The Lesser Known Women's Road Racing Thread 2023

[Samu Cuenca]

Nosková has used her good from from Australia to attack on the early slopes of La Frontera, and her gap is growing to about 30 seconds at the moment.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Nosková has been caught by Koppenburg, Lippert, Mackaij and Magnaldi. Mareille Meijering from Zaaf and Ana Vitoria Magalhães from Bizkaia-Durango are surprisingly still there as well, while Anouska Koster was the last one to get dropped.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Koppenburg, Magnaldi and the new Movistar duo of Floortje Mackaij and Liane Lippert now up front, with a small gap from Nosková and Mareille Meijering. The tickers are now contradicting each other as to where Magalhães is.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Koppenburg, Magnaldi and the new Movistar duo of Floortje Mackaij and Liane Lippert now up front, with a small gap from Nosková and Mareille Meijering. The tickers are now contradicting each other as to where Magalhães is.

Magalhães was on the attack earlier, so it's probabably a mistake that she was ever there, but let's see. Her full name must be one of the longest in the peloton: Ana Vitória Gouvea Vieira Almeida Magalhães. I can understand why people call her Tota instead.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

17 km left. As long as the Movistar duo pushes on, they will probably stay away. They should also be the two fastest in the group.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

5 on 5, graphics are messing things up again. They labelled Magnaldi as Magalhães, now they've labelled her as Fien Delbaere. At least there was an understandable numerical confusion of Magalhães and Magnaldi, really not understanding the Delbaere confusion. Similarly they've mistaken Aranza Villalón (#111) as Elinor Barker (#11).

Edit: not anymore. Nosková tries to escape, Mackaij covers, Lippert then charges away to join them, goes over the top and Mackaij goes with her, they have it down to two of the three, I think they're trying to do the Vino-Kash for the photos but Nosková refuses to be beaten.

 

[RedheadDane]

Movistar duo + Noskova out front.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Mackaij is on her own now with 5 km to go.

 

[RedheadDane]

Mackaij is on her own now with 5 km to go.

She won.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

She won.

Yes, easy win for the Movistar friends.

Great to see Koppenburg being competitive in her first race back.
Koster scored some points for Uno-X, but it will be quite hard for them to stay in the WWT, unless they start getting much better results.

 

[Izzyeviel]

2nd version of my fantasy cycling team. Thoughts?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Your biggest buys are Cille and Kasia, I'm always going to support that. Even I didn't go that heart-over-head in the CQ game (although I did go pretty heart-over-head with Demi and Cille as my most expensive two picks in fairness). I also back the Fidanza pick, I think she's an under-the-radar chance for some good cheap points because Ceratizit don't really have a better sprinter and she's pretty quick and decent for some placements even if she likely won't win too much. Manly is poised for a good year and she can motor over most terrains, while Kool is a pick I made on the CQ game too, I think she's a definite star pick here because DSM have a very good sprint train but now having lost Labecki and Wiebes over the last couple of years, Kool will be the main one on the end of it. I'd only say that you have invested heavily in the FDJ team with Grace Brown AND Cille whose goals are likely to be subsumed to one another when they race together in many major races (this was also why I rejected my initial plan to use Liane Lippert in my CQ Game, because I figured that with that game focusing primarily on WWT races, being on the same team as Annemiek van Vleuten will limit the number of points available to her) and similarly Henderson's freedom will likely be clipped by being on the same team as Vos and being likely to focus on the same types of stages/races; Szkalniak is an interesting gamble as her successes in the B-races last year mean she costs a fair bit so it's potentially high risk high reward as if she can replicate that kind of form on the WWT you'll be laughing to the (points) bank, and...well...of course I have to subtract some style points for picking Lizzie Deignan

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Your biggest buys are Cille and Kasia, I'm always going to support that. Even I didn't go that heart-over-head in the CQ game (although I did go pretty heart-over-head with Demi and Cille as my most expensive two picks in fairness). I also back the Fidanza pick, I think she's an under-the-radar chance for some good cheap points because Ceratizit don't really have a better sprinter and she's pretty quick and decent for some placements even if she likely won't win too much. Manly is poised for a good year and she can motor over most terrains, while Kool is a pick I made on the CQ game too, I think she's a definite star pick here because DSM have a very good sprint train but now having lost Labecki and Wiebes over the last couple of years, Kool will be the main one on the end of it. I'd only say that you have invested heavily in the FDJ team with Grace Brown AND Cille whose goals are likely to be subsumed to one another when they race together in many major races (this was also why I rejected my initial plan to use Liane Lippert in my CQ Game, because I figured that with that game focusing primarily on WWT races, being on the same team as Annemiek van Vleuten will limit the number of points available to her) and similarly Henderson's freedom will likely be clipped by being on the same team as Vos and being likely to focus on the same types of stages/races; Szkalniak is an interesting gamble as her successes in the B-races last year mean she costs a fair bit so it's potentially high risk high reward as if she can replicate that kind of form on the WWT you'll be laughing to the (points) bank, and...well...of course I have to subtract some style points for picking Lizzie Deignan

Lower ranked races count in this game, so as long as CANYON SRAM brings her to some of them (possibly as a part of the Generation team, she might still be able to score a fair amount of points that way, if she fails at WWT level.

