Female cyclists are crying foul after an event in Wisconsin this week was won by a man competing as a woman — and the women are claiming they were deceived about the race.
In an interview with “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday, cyclist Debbie Milne charged that USA Cycling, the organization behind the competition, did not include the name of the male competitor in a list that was published before the event.
“It was hidden from us,” Milne said.
“Deception was involved.”@usacycling is being accused of “hiding” a trans athlete’s participation in a race after cyclist Debbie Milne competed against the athlete and later explained why her friend boycotted the podium following the competition. pic.twitter.com/7hJHgodSZB
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 3, 2025
The event Tuesday was the Lyons Masters and Junior Road Race National Championships in Lyons, Wisconsin.
In the women’s aged 55-59 bracket, a “transgender” cyclist identified as Katheryn Phillips came in first.
But the problem is not only that Phillips is a man, but Milne said she and other competitors were not even aware Phillips would be competing.
“Basically, we came to compete and we found out, during the race, after the race that’s when we found out that there had been another competitor we thought just added,” she said.
However, Milne said, another racer spoke to a race official who said Phillips had been on the list of competitors since mid-June.
“There’s not been transparency there,” she said.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, the second-place finisher in the race, Julie Peterson, said she wouldn’t have undertaken the time and expense involved to participate if she had been aware Phillips was competing.
“If I had known, I wouldn’t have spent thousands of dollars in travel and time off work to come and do a race,” Peterson said.
She said her protests to race officials went to no avail.
“I said, ‘I don’t want to race against a man,’ and they quickly scolded me and said, ‘Oh, you can’t call him a man.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, he is a man.’ So I was quickly scolded and corrected that it is a ‘woman’ and I don’t even know what to say.”
The Western Journal has reached out to USA Cycling for comment.
The controversy around the race lit up on social media, with one user posting what was apparently a list of competitors that did not include Phillips.
“Katheryn” (James) Phillips’s registration was hidden on the @BikeReg website.
BikeReg, an official partner of @usacycling, has a history of hiding entries of males in the women’s category.
As you can see, BikeReg says there are 11 entries but only 10 are shown. pic.twitter.com/SdLNiR7Vyj
— (@i_heart__bikes) July 1, 2025
At this point, the controversy over men masquerading as women to compete in women’s sports has been played out in public with an almost Alice-in-Wonderland quality.
Despite the evidence of literally all of human history, not to mention the evidence before the eyes of every living man and woman, “trans” activists and their apologists have continued to claim that there is no physical difference between men and women, and nothing unfair about allowing men to engage in physical competition with women as long as those men claim to “identify” as female.
(Even worse, they don’t seem to care that it can be dangerous for the women involved.)
To witness presumably sane, reasonably intelligent adults deceive themselves that way in the cause of a blinkered, misbegotten ideology is almost old hat.
What’s different about the Wisconsin event furor, though, is that the critics are claiming that the organizers of the race deliberately hid the fact that a male was going to participate — which in itself would be a tacit admission that the competiton was flawed.
To demonstrate just how flawed, Peterson refused to take the second-place position on the podium of medal winners.
A man won the @usacycling women’s masters 55-59 national championship road race today.
Here’s “Katheryn/KJ” (James) Phillips proudly standing on the top step.
Second place and rightful winner Julie Peterson is absent from the podium.
Why does USAC continue to allow this? pic.twitter.com/zFdXC5nQ8a
— (@i_heart__bikes) July 1, 2025
For years, it looked like the tide of “transgender” activism was going to swamp the world of sports, but determined resistance has managed to stand firm.
And with President Donald Trump in the White House pressing the battle, the forces of sanity are regaining lost ground.
As USA Today reported on Tuesday — the same day as the disputed race in Wisconsin — reported, the University of Pennsylvania, home to “transgender” swimmer Lia Thomas, agreed to ban transgenders from participating in women’s sports, and strip Thomas of the titles he “won” while swimming against women.
The university has also agreed to apologize to the women who were forced to compete as Thomas’ teammates — and share a locker room with him.
In a statement published by the U.S. Department of Education, outspoken women’s sports activist, former collegiate swimmer and Outkick contributor Riley Gaines praised the Trump administration’s efforts.
“It is my hope that today demonstrates to educational institutions that they will no longer be allowed to trample upon women’s civil rights, and renews hope in every female athlete that their country’s highest leadership will not relent until they have the dignity, safety, and fairness they deserve,” Gaines said.
That should be the hope of every decent human being — and not just in collegiate sports, but in all sports, at every level.
Is the tide turning in the transgender debate?
No one sane is seeking to punish individuals who are sufficiently mentally ill to believe their own bodies are “wrong.” No matter how obnoxious they might be, they deserve sympathy and whatever help medicine and faith can offer.
When it comes to the grifters and the takers — the ones who pretend to be “transgender” in order to compete and win against those weaker than themselves — decent men and women have the distaste reserved for frauds and thieves.
But even that wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for enabling organizations that, either through cowardice or malice, continue to pretend the impossible: That the God-given differences between men and women can be wished away with sufficient leftist deception, and hiding the truth.
And that deserves only contempt.
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