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Re:
The thing that's frustrating with Mara is that, while Pooley used to be similarly bad, Pooley went away and worked on her descending (the fact Emma was good on the flats and had better explosivity meant she wasn't quite as limited anyhow, but Mara would tend to prevail on the longer climbs) and eventually became not too bad. Evelyn Stevens used to be a terrible descender, making mistakes such as having the wrong pedal down causing her to clip a kerb in the Trofeo Binda a few years ago, and Evie went away and worked on her descending and while it's still not a strength (in fact you could argue she lost the Giro to Megan on the descent of Trivigno) she's nothing like as bad as she used to be. Mara in terms of skillset is still exactly the same rider she was when she won the QOM back in 2009, and I think a lot of that is to do with her calendar. She does the US domestic races where she's a big fish in a small pond and easily the class of the field in the mountains, the US World Tour races, a couple of the hillier one day races in Europe like Flèche and Trofeo Binda although she's never managed strong results at either, and the Giro.
Because the big teams and the big US riders in the European teams only periodically show up in the national calendar races, Mara's always the class of the field for climbing and there's no pressure on her descending like there is here against riders who, while maybe not as good in the high mountains as her, are too close for her to not feel pressured; the roads are often wider than we see in closed circuit racing in Europe which makes the descents less intimidating as well, and those races she does in Europe other than the Giro are more about punchy, explosive climbing than the longer, drawn-out climbs she prefers so she's seldom at the head of the field. She never races Trentino, the Emakumeen Bira, the Route de France or the Tour de l'Ardêche which are also climber's races in Europe, which is strange, because when she did do some of these races, back in 2009 with HTC, she was good at them. Let's also remember that she crashed on the Mortirolo descent, which may have had both physical and psychological effects as the week's worn on.
The problem is, Mara has found a routine and calendar she likes, where she can lead every race and the routes suit her, and she requires careful management to get the best out of her. To improve her skillset in some of her weaker areas would need wholesale changes that could have detrimental effects. She seems to like home comforts; as well as staying in the US for most of the year to train and race, the two times she's actually WON the Giro were with the US national team rather than a trade team, for example. She's in a good place in Wiggle, as they're a team that's strong enough that they don't need to lean on her for results, so she can guest in the national calendar in the US and just pick and choose her races (at the same time, because of that I kind of resent that she gets the leadership role, because the riders slaving for her are often good enough to deserve their own chances, and never get that work reciprocated because of Mara's reduced calendar) to get the best out of her in the races she wants to do. But the trade off of that is that her ITT and descending skills may remain as neglected as they have been to date.
EDIT:
The plot thickens! According to Claudia Lichtenberg, who commented on the Lotto-Soudal official site, Guarnier took up a lot of the pacing on the climb herself to prevent the attacks, and what's more, more importantly, the rider who put the pressure on on the descent, the pressure that dropped Mara Abbott and caused Lichtenberg to leapfrog her in the standings, was put on by Elisa Longo Borghini. Now, as Elisa arrived just a couple of seconds shy of the top 10 because of Tuhai and Amialiusik being dropped, and her local knowledge meant she knew the roads better than anyone (these are her training grounds), that seems pretty understandable, but then again, dropping your own teammate who's in the better GC position is not an ideal consequence.
She has to be a candidate, at least now that Basso has retired. While character-wise, calendar-wise and behaviour-wise I compare her to Schleck, as a rider she's pure Basso. She has one trick: grind everyone into dust with an un-followable pace up the mountainside, then descend back down at a slower speed than she went up it.Zinoviev Letter said:
The thing that's frustrating with Mara is that, while Pooley used to be similarly bad, Pooley went away and worked on her descending (the fact Emma was good on the flats and had better explosivity meant she wasn't quite as limited anyhow, but Mara would tend to prevail on the longer climbs) and eventually became not too bad. Evelyn Stevens used to be a terrible descender, making mistakes such as having the wrong pedal down causing her to clip a kerb in the Trofeo Binda a few years ago, and Evie went away and worked on her descending and while it's still not a strength (in fact you could argue she lost the Giro to Megan on the descent of Trivigno) she's nothing like as bad as she used to be. Mara in terms of skillset is still exactly the same rider she was when she won the QOM back in 2009, and I think a lot of that is to do with her calendar. She does the US domestic races where she's a big fish in a small pond and easily the class of the field in the mountains, the US World Tour races, a couple of the hillier one day races in Europe like Flèche and Trofeo Binda although she's never managed strong results at either, and the Giro.
Because the big teams and the big US riders in the European teams only periodically show up in the national calendar races, Mara's always the class of the field for climbing and there's no pressure on her descending like there is here against riders who, while maybe not as good in the high mountains as her, are too close for her to not feel pressured; the roads are often wider than we see in closed circuit racing in Europe which makes the descents less intimidating as well, and those races she does in Europe other than the Giro are more about punchy, explosive climbing than the longer, drawn-out climbs she prefers so she's seldom at the head of the field. She never races Trentino, the Emakumeen Bira, the Route de France or the Tour de l'Ardêche which are also climber's races in Europe, which is strange, because when she did do some of these races, back in 2009 with HTC, she was good at them. Let's also remember that she crashed on the Mortirolo descent, which may have had both physical and psychological effects as the week's worn on.
The problem is, Mara has found a routine and calendar she likes, where she can lead every race and the routes suit her, and she requires careful management to get the best out of her. To improve her skillset in some of her weaker areas would need wholesale changes that could have detrimental effects. She seems to like home comforts; as well as staying in the US for most of the year to train and race, the two times she's actually WON the Giro were with the US national team rather than a trade team, for example. She's in a good place in Wiggle, as they're a team that's strong enough that they don't need to lean on her for results, so she can guest in the national calendar in the US and just pick and choose her races (at the same time, because of that I kind of resent that she gets the leadership role, because the riders slaving for her are often good enough to deserve their own chances, and never get that work reciprocated because of Mara's reduced calendar) to get the best out of her in the races she wants to do. But the trade off of that is that her ITT and descending skills may remain as neglected as they have been to date.
EDIT:
The plot thickens! According to Claudia Lichtenberg, who commented on the Lotto-Soudal official site, Guarnier took up a lot of the pacing on the climb herself to prevent the attacks, and what's more, more importantly, the rider who put the pressure on on the descent, the pressure that dropped Mara Abbott and caused Lichtenberg to leapfrog her in the standings, was put on by Elisa Longo Borghini. Now, as Elisa arrived just a couple of seconds shy of the top 10 because of Tuhai and Amialiusik being dropped, and her local knowledge meant she knew the roads better than anyone (these are her training grounds), that seems pretty understandable, but then again, dropping your own teammate who's in the better GC position is not an ideal consequence.
WOOHOO Megan!
WOOHOO Eve!
Elisa and Roman are dating I hear!
Mara has well documented issues that explain a lot...
I thnk that this sheds a little light:
http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/07/analysis/finding-mara-abbott-the-giro-champion-returns-to-the-top_294287
WOOHOO Eve!
Elisa and Roman are dating I hear!
Mara has well documented issues that explain a lot...
