Mixed racing - good or bad?

Eden

On the other side of the ocean here, we generally do not have mixed races. We do however usually have enough women to make a race, and not a TT. I think around here if we did have to race with the men from the start few women would stick with it. Most of the guys start at a level that is pretty difficult for a beginner woman to achieve...
Certainly there are women who are strong enough to race with the men, but level to level, (say a cat 2 man compared to a cat 2 woman) the men are generally going to be stronger. This year in order to have some cat 3 only women's racing (our categories go 4-1, in general after you move up from the 4's, you end up racing with everyone else, so all women from 3's to pro's race in the same field, which is hard too!) in a selection of the races, the cat 1,2 women will be racing with the cat 3 men and they are pretty concerned about what it will mean. If just a couple of the strongest women can stick with the men, then they will have a huge advantage and win all the races.