2025 WC: Thread for all the women's races + Mixed Relay

[Rechtschreibfehler]

You are going to be gracious enough to translate what a thrown meatball means.. Please

Apparently it means to throw in a big strong effort. I am guessing this from context though of what the commentator said. The original German was "Da hat sie nochmal eine richtige Boulette geworfen".

 

[Red Rick]

This was a classic attrition race, which means that even doing nothing and supposedly saving energy riders don't really have all that much left at the end and it's usually riders racing from the front that win. Also, you just get very surprising results with riders you expect based on much easier riders having nothing left in the end.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Am I totally ignorant not knowing the winner before 30km's ago, or is she that much of a surprise?

She's a surprise because she has only one career win before this, but she's an established name - she's usually been one of those coming in in the groups behind the elites before. She was never going to be considered one of the pre-race favourites, but she was also somebody who always had a reasonable chance from that group behind. She was one of the strongest climbers in the escape bunch when it formed (as I say, 18th in the Tour), and I wasn't surprised that she was one of those that could follow García's attack (though I would have backed Niedermaier to be there over her) - on paper I'd have backed Fisher-Black over her on the final climb, but Vallières raced smarter in the break and clearly had great legs today.

 

[JR1012]

Great podium with an unexpected winner, beautiful second place of NFB and with Garcia, 41 years old, third.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Fausto needs to copy the tactic of this Valleres tomorrow. With his high adaption to polluted conditions this could work

 

[Netserk]

Big French inquest going on at the line

PFP looked very strong and confident, but she was surprisingly passive. After Roubaix, you'd think she'd be up for an attack with 3 laps to go like Finn.

 

[Unchained]

What's wrong with being a Maths teacher??? C'mon @tobydawq , we don't need to put up with such slander.

Not only are all math teachers heroes, but that woman was also either a French, German speaker and I watched her bounce between microphones and respond in a few languages.. So she can do more than math and win races!
Math teachers are awesome!

 

[yaco]

I don't know who is this woman .
This is more WTF than Tobias Foss ITT WC?

Yes.

 

[Unchained]

Apparently it means to throw in a big strong effort. I am guessing this from context though of what the commentator said. The original German was "Da hat sie nochmal eine richtige Boulette geworfen".

In Mexican culture meatballs are primarily for a delicious soup, nobody ever thinks to throw them.. Made with rice mixed with meat, spices and cilantro.
In American culture, meatballs are the people at motor vehicle department and are running the government.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

@Libertine Seguros
All true, but looking at Vollering, PFP, and all the others - nobody wanted to ride, they just looked at each other.
If you want to win, you have to take some initiative at some point of the race

But of course, today they knew that there were riders in front of them, not like with Kiesenhofer, when they just forgot about he

Well yes, that's how escapees tend to win. Even sometimes with strong winners, they rely on a bit of Group 2 syndrome breaking out behind.

When you have a few overwhelming favourites and more than a couple of them don't have the legs, you can get these false races. There were several stages in the Giro years back where a similar thing broke out, where Ivan Basso sent Sylwester Szmyd, one of the strongest mountain domestiques in the world, to set pace and everybody just fell into line and rode his tempo, because they were used to Szmyd absolutely tearing people to shreds to set Basso up to drop everybody. It's just that Basso in fact wasn't feeling good and bluffed it by sending Szmyd to the front setting a false tempo, and everybody was so used to how strong Szmyd was and Basso using him aggressively that they figured they were doing well to feel so comfortable following him.

 

[RedheadDane]

Not only are all math teachers heroes, but that woman was also either a French, German speaker and I watched her bounce between microphones and respond in a few languages.. So she can do more than math and win races!
Math teachers are awesome!

Math teachers are better when not teaching math.

 

[JosefK]

PFP looked very strong and confident, but she was surprisingly passive. After Roubaix, you'd think she'd be up for an attack with 3 laps to go like Finn.