I thnk that this sheds a little light:
http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/07/analysis/finding-mara-abbott-the-giro-champion-returns-to-the-top_294287
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Absolutely, and hence why I describe her as needing careful management. There was also a Marijn de Vries blog post in 2012 about "plate-watching" competitors at races where the teams all eat in the same hotel etc., and how one particular rider (not particularly well-veiled) and their eating habits or lack thereof were the focus of everybody's attention. There are myriad physical and psychological reasons why Mara is the rider she is, but that doesn't stop it being frustrating that she's still the same rider she was seven years ago with the same strengths and weaknesses, and that she seldom competes outside North America and only races in those races she can be team leader. She's a divisive figure for a lot of those reasons; she's an incredible talent but an immensely frustrating one to follow; her comfort zone and unwillingness to race outside of her chosen calendar makes her opportunities limited and makes her seem very selfish, but at the same time given her history it's always going to feel a bit like you're playing with fire - and her health - to try to force wholesale changes to that.
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Worth mentioning perhaps that Mara did an excellent time trial in the Gila this year. Ok it's a 2.2 race, but she beat some good riders and proper TT specialists there. I think her crash on the crest of Mortirolo has to be taken into account in her subsequent performance... she was Wiggle's last rider the next day, banged up, it's not as if the team was there to help her.
In fact, Wiggle's team and results may indicate that the GC with Mara was never an overriding ambition. They had bad luck with Hagiwara crashing, reducing the climbing support, but how many GC teams would bring two sprinters?
In fact, Wiggle's team and results may indicate that the GC with Mara was never an overriding ambition. They had bad luck with Hagiwara crashing, reducing the climbing support, but how many GC teams would bring two sprinters?
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Cycling Australia have announced their quartet for Rio, and the next set of arguments about nepotism and selection can begin:
Gracie Elvin (Orica-AIS)
Katrin Garfoot (Orica-AIS)
Rachel Neylan (Orica-AIS)
Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS)
Notice something? Of course, I put their teams in brackets just to make it even clearer. While all of them are good riders and have their clear roles, the fact that all four ride for the team which is explicitly tied to Cycling Australia obviously has drawn some attention. While some high profile omissions make clear sense for reasons of parcours (Chloe Hosking, Sarah Roy), the omission of Lauren Kitchen (who's had very good results over the past 18 months), Shara Gillow (who's an excellent climbing helper, although her domestique role in the Rabo superteam maybe hamstrings her chances of getting results for herself) and in particular Tiffany Cromwell (who's been Australia's best rider at each of the last three World Championships and won a stage at the Giro just last week) has raised some eyebrows. While I think it's only fair to say that given the course, I understand why each of the four riders has been chosen, at the same time it's easy to join some dots about the selection criteria.
Gracie Elvin (Orica-AIS)
Katrin Garfoot (Orica-AIS)
Rachel Neylan (Orica-AIS)
Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS)
Notice something? Of course, I put their teams in brackets just to make it even clearer. While all of them are good riders and have their clear roles, the fact that all four ride for the team which is explicitly tied to Cycling Australia obviously has drawn some attention. While some high profile omissions make clear sense for reasons of parcours (Chloe Hosking, Sarah Roy), the omission of Lauren Kitchen (who's had very good results over the past 18 months), Shara Gillow (who's an excellent climbing helper, although her domestique role in the Rabo superteam maybe hamstrings her chances of getting results for herself) and in particular Tiffany Cromwell (who's been Australia's best rider at each of the last three World Championships and won a stage at the Giro just last week) has raised some eyebrows. While I think it's only fair to say that given the course, I understand why each of the four riders has been chosen, at the same time it's easy to join some dots about the selection criteria.
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Straya have a fairly strong group to pick from, but Tiff would be in my line up given her record. Rio hills a bit tough for Elvin maybe? Although she's been altitude training for a spell recently. They will at least be a team already I suppose.
The Orica slant will be tested come Qatar selection time. Hosking is a very consistent performer there and has to go if fit... more spots to go around too I think. She's their fastest finisher on a flat course, and handy in wind.
Plenty of time to witter about WC selections in the autumn. In more current news, Hosking is going to ride BeNe Tour from Friday with D'hoore, Garner and probably the young GB girls Roberts and Christian.
The Orica slant will be tested come Qatar selection time. Hosking is a very consistent performer there and has to go if fit... more spots to go around too I think. She's their fastest finisher on a flat course, and handy in wind.
Plenty of time to witter about WC selections in the autumn. In more current news, Hosking is going to ride BeNe Tour from Friday with D'hoore, Garner and probably the young GB girls Roberts and Christian.
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I think the climbs are too much for Gracie but with the early circuit with the cobbles she'll be an important pilotfish, and she's both a willing worker and a determined attacker. Her suffering a thousand deaths to hold on from the long solo on the Steiler Wand von Meerane was one of my favourite memories of last season.
Re:
Spot on with your post - It's a very unbalanced team with cronyism playing part in selection - The more positive way to look at the situation is CA may have put all their eggs in the one basket with Garfoot in the ITT who is a chance of a medal - The RR may be a necessary evil.
Libertine Seguros said:
Spot on with your post - It's a very unbalanced team with cronyism playing part in selection - The more positive way to look at the situation is CA may have put all their eggs in the one basket with Garfoot in the ITT who is a chance of a medal - The RR may be a necessary evil.
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Argh, I misread the calendar and thought they weren't starting until tomorrow!
Still, the stage was very short and ended on a technical sprint on a cobbled city centre road, with perhaps unsurprising consequences, Vos winning ahead of Brennauer and Rivera. Lotta Lepistö is however ahead of Rivera on the GC thanks to bonus seconds picked up in intermediates, so suggests this one was raced as a borderline crit in view of the short length (66km).
The startlist here in Thüringen is absurdly strong, even for one of the big stage races of the year. Quite a few of those who aren't really suited to the Giro are here, and we have a stellar sprinting/rouleur field as well. A lot of the biggest teams offer some respite for their riders who did the Giro, besides there have been some gaps so there's no need for somebody to pull an Evie Stevie from a few years ago and race about 17 back to back days. Also, the bigger teams that skipped the Giro - Orica, Cervélo - are here in strength as well.
Apart from Vos and Knetemann Rabo's team is developmental, likewise Boels have Blaak and van Dijk as their main names, not Giro types. Wiggle are led by Emma J, although Bronzini and ELB mosey on over from the Giro. Canyon have Cecchini, Guarischi, Worrack, Barnes... lots of strength. Cervélo are full strength which means Moolman-Pasio in the hills, Lepistö in the sprints... Orica are also strong with Annemiek leading and 3/4 of the Aussie Olympic bid with Spratt, Elvin and Neylan. Elsewhere you have BTC and Parkhotel Valkenburg (who just secured another 3 years' (!) sponsorship), UHC, Tibco and some national teams with some decent names (Sweden with Fahlin, Penton and Mustönen, Italy with Guderzo, Russia with Zabelinskaya, Potokina and Boyarskaya, Norway with Heine and Bjørnsrud, Great Britain with Pooley).
