The Lesser Known Women's Road Racing Thread 2023

[Samu Cuenca]

We talked a little about the Volta a Portugal Feminina previously, and it did end up taking place last week. Farto - BTC was the only UCI team to compete, but they couldn't stop last year's Portuguese ITT champion Raquel Queirós from stealing the inaugural crown with two stage wins to her name. She also does MTB and represented her country in the Tokyo Olympics, placing 27th, and in last month's WC, where she finished 10th in the U23 cross-country race.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Leah Thomas took a solo win on stage 2 of TCFIA. Everyone outside the top 10 lost more than 5 minutes, so Lauren Stevens will not retain the title. TIBCO will instead have to trust their new promising signing, Veronica Ewers, if they want a good GC result in the race.

01	Leah Thomas		Movistar Team	03:24:44​	16​
02	Lizzie Deignan		Trek-Segafredo	+ 09​	12​
03	Thalita De Jong		Bingoal Casino-Chevalmeire	+ 09​	8​
04	Arlenis Sierra		A.R. Monex Women's	+ 09​	6​
05	Ane Santesteban		Team BikeExchange	+ 09​	5​
06	Mavi Garcia		Alé BTC Ljubljana	+ 09​	4​
07	Jeanne Korevaar		Liv Racing	+ 09​	3​
08	Veronica Ewers		Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank	+ 09​	2​
09	Spela Kern		Massi Tactic Women Team	+ 09​	​
10	Pauliena Rooijakkers		Liv Racing	+ 09​

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Sabrina Stultiens from Liv Racing was in a long break on today's stage, but it came down to a sprint in the end with Hosking taking another victory.

01	Chloe Hosking		Trek-Segafredo	03:39:10​	16​
02	Barbara Guarischi		Movistar Team	+ 00​	12​
03	Charlotte Kool		NXTG Racing	+ 00​	8​
04	Arlenis Sierra		A.R. Monex Women's	+ 00​	6​
05	Marta Bastianelli		Alé BTC Ljubljana	+ 00​	5​
06	Jeanne Korevaar		Liv Racing	+ 00​	4​
07	Katarzyna Wilkos		MAT ATOM Deweloper Wroclaw	+ 00​	3​
08	Lizzie Deignan		Trek-Segafredo	+ 00​	2​
09	Nina Kessler		Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank	+ 00​	​
10	Thalita De Jong		Bingoal Casino-Chevalmeire	+ 00​	​
11	Giorgia Vettorello		Top Girls Fassa Bortolo	+ 00​

 

[Libertine Seguros]

We're off to Mont-Lozère soon, though, albeit with no Finiels this year. The stage with Col de la Machine will be probably the decisive one.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

We're off to Mont-Lozère soon, though, albeit with no Finiels this year. The stage with Col de la Machine will be probably the decisive one.

The position of the first QOM sprint on that stage seems a little odd. It's not even at the top of Col Gaudissart, and they continue to climb untill they reach the top of Col de la Chau, which they haven't categorised at all.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Pfeiffer Georgi got her first pro win in the women's GP de Fourmies from a break in front of Rachel Neyland the fresh European U23 champion Silvia Zanardi. The trophy is quite long.

 

[yaco]

Neylan is having a renaissance at 39 years of age - It's disappointing there is no coverage of Ardeche - It seems an interesting race going by the results.

I wonder why they don't have two groups of commentators covering the televised women's racing - Marty McDonald's rider id in the peleton is just about the best in the business, while Danni Rowe is solid, but more diversification in the commentary would not hurt.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Neylan is having a renaissance at 39 years of age - It's disappointing there is no coverage of Ardeche - It seems an interesting race going by the results.

I wonder why they don't have two groups of commentators covering the televised women's racing - Marty McDonald's rider id in the peleton is just about the best in the business, while Danni Rowe is sold, but more diversification in the commentary would not hurt.

Yeah, it would be great to have coverage of Ardéche. Instead we have to rely on the teams to give us updates on Twitter.
I don't know what happened to Deignan today, but she lost everything. Now it's a five women battle between Thomas, Santesteban, García, Rooijakkers and Ewers. BEX got their bikes or some of them stolen overnight and had to rely on help from others team to start the stage.

I can't remember if Rowsell has done any of the races with MacDonald this season, but she definitely did last year. Dani Christmas did a good job during the Vuelta Challenge considering it was her debut. I don't know if that was meant to be a one-off or if she'll become more of regular feature. It might of course also depend on whether she is continuing her racing career or not.

 

[yaco]

Teniel Campbell gains her first pro victory in Stage 6 of Ardeche from a reduced sprint - She's showing potential but still has a way to go with endurance, efficiency on the bike and tactical acumen - Anyway the team is delighted to obtain a victory.

