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Lesser Known Road Racing for Women Thread

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I was replying to your assertion that she would be out for a while. Any fracture hurts immediately, and for a short time after, but the location of the fracture makes a HUGE difference in recovery time to get back on the bike safely and comfortably.
Fwiw my "assertion" was based on the details FDJ released about it and how they specifically said "the duration of which (her absence) remains undetermined to date". And a couple of other details they shared suggest even "a while" might be optimistic.

They obviously know where the fracture is, the sacrum sits between the two hip bones, which will make cycling painfree impossible till its healed properly and yes depending on size, exact location and how quickly it heals changes the timeline but its going to be between 8-12 weeks, and 8-12 weeks where she won't be riding much if at all.

I wouldn't be picking her in any fantasy league races till TdFF at the earliest.
 
Fwiw my "assertion" was based on the details FDJ released about it and how they specifically said "the duration of which (her absence) remains undetermined to date". And a couple of other details they shared suggest even "a while" might be optimistic.

They obviously know where the fracture is, the sacrum sits between the two hip bones, which will make cycling painfree impossible till its healed properly and yes depending on size, exact location and how quickly it heals changes the timeline but its going to be between 8-12 weeks, and 8-12 weeks where she won't be riding much if at all.

I wouldn't be picking her in any fantasy league races till TdFF at the earliest.
I can speak with some experience because I had a fracture in the ala and the coccyx from being hit by a car on a training ride. The coccyx obviously took a long time to recover enough to be comfortable on the bike (~6 weeks), but I could have been on the trainer in three weeks with the upper fracture.

None of my experience necessarily means anything to her injury, but if hers is in the thicker part of the upper sacrum, she might be back on the trainer by April.
 
Vuelta a El Salvador is back this week, along with a couple of associated one-day races. First time in a decade at this level - and should be some mountains on stages 1 and 4 at least. Stage 2 around San Salvador could include some mountains as well but could just as easily be a flat circuit. The startlist seems typical for what we might have expected - a small number of European teams with some interest in the region (Eneicat, Roland, Bepink) and a Ukrainian national team (plenty of slightly sus ex-Eastern Bloc national teams used to do this race back in the day) plus some Central and South American national or club teams (Soltec Iberoamérica also have Aranza Villalón as a mercenary) and Boneshaker from the US.

It's also pretty open as to who may win - there's a few decent names like Professor Kiesenhofer, Olga Shekel, Tamara Dronova, Andrea Alzate, Carolina Vargas and Marcela Prieto there - largely due to the absence of the obvious dominant champion of any climbing race in this neck of the woods (right, Samu?), Lilibeth Chacón.
 
Vuelta a El Salvador is back this week, along with a couple of associated one-day races. First time in a decade at this level - and should be some mountains on stages 1 and 4 at least. Stage 2 around San Salvador could include some mountains as well but could just as easily be a flat circuit. The startlist seems typical for what we might have expected - a small number of European teams with some interest in the region (Eneicat, Roland, Bepink) and a Ukrainian national team (plenty of slightly sus ex-Eastern Bloc national teams used to do this race back in the day) plus some Central and South American national or club teams (Soltec Iberoamérica also have Aranza Villalón as a mercenary) and Boneshaker from the US.

It's also pretty open as to who may win - there's a few decent names like Professor Kiesenhofer, Olga Shekel, Tamara Dronova, Andrea Alzate, Carolina Vargas and Marcela Prieto there - largely due to the absence of the obvious dominant champion of any climbing race in this neck of the woods (right, Samu?), Lilibeth Chacón.

It's a bit of a joke though, that they've been allowed to organise 5 races instead of just the one stage race, purely so that Roland can farm UCI points to try and avoid relegation.
 
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It's a bit of a joke though, that they've been allowed to organise 5 races instead of just the one stage race, purely so that Roland can farm UCI points to try and avoid relegation.
Pop-up races for things like Olympic quali used to be very common on the women's calendar, this is at least a historic women's race (which was often used in similar fashion in the past).

The fact that the UCI competition page gives the race organiser's contact details with an @cogeas.ch email address rather makes it look transparent, though, hey?
 
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Pop-up races for things like Olympic quali used to be very common on the women's calendar, this is at least a historic women's race (which was often used in similar fashion in the past).

The fact that the UCI competition page gives the race organiser's contact details with an @cogeas.ch email address rather makes it look transparent, though, hey?

After what we saw Tashkent and the Uzbeks get away with last year, I guess the UCI doesn't care too much. I don't mind Christoforou winning today though, and we can both be happy with Villamizar's 3rd place.
 
Valentina Basilico denied Roland the opportunity to get a clean sweep in El Salvador. I had thought a WWT team would possibly pick up ahead of this season, but she ended up at Eneicat instead.

The Trofeo Ponente in Rosa started yesterday. The route is less exciting than last year, but as long as all the stages actually go ahead, I won't mind. The Swiss MTB team is back to defend Neff's title, this time with help from Linda Zanetti. Alessandra Keller won the prologue, but EF looks like the team to beat, with an in-form Faulkner, Cadzow, Emond, Koppenburg and Vallieres. Niedermaier is there with the CSR Generation team, and Kolesava might also do well for them here. I'm surprised the UAE Devo team isn't riding it this year.

GP Oetingen is also being raced today, and it's hard to look past Wiebes or a different SDW rider, depending on how they play it.
 
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Elena Hartmann won the third race in El Salvador. Anna Kiesenhofer ended up at the hospital, but fortunately she hasn't broken anything.

Kim Cadzow took a very commanding win yesterday ahead of Faulkner. Today it was the American who won ahead of the Kiwi, who keeps the overall lead. Niedermaier is unfortunately out of the race due to illness.

Ellen van Dijk makes her return to racing in the second edition of the Vuelta Extremadura tomorrow. The opening TTT has been replaced with a 17 km ITT on the final day, so we'll see how strong she currently is there. Isabella Holmgren and Fleur Moors will get there road debuts at the race. The queen stage is unipuerto this year, but it should still be possible for Realini to make a difference. Whether she'll be able to hold on to the lead in the ITT is a different matter.

pico-villuercas-rio-ibor.png

I think this is the right profile for Pico Villuercas. The last 10.5 km are identical to the finish to the 2021 Vuelta stage won by Romain Bardet.
 

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