Meanwhile, we have the BeNe Tour around Philippine and Zelzate, which has a smaller list of participants but still some interesting names, since it's much more set out for flat racing and less about the hills than Thüringen. Even some of the smaller teams like Parkhotel Valkenburg are splitting their names out, with Solovey, Buurman, Post etc. in Germany, and Koedooder and van den Bos here. Defending champion Jolien d'Hoore has Chloe Hosking and Lucy Garner amongst her helpers. What could help make it interesting is the number of main teams starting numbers down; Wiggle have 5, Liv (led by Floortje) have 4, so do Hitec (whose biggest names other than Kirsten Wild who's now focusing on the track are in Germany in national teams of course) and Alé (Tagliaferro likely their threat, with Bastianelli absent). Lotto have what is effectively a full strength team for this kind of parcours; I love Claudia Lichtenberg but I'm sure she wouldn't be too offended if I said that the team have stronger riders for this type of racing than her. Keep an eye on the in-form Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig in the Danish team, plus there's Team Druyts (aka Topsport Vlaanderen) and Monique van de Ree for Lares, along with Hannes (Belgian champion) and Confalonieri for Lensworld.
First BeNe Ladies stage was won in what can only be described as "no shock" by defending champion Jolien d'Hoore.
1 Jolien d'Hoore (Wiggle-High 5) BEL
2 Emilie Møberg (Hitec Products) NOR
3 Nina Kessler (Lensworld-Zannata) NED
4 Jip van den Bos (Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental) NED
5 Christina Siggaard (Denmark National) DEN
6 Marta Tagliaferro (Alé-Cipollini) ITA
7 Monique van de Ree (Lares-Waowdeals) NED
Simultaneously we have the Tour de Brétagne Féminin, a short stage race which started with a prologue around Hinault's hometown of Yffiniac before moving onto typical hilly terrain for the region with a lot of up-and-down with few real climbs per se, but we're all familiar with Bréton cycling terrain by now, as it's one of French cycling's great heartlands. The race consists of five race days, a prologue, an undulating circuit, a 15km ITT then a hilly course tomorrow and a flat sprint close to the coast on Sunday. For the most part the péloton here is French, though some of the decent sized UK teams - Drops, Podium Ambition - are here as well as some of the Italian-based women's péloton that isn't in Thüringen - INPA, Astana and BePink are all here.
The prologue was won by Lara Vieceli of INPA-Bianchi, narrowly pipping Ann-Sophie Duyck of TopSport Vlaanderen, here with the Belgian national team. Cuba's Arlenis Sierra placed well in the prologue and then was able to make the decisive move in the first road stage, a long affair over 131km, pulling out a 40 second gap on a group containing both the leader and a key helper for her in Änna Zita Maria Stricker, but also the defending champion, BePink's Ilaria Sanguineti, who took the GC after a similar move last year. With the bonus time as well, this leaves Sierra with a 51" lead over both Vieceli and Stricker, with Duyck and Futuroscope '86's Eugenie Duval at 1'03".
Still, the stage was very short and ended on a technical sprint on a cobbled city centre road, with perhaps unsurprising consequences, Vos winning ahead of Brennauer and Rivera. Lotta Lepistö is however ahead of Rivera on the GC thanks to bonus seconds picked up in intermediates, so suggests this one was raced as a borderline crit in view of the short length (66km).
The startlist here in Thüringen is absurdly strong, even for one of the big stage races of the year. Quite a few of those who aren't really suited to the Giro are here, and we have a stellar sprinting/rouleur field as well. A lot of the biggest teams offer some respite for their riders who did the Giro, besides there have been some gaps so there's no need for somebody to pull an Evie Stevie from a few years ago and race about 17 back to back days. Also, the bigger teams that skipped the Giro - Orica, Cervélo - are here in strength as well.
Apart from Vos and Knetemann Rabo's team is developmental, likewise Boels have Blaak and van Dijk as their main names, not Giro types. Wiggle are led by Emma J, although Bronzini and ELB mosey on over from the Giro. Canyon have Cecchini, Guarischi, Worrack, Barnes... lots of strength. Cervélo are full strength which means Moolman-Pasio in the hills, Lepistö in the sprints... Orica are also strong with Annemiek leading and 3/4 of the Aussie Olympic bid with Spratt, Elvin and Neylan. Elsewhere you have BTC and Parkhotel Valkenburg (who just secured another 3 years' (!) sponsorship), UHC, Tibco and some national teams with some decent names (Sweden with Fahlin, Penton and Mustönen, Italy with Guderzo, Russia with Zabelinskaya, Potokina and Boyarskaya, Norway with Heine and Bjørnsrud, Great Britain with Pooley).
Meanwhile, we have the BeNe Tour around Philippine and Zelzate, which has a smaller list of participants but still some interesting names, since it's much more set out for flat racing and less about the hills than Thüringen. Even some of the smaller teams like Parkhotel Valkenburg are splitting their names out, with Solovey, Buurman, Post etc. in Germany, and Koedooder and van den Bos here. Defending champion Jolien d'Hoore has Chloe Hosking and Lucy Garner amongst her helpers. What could help make it interesting is the number of main teams starting numbers down; Wiggle have 5, Liv (led by Floortje) have 4, so do Hitec (whose biggest names other than Kirsten Wild who's now focusing on the track are in Germany in national teams of course) and Alé (Tagliaferro likely their threat, with Bastianelli absent). Lotto have what is effectively a full strength team for this kind of parcours; I love Claudia Lichtenberg but I'm sure she wouldn't be too offended if I said that the team have stronger riders for this type of racing than her. Keep an eye on the in-form Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig in the Danish team, plus there's Team Druyts (aka Topsport Vlaanderen) and Monique van de Ree for Lares, along with Hannes (Belgian champion) and Confalonieri for Lensworld.
First BeNe Ladies stage was won in what can only be described as "no shock" by defending champion Jolien d'Hoore.
1 Jolien d'Hoore (Wiggle-High 5) BEL
2 Emilie Møberg (Hitec Products) NOR
3 Nina Kessler (Lensworld-Zannata) NED
4 Jip van den Bos (Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental) NED
5 Christina Siggaard (Denmark National) DEN
6 Marta Tagliaferro (Alé-Cipollini) ITA
7 Monique van de Ree (Lares-Waowdeals) NED
Simultaneously we have the Tour de Brétagne Féminin, a short stage race which started with a prologue around Hinault's hometown of Yffiniac before moving onto typical hilly terrain for the region with a lot of up-and-down with few real climbs per se, but we're all familiar with Bréton cycling terrain by now, as it's one of French cycling's great heartlands. The race consists of five race days, a prologue, an undulating circuit, a 15km ITT then a hilly course tomorrow and a flat sprint close to the coast on Sunday. For the most part the péloton here is French, though some of the decent sized UK teams - Drops, Podium Ambition - are here as well as some of the Italian-based women's péloton that isn't in Thüringen - INPA, Astana and BePink are all here.
The prologue was won by Lara Vieceli of INPA-Bianchi, narrowly pipping Ann-Sophie Duyck of TopSport Vlaanderen, here with the Belgian national team. Cuba's Arlenis Sierra placed well in the prologue and then was able to make the decisive move in the first road stage, a long affair over 131km, pulling out a 40 second gap on a group containing both the leader and a key helper for her in Änna Zita Maria Stricker, but also the defending champion, BePink's Ilaria Sanguineti, who took the GC after a similar move last year. With the bonus time as well, this leaves Sierra with a 51" lead over both Vieceli and Stricker, with Duyck and Futuroscope '86's Eugenie Duval at 1'03".
