Originally Posted by
MinnMan
At least at the amateur level, this already occurs - women can choose to compete in men's events, which I suppose makes them "open". This happens in particular in smaller events when the women's field is small and there aren't too many races in which women can compete. I'm not sure if Category rules apply, though (e.g., whether a cat 2 woman could compete in a cat 3 or cat 4 Men's race).
So like a woman can have women's shoe sizes and men's shoe sizes... perhaps also have separate category listings.
I could imagine women being given a choice of a 30 mile vs 60 mile race.