The Women's Road Racing Thread 2016

[PremierAndrew]

van Dijk should have won that

 

[barmaher]

I liked it as a neutral. Had a few quid on ELB so I got a run for my money. Amazing to see a 42 (nearly 43) year old at the top.

 

[Kwibus]

ohhh van Dijk.... damnit dutch curse

 

[The Barb]

Re:

van Dijk should have won that

Would've been very close. She did get back up an going quickly. From the moment she went off the road to when she was back up to full speed was about 25 seconds. But of course that doesn't account for less measurable effects.

 

[jmdirt]

3 time Olympic Champion!

 

[Jonhard]

Route de France update, Wednesday 10 August, Stage 3

Not a lot of info out there, but Chloe Hosking has taken the stage for Wiggle. Delzenne possibly second.

Lots of crashes and Floortje Mackaij appears to have broken her collarbone.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Oh no, from the TT to Floortje, it's just not been my day!

I'm not pleased with the TT result, to be honest. The weather was the same for everybody, in a time compressed field at least we didn't get a start-time race which is always a worry when the weather gets crazy in these stand-alone events, but yea, I find it hard to be excited or positive about Armstrong triumphing; yes she's the defending champion and yes she's a great athlete, but she's about to turn 43, she's retired and come back more than Brett Favre and Ole Einar Bjørndalen, and while it's admirable bloody-mindedness that's got her to that triumph, focusing her entire comeback on this one specific race, it's also very disappointing to see the riders who are the elites all year round being defeated by a mayfly rider in their biggest events. And Olga Z with the silver, again like four years ago where she had suboptimal preparation; if anything this year she's had better preparation but has been shoehorned back onto the startlist after being excluded on short notice and then taken others apart. And yes, I know Anna VDB and ELB gave way more in the Road Race which is a large part of it, but it doesn't change the disappointment.

The biggest question that arises now is whether Kristin will be tempted to give it another go in four years' time - after being written off or at least put to outsider status this time by many (myself included), and of course the fact that she's won the gold medal rather puts that selection question to bed.

But ambivalent though I may be about the Olympics, I'm still absolutely gutted about Floortje.

 

[Jonhard]

I haven't seen it properly confirmed about Floortje, just a tweet from the race organisation. Worse for Ilona Hoeksma - shoulder, collarbone, five ribs and five vertebrae. Ooch.

Edit - now confirmed about Mackaij.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yes, Floortje and Molly Weaver. Gutted for all of them (from a racing perspective I'm most disappointed to lose Floortje as her season is apparently now over, I thought she could have a great autumn with riders peaking for Rio coming off of that, but from a human perspective I'm pretty horrified for Hoeksma, those injuries are horrific and I'm thinking the accident must have been pretty brutal to cause that much damage. Don't yet know what Weaver's injuries are).

 

[jmdirt]

Re:

Oh no, from the TT to Floortje, it's just not been my day!

I'm not pleased with the TT result, to be honest. The weather was the same for everybody, in a time compressed field at least we didn't get a start-time race which is always a worry when the weather gets crazy in these stand-alone events, but yea, I find it hard to be excited or positive about Armstrong triumphing; yes she's the defending champion and yes she's a great athlete, but she's about to turn 43, she's retired and come back more than Brett Favre and Ole Einar Bjørndalen, and while it's admirable bloody-mindedness that's got her to that triumph, focusing her entire comeback on this one specific race, it's also very disappointing to see the riders who are the elites all year round being defeated by a mayfly rider in their biggest events. And Olga Z with the silver, again like four years ago where she had suboptimal preparation; if anything this year she's had better preparation but has been shoehorned back onto the startlist after being excluded on short notice and then taken others apart. And yes, I know Anna VDB and ELB gave way more in the Road Race which is a large part of it, but it doesn't change the disappointment.

The biggest question that arises now is whether Kristin will be tempted to give it another go in four years' time - after being written off or at least put to outsider status this time by many (myself included), and of course the fact that she's won the gold medal rather puts that selection question to bed.