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TT result in Brétagne is that Silvia Valsecchi of BePink won, so the mid-size Italian teams are getting a bit of traction here (I use that to refer pretty much to all of the established Italian women's teams except Alé who are clearly one of the teams that belong in that group that aren't quite the super-teams but are always going to play a visible role in any race, like Orica, Cervélo or Liv). However, Arlenis Sierra was able to stay just over 30" down so can defend her lead. Second place in the TT goes to Claire Rose for the UK domestic team Podium Ambition, she's having a very good year in TTs, 2nd in the Emakumeen Bira prologue over 2km and 2nd in the nationals over 35km, then another 2nd here over 16km here. Biggest pressure on the lead comes from Ann-Sophie Duyck who was 3rd just 8" behind Valsecchi. Nevertheless, Sierra still has 38" over Duyck, 47" over Valsecchi and 50" over Rose coming into the queen stage today.
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Thüringen
Difficult stage around Erfurt today, an old Peace Race stalwart city, with some sectors of cobbles and the legendary climb of the Arnstädter Hohle, used regularly in the DDR-Rundfahrt, the Friedensfahrt and the Rund um die Braunkohle. It's part-cobbled and part-tarmacked and gets quite steep. With the strong field that they have it led to an interesting elite group developing with 11 riders away including some of the biggest names in the race. Eventually, Olga Zabelinskaya, who of course won a bronze medal in both disciplines in the Olympics in London and is the daughter of - another history link - Sergey Sukhoruchenkov, the greatest climber of the Eastern Bloc and a former Olympic gold medallist himself, was able to get a gap and, with Wiggle being the only team with more than one rider in the group, they were looked to for the chase even though they were mostly relying on a very spent ELB.
Zabelinskaya got the win, making 23 seconds' advantage over the ten remaining women in the group, who were led home by Marianne Vos (who else?) ahead of Emilia Fahlin (riding for the Swedish national team instead of her usual ride with Alé). The rest of the riders in the group are like a roll-call of the biggest riders in the race - Moolman-Pasio, van Dijk, van Vleuten, Cecchini, Johansson, Longo Borghini, Guderzo and Spratt. The rest came in at +52" and the biggest name to have missed the group was Lisa Brennauer, who's been on the podium twice in the last three years in the overall race's GC.
Short highlights package from MDR
BeNe Tour
A second bunch sprint, however Jolien d'Hoore was not well placed and got herself boxed in; this meant that Nina Kessler (Lensworld-Zannata) was able to take the sprint, pipping Floortje Mackaij and Parkhotel Valkenburg's Chanella Stougje to the line. This came after they fought back a group of Winanda Spoor, Kelly van den Steen and Esther van Veen (nicely confusing). However, thanks to the bonus seconds, d'Hoore retained the lead of the race, with two seconds' lead over Kessler, nicely setting up the semitappe against the clock in the afternoon.
At just 9,6km in length, however, this was well within d'Hoore's capabilities and not only did she defend her lead but she in fact won the stage, being the only rider to break the 13 minute barrier, with Floortje moving up into second place - however as she hasn't been able to pick up anything like the bonus time Jolien has, she is now at 26" from d'Hoore, some 12" further away than she was in the chrono.
Difficult stage around Erfurt today, an old Peace Race stalwart city, with some sectors of cobbles and the legendary climb of the Arnstädter Hohle, used regularly in the DDR-Rundfahrt, the Friedensfahrt and the Rund um die Braunkohle. It's part-cobbled and part-tarmacked and gets quite steep. With the strong field that they have it led to an interesting elite group developing with 11 riders away including some of the biggest names in the race. Eventually, Olga Zabelinskaya, who of course won a bronze medal in both disciplines in the Olympics in London and is the daughter of - another history link - Sergey Sukhoruchenkov, the greatest climber of the Eastern Bloc and a former Olympic gold medallist himself, was able to get a gap and, with Wiggle being the only team with more than one rider in the group, they were looked to for the chase even though they were mostly relying on a very spent ELB.
Zabelinskaya got the win, making 23 seconds' advantage over the ten remaining women in the group, who were led home by Marianne Vos (who else?) ahead of Emilia Fahlin (riding for the Swedish national team instead of her usual ride with Alé). The rest of the riders in the group are like a roll-call of the biggest riders in the race - Moolman-Pasio, van Dijk, van Vleuten, Cecchini, Johansson, Longo Borghini, Guderzo and Spratt. The rest came in at +52" and the biggest name to have missed the group was Lisa Brennauer, who's been on the podium twice in the last three years in the overall race's GC.
Short highlights package from MDR
BeNe Tour
A second bunch sprint, however Jolien d'Hoore was not well placed and got herself boxed in; this meant that Nina Kessler (Lensworld-Zannata) was able to take the sprint, pipping Floortje Mackaij and Parkhotel Valkenburg's Chanella Stougje to the line. This came after they fought back a group of Winanda Spoor, Kelly van den Steen and Esther van Veen (nicely confusing). However, thanks to the bonus seconds, d'Hoore retained the lead of the race, with two seconds' lead over Kessler, nicely setting up the semitappe against the clock in the afternoon.
At just 9,6km in length, however, this was well within d'Hoore's capabilities and not only did she defend her lead but she in fact won the stage, being the only rider to break the 13 minute barrier, with Floortje moving up into second place - however as she hasn't been able to pick up anything like the bonus time Jolien has, she is now at 26" from d'Hoore, some 12" further away than she was in the chrono.
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In Thüringen, they took a little detour into Sachsen for a while today, as they do most years now there's no Sachsentour, to incorporate that great iconic piece of Eastern Bloc cycling history, the glorious Steiler Wand von Meerane. This 350m of cobbled brutality came early in the stage and split the field up as it tends to do (no circuit with it this year, so Gracie Elvin doesn't need to die for our entertainment to complete the stage this year after her glorious solo last year). One of those typical women's cycling finishes on a rolling but not especially hilly circuit with a technical sprint including some cobbled stretches ensued, and Marianne Vos (who else?) triumphed, pulling out a small gap that helps her trim her GC deficit to Zabelinskaya to just 4 seconds - however, with a time trial to follow tomorrow, Olga will likely look to consolidate and extend that lead as, at least historically, she is the stronger time triallist of the two, and by quite some distance. Anyway, certainly the big names can't be accused of slacking off, as even with the Olympics on the horizon and this not being a World Tour event, it's still one of the toughest and most prestigious women's stage races and the battle looks pretty serious for the places.
