Video: Local 15 Year Old Shredder Takes on the Hot Lap

 I'm sure you knew you'd get neg propped into oblivion... But it does make me wonder, would it be better if the prize money was proportional to the number of racers in the category (men or women)? Then if there were more women racing, the women would get more money than the men. That would be cool.

 How dare you say something against a protected class! Women are EQUAL. Repeat after me. And don't forget it.

 @fpmd: imo the fairest of fair is one class with all the prize money.

How can people spout “equality” when they want the women’s class to have equal prize money for substantially slower times?!?!

And yes I fully expected the hate to run deep - although I’m sure more people agree than they admit

 @meathooker:
People these days have confused equality of outcome with equality of opportunity. People, specifically women and the third wave feminists complain about how men get more than women and blame it on society. They label This as a lack of equality, however men and women have equal opportunities. Some companies and colleges will actually hire or accept women over men to appear more diverse. On average, men simply work harder so the payout is not equal between the (only) two genders. Despite this, people will still say they are not equal. What everyone wants now is a dystopia where everyone and everything is in perfect equality and everyone gets the same no matter how hard they work. (sound familiar?)

anndddd here come the downvotes

 @meathooker: I hear what you're saying, but not sure I'd want men and women to be in the same category (racing together). I think the problem is that some people these days don't want to admit that men are generally faster and stronger than women. It's just biology. Doesn't make men better people. I like to think the content of one's character matters most and sports should be about developing one's character. I wouldn't want my daughter competing against the boys, she would get crushed and just discouraged.

 It's a complicated issue. It's impossible to say how Rachel Atherton's riding compares to Pierron or Gwin's, relative to the theoretical limit when handicapping for sex. But it is easy to see the lack of depth and large relative time gaps in the women's field(DH in particular). Paying first place equally makes sense. When you get down to the tenth place in ladies, you're talking minutes off the pace. In the men's, a rider of equivalent mastery is likely a privateer, if even qualifying for a round. In a very real sense, whether talking payouts or sponsorship deals, sponsoring the 10th place female is rewarding a far lesser accomplishment/mastery of craft, than the equivalent male rider. It is what it is, though. I suppose you can consider it incentive for more ladies to join, and if successful, one day perhaps the payout will be for equivalent accomplishment.

 @jwebber022: Equal opportunity, really? Not even in a modest bike shop do women get equal opportunity or treatment. I see it it almost everyday because I work in one. Man comes in has a question and a woman in the shop answers it and he asks if she can grab a man to make sure. Sexism and racism are ingrained in our society and it’s going to take education and strong measures to change that. And as to the question of equal pay what about back pay for all the time (historical) woman have been held back by a male dominated society...

Come on brothers step up and help rather than tearing down these solutions even if they are imperfect.

 @solidautomech:
I don’t disagree that sexism and racism still exist. No matter how much you don’t want to to be true, everyone has a little racism in them. I do see where you are coming from on the bit about men wanting men to answer technical questions because men have traditionally held jobs like that so our minds expect a man to be the one doing that job and we are thrown off if it isn’t. What I am saying is that women starting their lives now are starting from an equal point going forward. There was not equality of opportunity when working women today entered the workforce so there is still lots of residual impact from that. As is the saying, you can’t unring a bell.

About the pay, you said it yourself. Historically. As in past tense. The main contributors now are the fact that women are mentally less inclined to stem jobs which are typically higher paying, as well as on average work less hours then men for various reasons.

 @jwebber022: Could you define third wave feminism that you seem to know so much about?

(joke, it's pretty clear from your comment that you have no single idea what you're talking about, but are just spouting off a load of shit. Honestly surprised you didn't put in some codswallop about "cultural marxism" as well.)

 @jwebber022: Ah I just looked at your profile and realised you're 18. In that case I feel bad for giving you shit for throwing around terms you clearly don't understand.

However, you should listen to @solidautomech up there: these ingrained aspects of sexism / racism / etc that you understand exist are in themselves systems that create inequality.

The idea that "women are mentally less inclined to stem jobs" is complete rubbish. Just as one famous example, the lead programmer for the moon landing was a woman! In many cases these are simply roles where women are pushed out by very often toxic environments that make it extremely uncomfortable for women to take part. That means that there is often a very high level of sexism within these environments that can make it uncomfortable at best for many women who try to engage in them.

