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Lesser Known Road Racing for Women Thread

Page 62 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Lonneke Uneken has once again demonstrated that she's pretty fast on the line.
Riejanne Markus picked up 4 bonus seconds on the stage and is now only 3 behind Van Dijk.

 
I know it's just a cat.2 race, but how is this for a nice race result?

Grand Prix Gazipaşa WE 2022 One day race results (procyclingstats.com)

(Yes, I'll always be happy whenever a Ukrainian wins.)
That fairly extensive calendar of Turkish .2 races (both male and female) have traditionally relied very heavily on Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian entrants and are almost their own self-contained scene of races that those riders (as well as Kazakh and Uzbek riders) use as their own mini-Continental scene. Although a couple of Russians who race outside of the country were present, the absence of a lot of riders who historically go well in these races (other than Novolodskaya who's moved up to bigger teams) such as Moiseeva, Gareeva, Klimova, Dronova, Syradoeva and Galimullina for Russia, and Tserakh, Sharakova and Abramenka for Belarus, means that the Ukrainian teams were likely the on paper strongest. I've always wondered what the money is like for those races, because these extensive track and road programs that those countries have send huge amounts of riders to contest them and riders like Sharakova are well into their 30s only ever having got to that type of level, but keep on coming back, yet if the incentives were there, then surely bigger and more professional teams would participate rather than a pretty small peloton of around 70 riders with a huge gulf between best and worst.
 
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Two bits of news from The Women's Tour, hopefully the criticism in 2021 has held up (although they really ought to be off the WWT based on precedent given the failure to provide the mandatory coverage last season, but clearly their organisational team has better support than the Giro's had after a long string of issues for the latter) and they can regain some of the lost momentum. They're going back to the East-West format that worked well in 2019, with the now customary East Anglian stage to open the race - probably a sprint, though the direction of travel does actually for once open up the opportunity to at least put a couple of reasonable obstacles in the route, albeit none likely to trouble anybody beyond just giving a platform to try from or just meaning some of the pure sprinters are suboptimally placed going into the run-in - and a finish with a summit finish at Black Mountain. 6km at 6% or so is hardly earth-shattering but it's a first ever summit finish for the race and it's also likely an appropriate enough climb for the time gaps needed, given that the race has frequently been settled as a product of bonus seconds, so this won't be enough to make it a "win the MTF win the race" type event.
 
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Also some good news about this year's Giro Donne which will have an improved prize pot as well as more live coverage.
No TTT is definitely a good choice. Whether they'll be able to attract an interesting field is the big question. How they will get the transfer from Sardinia done properly is also a question mark.
 
The route for Paris-Roubaix has been revealed. So what have the visionairy people at ASO come up with this year? Arenberg? More cobbles? A completely new secteur?
No, they've just added another lap around Denain. I expect the planning meeting must have gone something like this:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu9nhExp5KI


Of course after last year's race it might not be a bad idea to have more time to get the race going before the first cobbles, but it's just not a very imaginative way to do it.

b2812
 
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NXTG by Experza becomes AG Insurance-NXTG after only having had its now former name for a few months.

 
NXTG by Experza becomes AG Insurance-NXTG after only having had its now former name for a few months.


And while I did like their two past kits better, it is cool to see them become an official part of the Wolfpack now.

View: https://twitter.com/TourDeJose/status/1506292137020772363
 
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Quick update on the Scandinavian race, which unfortunately got its name changed from the epic sounding "Battle of North" to the bland and boring "Tour of Scandinavia".

Danmark får et World Tour-løb - TV 2

Article is in Danish, so here's the map:

dca1bf5c-e964-46a2-b547-ab0f9f97a83e.jpg

According the their website there will be more details at 12 o'clock. I like that they've kept the Norefjell MTF. and that they've able to include full stages in all three countries despite some uncertainty along the way.
 
Yes, expectations had had to drop down from the initial plans - I was hoping for a race that included the best of all worlds. My ideal would have been to combine the loyal hosts of women's cycling in the region with another 10 day race, starting in Vårgårda, going south via a Norra Klevaliden stage in Huskvarna, crossing into Denmark, maybe a TT on the København 2011 course, Vejle, then a Herning dirt roads stage, then up to Norway for an MTF somewhere like Norefjell and then finishing in Halden.
 

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