1 Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) NED 3'01'18
2 Emma Johansson (Wiggle-High 5) SWE +3"
3 Ellen van Dijk (Boels-Dolmans) NED +3"
4 Lisa Brennauer (Canyon-SRAM) GER +3"
5 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +3"
6 Emilia Fahlin (Sweden National) SWE +3"
7 Coryn Rivera (United Healthcare) USA +3"
8 Lotta Lepistö (Cervélo-Bigla) FIN +3"
9 Katarzyna Pawlowska (Boels-Dolmans) POL +6"
10 Alice Barnes (UK National) GBR +6"
Zabelinskaya and Moolman-Pasio were also in the next few at +6". Guderzo was in at +10", Solovey at +17" (I note her because of the upcoming ITT), Blaak, Villumsen, Koster and Spratt at +20", Longo Borghini and Pavlukhina at +38", Neylan +43", Elvin +46", Worrack +47", Pooley in the grupetto. Bronzini crashed in the sprint.
With the TT tomorrow, Zabelinskaya has a lead of 3" over Vos, 21" over Johansson (the duo have collected a fair amount of bonus time as Zabelinskaya is not really suited to this), 29" over Fahlin and perhaps more importantly TT specialist van Dijk, Annemiek the Prologue Queen is at 32", Cecchini and AMP at 36", Guderzo 39", Brennauer at 55". For outside bets Solovey at +1'16" and Villumsen at +1'19" are obviously strong chrono riders.
1 Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) NED 3'01'18
2 Emma Johansson (Wiggle-High 5) SWE +3"
3 Ellen van Dijk (Boels-Dolmans) NED +3"
4 Lisa Brennauer (Canyon-SRAM) GER +3"
5 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +3"
6 Emilia Fahlin (Sweden National) SWE +3"
7 Coryn Rivera (United Healthcare) USA +3"
8 Lotta Lepistö (Cervélo-Bigla) FIN +3"
9 Katarzyna Pawlowska (Boels-Dolmans) POL +6"
10 Alice Barnes (UK National) GBR +6"
Zabelinskaya and Moolman-Pasio were also in the next few at +6". Guderzo was in at +10", Solovey at +17" (I note her because of the upcoming ITT), Blaak, Villumsen, Koster and Spratt at +20", Longo Borghini and Pavlukhina at +38", Neylan +43", Elvin +46", Worrack +47", Pooley in the grupetto. Bronzini crashed in the sprint.
With the TT tomorrow, Zabelinskaya has a lead of 3" over Vos, 21" over Johansson (the duo have collected a fair amount of bonus time as Zabelinskaya is not really suited to this), 29" over Fahlin and perhaps more importantly TT specialist van Dijk, Annemiek the Prologue Queen is at 32", Cecchini and AMP at 36", Guderzo 39", Brennauer at 55". For outside bets Solovey at +1'16" and Villumsen at +1'19" are obviously strong chrono riders.
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The time trial, the longest remaining Einzelzeitfahrt prior to the Olympic Games, made for some very interesting reading. Once more, the riders exhausted from the Giro (ELB, Guderzo) underperformed their ability levels, but we saw Ellen van Dijk coming into some serious form; the talk had been about Olga Z defending her lead against Vos, but van Dijk robbed them both with a huge effort against the clock that turned the GC around and got her into the maillot jaune, even though van Dijk had to face a 20" penalty added to her time. In fact, the reigning World Champion in this discipline, Linda Villumsen, couldn't stay within a minute of van Dijk's time - not that that put her to shame at all, as only three riders could stay inside that mark - Annemiek van Vleuten, who's a specialist in the prologue but far from a slouch in longer TTs either, just with van Dijk and Anna VDB around she doesn't get to do the Worlds often; Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio; and Lisa Brennauer, another former World Champion in the chrono. Even more interesting was that Zabelinskaya, a bronze medalist against the clock in the 2012 Olympics, in fact lost time to Vos, which had not been expected. The contre-le-montre does move some of the non-specialists like Johansson down the order slightly, and should put the sprintier types and the outsiders who'd been mixing it at the top out of the reckoning - here I'm thinking of Lepistö and Fahlin respectively, although Spratt is perhaps the biggest faller in terms of GC after a weak outing against the clock, so much so that I'm convinced something must have happened. We have an interesting few days lined up in the closing stretches of the race though.
Stage GC (18,6km EZF)
1 Ellen van Dijk (Boels-Dolmans) NED 24'34"
2 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +25"
3 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo-Bigla) RSA +35"
4 Lisa Brennauer (Canyon-SRAM) GER +43"
5 Linda Villumsen (United Healthcare) NZL +1'05"
6 Lauren Stephens (TIBCO-SVB) USA +1'06"
7 Roxane Knetemann (Rabo-Liv) NED +1'10"
8 Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) NED +1'17"
9 Chantal Blaak (Boels-Dolmans) NED +1'26"
10 Olga Zabelinskaya (Russia National) RUS +1'27"
What this now means for the GC:
1 Ellen van Dijk (Boels-Dolmans) NED 7'51'20
2 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +8"
3 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo-Bigla) RSA +22"
4 Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) NED +31"
5 Olga Zabelinskaya (Russia National) RUS +38"
6 Lisa Brennauer (Canyon-SRAM) GER +49"
7 Emma Johansson (Wiggle-High 5) SWE +1'16"
8 Elena Cecchini (Canyon-SRAM) ITA +1'24"
9 Linda Villumsen (United Healthcare) NZL +1'35"
10 Chantal Blaak (Boels-Dolmans) NED +1'51"
Stage GC (18,6km EZF)
1 Ellen van Dijk (Boels-Dolmans) NED 24'34"
2 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +25"
3 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo-Bigla) RSA +35"
4 Lisa Brennauer (Canyon-SRAM) GER +43"
5 Linda Villumsen (United Healthcare) NZL +1'05"
6 Lauren Stephens (TIBCO-SVB) USA +1'06"
7 Roxane Knetemann (Rabo-Liv) NED +1'10"
8 Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) NED +1'17"
9 Chantal Blaak (Boels-Dolmans) NED +1'26"
10 Olga Zabelinskaya (Russia National) RUS +1'27"
What this now means for the GC:
1 Ellen van Dijk (Boels-Dolmans) NED 7'51'20
2 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +8"
3 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo-Bigla) RSA +22"
4 Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) NED +31"
5 Olga Zabelinskaya (Russia National) RUS +38"
6 Lisa Brennauer (Canyon-SRAM) GER +49"
7 Emma Johansson (Wiggle-High 5) SWE +1'16"
8 Elena Cecchini (Canyon-SRAM) ITA +1'24"
9 Linda Villumsen (United Healthcare) NZL +1'35"
10 Chantal Blaak (Boels-Dolmans) NED +1'51"
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We've had some pretty exciting racing that's turned the Thüringen Rundfahrt on its head over the last two days; the fifth stage, around Greiz, saw the race broken down into numerous smaller groups towards the end, and enabled a small group of the elites to gain a few seconds on the race leader Ellen van Dijk; Marianne Vos took the sprint, unsurprisingly, with Cecchini, Zabelinskaya, Rivera, van Vleuten, Brennauer, Moolman-Pasio and Neylan in her group a few seconds up on some stragglers, then van Dijk's group a further few seconds back.
