The women's road racing thread 2015

[jmdirt]

Nice ride PFP! Megan G. keeps riding well!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

Have to admit I was a bit disappointed when Dideriksen wasn't picked to ride for Boels Dolmans, but I guess as a 19-year-old neo-pro that wasn't really to be expected.

Also with Leth being out injured (and Hitec not racing the Giro anyway) it's a shame but no Danish presence. In fairness though, Dideriksen is on one of the major teams because she's a quality prospect, but that means they don't have to sacrifice her; some of the smaller teams are sending young neo-pros to the Giro because they lack the same depth as Boels, Rabo or Velocio, and they're suffering like anything out there. That's why when Rabo took a 19yo neo-pro last year it was so surprising, but she acquitted herself exceedingly well thanks to great climbing talent.

Speaking of climbing, today it was Aprica, a mythical mountain of the Giro of course, albeit perhaps the easiest of all mythical climbs when not paired with the monolithic Mortirolo. The forecast in the posts above was that we'd see small gaps and a sprint of the elites, and so it proved.

We saw plenty of attacks on the final climb, as many strong climbers sought to push things on. The first move from a real quality climber was from Tetiana Riabchenko on the early steeper ramps, but she couldn't get more than a 15-20" lead for the first half of the climb, which was wiped out by the characteristically aggressive Claudia Lichtenberg, but with 6km to go the Boels domestiques pulled the 2009 Giro winner back. Orica's Katrin Garfoot, who came as their main GC threat but lost time to San Fior and is some way down on the GC, was next to try, but she had Rabo-Liv's Anouska Koster as an anchor, with Rabo having two riders in the top 10 behind. They were joined by Wiggle's Mayuko Hagiwara, the Japanese national champion being one of the climbing domestiques par excellence in the peloton, but a lack of co-ordination led to their move also failing (much to Hagiwara's exasperation). With Boels annulling any and all attempts to make strong GC moves, it fell to World Champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot to make the late move in the rain to open up a small gap, but for a rider of her calibre a small gap is all that she needs, and she took the kind of slightly uphill single-second gap victory in the rainbow stripes that just drives home quality. Pauline brought home the victory after Francesca Cauz attacked late on to try to gain back in the mountains some of the time lost earlier in the race - she's a pure climber, but also to date rather a one-hit wonder, having had a stupendous Giro in 2013 but a bit of a horror show last year. She, like a good Italian pure climber, attacked solo, and PFP went across to her; she fought back to the World Champion's wheel once, but the second time on the finishing straight she had no answer and was eventually swallowed by the remains of the péloton, so will have to leave it to the next two days for her next bid to win her time back.

The GC at the top end didn't really change much; the group at the front was 40-strong and while a few people lost time, Rossella Ratto is perhaps the only one who you might not have expected to lose time today or who might have had reasonable GC interest. However, the uphill sprint suited Guarnier to a tee, and she and Anna van der Breggen nicked a few bonus seconds at the line to stand them in good stead ahead of the mountainous days to come. It was Rabo frenzy up at the front but realistically we can expect Brand to fade from contention in the days to come and de Jong has already lost plenty of time. The other three look pretty ominous for the opposition, however...

1 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Rabo-Liv) FRA 3'16'28
2 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA +1"
3 Anna van der Breggen (Rabo-Liv) NED +1"
4 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Rabo-Liv) POL +1"
5 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Bigla) RSA +1"
6 Alena Amialiusik (Velocio-SRAM) BLR +1"
7 Lucinda Brand (Rabo-Liv) NED +1"
8 Sabrina Stultiens (Team Liv-Plantur) NED +1"
9 Thalita de Jong (Rabo-Liv) NED +1"
10 Flavia Oliveira (Alé-Cipollini) BRA +1"

New GC:
1 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA 15'10'07
2 Anna van der Breggen (Rabo-Liv) NED +5"
3 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Bigla) RSA +12"
4 Lucinda Brand (Rabo-Liv) NED +19"
5 Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-Honda) ITA +20"
6 Evelyn Stevens (Boels-Dolmans) USA +22"
7 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Rabo-Liv) POL +24"
8 Karol-Ann Canuel (Velocio-SRAM) CAN +31"
9 Mara Abbott (Wiggle-Honda) USA +46"
10 Elena Cecchini (Lotto-Soudal) ITA +46"

Lichtenberg is at 1'01", Ferrand-Prévot at 1'55, van Vleuten at 2'00, Amialiusik at 2'09, Riabchenko at 2'17, Cauz at 2'25.

 

[Jonhard]

Mayuko Hagiwara from a breakaway... she is a classy rider. A lot of different teams have shown well now.

