Wellington effect, whether right or wrong. And it's definitely counter-intuitive. Women's body's are smaller, so less affected by heat. But they do end up on the course later in the day, but only by a small margin. You'd have to ask each one why to get their own answer.

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I think it mostly boils down to sub optimal equipment choice, nothing more complicated than that.

There are only a couple that aren't wearing either a traditional aero or an aero road helmet...

^^^^^This.

Props to Ryf though. Last year her use of a road helmet, a loose singlet and shallow wheels probably cost her the win. This year she wore a tight-fitting trisuit, an aero helmet, and deeper wheels.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
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Both equipment choices and bike positions seemed improved for the women this year over past years.

Most of them are wearing aero-road helmets. A kamm tail works almost as well in most conditions, and better in some. As we know, helmet aerodynamics are highly individual and depend on how the rider holds their head and how they're able to sustain that over 5 hours. A long-tailed helmet with little airflow isn't going to work for everyone.

This doesn't mean they made the right choices, just that there might be legitimate reasons for those choices in some cases.

Only Naeth (DNF), Lundstrom, and Snow are wearing pure road helmets on the front page gallery.

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'It never gets easier, you just get crazier.'

There's a lot of women riding with a non-flat back, and the head up. It's possible that an aero road helmet might be faster if the full aero tail isn't flat on the back.

This is just speculation, based on photos that don't tell me if there's a reason to ride head up (corner soon?) At least Meredith Kessler is grabbing for the brakes.