More interestingly, however, in today's queen stage, which was around Schleiz, featuring a couple of severe climbs and a late loop around a tough rolling circuit including parts of the old Schleizer Dreieck motor racing course that was very similar to the Friendship Games Road Race circuit in 1984, we saw Boels' domination come unglued; on the second categorized climb of the day, a short but steep cobbled rise, Emma Johansson accelerated over the summit with others in pursuit and put van Dijk into difficulty; with Boels down on numbers and Ellen's climbing legs below peak form (and she isn't really a climber anyhow) controlling the race became difficult; Amanda Spratt and Elena Cecchini managed to get away and, working well together for shared goals, swiftly opened up a sizable advantage as once Boels had brought the rest of the attackers back, we were effectively left with Katarzyna Pawlowska vs. the duo. Eventually they finished over four minutes up on the field, with Spratt taking the stage win and Cecchini the Gelbes Trikot. The size of the advantage achieved was enough for Spratt to move up to 2nd in the GC with just one stage remaining, which was why she had been so keen to cooperate.
Therefore, with only the closing Rund um Gera stage to come, the GC at Thüringen looks like this:
1 Elena Cecchini (Canyon-SRAM) ITA 14'18'34
2 Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS) AUS +3'05"
3 Ellen van Dijk (Boels-Dolmans) NED +3'20"
4 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +3'30"
5 Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) NED +3'49"
6 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo-Bigla) RSA +3'52"
7 Olga Zabelinskaya (Russia National) RUS +4'09"
8 Lisa Brennauer (Canyon-SRAM) GER +4'24"
9 Emma Johansson (Wiggle-High 5) SWE +4'53"
10 Emilia Fahlin (Sweden National) SWE +5'52"
While it would seem the GC is sewn up for Cecchini, there are still several in play for the podium.
More interestingly, however, in today's queen stage, which was around Schleiz, featuring a couple of severe climbs and a late loop around a tough rolling circuit including parts of the old Schleizer Dreieck motor racing course that was very similar to the Friendship Games Road Race circuit in 1984, we saw Boels' domination come unglued; on the second categorized climb of the day, a short but steep cobbled rise, Emma Johansson accelerated over the summit with others in pursuit and put van Dijk into difficulty; with Boels down on numbers and Ellen's climbing legs below peak form (and she isn't really a climber anyhow) controlling the race became difficult; Amanda Spratt and Elena Cecchini managed to get away and, working well together for shared goals, swiftly opened up a sizable advantage as once Boels had brought the rest of the attackers back, we were effectively left with Katarzyna Pawlowska vs. the duo. Eventually they finished over four minutes up on the field, with Spratt taking the stage win and Cecchini the Gelbes Trikot. The size of the advantage achieved was enough for Spratt to move up to 2nd in the GC with just one stage remaining, which was why she had been so keen to cooperate.
Therefore, with only the closing Rund um Gera stage to come, the GC at Thüringen looks like this:
1 Elena Cecchini (Canyon-SRAM) ITA 14'18'34
2 Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS) AUS +3'05"
3 Ellen van Dijk (Boels-Dolmans) NED +3'20"
4 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +3'30"
5 Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) NED +3'49"
6 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo-Bigla) RSA +3'52"
7 Olga Zabelinskaya (Russia National) RUS +4'09"
8 Lisa Brennauer (Canyon-SRAM) GER +4'24"
9 Emma Johansson (Wiggle-High 5) SWE +4'53"
10 Emilia Fahlin (Sweden National) SWE +5'52"
While it would seem the GC is sewn up for Cecchini, there are still several in play for the podium.
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At the same time, we've had the first (in its current iteration) Women's Tour de Pologne, a brutally tough two-day stage race in Critérium International format, only this has been almost without a centimetre of flat terrain, utilizing those tough hilly stages we often see in the latter Tour de Pologne stages. While the weather was not so horrendous for the women, the problem of introducing such a tough race so close to the Olympics for its first year, and especially clashing with established races like the Thüringen Rundfahrt, was a mixed level péloton, especially once the anticipated star attraction, Kasia Niewiadoma, a prodigious climbing talent whose hometown is close to the race's stomping grounds, announced that her Olympic preparation plans meant she wouldn't be in attendance. For the most part, the péloton comprised the Polish national péloton, decent strength national representations from the neighbours and many of the Italian pro teams, who contributed some strong climbers to the race. There was also one prominent mercenary; since disagreements about Olympic preparation and equipment provided Flavia Oliveira and Lensworld-Zannata had a falling out in the spring; since then the Brazilian former Giro QOM has worked on a "have licence will travel" basis, and here she showed up with the BTC City-Ljubljana team, which could be an interesting fit as they have decent enough backing if she becomes a permanent part of the squad what with Plichta, Bagatelj and Bujak. The huge bias of the parcours really showed however, as the first stage around Zakopane quickly became a slaughter, with Jolanda Neff, MTB specialist in the Swiss national team this week putting the field to the sword, with Oliveira a minute and a half back, a trio of Leleivyte, Riabchenko and Szybiak at +2'16" (Tetyana is probably the best pure climber as a roadie in this race if you discount Neff as a mountain biker, but has the Giro in her legs at this point too), Vysotska, Soraya Paladin, Brzezna-Bentkowska and Bagatelj a little off that pace and the rest minutes down. Although in the pure climbing test that is the MTT to Bukowina Hotel Resort (the now traditional penultimate stage finish in the men's Tour de Pologne) Jolanda lost nearly half a minute to Oliveira (who won ahad of Riabchenko), the Swiss holds the advantage in technical skills and downhills as you might expect from an MTB specialist and this helped prove decisive. The Jolanda and Flavia show continued into stage 3, the short Bukowina Tatrzańska circuit stage cribbed from the Tour de Pologne (more or less the same as the cancelled stage in the men's race, but half the length), as the duo raced on ahead of the field and fought out a two-up sprint at the end after numerous unsuccessful attempts by the veteran Brazilian to rid herself of her younger Swiss opponent. Again, time gaps were humongous, Riabchenko - a known and vaunted climber - was a further minute back, Brzezna-Bentkowska was two, Vysotska - the 41-year-old Ukrainian also coming off the back of a reasonably strong Giro GC - at four and everybody else over eight minutes down.
My thinking is that this type of parcours is great to have more of in women's cycling, however this would have been a great parcours to have with a deeper field; the Olympic year has really harmed it because without that Olympic peak they could have tempted more riders who did the Giro to enter, or moved it a week or two back to enable riders who did Thüringen or the Giro to do it as well. As it was, as the climbing field was relatively limited, it meant that only a few riders had the opportunity to make a difference on the split stages on the second day, with many riders sitting up and logging their kilometres ahead of Rio or seeing it as an opportunity to get some climbing practice in. The absence of BePink from the startlist was felt as well, Tuhai had a breakout Giro and I would have loved to see what she could do here, however she is just 20 years old and the team don't want to overwork her at this point. Still, promising signs for an all-too-rare grimpeur's race, and if they can encourage a few more decent sized teams to build up the start list, it could grow into a pretty nice short stage race in time.
