The women's road racing thread 2015

[Jonhard]

D’Hoore confirmed as non-starter for Plouay, so the World Cup will be very much up for grabs on Saturday.

Current top ten:

1 Jolien D'HOORE 391
2 Anna VAN DER BREGGEN 385
3 Elizabeth ARMITSTEAD 364
4 Elisa LONGO BORGHINI 320
5 Lucinda BRAND 297
6 Alena AMIALIUSIK 255
7 Giorgia BRONZINI 230
8 Annemiek VAN VLEUTEN 226
9 Elena CECCHINI 182
10 P FERRAND PREVOT 175

With 120 points for a win, only the top five are in with a chance and AVDB and Armitstead have a handy advantage. But the distribution of points means they need to finish well. For example, if ELB wins (and she’ll be Wiggle’s main chance for Plouay) then AVDB will to finish 5th or better to take the title. The permutations are complex.

Points available:

1 120
2 100
3 85
4 70
5 60
6 50
7 40
8 35
9 30
10 25
11 20
12 18
13 16
14 14
15 12
16 10
17 8
18 6
19 4
20 2

It looks a tall order for Brand but she won last year so you never know. Rabo were amazing in the Vagarda TTT but less so in the road race, so it’ll be interesting to see how they go and whether they can place Anna or Brand well enough.

For Armitstead and Boels the World Cup was never a target, but Richmond definitely is so her form should be decent.

Like Vagarda, this will be live streamed by the UCI (but geoblocked for US and French viewers). Something the UCI is getting right imo.

 

[BigMac]

Plouay tomorrow. Edwige Pitel time trials her way to the win with an attack from far out.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

Plouay tomorrow. Edwige Pitel time trials her way to the win with an attack from far out.

The GP de Pooley will not be the same without its namesake

My prediction is that Rabo will stick 3 in the key move, and it will be won by one of them solo on the final lap, possibly van der Breggen who is still in the hunt for the World Cup overall and a strong TTer and hilly rider, because nobody will help Boels chase with two Rabos acting as anchors.

 

[Jonhard]

Rabo look good but perhaps not as strong as last year's podium sweep team (because Vos). Anna has never finished outside the top five and has to be favourite for the jersey if not the win. PFP rides I believe.

Mara Abbot rides for Wiggle, first outing in black and orange since the Giro (although I think she guest rode in the US recently).

A numbers game today. Wiggle are 12 points behind Rabo in the team classement and would love to finish top. Tall order!

 

[BigMac]

Live!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNytZMfykHE

 

[BigMac]

Great break: Emma Johansson, Evelyn Stevens, Flavia Oliveira, Shara Gillow, Elena Cecchini.
15 seconds only.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Onus will be on Wiggle to work with Boels, Rabo and Orica all represented, though Emma J is the obvious favourite from that group.

 

[BigMac]

Nice group for the last lap.

 

[BigMac]

What an aeffort by Stevens, comes from a group behind only to attack. Pauline chases and blows all, not many can follow.

 

[BigMac]

Boels very active, Guarnier is catched and Stevens goes again.

 

[BigMac]

Nobody help Stevens in the front.

Gad damn Cecchini :-( pull

 

[BigMac]

Well, props to Armitstead, she tried.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stream so jumpy, breaking my spirit...

 

[BigMac]

Wow, Armitstead. Wraps up everything.

Van der Breggen totally ruined her own chances by following Borghini.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yup, not a smart call by Anna vdB there, unless she thought Elisa was going to get away. Comms seemed fixated on Anna only needing to follow Lizzie, but Anna can't really sprint (look, I adore Claudia Lichtenberg but if you're losing to her in a sprint, your sprint needs work), so she was always going to need some help. She made Lizzie do the majority of the work to try and weaken her, but if I'm honest from what they showed in the sprint I don't think it mattered, Lizzie was the strongest and Emma J will always beat Anna in a sprint. The interesting thing was that them pushing Armitstead to do all the work let the chasers back on, and PFP, who is also not a sprinter and for whom it was a huge shock that she won the World Champs in the sprint to the line (but who is a better sprinter than van der Breggen nonetheless), managing to come 3rd from way back is interesting.