But ambivalent though I may be about the Olympics, I'm still absolutely gutted about Floortje.

As we have discussed before, I am a KA fan so I am thrilled for her! I can certainly see displeasure with someone who doesn't race much "cherry picking" a big title, but that's the nature of the beast. I don't foresee too many athletes doing this, but there are no "rules" against it either. Its also a way for an older athlete to pull off a big performance. Racing a full schedule would likely leave a 43 year old empty in August. What about Vos dropping in to win eight World CX titles (I know, not exactly the same, but...).

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Vos hardly "dropped in" to win many of those though, as while she didn't ride a full cyclocross calendar, she certainly in many of those years raced several events beforehand, one year she was even 2nd in the BPost Trophee. Yes, before PFP won in Tabor she and Vos had done very few races, but at the same time we're also talking about somebody who doesn't ride a full cyclocross calendar because they ride a full road calendar. Following Richmond as well, I'm starting to grow concerned about this growing trend for riders on severely reduced calendars to focus solely on this, sniping the big focal events away from the riders who play a much more central role in the sport. Few riders can afford to do what Kristin does, and what Villumsen did last year. A rider like Mara Abbott is extremely fortunate to have a European top level team that offers her the freedom to go race as a guest in domestic races and cherry pick which events she wants in Europe; most riders don't have that. Riders who are the best time triallists in the world for the whole season are getting prominent results in race after race, but all that gets them is tired and opens the door for those who've been afforded the luxury of basing their whole season around it. Let's remember, the Exergy-Twenty12 squad, and now the Peanut Butter Twenty16 squad, are effectively entirely based around some young riders to get invites so that Kristin can get to the Olympics. If you asked me to list out the best women's riders in the world in 2016, ranked from 1 downward, I probably wouldn't even put Kristin in the top 100 before today. But hey, she's the Olympic champion. Those are the breaks when it comes to one day performance.

Do I blame her for doing it? Of course not.

Do I resent that she gets away with doing it, is able to get away with doing it due to favourable selection policy (which is controversial for reasons we've gone over many times already, but USAC does not help itself in this respect by setting various selection criteria, because if riders meet it but are not selected in favour of riders that don't it opens doors to corruption, whereas the Dutch or Italians in the same section are clear that selection is based on the judging of the rider's value on that particular course, hence Chantal Blaak being omitted in favour of Annemiek van Vleuten in the RR), and that she's been successful at it while the riders I follow week in week out leave empty handed? Absolutely. A lot.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Anyway, as I've said before, while the Road Race was something we can take for many years to point to to show people the quality of women's cycling and how good it can be, I just want to forget the Time Trial ever happened.

At the Route de France, we have a 16km TT tomorrow which obviously will be less dramatic and less star-studded, but marks the swapping point between the flat-to-rolling first half of the race and the more saw-toothed second half. Pieters still has her 10" advantage over Roy, but it's likely that the riders she has to watch out for more are the likes of Delzenne, Bujak, Wiles and even Neben. Until we know fully who was involved in the accident however, we don't know who may or may not have been affected as this could readily impact their TT performance. The only two riders not to come in on the same time as the winner but still be credited with it upon crossing the line, therefore clearly impacted in the last 3km, were Amber Neben and Ilona Hoeksma.

Yes, you read that right: despite a broken shoulder, a broken collarbone, five broken ribs and five broken vertebrae, Ilona Hoeksma crossed the line under her own steam just in case she could recover for the start tomorrow. ILONA HOEKSMA IS TOUGHER THAN YOU.

 

[yaco]

The TT result was a disaster for the WWT. We must also consider, three of the top six in the TT are not part of the UCI's 'Whereabouts Testing Program.In effect this means they are only tested by their countries NADO - No testing by the UCI outside of UCI races.

It's hard to fathom that part time cyclists or those competing at virtually the CT level can dominate a TT - This doesn't happen on the men's side.

