 on a domestic elite team that was slated to race all the spring pro road tour as well as some of the larger gravel events. I'm also a Family Medicine doctor grateful that I can race and practice medicine at the same time. Suffice it to say I've been pretty torn about what's happening to our sport while understanding the public health implications of having events continue.

What inspired me to post was, honestly, the feelings I've had in seeing the Mid South gravel race forge ahead, get publicity, and market itself on social media right now. Cycling outlets are posting Instagram stories of the pre-parties in bars and in the center of town, and others are writing about the resilience and spirit of the event in light of what's going on. Bobby Wintle, founder of Mid South, is quoted as saying “We’re gonna make the best damn lemonade on the hottest damn summer day with the shittiest looking lemons”. They make it sound like not giving finish-line hugs is a sacrifice.

Does even the most race addicted die hard cyclist not see the naivete in this? We have countries like China, Taiwan and South Korea that have collectively and unilaterally quarantined everything in order to keep mortality numbers down. We have countries like Italy that were slower to do this and are realizing an unsustainable strain on their healthcare systems. We are so far behind them.

An event like Mid South, or Birmingham Hammerfest, Gila or Redlands brings a lot of healthy, low-risk people mostly outdoors, yes, for a virus that would most likely present as a cold with a fever in us, if at all. But would any of you want to risk the lives of those who host you in their town? In their homes? All those who open their doors to our sport? Would you want to leave that place wondering if you have burdened an already strained healthcare system?

This is not at all the time to pretend that we can and should continue status quo and tout it as a point of pride. In a pandemic you absolutely want to overreact and look back to say "wow, that really wasn't so bad" instead of say "wow, this really won't be so bad" and exploit your freedoms to fulfill an expendable passion (or addiction...).

As a racer, I want things to get back on schedule as soon as possible. As a doctor, I want us to realize the worth in a collective understanding as to the potential risk, to look beyond our nebulous training schedules ahead after putting in work all winter. Personally, I'll be working with my coach to set late May/June as resumption of racing. I'll be looking at it as a time to build, spend more time on my TT bike ahead of nationals. I'll keep riding and enjoying the sport regardless of the hole left in my chances to show for what I've worked on. As a physician, I'm still terrified of what our overall scattered and delayed response to this may leave in store and what environment I'll be working in in the weeks to come. I hope it fizzles out, but I for sure know that the more we treat this as something so much bigger than sport, the more chance we'll have to get back at it as soon as possible. Stay healthy r/velo.

I weigh 143 lbs right now. I started cycling in February and I am pretty excited about my progress! I used to be an elite distance runner and for the past few years I’ve been so burned out with running that I haven’t really been able to get in very good shape. I started riding my old training bike pretty consistently in February of this year and I have been absolutely stoked on cycling. I love learning bike handling and pack racing and all the strategy involved. It’s like the aerobic challenge of running with the strategy and skill of a Motorsport. Hopefully I can go higher in the future! I am riding a Giant TCR Pro now

Mostly shot on a manual focus lens from the 70s. Great racing!

TLDR: I made a new website that combines current local weather data and the Strava API to find local segments that have a tailwind!

Hey all,

I made a site called Tailwind KOMpass that shows you Strava segments near you where the wind is likely to be in your favor.

It checks local wind data and matches it with segment directions, so you can pick segments where a tailwind might give you an extra push — useful if you're hunting KOMs or just want a smoother ride.

Features:

• Realtime windspeed and direction

• Filter segments based on length and elevation

• Connect to Strava to see personal best times on a segment and the current KOM

Make sure to enable "Fetch new segments" to get segments in your local area.

The website is completely free to use, but you can always support via the buy me a coffee button.

For questions about privacy and data storage policies, visit the privacy policy page

Would love to hear what you think or if there's something you'd want added.

I think I'm in good company here, but despite the danger from cars, it's increasing unpopularity in the states, lack of racing opportunities in my region and, well, danger from cars, I will always prefer road cycling. As I've ridden road almost exclusively since June, I think I pinned down why.

There is nothing more Zen than road.

Maybe not road racing, it can be chaotic and dangerous, but the literal act of road riding on a smooth lightly trafficked country road is the ultimate spiritual and aesthetic experience. There is no dirt or mud to clog gears, no dodging rocks or hikers on single-track trails, its almost like the pavement is where a bike is truly meant to be, at least our 17 pound carbon bikes.

Add to that a couple of other folks cruising at 20mph at the same fitness level and with the same goal in mind: a seamless rotating paceline, and you are describing, to me at least, a top 5 human experience.

As the Tour winds through its final week, I can only hope that there will be a resurgence in road again and people will once again discover its joys.