Lesser Known Road Racing for Women Thread

[Samu Cuenca]

That was a lot more entertaining than I had feared it would be. The short climb made a difference. It looked like Brand was sailing away, but then Rooijakkers not on ly closed it (ona descent!), but also managed counter Brand afterwards. Then she took the front and had no chance of winning.

They could have taken another second, if Balsamo hadn't sprinted for fourth.


Seeing the bike paths next to the Rhine makes me long for a return to the area.

 

[yaco]

The 700 metre climb at 7% should not have caused such carnage, but when it part of a 4.6km lap, then riders had less time to recover - If this was held on a 8km lap it would have resulted in less carnage - It did not help that the GC teams used questionable tactics - I'll also add that I don't see the need for an ITT in a four stage race, especially one that is 25kms long - Then again the course was set up for Reusser.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

The 700 metre climb at 7% should not have caused such carnage, but when it part of a 4.6km lap, then riders had less time to recover - If this was held on a 8km lap it would have resulted in less carnage - It did not help that the GC teams used questionable tactics - I'll also add that I don't see the need for an ITT in a four stage race, especially one that is 25kms long - Then again the course was set up for Reusser.

Though Reusser can climb quite well, too, so for her to have won the race it wouldn't necessarily have required such a long ITT either. But at least it's better than having a road race on the ITT circuit as they did last year IMO. And when none of the big races have a long ITT, then other races have to include them instead.

It will be hard anyone to beat Brand now, if she delivers tomorrow, butt here might still be a chance.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

As predicted, my decision to pick Brennauer for the ITT turned out to be horrible as she lost too much time in the hillier second half. Brodie Chapman was flying through that part of the course and leads at the moment. Neff only lost 2 seconds to Brennauer in the first half and might be able to match/better Chapman's final time.

Ivanchenko crashed in the last bend and had to run to the line.

 

[RedheadDane]

Swiss Timing not quite so Swiss today...

Or they got Champman and Roy mixed up.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Swiss Timing not quite so Swiss today...

Or they got Champman and Roy mixed up.

They didn't, but I don't know how they got Champman's time wrong and needed af ew tries to get it right (if it is right now), but didn't ask her to leave the hot chair until later.
Olivia Baril still has the fastest intermediate time, but there's no way that one is accurate either, unless she went out crazily fast and died at the end.

 

[RedheadDane]

Williams new best time.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

That looks a pretty solid time from Neff considering she seldom does this kind of thing.

Edit: I know she's from right on the German-Swiss border, but they're putting a lot of attention onto Lippert when Faulkner has passed her AND Klein.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I think they need Rolf Sørensen's stopwatch in order to get the times right.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I like how Marty is trying to tiptoe around the fact that there are hardly any TT results to call on Rooijakkers and Koppenburg, because of a paucity of them on the women's calendar, outside of championship type events where, obviously, the Dutch and German teams have no need to worry about including either of them. Koppenburg's results in the past have been alright, mind.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Faulkner with a very impressive time. We haven't really seen her on a long and flatter time trial before, but she's obviously also still improving in pretty much every department. The Giant/Liv TT bikes are not bad companions either.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Oof, PCS just put up Pauliena Rooijakkers' career best TT results, almost all of them are prologues or MTTs.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Oof, PCS just put up Pauliena Rooijakkers' career best TT results, almost all of them are prologues or MTTs.

Yes, she is looking good and is about to catch Balsamo soon. Koppenburg has lost 45 seconds to her in the first part.
Brand is 16 seconds up on Rooijakkers, but is 8 seconds behind Faulkner at the intermediate point.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yea, Koppenburg's TT has been a disaster in the first half, she needs a negative split or she has it all to do in the mountain stages. Rooijakkers looks impressive considering the paucity of race practice in the format.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Brand looked to be going at double speed when she flew past Koppenburg.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Brand lost quite a lot of time in the end, and Faulkner will be in the yellow jersey tomorrow (if the times are right).

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

BEXtremely good morning for the team

1	FAULKNER Kristen	Team BikeExchange - Jayco
2	WILLIAMS Georgia	Team BikeExchange - Jayco
3	BAKER Georgia	Team BikeExchange - Jayco

 

[yaco]

BEX's has dialled in their equipment for the ITT on both the men's and women's team - I doubt that Faulkner can hold onto the GC lead as she will probably struggle in stage four, and BEX doesn't have a strong enough squad. Anyway, Faulkner is an interesting prospect as this is only her second as a full-time pro - I'm expecting more improvement in the next two years.

 

[RedheadDane]

Balsamo wins the stage ahead of Muzic and Lippert.
Lippert crashed with less than five Ks to go, and had to chase back.

 

[Ricco']

Shouldn't Jolanda be riding with Trek - Segafredo team?

 

[RedheadDane]

Shouldn't Jolanda be riding with Trek - Segafredo team?

Seems like she specifically rides for them for MTB purposes.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Shouldn't Jolanda be riding with Trek - Segafredo team?

She was on their road team a few years ago, doing a few races. I did think that in this race last year, while she was part of the Swiss team, she was riding for Trek unofficially in the break with Deignan. Her bike is even a Trek-Segafredo bike....

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Well, I rather overestimated that finishing climb!

Now I've put myself in a fork when it comes to tomorrow's MTF. In order to achieve the GC result I require, I must forgo any stage huntress points, as if I get any stage huntress points, Jolanda is ahead of either of my GC picks.

I'm also annoyed because I picked Koppenburg over Rooijakkers solely on comparison of their TT metrics since I thought both were likely to be among the top 3 contenders in the climbs (and stage 1 appeared to demonstrate to that effect), but neither had done a representative TT in about 3 years. Pauliena pulled out a very good one comparatively speaking, and so I'm in the position that from a support perspective I probably want Rooijakkers to win the race, but from a Prediction Game perspective I really could do with her not doing that

 

[Samu Cuenca]

She was on their road team a few years ago, doing a few races. I did think that in this race last year, while she was part of the Swiss team, she was riding for Trek unofficially in the break with Deignan. Her bike is even a Trek-Segafredo bike....

Well she is still being sponsored by Trek. Frei is also using Specialized bikes in the race, and I assume Indergand has been handed some by Liv/Giant as well. We'll see tomorrow if Brand and Faulkner suddenly have extra teammates.

 

[yaco]

Well she is still being sponsored by Trek. Frei is also using Specialized bikes in the race, and I assume Indergand has been handed some by Liv/Giant as well. We'll see tomorrow if Brand and Faulkner suddenly have extra teammates.

Faulkner will probably only have Williams and Zigart - Faulkner should top five and possibly Williams can hold on for a top 10.