 

[Jonhard]

No, but that’s partly because top male cyclists get well paid to ride for their trade teams. Someone like Cance or Tony Martin isn’t going to give that up in favour of a limited programme with some national funding, whereas for women that’s an easier decision. Most of them don’t earn much anyway. Why flog around the European calendar for buttons? The other point is that there are not many high profile TTs on the WWT - a pure time triallist doesn’t have a televised grand tour TT or prologue to aim for, for example.

I don’t like it either but I think it’s different from the men’s side.

 

[jmdirt]

Hoeskma is definitely tougher than me!

 

[jmdirt]

Eve Stevens retiring...
Best wishes!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

No, but that’s partly because top male cyclists get well paid to ride for their trade teams. Someone like Cance or Tony Martin isn’t going to give that up in favour of a limited programme with some national funding, whereas for women that’s an easier decision. Most of them don’t earn much anyway. Why flog around the European calendar for buttons? The other point is that there are not many high profile TTs on the WWT - a pure time triallist doesn’t have a televised grand tour TT or prologue to aim for, for example.

I don’t like it either but I think it’s different from the men’s side.

I wonder if one of the televised races could use something like the Barber Motorsports Park TT from the Tour of Utah a few years ago, use a closed circuit as surely that would be easier to organize than closed roads (which has been a problem of TTs in pro races in the UK for a long time, simply because, due to the coverage, the Aviva Women's Tour was the first race that sprung to mind) - however the other thing is that few of the races are course-wise difficult enough to justify a TT of the ~30km length that we see in the Worlds and Olympics without the TT result massively skewing the GC, and also quite a lot of the races that incorporate TTs use it as part of a split stage which prevents the possibility of such a long course.

No more Evie Stevie means my favourite American cyclist of all is now gone Godspeed, back to the financial markets with her now? Sad to see her go, a great backstory and a really likable rider.

Back in Europe, in the Route de France, it's... a good day to be a 40+yo American returning from retirement, as Amber Neben takes the TT and the race lead, with a clear gap of 33" ahead of compatriot Tayler Wiles and Amy Pieters at +55" being the only rider within a minute. A good day for BTC City-Ljubljana however as with Lechner and Bujak they still managed two riders in the top 5. Neben is looking good for the GC; with strong climbers like Hagiwara and Taylor losing two minutes, and with Riabchenko having dropped out earlier in the race the biggest pure climber on the startlist is Tuhai who is her teammate, it will be down to the likes of Delzenne to attack in the mountains now if they want to dethrone her.

 

[Jonhard]

It must be a hard slog for US riders I always think, being in Europe so much on top of the race travel. She'll (Stevens) have a few options in life surely.

 

[jmdirt]

Re: Re:

No, but that’s partly because top male cyclists get well paid to ride for their trade teams. Someone like Cance or Tony Martin isn’t going to give that up in favour of a limited programme with some national funding, whereas for women that’s an easier decision. Most of them don’t earn much anyway. Why flog around the European calendar for buttons? The other point is that there are not many high profile TTs on the WWT - a pure time triallist doesn’t have a televised grand tour TT or prologue to aim for, for example.

I don’t like it either but I think it’s different from the men’s side.

I wonder if one of the televised races could use something like the Barber Motorsports Park TT from the Tour of Utah a few years ago, use a closed circuit as surely that would be easier to organize than closed roads (which has been a problem of TTs in pro races in the UK for a long time, simply because, due to the coverage, the Aviva Women's Tour was the first race that sprung to mind) - however the other thing is that few of the races are course-wise difficult enough to justify a TT of the ~30km length that we see in the Worlds and Olympics without the TT result massively skewing the GC, and also quite a lot of the races that incorporate TTs use it as part of a split stage which prevents the possibility of such a long course.

No more Evie Stevie means my favourite American cyclist of all is now gone Godspeed, back to the financial markets with her now? Sad to see her go, a great backstory and a really likable rider.