The colour coding is a nice touch

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Indeed, but I'm afraid the colour coding etc. is going to be over soon as I will be away for a couple of days and unable to report on the rest of the race.

In terms of amount of climbing, today's stage, all through the Valtellina Valley, was arguably the queen stage, with three serious climbs - probably all tough cat.2s in level - and a descent finish. It left us with further confirmation of who will and won't contend for the race, with fewer than 30 riders within 10 minutes of the stage winner, Wiggle's Mayuko Hagiwara (the Japanese climber taking her first career win, and what an occasion to do so. New Mikel Nieve?), and some of the riders making the running in the GC dropping significant time, such as Claudia Lichtenberg, who lost time to San Fior, fought tooth and nail to gain that time back in a flat stage, and spent a lot of energy attacking yesterday, which proved sadly futile, and Karol-Ann Canuel, who had been up in the top 10, but finished over 4 minutes down today. The likes of Riabchenko, Bagatelj and Amialiusik can say a final goodbye to any GC ambitions they may have had, while 2013 mountain revelation Francesca Cauz was over 10 minutes back after her exertions yesterday.

The stage opened up in hectic fashion as riders fought to be part of the break, and eventually a strong group emerged with Hagiwara (Wiggle), Sharon Laws (Bigla), Alicia Arzuffo (INPA Sottoli), Shara Gillow (Rabo-Liv), Elena Berlato (Alé-Cipollini) and Lizzie Armitstead (Boels-Dolmans), and with almost all the strong teams represented - certainly all of those that still had GC ambitions after Velocio and Orica have had their leaders lose time, with the sole exception of Liv-Plantur - they swiftly gained time. On the second, and toughest climb of the day, the peloton was shredded behind and the sextet was joined by the elite climbers of the bunch - the leaders' group containing maglia rosa Megan Guarnier and Evelyn Stevens (Boels-Dolmans), Elisa Longo Borghini and Mara Abbott (Wiggle), Flavia Oliveira (Alé-Cipollini), Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Bigla) and no fewer than four Rabo-Liv riders - the expected trio of Anna van der Breggen, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Kasia Niewiadoma, and also Roxane Knetemann making the selection, giving them five in the group with Gillow having been in the earlier break.

Hagiwara had a second attack early on the final climb and swiftly took a large lead as the main leaders looked at the Rabo and Boels domestiques to lead the chase; she had two minutes over the summit of the last GPM, and a hectic chase broke out on the descent that further split the group in the run-in, with Mara Abbott losing a potentially key three further seconds. A bit like last year's San Fior stage with the hectic chase of Pooley, however, they didn't manage to capture the fugitive; while Guarnier was able, just as yesterday, to extend her lead slightly with bonus seconds from finishing 2nd in the sprint behind Hagiwara; this time Moolman-Pasio took 3rd, so Guarnier's closest rival, van der Breggen, sees her deficit enlarged.

1 Mayuko Hagiwara (Wiggle-Honda) JPN 3'12'26
2 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA +24"
3 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Bigla) RSA +24"
4 Anna van der Breggen (Rabo-Liv) NED +24"
5 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Rabo-Liv) POL +24"
6 Evelyn Stevens (Boels-Dolmans) USA +24"
7 Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-Honda) ITA +24"
8 Flavia Oliveira (Alé-Cipollini) BRA +24"
9 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Rabo-Liv) FRA +24"
10 Shara Gillow (Rabo-Liv) AUS +27"

GC:
1 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA 18'22'51
2 Anna van der Breggen (Rabo-Liv) NED +11"
3 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Bigla) RSA +14"
4 Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle-Honda) ITA +25"
5 Evelyn Stevens (Boels-Dolmans) USA +28"
6 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Rabo-Liv) POL +30"
7 Mayuko Hagiwara (Wiggle-Honda) JPN +33"
8 Mara Abbott (Wiggle-Honda) USA +53"
9 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Rabo-Liv) FRA +2'01"
10 Roxane Knetemann (Rabo-Liv) NED +2'14"

 

[jaylew]

TT results from Gio Rosa:

1 Anna Van Der Breggen (Ned) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 0:36:05
2 Megan Guarnier (USA) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 0:01:03
3 Ashlegh Moolman-Pasio (RSA) Bigla Pro Cycling Team 0:01:16
4 Katrin Garfoot (Aus) Orica - AIS 0:01:17
5 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Pol) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 0:01:27
6 Karol-Ann Canuel (Can) Velocio - SRAM 0:01:31
7 Mara Abbott (USA) Wiggle Honda 0:01:45
8 Evelyn Stevens (USA) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 0:01:46
9 Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Fra) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 0:01:53
10 Lucinda Brand (Ned) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 0:02:01