Final GC Tour de Pologne:
1 Jolanda Neff (Switzerland National) SUI 5'37'11"
2 Flavia Oliveira (BTC City-Ljubljana) BRA +1'17"
3 Tetyana Riabchenko (Ukraine National) UKR +3'29"
4 Paulina Brzezna-Bentkowska (MAT-ATOM Sobótka) POL +4'58"
5 Evgeniya Vysotska (Ukraine National) UKR +7'33"
6 Rasa Leleivyte (Aromitalia-Vaiano) LTU +11'53"
7 Soraya Paladin (Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo) ITA +12'05"
8 Polona Bagatelj (BTC City-Ljubljana) SLO +12'11"
9 Alicja Ratajczak (Poland National) POL +14'39"
10 Monika Brzezna (MAT ATOM Sobótka) POL +16'18"
My thinking is that this type of parcours is great to have more of in women's cycling, however this would have been a great parcours to have with a deeper field; the Olympic year has really harmed it because without that Olympic peak they could have tempted more riders who did the Giro to enter, or moved it a week or two back to enable riders who did Thüringen or the Giro to do it as well. As it was, as the climbing field was relatively limited, it meant that only a few riders had the opportunity to make a difference on the split stages on the second day, with many riders sitting up and logging their kilometres ahead of Rio or seeing it as an opportunity to get some climbing practice in. The absence of BePink from the startlist was felt as well, Tuhai had a breakout Giro and I would have loved to see what she could do here, however she is just 20 years old and the team don't want to overwork her at this point. Still, promising signs for an all-too-rare grimpeur's race, and if they can encourage a few more decent sized teams to build up the start list, it could grow into a pretty nice short stage race in time.
Final GC Tour de Pologne:
1 Jolanda Neff (Switzerland National) SUI 5'37'11"
2 Flavia Oliveira (BTC City-Ljubljana) BRA +1'17"
3 Tetyana Riabchenko (Ukraine National) UKR +3'29"
4 Paulina Brzezna-Bentkowska (MAT-ATOM Sobótka) POL +4'58"
5 Evgeniya Vysotska (Ukraine National) UKR +7'33"
6 Rasa Leleivyte (Aromitalia-Vaiano) LTU +11'53"
7 Soraya Paladin (Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo) ITA +12'05"
8 Polona Bagatelj (BTC City-Ljubljana) SLO +12'11"
9 Alicja Ratajczak (Poland National) POL +14'39"
10 Monika Brzezna (MAT ATOM Sobótka) POL +16'18"
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The Tour de Pologne route was clearly designed with Niewiadoma in mind, and consisted, in essence, of the last two road stages (including the cancelled one) of the Tour de Pologne in slightly abridged form, with an uphill TT on the final climb of the last road stage in the morning of the second day. Constant up and down and a bunch with varying experience levels led to some pretty serious slaughter.
Meanwhile, the Thüringen Rundfahrt has finished, after an eventful final day. Although Cecchini and her Canyon-SRAM teammates needed to do nothing but stay vigilant given a 3-minute lead, the closeness between 2nd and 7th meant we got some frantic racing for the podium, especially from Orica, as Amanda Spratt's 2nd was vulnerable to better sprinting riders in time bonuses and Annemiek van Vleuten, in typically aggressive form, wanted to improve her position to the podium. According to the Boels team's official summary the first half of the stage was brutal and in fact the race broke down to a super-strong group of five on the toughest climb which came shortly before the halfway point, with van Vleuten, Spratt, Moolman-Pasio, Johansson and Ellen van Dijk getting away. Annemiek continued to attack the group until finally being able to get away, because she is excellent. A lack of cohesion in the chase with Spratt obviously not contributing and Emma J and Ash both looking at van Dijk to do the work as her GC position was the one threatened, led to the now-trimmed-down group catching onto the remaining fugitives. Boels then worked to pull van Vleuten back, before the decisive group got away with 50km remaining, consisting of Neylan, Guderzo, Rivera, Hänselmann and Pieters. With Wiggle and Orica both represented, they stopped working as you might expect; Canyon weren't interested in chasing riders well down on GC, Boels were happy for them to go as it safeguarded Ellen's podium if they took the time bonuses, so it was left to Rabo's depleted resources to chase; despite pegging the advantage back from over 2 minutes to just 23 seconds, they fell short of the aim of taking back the group, and so, as is probably little surprise from that quintet Coryn Rivera won the sprint over Amy Pieters; Cecchini lost a few seconds to those duking out the placements in the group, but her GC lead was not threatened and she was able to roll in comfortably, taking the overall victory at one of women's cycling's biggest and best stage races.
Final stage standings:
1 Coryn Rivera (United Healthcare) USA 3'22'00
2 Amy Pieters (Wiggle-High 5) NED +st
3 Nicole Hänselmann (Cervélo-Bigla) SUI +2"
4 Rachel Neylan (Orica-AIS) AUS +4"
5 Tatiana Guderzo (Hitec Products) ITA +5"
6 Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) NED +23"
7 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo-Bigla) RSA +23"
8 Ellen van Dijk (Boels-Dolmans) NED +23"
9 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +23"
10 Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS) AUS +23"
Final GC
1 Elena Cecchini (Canyon-SRAM) ITA 17'41'04"
2 Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS) AUS +2'58"
3 Ellen van Dijk (Boels-Dolmans) NED +3'12"
4 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +3'21"
5 Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) NED +3'39"
6 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo-Bigla) RSA +3'45"
7 Olga Zabelinskaya (Russia National) RUS +4'05"
8 Lisa Brennauer (Canyon-SRAM) GER +4'27"
9 Emma Johansson (Wiggle-High 5) SWE +4'46"
10 Coryn Rivera (United Healthcare) USA +5'27"
Meanwhile, the Thüringen Rundfahrt has finished, after an eventful final day. Although Cecchini and her Canyon-SRAM teammates needed to do nothing but stay vigilant given a 3-minute lead, the closeness between 2nd and 7th meant we got some frantic racing for the podium, especially from Orica, as Amanda Spratt's 2nd was vulnerable to better sprinting riders in time bonuses and Annemiek van Vleuten, in typically aggressive form, wanted to improve her position to the podium. According to the Boels team's official summary the first half of the stage was brutal and in fact the race broke down to a super-strong group of five on the toughest climb which came shortly before the halfway point, with van Vleuten, Spratt, Moolman-Pasio, Johansson and Ellen van Dijk getting away. Annemiek continued to attack the group until finally being able to get away, because she is excellent. A lack of cohesion in the chase with Spratt obviously not contributing and Emma J and Ash both looking at van Dijk to do the work as her GC position was the one threatened, led to the now-trimmed-down group catching onto the remaining fugitives. Boels then worked to pull van Vleuten back, before the decisive group got away with 50km remaining, consisting of Neylan, Guderzo, Rivera, Hänselmann and Pieters. With Wiggle and Orica both represented, they stopped working as you might expect; Canyon weren't interested in chasing riders well down on GC, Boels were happy for them to go as it safeguarded Ellen's podium if they took the time bonuses, so it was left to Rabo's depleted resources to chase; despite pegging the advantage back from over 2 minutes to just 23 seconds, they fell short of the aim of taking back the group, and so, as is probably little surprise from that quintet Coryn Rivera won the sprint over Amy Pieters; Cecchini lost a few seconds to those duking out the placements in the group, but her GC lead was not threatened and she was able to roll in comfortably, taking the overall victory at one of women's cycling's biggest and best stage races.
