Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes 2025, one day monument, April 27 (women's)

[Andy262]

And that's a monument for Mauritius!

I’ll take it as one for Scotland

 

[Andy262]

I’ll take it as one for Scotland

Edit: but very happy for her. You don’t end up in a sprint in that company without deserving it.

 

[yaco]

Yes. Le Court takes it. Sweet win.

FDJ doing basically all the work and Vollering only third. Must feel like a loss.

Actually Vollering and Kopecky's refusal to work in the group of four allowed Le Court to come back and gain victory. In my eyes a lucky victory!

 

[Izzyeviel]

Imagine my surprise when I tuned in to find Wiebes leading out Kopecky at the '24 Simac Tour.

Did they actually show much of LBL today on TNT?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I believed it could be possible for Le Court to get a decent road career going, which was also why I picked her for my team in the inaugural Emerging Riders CQ Game last year. However, her former MTV partner Vera Looser had not exactly set the cycling world on fire in previous years, so I definitely didn't think expect she would come anywhere close to these sort of results. She and Noemi Rüegg, who sadly broke her clavicle in FW, just keeps going from strengths to strengths.

First African monument(-ish) winner and third LBL winner after Van der Breggen and Fuglsang to also have won Cape Epic.

 

[Lequack]

Really exciting race, shame we got to see so few kms, but at least we got the best parts. Was certain Cedrine would win with that great attack, but real strength from Kim to win that sprint against Puck, who has the cyclocross strength.

Also I didn't know much about her before, but here is an article that tells a bit more:

Kim (Le Court) Pienaar is well-versed in the stereotypes about her home country Mauritius. “People think we train on the sand and eat coconuts all day - and yeah we do! - but we also eat other things! It is proper tropical, we live on tourism, and if you go there, you go tan, you live on cocktails, and you go to the beach, and that’s what it is.”

Born in 1996 to a Scottish mother and Mauritian father in Mauritius, a tiny island in the Indian Ocean that is 0.84% the size of the UK and without any previous international cycling heritage, she lived the typical island life. “It’s super rural and life’s good. I come from an unknown area that no one knows, right. The mountain biking scene is much bigger than the road one, and there are cycling clubs, teams and races, but it’s so small compared to Europe. And the dogs! Ah, I hate dogs! There are so many dogs wanting to eat me alive!”

The Mauritian darkhorse at Paris-Roubaix Femmes with the race’s wildest backstory

Meet the little-known rider from a tiny island nation who could shake up Paris-Roubaix Femmes

www.rouleur.cc

 

[Lequack]

Some more pics

 

[awavey]

Really exciting race, shame we got to see so few kms, but at least we got the best parts. Was certain Cedrine would win with that great attack, but real strength from Kim to win that sprint against Puck, who has the cyclocross strength.

Also I didn't know much about her before, but here is an article that tells a bit more:

Kim (Le Court) Pienaar is well-versed in the stereotypes about her home country Mauritius. “People think we train on the sand and eat coconuts all day - and yeah we do! - but we also eat other things! It is proper tropical, we live on tourism, and if you go there, you go tan, you live on cocktails, and you go to the beach, and that’s what it is.”

Born in 1996 to a Scottish mother and Mauritian father in Mauritius, a tiny island in the Indian Ocean that is 0.84% the size of the UK and without any previous international cycling heritage, she lived the typical island life. “It’s super rural and life’s good. I come from an unknown area that no one knows, right. The mountain biking scene is much bigger than the road one, and there are cycling clubs, teams and races, but it’s so small compared to Europe. And the dogs! Ah, I hate dogs! There are so many dogs wanting to eat me alive!”

The Mauritian darkhorse at Paris-Roubaix Femmes with the race’s wildest backstory

Meet the little-known rider from a tiny island nation who could shake up Paris-Roubaix Femmes

www.rouleur.cc

I don't know about anyone else but I've never presumed Kim just trained to ride on a beach eating coconuts... 🫤

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Some very nice pictures, Lequack.

