Bike Race
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Austin Killips (Amy D Foundation) put an exclamation point on her overall race lead Sunday by winning Stage 5 Gila Monster and taking home the overall victory at Tour of the Gila. She also climbed her way into the queen of the mountains polka dot jersey.
DNA Pro Cycling’s Shayna Powless snatched back the green sprinter’s jersey from Rylee McMullen (InstaFund Racing), while Nadia Gontova (Roxo Racing) held on to the white best young rider jersey.
But it was all eyes on the overall race lead, in which only 10 seconds separated leader Killips from Emily Ehrlich (Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY24) and Ehrlich’s third stage race win of the year. But Killips put the kibosh on any triple crown for TWENTY24.
“We really wanted to get into a break,” said Amy D Foundation team director Julie Kuliecza. “We thought that there was going to be something that would go right after the second sprint point, and we wanted a rider in that break so that when Austin and the other GC riders came up to it, Austin would have someone to help them and protect them, and it worked out perfectly.”
Killips is the first openly trans woman athlete to win Tour of the Gila.
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My running club just had a race in our home town. It's a popular race, and unlike many races, it is divided into women's and men's divisions with separate starts. The women started an hour earlier than the men. I was at the finish line - and noted there were a few male appearing individuals who ran the women's race. Some of these folks looked more like Dick Butkis than Angelina Jolie and in a couple of cases were children. Admittedly, sometimes moms run with their young sons - so some of that might have occurred - but still. There was a category for people to identify as non-binary. Of course, this isn't an Olympic event - and folks who identify as female didn't have to identify themselves as non-binary. For some races there is prize money - so theoretically, a male could identify for the day to win some bucks.