GC

1 Anna Van Der Breggen (Ned) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 21:40:03
2 Megan Guarnier (USA) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 0:00:46
3 Ashlegh Moolman-Pasio (RSA) Bigla Pro Cycling Team 0:01:15
4 Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Pol) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 0:01:46
5 Mara Abbott (USA) Wiggle Honda 0:02:29
6 Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) Wiggle Honda 0:03:01
7 Evelyn Stevens (USA) Boels Dolmans Cycling Team 0:03:52
8 Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Fra) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 0:05:32
9 Shara Gillow (Aus) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 0:06:08
10 Roxane Knetemann (Ned) Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team 0:06:23

Way too much ground for Abbot to make up? I don't know how hard the mtf is tomorrow. Everyone knows she's going to attack, just a matter of how far out. Niewiadoma could be a threat as well, no?

 

[BigMac]

Yep, tomorrow will bee exciting. Mara.

 

[Domulec]

The stage is flat except for the MTF. Van der Breggen is no poor climber herself, no way she still loses the GC right?

 

[jmdirt]

Come on Megan! Climb like you have never climbed before!

 

[Domulec]

Abbott takes the stage, Van der Breggen the GC.

 

[jmdirt]

It sounds like it was an exciting last day! Congrats to Mara for the stage and Anna for the GC!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I like the fact that they've climbed San Domenico di Varzo three years back to back now, it gives them a bit of a separate selling point, where a climb develops mythos as part of the Giro Rosa as opposed to being the women climbing a classic traditional climb like the last few years with Stelvio, Mortirolo and Madonna del Ghisallo. I think there should be some stages where the women climb classic traditional climbs, obviously - I would never want to prevent the women from getting a chance to duke it out on the sport's mythical slopes - and they were first to Zoncolan of course, albeit from Sutrio - but it's nice to have something that is part of the mythos of the women's race. The main issue is that the only major climb that can be appended to San Domenico is Simplonpass, which would then need to be climbed from Switzerland, so it will otherwise always be a one-climb stage.

I'm a bit sad Kasia couldn't podium, mainly as once Abbott was attacking her main role was to protect Anna, but van der Breggen is far from a scrub uphill of course and so the race balanced out nicely - Abbott had been losing time in splits a few times in the race, and it cost her - the race didn't become a pure climbing competition, because otherwise clearly Mara would have won despite not being the strongest on any other stage but the last one - and so the sense of the lighter MTF at Aprica comes out, while the Piai stage had the action with the narrow split. Guarnier impressed, I wasn't sure she had it in her to hold on so high up the GC so late in the race as, while she's been climbing well this season, she's never done it at quite the top level on the longer climbs. It does seem like a fully fit PFP could have won the race too, but losing time left her in service of VDB, but then remember Anna was 3rd last year - behind her two teammates, one absent one injured. Niewiadoma is the coming woman, and if her ITT is improving (I know this route was quite hilly which helped her limit losses) she could be a dangerous rider for the future because until this point she's basically been puncheur/grimpeur-oriented. It will be very interesting to see the route they come up with next year, as if Vos is back, will they then go back to the approach of upping the climbing in order to balance Vos' overall skills against the pure climbers, or will they look at this year's balance between the all-rounders, the rouleurs and the climbers and try the same again?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The next big race for the women is the Thüringen Rundfahrt, a long-running traditional stage race straight after the Giro. The Thüringen Rundfahrt dates back to the Iron Curtain days, and certain traits of the era can be found all over it. For example, all the stages are "Rund um..." stages, with no traditional point-to-point races, although there are long loops, out-and-backs and circuit races all featured. There's a tough split day with a decent length ITT in the morning and a tough stage with a HTF in the afternoon; there's a stage with a circuit with Arnstädter Höhe, a short, tough berg (900m @ 9%, partially cobbled), the main climb of the Rund um die Braunkohle, and also - though it's actually in Sachsen, not Thüringen - a stage around the legendary cycling town of Meerane, including a HTF on the legendary Steiler Wand von Meerane, THE icon of the Peace Race - they climb it four times, and the last 250m of the stage are at 18%!!! The stages with these tough bergs and the ITT are in the first half of the race, meaning that on the stage with the most cumulative climbing - the Rund um Schleiz stage on the 22nd - riders will have to make it tough early to break the race up.

It's going to be interesting. The race, as I said above, is traditional, and past winners include Cooke, Pučinskaitė, Kupfernagel, Melchers-van Poppel, Johansson, Linda Villumsen, Zabelinskaya and the most successful rider at the race is Judith Arndt who has won it 3 times - though double winner Emma J can join her if she triumphs. The defending champion is Evelyn Stevens, who went straight from the Giro after a disappointing campaign in Italy, doing 17 consecutive race days (!) and finishing a winner at the last.

