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Lesser Known Road Racing for Women Thread

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Emma Norsgaard continues her quest to not be seen as a sprinter by going on a long escapade in the Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria, but sadly for her, her breakaway was gobbled up on Areitio, before they even got to the first side of Goiuria which is the main climb of the day, climbed from two different sides.

On the first one a significant selection was made, including a couple from Movistar (Meijering and Aalerud), Jayco (Santesteban and Žigart), AG (Moolman-Pasio and Ghekiere) plus a few other useful climbers like Alice Maria Arzuffi, Claire Steels and the in-form Ella Wyllie. On the second time, which is a very inconsistent ramp with two really steep steps in it, Anna Kiesenhofer was chasing on but just before she could get there Ash Moolman-Pasio attacked and opened up a big gap which was only able to be bridged by a persistent climb by local favourite Ane Santesteban.

On the way down a sense of inevitability washed over me; I do quite like Ash, but Ane has not won a race in a decade (her only career win in fact) and with it being a local race those that were out there to see it were firmly in her corner. Claire Steels managed to extricate herself from the chasing group and even briefly got into contact with the lead duo as they played games into the final kilometre... but in the end it had taken her all her effort to get there and when they settled the sprint Steels was dropped once more; however, the sense of inevitability was prescient - unfortunately as you may be aware, Ane Santesteban is Basque, and she sprints rather like your typical Basque cyclist, which is to say, she doesn't. And the wait sadly goes on.
 
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Except they were sprinting for Paternoster who has definitely lost her speed - Paternoster should have been sent to the Thuringen Tour.
After her broken collarbone and concussion in the summer she hasn't been in her best shape indeed. Also a new team and maybe different training method which isn't working well. Hope she can get back to her best self. She's still young.
 
"Ah, Vuelta a Burgos. That's always a good, testing little race in the Vuelta build-up, with some interesting climbs. Oh Look! There's a women's version, that should be an entertaining climbers' battle....oh"

Edit: I somehow had failed to notice stage 4 when I wrote that, so I guess I should withdraw that.
 
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And rightly so.

yes just seen the highlights on Eurosport, was like strewth Lorena you cant make the space by riding into the other rider to force them out of your way, if she was getting boxed in she needed to communicate that with Demi to make the space for her pronto instead, which surely was the darn finish plan in the first place if Demi was leading her up the climb on the narrow non cobbled bit, they werent expecting her to have shift over to sprint on the cobbles were they ? if Balsamo or Dygert attacked ?
 
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Was it actually any different than is seen, and deemed acceptable, in every bunch sprint ever? she used her shoulder to make space: try telling any sprinter in the male peloton that that is not allowed. It maybe looks worse because there were only three people there: perhaps some perceive it as worse because aggressiveness between women is less expected. But if that is a demotion, how many would there be in a typical bunch sprint?


And given that a time difference was recorded between Wiebes and Vollering, what does it mean for her to be relegated to last place in the group that she was in? That would mean demotion from 1st to, errmmm, 1st. Commissioners inventing rules to replace poorly drafted rules.
 
Was it actually any different than is seen, and deemed acceptable, in every bunch sprint ever? she used her shoulder to make space: try telling any sprinter in the male peloton that that is not allowed. It maybe looks worse because there were only three people there: perhaps some perceive it as worse because aggressiveness between women is less expected. But if that is a demotion, how many would there be in a typical bunch sprint?


And given that a time difference was recorded between Wiebes and Vollering, what does it mean for her to be relegated to last place in the group that she was in? That would mean demotion from 1st to, errmmm, 1st. Commissioners inventing rules to replace poorly drafted rules.

she rode into Chloe Dygert and then gave her a good old shove with her shoulder for good measure to get her out of her way, you cant do that in a sprint within the final 1km, it pushes Chloe off her line, and Chloe said the contact pushed her hand against her shifter which downshifted twice, and she couldnt regain momentum. so it absolutely had an impact on the result.

the UCI rule says deviation from the chosen line that obstructs or endangers another rider or irregular sprint (including pulling the jersey or saddle of another rider, intimidation or threat, blow from the head, knee, elbow, shoulder, hand, etc.)” is strictly disallowed.

View: https://youtu.be/kJ8DT6ySK3Y?t=57


fwiw Pidcock was relegated from a sprint earlier in the year at the Volto ao Algarve where he just put his hand up to stop another rider coming across his line, now they frown more on taking a hand off the handlebars in a sprint, but the impact was barely more than a touch in comparison to this.

normally for an aggressive shove the rider is given outright disqualification from the race, I wouldnt have expected the Vuelta a Burgos to go that far, maybe if Chloe had hit the deck as a result of the shove they would have, but you cant ride like that in a sprint, relegation was absolutely the correct call.
 
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May 20, 2023
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Right, I'm starting this thread mainly so I can ask a question: Does Hitec really only have five riders on their roster this year?
This newfound understanding does bring about a sense of clarity.
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