Two riders of interest from Tibco - Veronica Ewers who is 4th on GC and Emma Langley who finished 2nd on a stage - Ewers at 28 is new to the sport like Faulkner in 2020, while Langley at 25 is a bit more experienced.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Teniel Campbell gains her first pro victory in Stage 6 of Ardeche from a reduced sprint - She's showing potential but still has a way to go with endurance, efficiency on the bike and tactical acumen - Anyway the team is delighted to obtain a victory.

Two riders of interest from Tibco - Veronica Ewers who is 4th on GC and Emma Langley who finished 2nd on a stage - Ewers at 28 is new to the sport like Faulkner in 2020, while Langley at 25 is a bit more experienced.

It's only Cambell's first pro win for BEX, but it's definitely a more prestigious one than the others.

Ewers has really impressed me, and TIBCO must be happy they decided to send her to Europe. Though her first results in the US were promising, I still didn't exepct her to be able to match some of the better climbers on a MTF like she did the other day.
Cyclingnews did a piece about her before the race: https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/introducing-veronica-ewers/

 

[WKA311]

Wilma Olausson -> Uno-X (2022/23)

 

[Samu Cuenca]

There is an unstable live stream of the last stage in Ardéche. Lucinda Brand, Lucy Kennedy and Jeanne Korevaar have 1:26 over the peleton with 30 km left, which means they are on the Col de Benas.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScM69Rx_DTU

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Brand is solo now on the final descent. Nothing seems to have happened in the peloton, so Leah Thomas should win the race.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

1. Brand
2. Korevaar
3. Kennedy (in possibly her last race)
4. Thomas
5. Santesteban
6. García

and then gaps between the next riders
7 Rooijakkers
8 Thalita de Jong it was Justine Ghekiere from Bingoal
9 Ewers
10 Lucie Jounier
11 Thalita de Jong

Final GC

01	Leah Thomas		Movistar Team	23:18:13​	125​
02	Mavi Garcia		Alé BTC Ljubljana	+ 09​	85​
03	Ane Santesteban		Team BikeExchange	+ 09​	70​
04	Pauliena Rooijakkers		Liv Racing	+ 26​	60​
05	Veronica Ewers		Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank	+ 52​	50​
06	Jeanne Korevaar		Liv Racing	+ 01:30​	40​
07	Thalita De Jong		Bingoal Casino-Chevalmeire	+ 02:46​	35​
08	Arlenis Sierra		A.R. Monex Women's	+ 03:09​	30​
09	Spela Kern		Massi Tactic Women Team	+ 03:24​	25​
10	Lucinda Brand		Trek-Segafredo	+ 05:38​	20​

 

[yaco]

It is Kennedy's last race - It's disappointing she's not doing the Italian block of racing which suit her characteristics.

 

[RedheadDane]

I'm gonna give it an 11/10 for the podium celebration!

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Meanwhile the course for Paris-Roubaix has been revealed, and we now know that it won't actually be Paris-Roubaix, but Denain-Roubaix instead. The race will be 116.4 km long and include 17 pavé sectors with 30 km of cobbles in total.

It will start with three local laps around Denain before they ride the last 85 km of the men's route with both Carrefour de l'Arbre and Mons-en-Pévèle on the menu. The reason they are doing the first laps is that ASO apparently thinks the Arenberg Forest is too scary a place for women (ok, there might be other reasons, but I just find it a bit sad that it won't feature in the race, at least not in the first edition).

Quite fittingly, when I went to the PR website and clicked on PR Femmes, I got an error message.

 

[yaco]

PR will be a wide-open race - There is no certainty that the dominant riders will be suited by the cobbles - Reckon the initial break could go far into the race.

 

[Lequack]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1437829888518598664

View: https://twitter.com/OutOfCycling/status/1437829888518598664?s=20

 

[RedheadDane]

What a cool result at the GP d'Isbergues!

Grand Prix International d'Isbergues - Pas de Calais Féminin 2021 One day race results (procyclingstats.com)

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Beating Balsamo in a sprint is a feather in the cap, too. Balsamo is underrated or at least underappreciated, I think.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Kool has had a fine season and looks like a great signing for DSM. Though with a result like today it will be a shame if she's just meant to do leadouts for Wiebes.

 

[yaco]

Surely Rivera will change teams with Wiebes and Kool taking away her opportunities.

 

[yaco]

There will be a three day WWT Tour of Romandie added to the calendar - I'm assuming it will be run in conjunction with the Men's Tour - This gives a stage race opportunity in the first half of the women's calendar which is sorely needed - My only worry is that Romandie has been known to have a prologue and an ITT in the men's race - Could they design a parcours for Reusser ?

 

[yaco]

So no live coverage of the Tour of Britain ! I don't think its absolutely necessary to cover all races, though it's surprising this race has no live coverage, when you consider it's past history - I am more interested if their will be a collective gnashing of the teeth from the media as occurred with Gira Donne.