The startlist has a mixture of the top teams and some smaller ones and national ones - no Rabo, no Boels and no Wiggle being the most obvious absentees - but there are some key names who deliberately skipped the Giro to be in form here, such as Brennauer and Johansson, so the field is still pretty strong. We have:

Velocio (Brennauer, worrack, Cromwell, Delzenne)
Bigla (van Vleuten, Slappendel)
Orica (Johansson, Elvin, McConville)
Hitec Products (Becker, Guderzo)
USA National (Rivera)
Lensworld-Zannata (Polspoel)
Bizkaia-Durango (Zvareshinskaya) (notably almost all the local names for Bizkaia have stayed home to race domestically, and their Russian riders are all doing this race. A bit like in the men's races where teams not registered in Spain hire a bunch of Spaniards to do the Spanish races, like Keith Mobel or Heraklion Kastro)
Parkhotel Valkenburg
BTC City-Ljubljana (Bujak, Bagatelj, Ritter)
Netherlands National (Pieters, Tenniglo)
Pearl Izumi
Pacific Nestlé Fitness (Brzezna)
Team TIBCO (Stephens, Collins)
Australia National
Germany National
Koga Ladies
Maxx Solar (Kupfernagel)

 

[Jonhard]

A moderately exciting finish to the Giro. AVDB was fairly comfortable in the end, having kicked everyone down the stairs in the tt.

We've also got the 2.2 Be-Ne tour running over the weekend. A lower quality field than Thuringen but interesting if you like Dutch/Belgian style racing, as I do. Wiggle and Lotto stand out with Jolien D'Hoore and Cecchini the pick of the quicks. D'Hoore is on home roads, is capable enough for the short (6.3km) TT too and has perhaps the strongest team. Chloe Hosking is an experienced road captain these days and they have a few potent track beasts to pull things along.

Topsport Vlanderen and Parkhotel Valkenburg should contend in these conditions too, home roads and some quality riders for the parcours. Apart from that there's Optum, Sara Mustonen leading a Swedish nat team and Sanne Cant, world champ crosser, a Belgian one. A Liv-Plantur - De Jonge Renner mixed team features the improving Lucy Garner and awesome 19 year old Gent-Wevelgem winner Floortje Mackaij and might get involved at some point.

On a parochial note, Matrix are racing in Tour de Bretagne (2.2) along with a fairly strong field considering there are three races on and the Giro just done. Hitec, Poitou Futuroscope, BePink, Top Girls FB, Astana lead the field but I haven't seen a start list.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

A tiny note, Sanne's never won the rainbows in the field - though she is the reigning overall World Cup champion. PFP won the rainbow stripes with Sanne 2nd in a very exciting Worlds race, then Sanne got a bit angry in the press about part-time 'crossers coming in and being at the top at the Worlds referring most particularly to PFP and Marianne Vos; like many 'crossers Sanne rides a reduced road schedule though, especially in Belgium. If she's healthy, Cecchini could be of interest here owing to her useful punchy skills, but I expect the rouleur engines to be the ones to beat in Be-Ne. Truth be told, a genuine 10-day (like the Giro) Benelux Tour including some proper LBL and Luxembourgish climbs along with some flatter tough days could actually be a useful women's GT given the nature of the field, as it would at least be very different in characteristics from the Giro Rosa.

The Tour de Brétagne is mostly a developmental race, what with the expected key name being local girl Audrey Cordon, who misses it due to a broken collarbone at the Giro. Hitec have Kirsten Wild at the start, apparently, so that's the expected result of any flat stages sorted!

Waiting on the Route de France next month. That should be really good, with some tough rouleur stages and an MTF at Planche des Belles Filles.

 

[Jonhard]

I wonder where I got that idea from? I remember that spat now.

There'll be La Course a week on Sunday too. Might be a glorified crit but I bet the field is strong. And it'll be on tv.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

La Course has me pretty ambivalent tbh. It will get a strong field and it will get coverage, but it's pan flat and so a lot of the bigger names who enter will have little chance of doing anything of note, and ASO will congratulate themselves for giving the women some of the best coverage they'll get all year, to distract from the fact that they did the absolute least they could have done for women's cycling. It's a token gesture, thrown more to quiet the sounds of frustration that were being voiced. Put some money the Route de France's way or give the women some interesting one day races on the rest days of the men's Tour or something. Let the women have a mini-Tour where they do the last few Tour stages. Let the women have a race which begins on the last day of the Tour in Paris and does a few days around Île de France. There are many ways the UCI could have gone with it, and they went with the absolute weakest; also because the course is pan-flat, while the large audience will obviously help them, it will be a difficult race to use to showcase the best that women's cycling can offer, just as if the only times you saw men's cycling all year were the World Ports Classic and the Sch********s, you wouldn't go out of your way to see any more...

