I assume it's me you're talking about as I won the 70km race and your wife placed 3rd.:-) I don't feel that I need to defend myself at all, but I would just like to make the following points. There was only one start batch for men and women and no rules stating that men and women aren't allowed to ride together. So effectively you were allowed to ride with your wife as well. The fact that there was a prize (which we didn't know about until prize giving), for the first husband and wife to finish together, obviously suggests that the organizers anticipated that men and women would ride together. Secondly, the race was majority singletrack, so I couldn't benefit that much from wheel sucking as you suggest... Yes I agree, mentally it helps to ride with someone stronger than you, but in MTBing, other than with road racing, the rider still has to do most of the work, whether you sit on a wheel or not. I didn't hold onto my husband's shirt nor did he push me at any point... We were about 6 riders that got away within the first 5km, but we unfortunately took a wrong turn when we got to a gate that should have been opened, but it hasn't yet. So we lost at least 5-10 mins there. If I remember correctly there was one other lady, who came 2nd, with us on the wrong route. So I had to work really hard to get back. Anyway, I passed most of the female riders on the way up WTF or just after that, which was very early on in the race, so up to there, there wasn't much room to sit on other wheels anyway... The reason why I also won QOM for the Strava challenge on WTF on the day... But each to their own... I've been on the podium in several races, road and MTB, individual and mixed categories on stage races with my husband... The lady who won the 110km race also rode with her husband... Just saying... :-) But you're entitled to your opinion...