I think Ferrand-Prevot achieved her biggest objective already in July and was truthful when she said before the race that her form wasn't quite where it was for the Tour de France. Vollering didn't quite seem to be there, either. I think her big focus was PFP, the strategy being to stay on or near her wheel at all times, no matter what else was happening.

 

[yaco]

I wonder if Vallieres will win a race in 2026. Great to see Fisher Black with the result, while this type of course suits Garcia as evidenced by her 6th in the Olympics RR.

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

In Mexican culture meatballs are primarily for a delicious soup, nobody ever thinks to throw them.. Made with rice mixed with meat, spices and cilantro.
In American culture, meatballs are the people at motor vehicle department and are running the government.

In German culture, Bouletten are meatballs. You can put them into a Brötchen. But usually you would not throw them. So that expression was totally new to me. A normal expression with meatballs is "Ran an die Bouletten" "Let's go for the meatballs!", which means: let's get to work.

 

[theyoungest]

All true, but looking at Vollering, PFP, and all the others - nobody wanted to ride, they just looked at each other.
If you want to win, you have to take some initiative at some point of the race

But of course, today they knew that there were riders in front of them, not like with Kiesenhofer, when they just forgot about he

Italy are used to just follow the Netherlands. Whatever happens, follow the Dutch. If the Dutch then are passive/don't have the legs, they just don't know what to do.

I actually liked Vollering's attitude today, basically saying "screw you all, I'm not doing anything". In the end she even won the sprint... unfortunately it was the sprint for 7th.

 

[Red Rick]

I actually liked Vollering's attitude today, basically saying "screw you all, I'm not doing anything". In the end she even won the sprint... unfortunately it was the sprint for 7th.

Playing the long game indeed.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

PFP looked very strong and confident, but she was surprisingly passive. After Roubaix, you'd think she'd be up for an attack with 3 laps to go like Finn.

It should of course be noted that she had originally planned not to participate, but I don't know whether that had any impact on her training schedule ahead of the championships.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Math teachers are better when not teaching math.

Kiesenhofer and Bussi have both proved that (Casasola. too). Come to think of it Toby actually has no good reason for not being a cycling champion.

 

[theyoungest]

I wonder if Vallieres will win a race in 2026. Great to see Fisher Black with the result, while this type of course suits Garcia as evidenced by her 6th in the Olympics RR.

It's tempting to say she's another Kiesenhofer, but then again, she did drop some very serious WT pros so it probably wasn't a complete one-off. Still she's probably not going to suddenly be a contender in the biggest races.

 

[Unchained]

Just my opinion.. No need to rip me a new one.. But all the talk of national team unity, organization and working together here has been out the window in every race except for TTs, this is really excellent racing and really goes back to rudimentary tactics.
You need to pay attention to everything and stuff that works in pro racing, especially an organized chase are not in play. All these great riders looking puzzled why nobody wants to work together..

 

[Unchained]

In German culture, Bouletten are meatballs. You can put them into a Brötchen. But usually you would not throw them. So that expression was totally new to me. A normal expression with meatballs is "Ran an die Bouletten" "Let's go for the meatballs!", which means: let's get to work.

**In my opinion** the only thing that should be put into a Brotchen is delicious, delectable, mouth watering raw pork spread with maybe some extra salt and pepper. And as an emergency, a single slice of meat, single slice of cheese with room temp butter on both sides of the roll. ..
German raw pork crosses my mind everyday when I eat something else and dream of having some..

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Never mind Maths teacher: I'm glad Valieres isn't a surgeon if that's where she thinks her heart is.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I have learned that if I speak my mind on these matters, I will be in trouble. Lets just say the main favorites could have raced this one a bit better

 

[Izzyeviel]

This result doth not bringeth me joy

 

[ktel]

Great win for the Canadian Vallieres. Everyone on the podium deserved it because they put in the work and went for it. I was glad when Markus got dropped as she wasn't pulling at all, just coasting along at the back. She actually slowed them down for a while.