But enough ranting, more about the racing.

In the Thüringen Rundfahrt, the first stage was rolling; apart from a solo escapade from Anna Ramírez Bauxell that gained around a minute before she was hauled back, none of the multitude of attacks really stuck; the pace was high as the stage was very short, and while many tried to escape the bunch the strongest teams were keen on a sprint, and so it was, with Lisa Brennauer somewhat unsurprisingly triumphing in a reasonably good sprinting field. A split in the péloton causes Iris Slappendel, Charlotte Becker and Vera Koedooder amongst others to lose a few seconds, but all is still fairly tight.

1 Lisa Brennauer (Velocio-SRAM) GER 1'44'39
2 Lotta Lepistö (Bigla Cycling Team) FIN +st
3 Emily Collins (Team TIBCO-SVB) NZL +st
4 Carmen Small-McNellis (Bigla Cycling Team) USA +st
5 Sarah Roy (Orica-AIS) AUS +st
6 Amy Pieters (Netherlands National Team) NED +st
7 Coryn Rivera (US National Team) USA +st
8 Jermaine Post (Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental) NED +st
9 Mia Radotić (BTC City-Ljubljana) CRO +st
10 Kim de Baat (Lensworld.eu-Zannata) NED +st

In the BeNe Tour, a similarly short stage which was on the face of it flatter but resulted in a win for a small escape also featuring potentially the strongest sprinter in the race, which means that the GC could be difficult to wrest from the hands of Jolien d'Hoore... the quartet that went away also included teenage rising star Floortje Mackaij, who most are predicting for big things. All of the other big names are in the main bunch, so nobody's out of it just yet, but d'Hoore is likely to be difficult to dethrone from here.

1 Jolien d'Hoore (Wiggle-Honda) BEL 1'57'57
2 Floortje Mackaij (Team Liv-Plantur) NED +st
3 Elena Cecchini (Lotto-Soudal) ITA +st
4 Chloe Hosking (Wiggle-Honda) AUS +st
5 Lucy Garner (Team Liv-Plantur) GBR +24"
6 Ashlynn van Baarle (SwaboLadies.nl) NED +24"
7 Leah Kirchmann (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) CAN +24"
8 Sara Penton (Sweden National Team) SWE +24"
9 Marta Bastianelli (Aromitalia-Vaiano Fondriest) ITA +24"
10 Anouk Rijff (Lotto-Soudal) NED +24"

Meanwhile, we're two stages into the Tour de Brétagne. The first was won in a lengthy solo escapade by BePink-La Classica's young Italian Ilaria Sanguinetti, who eventually finished over 2 minutes ahead of a splintering, reduced bunch. A multitude of crashes and some tough Bréton racing led to some major time losses for riders you would not expect to be so far down, such as Pascale Jeuland, Kirsten Wild, Lucy Martin and Thea Thorsen:

1 Ilaria Sanguinetti (BePink-La Classica) ITA 3'26'34
2 Christine Majerus (NWV Groningen *guest rider*) LUX +2'03"
3 Oksana Kozonchuk (Russia National Team) RUS +2'03"
4 Daniela Gass (Mixte-Reva Ladies) GER +2'06"
5 Mirjam Gysling (Switzerland National Team) SUI +2'06"
6 Natalya Saifutdinova (Astana-Acca Due O) KAZ +2'06"
7 Amélie Rivat (Poitou Charentes-Futuroscope '86) FRA +2'06"
8 Marlène Morel-Petitgirard (VCC Morteau Montbenoît) FRA +2'06"
9 Aurore Verhoeven (Lointek) FRA +2'06"
10 Marion Sicot (Team Féminin Region Centre) FRA +2'06"

Stage 2 was a time trial, so while the main players started to be shown and the Russians stamped their authority all over the GC, they couldn't take the two minutes they needed on Sanguinetti, though her lead was cut by more than half.

1 Tatiana Antoshina (Russia National Team) RUS 15'51
2 Silvia Valsecchi (BePink-La Classica) ITA +9"
3 Christine Majerus (NWV Groningen) LUX +15"
4 Anastasiya Iakovenko (Russia National Team) RUS +27"
5 Aude Biannic (Poitou Charentes-Futuroscope '86) FRA +35"
6 Natalia Boyarskaya (Russia National Team) RUS +44"
7 Svetlana Vasilieva (Russia National Team) RUS +45"
8 Anastasiya Chulkova (Russia National Team) RUS +47"
9 Amélie Rivat (Poitou Charentes-Futuroscope '86) FRA +49"
10 Jutta Stienen (Switzerland National Team) SUI +54"

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Thanks again for this Libertine Seguros and Jonhard. I think I've already learned more about the women's peloton from this thread than I managed from watching the (rare) televised races.

