She would ride to the half-way house before the moon sank; then, she would see! Fifty miles there and fifty miles back – a hundred miles – A CENTURY! Had not some girl in the South told her she had ridden a century? Ever since that day a little envy had been in her heart of that girl, and she sometimes wished very much that she, too, might wear upon her cycling blouse that tiny bar of gold, with its magic figures, recording a ride of one hundred miles. –“A Century Ride,” Grace E. Denison

Based on details in this passage, which of these inferences is most valid?

Women in various parts of the country were embracing a new athleticism.
Women in the South were more athletic than those in other areas.
Women were incapable of riding one hundred miles on a bicycle.
Independence created competitiveness in women all over the country.