2nd version of my fantasy cycling team. Thoughts?

You should of course bet against Vos, but her current injury could possibly become an issue. She probably won't be riding too many races either, which could also be costly if she doesn't reach her usual level.

I don't really know what to expect from Paternoster, but at least it will be hard for her to do any worse than last year. Zoe Bäckstedt might still need some time, before she'll be ready to score many points, but it will also depend on which races she gets to ride.

 

[Izzyeviel]

I'd forgotten Vos was injured - see, this is why I come to the experts.
I can replace her with one of Labous, Garcia, Lippert, Norsgaard, Reusser, Fisher-black or Audrey Cordon-Ragot. Any idea?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

When's the next window for substitution? If it's fairly short term, hard to look past Liane but once Annemiek's season starts to hit full gas, they'll be doing a few of the same races, and Annemiek's way of winning things being to just ride away from everybody means it's harder to gain from her the way you can with Vos teammates (Marianne will often let a teammate up the road, and then say to those around her something along the lines of 'I'm not working to chase my teammate, and I'll outsprint you if you bring her back, your move'. It was a large part of how Annemiek first made her name back in the Nederland Bloeit/Rabobank days in fact). Season-long I think Labous is the best call from those, as she'll score strong points in the stage racing season. Reusser and Fisher-Black are both great but with SD-Worx's insane strength in depth they'll often be fighting for scraps. García is an intriguing pick because she's at an age where every year I think she'll decline and she doesn't, but because she didn't turn pro until already in her 30s she's not got the miles on the clock of most her age. Hell, Annemiek hasn't either because she's a late starter, but she still started a lot sooner than Mavi.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I'd forgotten Vos was injured - see, this is why I come to the experts.
I can replace her with one of Labous, Garcia, Lippert, Norsgaard, Reusser, Fisher-black or Audrey Cordon-Ragot. Any idea?

You can also have Moolman-Pasio, right?

I would be inclined to go with her. She's now the undisputed team leader again, and she's the last rider who's beat AVV on a longer climb. She would also have scored more points in 2022, if she hadn't missed out on Vuelta a Burgos and dropped out of the Tour. The only issue is that she'll have worse team support than the other options.

But out of those you mentioned, I'd probably go with Labous as well now that she doesn't have to share leadership with Lippert in some races. I also know she's targeting all three GT-like races again this year, and the Tour route suits her quite well with the long ITT at the end.

 

[Izzyeviel]

I could do, but is she really going to have a good enough season to justify her price tag? Maybe. The others just seem more likely to

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I could do, but is she really going to have a good enough season to justify her price tag? Maybe. The others just seem more likely to

I obviously can't guarantee you anything, but now that she doesn't have to share leadership with Vollering any longer, something that didn't seem to benefit either of them, I think she'll be able to improve on last year's score.

But as the deadline isn't until the 20th, you have a chance to see how she and the others perform in UAE and/or Setmana Valenciana before you make your final decision.

 

[RedheadDane]

The Women's Clasica de Almeria is tomorrow. The other reason race with 'Almeria' in its name was apparently not a Women's Clasica Almeria(ish).

 

[Samu Cuenca]

The Women's Clasica de Almeria is tomorrow. The other reason race with 'Almeria' in its name was apparently not a Women's Clasica Almeria(ish).

No, that one was held by a different organisation.

The third Aphrodite race is also taking place tomorrow, where Christoforou will probably complete the hattrick and score some more rather easy but important UCI points for HPH.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

HPH mixed things up today, and victory wne to their other super mom, Vandenbulcke, while Christoforou finished second.

Movistar missed out in Spain, where Émilie Fortin took her first pro victory. Alison Jackson won the sprint for second ahead of Mackaij and Sierra.

 

[RedheadDane]

HPH mixed things up today, and victory wne to their other super mom, Vandenbulcke, while Christoforou finished second.

And only 13 rider finished, with another 13 OTLing, two DNFing, and two DNSing. That's "DNS-ing", BTW, not "DN-Sing".

 

[Samu Cuenca]

And only 13 rider finished, with another 13 OTLing, two DNFing, and two DNSing. That's "DNS-ing", BTW, not "DN-Sing".

Yeah, someone accidentally pushed the "Deactivate Cyprus" button.

 

[yaco]

It's a worry that a WWt team is doing .2 races and they have more on their calendar.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

It's a worry that a WWt team is doing .2 races and they have more on their calendar.

They were probably always going to ride this one because of Christoforou, but HPH has also employed Raúl Banqueri; a guy who understands the UCI points system better than the UCI.