 

[Jonhard]

Me too, so thanks for starting it. And to Libertine Seguros for doing all of those recaps, a sterling effort beside which my mumblings pale.

Not surprising to see Jolien D'Hoore go well in Flanders after suffering from the heat in Italy. Wiggle started Be-Ne with 4 rather than 6, not sure why, just Annette Edmondson and Amy Roberts with Hosking and the Belgian Bullet. The winning break went with a few kms to go around the final cobbled section - good effort from Cecchini to make that selection, less surprised to see Mackaij there. She seems pretty good everywhere... Hosking knows all about that, she was policing for D'Hoore at G-W when Mackaij nipped off and won on that madly windy day. Wiggle have had good results in this kind of race all year, in part because of the nous and enthusiasm of that Hosking-D'Hoore tandem.

No shock so far in Thuringen either. Velocio have to perform here and the lure of the podium bratwurst is obviously stronger for the Germans.

Bit more surprised to see the Russians going so well in Bretagne, quite possibly through ignorance. Majerus is a good TTer I'd say, so seems a high standard to beat her. Perhaps conditions played a part.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

With the Russians, Antoshina is no surprise at all; she's a strong TTer and stage racer, lots of experience and one of the biggest names in the race. Boyarskaya is also experienced, in her 30s and with several years racing in Italy. Iakovenko and Vasilieva are both 20 years old and having useful years, but most of their results have been in the Russian domestic races that have only been promoted to UCI status recently and hardly anybody from the rest of Europe enters so it's hard to gauge their value in the more international fields.

 

[Jonhard]

Sounds like my ignorance then

D'Hoore has won the ITT in Be-Ne, increasing her advantage to 19 seconds over Mackaij and 37 over Cecchini. Stage 2b follows this afternoon, 100k in light winds and pleasant temperatures. Has anyone got the strength to challenge Wiggle Honda? Doubtful.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

In Thüringen, Eugenia Bujak took the lead of the race thanks to a small late move in an undulating stage around Erfurt including the classic 900m long climb of the Arnstadter Höhe, the former main climb of the Rund um die Braunkohle, which held off the bunch by a few seconds. Brennauer was unable to contest the sprint and so Lepistö led the bunch home behind the broken up group. The GC is similar (there are of course bonus seconds here and there) to the stage result.

1 Eugenia Bujak (BTC-City Ljubljana) POL 2'47'28
2 Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS) AUS +1"
3 Paulina Brzezna-Bentkowska (TKK Pacific Toruń) +3"
4 Tayler Wiles (Velocio-SRAM) USA +10"
5 Lotta Lepistö (Bigla) FIN +14"
6 Lauren Stephens (Team TIBCO-SVB) USA +14"
7 Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) SWE +14"
8 Emily Collins (Team TIBCO-SVB) NZL +14"
9 Lauren Kitchen (Hitec Products-UCK) AUS +14"
10 Moniek Tenniglo (Netherlands National Team) NED +14"

In the BeNe Tour, it was a split stage, but the race continued in the same vein. Jolien d'Hoore, in the leader's jersey, won both stages quite comfortably and now seems to have an impregnable lead having now won a Classics-style stage, a short time trial (6km) and a sprint. Mackaij continues to show well, but the only real question will be if d'Hoore can manage a clean sweep of the race!

1 Jolien d'Hoore (Wiggle-Honda) BEL 8'21
2 Ann-Sophie Duyck (TopSport Vlaanderen-Pro Duo) BEL +2"
3 Leah Kirchmann (Team Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) CAN +5"
4 Brianna Walle (Team Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) USA +7"
5 Annette Edmondson (Wiggle-Honda) AUS +10"
6 Floortje Mackaij (Team Liv-Plantur) NED +11"
7 Camilla Møllebro Petersen (Denmark National Team) DEN +14"
8 Alison Tetrick (Team Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) USA +18"
9 Minke Slingerland (de Jonge Renner) NED +19"
10 Nathalie van Gogh (Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental) NED +19"

1 Jolien d'Hoore (Wiggle-Honda) BEL 2'36'13
2 Floortje Mackaij (Team Liv-Plantur) NED +st
3 Sara Mustonen (Sweden National Team) SWE +st
4 Annelies Dom (Belgium National Team) BEL +st
5 Marta Bastianelli (Aromitalia-Vaiano Fondriest) ITA +st
6 Rasa Leleivyte (Aromitalia-Vaiano Fondriest) LTU +st
7 Lucy Garner (Team Liv-Plantur) GBR +st
8 Kelly Druyts (TopSport Vlaanderen-Pro Duo) BEL +st
9 Eva Buurman (RC Jan van Aarckel) NED +st
10 Marjolein van 't Geloof (RC Jan van Aarckel) NED +st

