A biological male took home the women’s trophy at the 137-mile Belgian Waffle Ride yesterday, which was held in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
According to pro-woman outlet Reduxx, Austin Killips, a 27-year-old man who identifies as a transgender “woman,” was crowned the victor after rolling into finish with a nearly 5-minute lead over the female competitors.
Highlights of the race were provided by Unroad UNLTD announcers through Instagram, which confirmed early into the race that Killips was clearly in the lead with female cyclists Paige Onweller and Flavia Oliveira in second and third place. For the first two updates of the race, Killips’ name wasn’t even mentioned, with the announcers only focusing on providing confirmations of the positions of second and third place as though it were obvious who was leading.
Throughout the race, the announcers continually referred to Killips as a “woman” or with “she/her” pronouns.
Sadly, this is not Killips’ first time dominating a women’s cycling competition.
Last month, male and female cyclists from around the globe gathered in New Mexico to race at the Tour of the Gila, an internationally regarded elite cycling competition. Killips placed first in the women’s category, taking home the substantial prize pot which had been equal for male and female victors for the first time in the race’s history.
In an interview with Cyclingnews, Killips credited his victory to “preparation, training and support from the Amy D. Foundation,” a non-profit dedicated to supporting women through cycling. He added: “It feels good to have it come to fruition.”
According to Reduxx, the director of the Amy D. Foundation said they had a cycling team “help and protect” Killips after the second sprint point of the race so he could “secure a breakaway to first place.”
Killips has been participating in women’s cycling since 2022. Shortly after self-identifying into the women’s division, Killips was accused of attempting to push female cyclist Hannah Arensman off the racing course at the UCI Cyclocross National Championships.
In a video shared on Twitter last December, Killips was seen trying to push Hannah Arensman off the track using his bike. The user who shared the footage says it should have been a disqualifying move but that Killips was not penalized for it.
Arensman, a 25-time champion, later shared that she felt as though racing directly against male cyclists in women’s events had become so discouraging that she decided to end her cycling career.
Due to widespread backlash, the UCI, the governing body for cycling across the world, admitted that the inclusion of trans-identified males in the women’s division would be a topic of debate when it convened for its next policy meeting in August. But, as noted by The Guardian, the UCI defended its current rules allowing athletes to “compete in accordance with their gender identity” until then.
