the dude on the touring bike was 24-48hrs later, and a whole heck of a lot can change in that amount of time. Eight sunny hours can turn a muddy disaster that’s impossible (or at least very dangerous) to even hike over, much less ride, into something that’s not exactly pleasant, but at least doable.
Lael was very uniquely under a LOT of scrutiny, which was definitely (at least in part) the Boy’s Club mentality of this kind of thing. Rue and the rest of the crew went to a lot of previously-unheard-of extremes to keep the naysayers from protesting too much. Lael even agreed to not use her cellphone to make calls at all, and only use it to record voice memos for the film they’re making, a restriction not leveled against the rest of the field. All of it was proposed to and approved by the race organizer.
In the end, she was still riding her own ride and had every right to call off her race when it became clear she wasn’t gonna realize her goal this year. Like the post said, she just wants to be riding her bike… she’s still riding the route, just “touring” it rather than “racing”. Funnily enough the same dudes pissing about her race are now saying she shouldn’t even be riding the route, since as she knows many of the competitors, her presence there as a non-racing rider jeopardizes the legitimacy of their results. Which… lmao.