Finally, in Brittany Mayuko Hagiwara, guesting for the Mixte-Reva team (which is absolutely a bizarre odds-and-sods team) won the hilly stage solo ahead of Emilie Moberg with leader Ilaria Sanguinetti extending her lead slightly by sprinting for the bonuses. Sanguinetti continues to manage her gaps well, especially as Iakovenkowas the biggest threat to drop time today, finishing 2 mins down on Hagiwara and nearly 90 seconds down on the bunch.

1 Mayugo Hagiwara (Mixte-Reva) JPN 3'24'22
2 Emilie Moberg (Hitec Products-UCK) NOR +38"
3 Ilaria Sanguinetti (BePink-La Classica) ITA +st
4 Christine Majerus (NVW Groningen) LUX +st
5 Svetlana Vasilieva (Russia National Team) RUS +st
6 Daniela Gass (Mixte-Reva) GER +st
7 Natalya Saifutdinova (Astana-Acca Due O) KAZ +st
8 Oksana Kozonchuk (Russia National Team) +st
9 Alicia González Blanco (Lointek) +st
10 Julie Boucher (Team Féminin Region Centre) +st

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Brétagne ended today, and with a flat stage, which Kirsten Wild won, in what can only be described as "not a surprising result" given that on a pan-flat finale nobody else in that startlist could be expected to challenge her. The net result of this is that Ilaria Sanguinetti successfully defends the GC lead she gained on stage 1 when she got a 2 minute cushion to defend; BePink are hardly the strongest team in the bunch but they have enough to manage a gap of that size.

Stage:
1 Kirsten Wild (Hitec Products-UCK) NED 2'54'11
2 Christine Majerus (NWV Groningen) LUX +st
3 Oksana Kozonchuk (Russia National Team) RUS +st
4 Roxane Fournier (Poitou Charentes-Futuroscope '86) FRA +st
5 Lise-Marie Henzelin (Switzerland National Team) SUI +st
6 Mirjam Gysling (Switzerland National Team) SUI +st
7 Natalya Saifutdinova (Astana-Acca Due O) KAZ +st
8 Aurore Verhoeven (Lointek) FRA +st
9 Ilaria Sanguinetti (BePink-La Classica) ITA +st
10 Cécilia le Bris (Team Breizh Ladies) FRA +st

Final GC:
1 Ilaria Sanguinetti (BePink-La Classica) ITA
2 Christine Majerus (NWV Groningen) LUX +58"
3 Tatiana Antoshina (Russia National Team) RUS +1'10"
4 Silvia Valsecchi (BePink-La Classica) ITA +1'21"
5 Mayuko Hagiwara (Mixte-Reva) JPN +1'42"
6 Aude Biannic (Poitou Charentes-Futuroscope '86) FRA +1'47"
7 Anastasiya Chulkova (Russia National Team) RUS +1'56
8 Natalia Boyarskaya (Russia National Team) RUS +1'56
9 Svetlana Vasilieva (Russia National Team) RUS +1'57
10 Amélie Rivat (Poitou Charentes-Futuroscope '86) FRA +1'59

Over in the BeNe Tour, Jolien d'Hoore elected not to go for the clean sweep and instead to focus the limited resources (Wiggle only had four riders) on protecting the advantages they already had; this enabled Optum's Alison Tetrick to escape and take the stage by a few seconds ahead of the bunch, d'Hoore safely held in the péloton, so she takes the GC comfortably.

1 Alison Tetrick (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) USA 2'56'44
2 Lucy Garner (Team Liv-Plantur) GBR +12"
3 Chloe Hosking (Wiggle-Honda) AUS +12"
4 Marta Bastianelli (Aromitalia-Vaiano Fondriest) ITA +12"
5 Monique van de Ree (de Jonge Renner) NED +12"
6 Fiona Dutriaux (Autoglas Wetteren Cycling Team) FRA +12"
7 Sara Mustonen (Sweden National Team) SWE +12"
8 Floortje Mackaij (Team Liv-Plantur) NED +12"
9 Chanella Stougje (Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental) NED +12"
10 Camilla Møllebro Pedersen (Denmark National Team) DEN +12"