Back in Europe, in the Route de France, it's... a good day to be a 40+yo American returning from retirement, as Amber Neben takes the TT and the race lead, with a clear gap of 33" ahead of compatriot Tayler Wiles and Amy Pieters at +55" being the only rider within a minute. A good day for BTC City-Ljubljana however as with Lechner and Bujak they still managed two riders in the top 5. Neben is looking good for the GC; with strong climbers like Hagiwara and Taylor losing two minutes, and with Riabchenko having dropped out earlier in the race the biggest pure climber on the startlist is Tuhai who is her teammate, it will be down to the likes of Delzenne to attack in the mountains now if they want to dethrone her.

Miller Motorsports Park is the one in UT. Barber is in the south somewhere I think. Laguna Seca has been used for TTs (ToC and others) as well. I agree with you that speedway TTs would make for WAY easier logistics, plus some different/fun racing. As far as domestic USA women's/men's racing though, big TT events are tough no matter how you slice 'em.

 

[Thepirateisgood]

Eeevie...

Which american to cheer for now then, Armstrong?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Well, which type of riders do you like, and what was it about Evie that made her your favourite? That will help us to find your surrogate Evie

In the Route de France, we headed into the Vosges today with a stage where the first half was rolling, the second half was hilly. Ahead of tomorrow's queen stage, Amber Neben doubled up after yesterday's ITT win, with Janneke Ensing of Parkhotel Valkenburg and Carlee Taylor coming in 18" back, with Wiles, Rivat, Lex Albrecht, Pauliena Rooijakkers, Tuhai and Merino all just inside 30". With Delzenne also dropping out today, it seems like Amber has a fairly clear route to victory as long as she doesn't drop the ball tomorrow; she has 57" of lead over Tayler Wiles and 1'25" over Amy Pieters, who we can probably count on not to take that time from Amber in the mountains. Bujak is at +1'58", Rozanne Slik at +2'02", Ensing and Taylor a little further behind.

Meanwhile, the Ladies' Tour of Norway has begun in the region around Halden, another race whose field is sadly being hurt by the Olympics. They have some good teams in the race, however, including quite a few names who were unlucky to miss out or were simply from the wrong countries to be able to compete due to depth. The four big teams so to speak are Rabo-Liv (mostly their young developmental Dutch side, but with Thalita de Jong, Anouska Koster and Lucinda Brand far from weak!), Cervélo-Bigla (reduced to just four starters and with Numainville the obvious leader with Moolman-Pasio and Lepistö both on their way back from Rio), Cylance (led nominally by Carmen Small, with Alison Tetrick and Rossella Ratto as well, and Sheyla Gutiérrez for sprints), and the hometown favourites Hitec Products (with most of their Norwegian girls, however Lauren Kitchen may be the most realistic shot of victory in normal circumstances for them). There are some useful British and Dutch development teams including Drops, Podium Ambition and Swabo Ladies, but also the Lensworld-Zannata team with some pretty solid names who've been on good form like Nina Kessler and Maria Giulia Confalonieri. Aside from that you have mostly Nordic teams, of whom perhaps Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, who was so good in the Czech races last month, for BMS-BIRN is the biggest threat. The early evening races made possible by the light in the north of Europe also enables them to piggyback the interest for the Arctic Tour a little, which I like, and means they are still racing at time of writing, after a long break by Ludwig and Koster has been annulled.