 

[Lequack]

Random cyclo tourist on the course.

Wow, such disrespect from that fan. Hope he gets a hefty fine. He was shoo'd away and then he had the gall to come back a second time.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1916516858137649481

View: https://x.com/cyclingontnt/status/1916516858137649481

https://twitter.com/x/status/1916513077555581277

View: https://x.com/Eurosport_ES/status/1916513077555581277

 

[jono]

I imagine sequencing things so the women's finale follows them men's race for a lot of these classicss races is drawing more fans to the female side of the sport. The contrast in suspense and excitement between today's finish and another Pog coronation/yawnfest could not have been more stark.

 

[Filippo_3467]

I imagine sequencing things so the women's finale follows them men's race for a lot of these Flanders Classics events is drawing more fans to the female side of the sport. The contrast in suspense and excitement between today's finish and another Pog coronation/yawnfest could not have been more stark.

I think for a lot of hardcore cycling fans that is already the case. The women races are better because there are tactical mishaps, weird race situations, favourites imploding or underperforming more often. Also the talent is now levelwise closer together and better spread among teams. SD-Worx isn't anymore in every race the heavy favourite. FDJ is strong, but also Movistar (Lippert, reusser, feurgeson), Canyon (Kasia, Niedermeier, Dygaert), Lidl, Alpecin UAE, AGInsurane and co have multiple great riders and big talent. That makes for closer racing, exciting tactical plays and controversy. I think for people who follow the sport really closely that is perfect.

For the broader public, young fans and the casual fan having Pog destroying everyone and getting close to winning a lot of all-time records will only create more excitement and attention especially on social media. Like with every sport that is more important from a business pov then the people who really watch the start. Most people don't watch 4 hours of bike racing on a sunday like we do so it's totally irrelevant to them that the race is boring.

I for sure think that the women GTs will be great and much more entertaining then the mens. Last year the three GTs (of course much shorter for women) were decided by under between 1st and 2nd 2:30 combined. The last really close GC for the men was in my eyes the Vuelta 2020 were Carapaz looked like he had Roglic on the ropes. The of course the famous 2020 Tour time trial Roglic vs. Pogacar. 2020 was the last good year where the big guns were already there but not as comically overpowered to the rest of the field. On the womenside it was a totally different story for a long time with AVV totally dominating anything with real climbs and SD-Worx winning the rest. So things can change but for the next 2-3 years women racing will be more exciting for fans that enjoy active racing and close results.

 

[jmdirt]

Really exciting race, shame we got to see so few kms, but at least we got the best parts. Was certain Cedrine would win with that great attack, but real strength from Kim to win that sprint against Puck, who has the cyclocross strength.

Also I didn't know much about her before, but here is an article that tells a bit more:

Kim (Le Court) Pienaar is well-versed in the stereotypes about her home country Mauritius. “People think we train on the sand and eat coconuts all day - and yeah we do! - but we also eat other things! It is proper tropical, we live on tourism, and if you go there, you go tan, you live on cocktails, and you go to the beach, and that’s what it is.”

Born in 1996 to a Scottish mother and Mauritian father in Mauritius, a tiny island in the Indian Ocean that is 0.84% the size of the UK and without any previous international cycling heritage, she lived the typical island life. “It’s super rural and life’s good. I come from an unknown area that no one knows, right. The mountain biking scene is much bigger than the road one, and there are cycling clubs, teams and races, but it’s so small compared to Europe. And the dogs! Ah, I hate dogs! There are so many dogs wanting to eat me alive!”

The Mauritian darkhorse at Paris-Roubaix Femmes with the race’s wildest backstory

Meet the little-known rider from a tiny island nation who could shake up Paris-Roubaix Femmes

www.rouleur.cc

Mauritius - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[jmdirt]

Congrats KLCP!

 

[RedheadDane]

I don't know about anyone else but I've never presumed Kim just trained to ride on a beach eating coconuts... 🫤

I dunno, training on a beach seems pretty hard. Pedaling through sand can't be easy.