Final GC:
1 Jolien d'Hoore (Wiggle-Honda) BEL
2 Floortje Mackaij (Team Liv-Plantur) NED +23"
3 Elena Cecchini (Lotto-Soudal) ITA +46"
4 Alison Tetrick (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) USA +47"
5 Brianna Walle (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) USA +53"
6 Ann-Sophie Duyck (TopSport Vlaanderen-Pro Duo) BEL +53"
7 Annette Edmondson (Wiggle-Honda) AUS +1'01"
8 Camilla Møllebro Pedersen (Denmark National Team) DEN +1'05"
9 Minke Slingerland (de Jonge Renner) NED +1'10"
10 Nathalie van Gogh (Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental) NED +1'10"

 

[jmdirt]

Thanks LS!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 3a was the ITT, which world champion Lisa Brennauer was able to squeeze a victory in over Lauren Stephens by under a second! The margin back to 3rd place was quite a substantial 22" over this distance, and Bujak could only manage 10th, enabling the local heroine to take the leader's jersey back. National champion Mieke Kröger was nearly 2 minutes back and only 5th best German on the day - the course at Schmölln being quite undulating which didn't suit her. There were clearly some problems; the Hitec girls all had a disappointing day, with Kitchen and Guderzo over 2'30 back, while for reasons beknownst to nobody Maaike Polspoel, who was a very strong rider the last two years but has unceremoniously been dumped back down a level this season, managed to be 7 minutes down over 19km! Presumably there's a crash, a mechanical or a penalty to explain that (surely she'd be HD otherwise).

1 Lisa Brennauer (Velocio-SRAM) GER 27'40
2 Lauren Stephens (Team TIBCO-SVB) USA +st
3 Karol-Ann Canuel (Velocio-SRAM) CAN +22"
4 Tayler Wiles (Velocio-SRAM) USA +30"
5 Lotta Lepistö (Bigla) FIN +38"
6 Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) SWE +40"
7 Stephanie Pohl (Germany National Team) GER +47"
8 Trixi Worrack (Velocio-SRAM) GER +54"
9 Hayley Simmonds (Pearl Izumi) GBR +1'03"
10 Eugenia Bujak (BTC City-Ljubljana) POL +1'03"

In the second stage of the day, it was the return of an icon, the beloved Steiler Wand von Meerane. The Ostbloc Kapelmuur, the fans always pack this legendary climb. This is how the climb looked for the women's Thüringen Rundfahrt. Just imagine how crazy this place used to get for the Peace Race.

The riders were doing 4 laps of a circuit including three climbs, two gradual and that, which is 350m @ 12%. The stage finish came at the finish of the steepest part of the ascent, almost 250m at 18%!!! To make matters worse, it was very windy and, as the stage went on, the weather got worse and added rain to the mix. Gracie Elvin took on the thankless task of making a solo breakaway, and with Orica running interference on the chase behind, she managed to hold off the bunch for over 60km. On the final climb, the group were in sight of her as she zigzagged up the Steiler Wand for the final time, but they weren't close enough. And of course, to add insult to injury, they wouldn't have stopped an Orica triumph, as Emma Johansson won the battle from the bunch behind, taking a second plus some bonuses from Brennauer on the line.

1 Gracie Elvin (Orica-AIS) AUS
2 Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) SWE +11"
3 Lisa Brennauer (Velocio-SRAM) GER +12"
4 Coryn Rivera (USA National Team) USA +12"
5 Eugenia Bujak (BTC City-Ljubljana) POL +14"
6 Lauren Kitchen (Hitec Products-UCK) AUS +15"
7 Lotta Lepistö (Bigla) FIN +15"
8 Joëlle Numainville (Bigla) CAN +18"
9 Amy Pieters (Netherlands National Team) NED +19"
10 Nikki Harris (Pearl Izumi) GBR +19"

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 4 was a rolling stage with a somewhat technical sprint; while there was no major upheaval in the GC, Johansson and Lepistö move closer to Brennauer by virtue of bonus seconds; the Velocio team also lost Trixi Worrack, who crashed out of the race, which will leave them short one of their most powerful engines for controlling the race; Brennauer is of course a TT machine, but will she be called upon more than she would like to do her own policing work in the leader's jersey? Can Orica and Bigla, and maybe even Bujak, who is national champion against the clock, gang up on the local star?

1 Lotta Lepistö (Bigla) FIN 3'07'40
2 Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) SWE +st
3 Amy Pieters (Netherlands National Team) NED +st
4 Jip van den Bos (Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental) NED +st
5 Lisa Brennauer (Velocio-SRAM) GER +st
6 Joëlle Numainville (Bigla) CAN +st
7 Emily Collins (Team TIBCO-SVB) NZL +st
8 Sofie de Vuyst (Lensworld.eu-Zannata) BEL +st
9 Kimberley Wells (Australia National Team) AUS +st
10 Élise Delzenne (Velocio-SRAM) FRA +st