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

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If the PFP from the Tour shows up she's the favourite. Otherwise my money is on Le Court. Reusser if the race is really hard and it's a case of woman against woman. The Dutch have a pretty good team on paper but all of them have to finish alone, and none of them have really been dominant in recent months.

A one-day race is of course different than a stage race and being in the French team is not the same as riding for Visma, so there's no guarantee PFP will win even if she proves to be the strongest, but her super peaks are hard to for anyone to handle.
 
I'm fairly ignorant of what form the riders are in today and how strong the different nations are, but isn't it straightforward for the Dutch to attack early with Van der Breggen and have Vollering suck wheel of the strongest opponents?

Since a lot of riders missed Romandie and haven't raced much since or at all there are uncertainties regarding the shapes of some of them.

The Dutch should definitely attack early. These are the first championships with Ten Dam as head coach, so we'll see if that will lead to different tactics than we saw in the Loes Gunnewijk era.
 
I'm fairly ignorant of what form the riders are in today and how strong the different nations are, but isn't it straightforward for the Dutch to attack early with Van der Breggen and have Vollering suck wheel of the strongest opponents?
Yes, but there are a few problematic factors that may impact that, namely:

- the Dutch team car has made some incredibly perplexing and counterproductive tactical moves in recent years.
- Anna van der Breggen was an abysmal DS when she had a go at it and often was able to win as an active rider on bludgeoning power rather than anything else.
- Demi Vollering has likewise become too used to being OP to need tactics, and when she has needed to race tactically, she has largely screwed it up big-time.
- Demi and Anna have a turbulent history that means a cohesive plan working for one another could be a difficult sell unless the team car has massively improved its ability to divide and conquer over the last few dysfunctional years.

I mean, it could work, but I just don't know how much faith I would have in the Dutch to pull it off. Gunnewijk always had a problem of trying to stay buddy-buddy with everybody and not offend any of her old colleagues by telling them to subsume their goals to the others, whereas ten Dam doesn't have that association with any of them so it may be better, but I will have to see it first.
 
Yes, but there are a few problematic factors that may impact that, namely:

- the Dutch team car has made some incredibly perplexing and counterproductive tactical moves in recent years.
- Anna van der Breggen was an abysmal DS when she had a go at it and often was able to win as an active rider on bludgeoning power rather than anything else.
- Demi Vollering has likewise become too used to being OP to need tactics, and when she has needed to race tactically, she has largely screwed it up big-time.
- Demi and Anna have a turbulent history that means a cohesive plan working for one another could be a difficult sell unless the team car has massively improved its ability to divide and conquer over the last few dysfunctional years.

I mean, it could work, but I just don't know how much faith I would have in the Dutch to pull it off. Gunnewijk always had a problem of trying to stay buddy-buddy with everybody and not offend any of her old colleagues by telling them to subsume their goals to the others, whereas ten Dam doesn't have that association with any of them so it may be better, but I will have to see it first.
Ten Dam may be the single most "good vibes only" person to ever ride a bicycle in the Netherlands.

That's not a criticism, he just seems waayy too chill of a person to coerce this team into working together.
 
Ten Dam may be the single most "good vibes only" person to ever ride a bicycle in the Netherlands.

That's not a criticism, he just seems waayy too chill of a person to coerce this team into working together.
I think you underestimate him a bit. He's good vibes, yes, but he also has a bit of snark to him. I think he's not afraid to criticze Lady Demi, or whomever.
 
Two times so far have riders tried to attack from the peloton. A Spanish rider on the golf climb a bit ago, and further back after a Chinese rider first attacked followed by some other moves. But the pace has been low so far, and no teams have really paced hard on the climbs. So when the attacks have been controlled, the pace immediately drops again.

I assume ELB is not at her best, so shouldn't Italy try to change the slow march?
 
Two times so far have riders tried to attack from the peloton. A Spanish rider on the golf climb a bit ago, and further back after a Chinese rider first attacked followed by some other moves. But the pace has been low so far, and no teams have really paced hard on the climbs. So when the attacks have been controlled, the pace immediately drops again.

I assume ELB is not at her best, so shouldn't Italy try to change the slow march?

The Italians may have planned to only start attacking at a certain point. We've also seen before that some countries strategy seem to be to react to how other countries race and then there might not be too much action until the favourites start attacking.
 

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