 @danprisk:
Just to be clear, I’m not saying women have any less capiblity to do stem jobs, in fact I think they have more as on average women are smarter than men, as shown by numerous studies. What I was saying is that women are simply less inclined to pursue stem jobs then a typical male is. There are certainly expections to this as with everything like you mentioned. As an example, women play roughly the same amount of video games as men, however they play a vast majority of puzzle and sim/lifestyle games vs men play FPS and rts games. It is simply how their minds are biologically oriented. There have been many studies to prove this as well.

I am also, as I said before, not saying current environments are not sexist. I am saying that we have reached equality of opportunity in women starting their education now. We may be able to reduce the amount of sexism currently in the workplace but until this new wave of girls gets there and the old timers leave, there will be residual sexism.

 @jwebber022: It's got nothing to do with "this new wave of girls" reaching the workplace, because women do not create sexism. That's on men. But it would be nice to think that the younger generation of men coming up are going to wash away the sexist structures just like that, and I think that's a really admirable hope.

Unfortunately embedded social structures don't change that easily: we have to keep fighting to change them. While there are many great things happening among young people these days, seeing some of the reactionary things that are happening in (mostly young male) cultures should tell us that we can't just sit back and expect the future to be better.

 I can't pretend to have a great grasp of sexsim today but it's a grand issue that women have handled with grace for eons. It's time it goes away.

That being said, why are pro women slower than a 15yo kid? It's not like the women's scene is non-existent up on Whistler. Heck the kids game (and even proper bikes) isn't very old. And gravity is the ultimate equalizer. So why is it? I'm genuinely curious.

 @danprisk:
Out of curiosity, what things do you see happening in young male cultures that would lead you to believe the future will be no different from today? Not attacking here, just want to know what things may be worrying as I am after all a young male

 @jwebber022: Sorry, that might be slightly poorly worded. I should clarify that I meant cultures that are largely dominated by young men, as opposed to all young male cultures. I think there's a huge amount of hope and incredible young people out there, and the groups that worry me seem to be outliers.

The groups that I was thinking of includes those like the incel communities, the Alt Right and all the affiliated groups in North America (Proud Boys, etc), similar groups like Identity Evropa in Europe, as well as the "intellectual dark web" people like Jordan Peterson. These are all groups that are deeply misogynistic, and unfortunately all dominated by young men.

 @danprisk:
I don't agree. In my experience women create sexism just as much as men. We really have to get rid of the victim mentality to make any progress. I however get the feeling that this is only getting worse, so I don't share your optimism.

 @solidautomech: Anyone who thinks there is a gender pay gap because of some injustice has either never looked seriously at the subject or is taking the piss because they know you hoopleheads will swallow it.

 this mentality sucks, take your negativity elsewhere

 This was one of the most bizarre discussions in my PB history. But maybe I went too big on my bong.

 From the article: The trail used is called Credit Line. This was chosen as we consider it to be a pretty complete mountain bike trail that tests various riders' skills.

Do you read before commenting?

 Nasty climb? Not in the section they use. It's a 10 pedal stroke 20m section of up that's all.
Strava has credit line and credit line DH segment. The DH misses the flat bench off Mikes and almost all the climbing

 its after the climb. its the area marked DH segment on strava.

 Men are naturally stronger than women. It wouldn't be fair to have them go against each other. There is usually a good reason for rules that are applied, but you obviously can't see that.

 @onek5: if the strength argument were true (and I don't disagree in general), these young boys laying down faster laps would be quite slow compared to the pro ladies who are in general have excellent strength.

 @onek5: forgive me for thinking a gender neutral society is a good thing...

 Kids probably generate substantially less power, have less Gravity cheating mass, less upper body strength and less endurance than a grown adult. Most likely a far less rigorous training schedule than the pros too.as you're right, it's more fun than it being a job. Although or far more natural bike skills than most of us though

 That’s true if we are comparing a kid to a pro that trains every single day.
I’m just saying a kid that rides all the time vs the regulars that get out whenever they can.

 you're welcome

 Take your beans and leave

 @JTuck: yawn to meethooker....;-) ;-)