Lesser Known Road Racing for Women Thread

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Kopecky's back to her winning ways in Ardèche. The field is obviously not as strong as in the bigger races, and the longer ITT will help her as well, but she will still have climb decently in order to win the GC.
Didn't expect her to win on that step finish. Stage 5 and 6 will tell if she is back in good climbing form which was missing most of the season.
 
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As I understand it, not roadside protests in the vicinity of the race at all, but shortage of police personnel because they are required for events elsewhere.
These events likely being protests elsewhere, since today was a national day of "tout bloquer". 80,000 police officers were mobilised.

PCS update: strike among local law enforcement.
That's not very likely, I'd say.
 
No surprise there, but the gaps were still not that big. Squiban is, on paper, in the driver's seat ahead of the last two stages, but nothing is decided yet. The steep part of Côte du Baron on Sunday should be able to shake things up, if tomorrow's stage to Mont Lozère hasn't already done the trick.
 
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Lotte Kopecky update: first she crashed in a recovery ride, which resulted in 7 stitches in her knee and then she crashed today and felt pain in her back. Luckily nothing brocken. Right now even Track WC are in doubt.

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOeam5LgoyZ/?img_index=1
They did another checkup today in Belgium because the pain in the back: vertebral fracture.

Even looking worse for the track WC.
 
And Trinca Colonel did it. Nice for her after the disappointments in the Giro and Tour.

Also quite a contrast the champion from two years ago who is now leaving the sport. I'm slightly more surprised to hear that she's retiring now that I would have been if it had already happened a year ago, but it's become more and more apparent that she won't even return to the level she showed in 2023, which wasn't close to what she had achieved in the years before. What's most important is that she's in a better place now and that she's been lucky enough to be able to make the decision herself and not have her accidents do it for her, although they're obviously still to blame.
 
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