Edit: Nicole Hänselmann takes the win for Cervélo-Bigla ahead of the Rabo duo of Thalita de Jong and Lucinda Brand.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

In the first of the two Vosges stages across the weekend, the Route de France was shattered in to several groups on the road. The first group numbered 12, however and included most of the main GC contenders, with BePink able to monitor any riders that threatened Neben's lead thanks to the puncheur skills of Lex Albrecht and the climbing ability of Kseniya Tuhai, over 20 years her team leader's junior, and preventing the veteran American losing any time on the road to those names who could challenge - Ensing, Taylor, Bujak and Wiles the main ones, although they couldn't prevent Bujak from taking the bonus seconds at the line, as the Pole outsprinted Albrecht at the line for stage honours, with Amélie Rivat third. Also impressively, Marion Sicot of the French amateur lineup also made the group as well as Dani King, Eider Merino and Rozanne Slik. They put 30" into the second group which appears to have been riders splintered off of the front group, with other straggling riders coming in alone until the next bunch at 8 minutes down, which is where Amy Pieters found herself as the climbing became too much for her. Mayuko Hagiwara, who I thought could have done well in the weekend's stages, finished 18 minutes down.

In the Ladies' Tour of Norway, however, the problem inherent in Cervélo-Bigla having the leader's jersey became quickly apparent; with their two strongest riders, Moolman-Pasio and Lepistö, in Brazil, they were starting the race with just four riders, and so defending Hänselmann's lead quickly became a difficult matter of control for the Swiss team. After a number of attempted escapes were blocked, attrition had reduced the péloton but the strongest names were all still there; when Cervélo were unable to respond to an attack from Lucinda Brand, however, the elastic was broken and the Liv-bound former Dutch champion showed that while she's handy in a sprint there's much more to her than that, soloing in a minute ahead of the field. Even with the comparatively developmental Dutch team, the presence of strong riders like de Jong and Koster ought to mean that Rabo have enough firepower and time in hand for Lucinda to defend in tomorrow's final stage, but never say never...

 

[Thepirateisgood]

Re:

Well, which type of riders do you like, and what was it about Evie that made her your favourite? That will help us to find your surrogate Evie

In the Route de France, we headed into the Vosges today with a stage where the first half was rolling, the second half was hilly. Ahead of tomorrow's queen stage, Amber Neben doubled up after yesterday's ITT win, with Janneke Ensing of Parkhotel Valkenburg and Carlee Taylor coming in 18" back, with Wiles, Rivat, Lex Albrecht, Pauliena Rooijakkers, Tuhai and Merino all just inside 30". With Delzenne also dropping out today, it seems like Amber has a fairly clear route to victory as long as she doesn't drop the ball tomorrow; she has 57" of lead over Tayler Wiles and 1'25" over Amy Pieters, who we can probably count on not to take that time from Amber in the mountains. Bujak is at +1'58", Rozanne Slik at +2'02", Ensing and Taylor a little further behind.

Meanwhile, the Ladies' Tour of Norway has begun in the region around Halden, another race whose field is sadly being hurt by the Olympics. They have some good teams in the race, however, including quite a few names who were unlucky to miss out or were simply from the wrong countries to be able to compete due to depth. The four big teams so to speak are Rabo-Liv (mostly their young developmental Dutch side, but with Thalita de Jong, Anouska Koster and Lucinda Brand far from weak!), Cervélo-Bigla (reduced to just four starters and with Numainville the obvious leader with Moolman-Pasio and Lepistö both on their way back from Rio), Cylance (led nominally by Carmen Small, with Alison Tetrick and Rossella Ratto as well, and Sheyla Gutiérrez for sprints), and the hometown favourites Hitec Products (with most of their Norwegian girls, however Lauren Kitchen may be the most realistic shot of victory in normal circumstances for them). There are some useful British and Dutch development teams including Drops, Podium Ambition and Swabo Ladies, but also the Lensworld-Zannata team with some pretty solid names who've been on good form like Nina Kessler and Maria Giulia Confalonieri. Aside from that you have mostly Nordic teams, of whom perhaps Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, who was so good in the Czech races last month, for BMS-BIRN is the biggest threat. The early evening races made possible by the light in the north of Europe also enables them to piggyback the interest for the Arctic Tour a little, which I like, and means they are still racing at time of writing, after a long break by Ludwig and Koster has been annulled.