In a way I'm a bit disappointed as I don't really like Armitstead, she's always keen to apportion blame for things when it doesn't go her way and the Commonwealth Games RR left a sour taste, but it's not like Anna vdB hasn't won her fair share of things this season or that Armitstead hasn't been strong in the one-day races all season. Johansson might have the biggest collection of 2nd and 3rd places in the history of the sport.

It will be interesting to see how the rankings go when the World Cup is replaced by the World Tour next year, how they balance the one-day events against the stage races and the ramifications of it.

 

[BigMac]

Thanks for the insight. I remember you're really not a Armitstead fan. Agree about the commentators, in the end Anna's call may have been of no significance to the outcome.

 

[BigMac]

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Not one rider on that podium, wearing their team's kit. All champions of some sort.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

Not one rider on that podium, wearing their team's kit. All champions of some sort.

There was a Bira stage in 2014 where all six Rabo riders had different kits, the photo is buried in the Lesser Known Race Results thread somewhere. IIRC PFP had the leader's jersey, Anna VDB was wearing the points jersey (PFP led the competition), Annemiek van Vleuten had the polka dots, Vos was wearing the rainbow jersey, Lucinda Brand the national champions' kit and Thalita de Jong the normal team kit.

 

[BigMac]

this?

 

[Tank Engine]

Re:

Wow, Armitstead. Wraps up everything.

Van der Breggen totally ruined her own chances by following Borghini.

A very good race on a nice course.

Lizzie was really strong and deserved to win (although I'm biased in the opposite direction to LS). Not the greatest move by VdB, but she would have been well defeated anyway. How many times can Emma come 2nd though?

p.s. as for the photo. Right race, wrong stage. AvV is in her team colours.

 

[Califootman]

Think this photo from stage 2 shows the full Rabo rainbow:

 

[TMP402]

Re:

In a way I'm a bit disappointed as I don't really like Armitstead, she's always keen to apportion blame for things when it doesn't go her way and the Commonwealth Games RR left a sour taste, but it's not like Anna vdB hasn't won her fair share of things this season or that Armitstead hasn't been strong in the one-day races all season. Johansson might have the biggest collection of 2nd and 3rd places in the history of the sport.

What happened? I remember some business with Pooley but I didn't really look into it at the time.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

It was Pooley's last race of her career, and she'd been doing the majority of the work in the group, attacking to thin the group down for Armitstead, working to bring back other attacks and generally slaving away; she then was off the front at the start of the last lap with the group behind not working well, so Armitstead attacked on the hill and flew by her own teammate who'd done all the work to set her up without so much as looking at her, let alone trying to work together. In the end the chase was disorganized and Pooley was able to make it for silver, but Armitstead would have won the sprint of the group she was in eleven times out of ten, and at the time she ignored Pooley like a piece of spent trash on the road the gap she had was by no means enough to know a medal was secure.

Sure, Armitstead had spent so long being a bridesmaid in the major events that we weren't expecting a gift, and tactically there wasn't anything wrong with what she did, it was the best place in the circuit to make an attack, and she was strong enough to take it to the line which justifies her, but she could at least have acknowledged her teammate's existence, which left a bad taste for many and divided a lot of fans' opinions of the race. As I've said before, Lizzie has always had me ambivalent, there's this strange mix of sympathy because of how often she's been a bridesmaid before coupled with some frustration at the Leif Hoste/Cadel Evans-style blame cannon being fired. Mind you, I guess there isn't anything wrong with not liking losing.

 

[Jonhard]

Cracking race. Rabo could perhaps have played it better, and I think Lucinda Brand's mechanical made a difference, another option in the final group. AVDB chasing Elisa in the last km makes no sense but that's easy to say from one's chair.

That said, Boels deserved it and Lizzie deserved it, she won three rounds. I kind of like her ruthless edge, and sometimes wonder whether a male rider would cop the same kind of personal criticism. Maybe. Whatever, she is an impressive bike rider.