Edit: Nicole Hänselmann takes the win for Cervélo-Bigla ahead of the Rabo duo of Thalita de Jong and Lucinda Brand.

Aha, well anyone coming from "real life" going into cycling and doing a damn good job of it? Ehem, I don't really need an american to? What about that 18 y/o Andersen mixing it in ToN right now? New Vos, without hyping her too much?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Well, you did ask which American to cheer for now

If so, may I suggest Katie Hall? She turned pro at 27 and is a decent climber who's won the Tour de San Luís and stages of Thüringen and California. Not like Evie's level but still pretty useful. For others coming from 'normal life' to cycling at a comparatively late age and being successful but not needing an American, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio is a good choice out of the top names in the sport.

Re Susanne Andersen, we shouldn't go overboard too quickly; she's been performing great, but before we put pressure on her, this is her home race, with a field which is thinner than recent years because of the Olympics, and I'm not convinced the likes of Brand and de Jong will be peaking here. On the plus side, she's in what is effectively Hitec Products' development team so she has a route to the pros without too much pressure, and while she wasn't the top 1998 girl in Tartu last year she was in Richmond. And even if they're not peaking, mixing it with the likes of Lucinda Brand is nothing to be ashamed of. Worth noting too that she's also over a year older than Emma Norgaard, who won the Danish national championships ahead of Amalie Dideriksen who's one of the more promising young riders around, riding for Boels (and who was on immense form coming into those championships after a great ride in the Aviva Women's Tour). She's looking like a great young rider, but we've only really seen her on rolling terrain or that with a few hills, so we've yet to even establish enough info to know what sort of course suits her best to know what her upper ceiling could be.

If she is able to continue to progress like this, however, she should certainly be a big star - just I'm hesitant to say anybody should be a new Vos. I was even hesitant to say it about PFP, and she was as certain a superstar as you could get from her junior records.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Perhaps the impact of Andersen's GC position will be limited somewhat as a result of the final stage, where a small group including a lot of the strongest riders in the race was able to escape. The race leader, Lucinda Brand, was able to get into it, but also have the benefit of two teammates in the move who she could rely on to help control affairs; in Anouska Koster she had a rider quick at intermediates and a gutsy, aggressive mover in the field, and with Thalita de Jong she had one of Rabo's most favoured engines, and one of those riders who's good enough at pretty much every discipline (and is of course a world champion in the field as well to boot). Nobody else had more than one rider in the group so while Lucinda lost a few seconds at the line, her general classification lead was never threatened; Koster hoovered up the intermediate sprint bonus AND won the stage, outsprinting Hitec's Emilie Moberg on her home turf, with young Christina Siggaard of the Danish domestic team BMS-BIRN in third. Confalonieri was just a few seconds ahead of the bunch which came in at +30", which is where Andersen and day 1 leader Nicole Hänselmann came in.

The net result of the stage is that, with Hänselmann and Andersen not making the group and with Koster picking up 13" in bonuses on the day, she leapfrogs Siggaard on the overall GC, and this therefore means that Rabo-Liv have locked out the podium. It is true that they did have one of the most stacked lineups in the race, and as the only one of the "superteams" of 2016 to enter it isn't surprising to see them at the forefront of proceedings, especially as Cervélo started short of numbers and Hitec's best results-getters are in Rio.

Final GC Tour of Norway:

1 Lucinda Brand (Rabo-Liv) NED 6'54'36"
2 Thalita de Jong (Rabo-Liv) NED +45"
3 Anouska Koster (Rabo-Liv) NED +st
4 Christina Siggaard (BMS-BIRN) DEN +52"
5 Emilie Moberg (Hitec Products) NOR +55"
6 Carmen Small (Cylance) USA +1'04"
7 Sara Mustonen (Sweden National) SWE +st
8 Nicole Hänselmann (Cervélo-Bigla) SUI +1'21"
9 Susanne Andersen (Norway National) NOR +1'27"
10 Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Lensworld-Zannata) ITA +1'30"