Final stage standings:
1 Coryn Rivera (United Healthcare) USA 3'22'00
2 Amy Pieters (Wiggle-High 5) NED +st
3 Nicole Hänselmann (Cervélo-Bigla) SUI +2"
4 Rachel Neylan (Orica-AIS) AUS +4"
5 Tatiana Guderzo (Hitec Products) ITA +5"
6 Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) NED +23"
7 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo-Bigla) RSA +23"
8 Ellen van Dijk (Boels-Dolmans) NED +23"
9 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +23"
10 Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS) AUS +23"
Final GC
1 Elena Cecchini (Canyon-SRAM) ITA 17'41'04"
2 Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS) AUS +2'58"
3 Ellen van Dijk (Boels-Dolmans) NED +3'12"
4 Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) NED +3'21"
5 Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) NED +3'39"
6 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervélo-Bigla) RSA +3'45"
7 Olga Zabelinskaya (Russia National) RUS +4'05"
8 Lisa Brennauer (Canyon-SRAM) GER +4'27"
9 Emma Johansson (Wiggle-High 5) SWE +4'46"
10 Coryn Rivera (United Healthcare) USA +5'27"
Nice win for Rivera. This sort of race is a significant step up from ruling the US crits with an iron fist.
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Pieters has always been fairly quick, but just seems that she's picking up her results by getting some wins here and there now rather than placing, since she's not really outperforming her overall productivity from Liv, just the results she gets are much more prominent. And definitely the tricky bumpy circuits and technical cobbled circuits of Thüringen are a world away from the US crits, it will stand Coryn in good stead for further Euro racing if she makes the jump across the water, like Leah Kirchmann did this year.
Speaking of the US, at the same time we have the Cascade Classic going on, and more fuel to the interminable no-right-answer debate over the US Olympic picks. In the first stage, a group of 30 contested the win, with Carmen Small, now riding for Cylance after her 12 month rolling contract with Cervélo expired (intriguingly this leaves them with just 8 riders, so whether they pick somebody up or just ride Ash and Lotta into the ground for results all autumn I don't know), winning the sprint as the first few riders picked up a couple of seconds on the rest. The more interesting result is today's time trial, though. Over 20km, former Nordic skier Tara Whitten set the best time and took the race lead, but in the context of Rio the more interesting result was that Carmen Small was 2nd, 10" faster than Kristin Armstrong. Obviously much debate has raged about the rights and wrongs of selecting the part-time domestic calendar only, returning from her second retirement, almost 43-year-old defending Olympic champion Armstrong over Small, who's been riding a full-time European calendar and offers more in the RR but doesn't have as commanding a palmarès, raging around Small outperforming Armstrong in the national TT, the fact Small has outperformed Kristin again in the CLM is an interesting development.
Speaking of the US, at the same time we have the Cascade Classic going on, and more fuel to the interminable no-right-answer debate over the US Olympic picks. In the first stage, a group of 30 contested the win, with Carmen Small, now riding for Cylance after her 12 month rolling contract with Cervélo expired (intriguingly this leaves them with just 8 riders, so whether they pick somebody up or just ride Ash and Lotta into the ground for results all autumn I don't know), winning the sprint as the first few riders picked up a couple of seconds on the rest. The more interesting result is today's time trial, though. Over 20km, former Nordic skier Tara Whitten set the best time and took the race lead, but in the context of Rio the more interesting result was that Carmen Small was 2nd, 10" faster than Kristin Armstrong. Obviously much debate has raged about the rights and wrongs of selecting the part-time domestic calendar only, returning from her second retirement, almost 43-year-old defending Olympic champion Armstrong over Small, who's been riding a full-time European calendar and offers more in the RR but doesn't have as commanding a palmarès, raging around Small outperforming Armstrong in the national TT, the fact Small has outperformed Kristin again in the CLM is an interesting development.
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The only really meaningful race on the Champs tomorrow is the women's race, La Course by Le Tour, the most ambivalence-inducing race on the calendar. The men's race is obviously a prestigious battle between the sprinters, but the real fight at the Tour is over; for the women, this one-off standalone event is the next round of the World Cup.
I describe the race as ambivalence-inducing as I have made my feelings on La Course clear many times; while it's nice to get the women racing in front of a large crowd and get coverage of the race, I'd much rather ASO have thrown some money at the Route de France's organisers and given us a proper race rather than this borderline crit, which reeks of them doing the absolute least they possibly could have done (especially as the set-up was in response to the questioning why there was no Tour for women nowadays) to pat themselves on the back because it's some of the most coverage women's cycling will get all year. At the same time, seeing coverage given to these borderline crits and not given to the races where there are battles from deep (such as this week in Thüringen, or the Signora della Guardia stage in the Giro, or Flèche Wallonne, or the GP Elsy Jacobs, or... you get the idea) may well serve to only perpetuate the myth that women's cycling is boring because the races that get the most coverage are those with the least interesting parcours (though a shout out to the Aviva Women's Tour for producing a much more racing-conducive route this year). I'm also rather bored (and have seen others comment to similar effect) that it has caused a spate of similar token women's races, a flat circuit or criterium race on one day of the men's race that, despite attractive prize pots, isn't a great advertisement. The RideLondon crit is particularly frustrating because the women put on a great race at the 2012 Olympics and the men's London race has produced some good races since it's been running; Madrid Challenge and La Course are flat courses on the same day as flat races. I know that the women's standalone TT at California led to a crit, and that has eventually grown into the women's Tour of California which is now a decent race, but this is probably the best we can hope for with the others.
Anyway, enough of the moaning: the race is tomorrow, and has a good field as you might expect. It'll be short, it'll be fast, and while it's likely to be a sprint, the past editions have a 50-50 record, as well as Rabo-Liv having a 100% record, as Vos won the sprint in the inaugural edition but last year Anna van der Breggen "did a Vino" in the rain to hold on by just one second ahead of the sprinters.
There may be hopes for a repeat of that type of performance, although the lady herself isn't going to achieve it since Anna isn't racing tomorrow; in her place Marianne Vos steps in to wear bib#1. Many of the big teams are not going all out for sprinters so things could get interesting. For example, while Vos obviously is one of the best on more or less any terrain, the other big names in the Rabo team are Brand, Ferrand-Prévot (a rare road excursion pre-Olympics for her) and Niewiadoma. Boels will likely be all out for Chantal Blaak or Christine Majerus as their main sprint options; none of their North American contingent are here and nor is Lizzie Armitstead - though with a huge lead in the World Tour they can likely afford to miss a couple of events and won't want to risk jeopardising their Olympics in a crash. Chloe Hosking will be Wiggle's main sprinter it seems, though Pieters is also here; no Bronzini, no d'Hoore, no Longo Borghini and no Johansson. Guarischi and Barnes are Canyon's options, although Cromwell won a sprint in the Giro, but they start with only 5. Liv may have a strong chance here if Kirchmann or Mackaij are healthy. Lotto bring Claudia Lichtenberg, one of the worst sprinters in the entire péloton, as nominal leader but realistically Kopecky is probably their best chance of a strong result here. Alé can impact the race with Bastianelli or Tagliaferro, while UHC have Coryn Rivera riding the crest of a wave after a win in Thüringen. You have the young Parkhotel girls competing for placements, and Lensworld have got the surprise Belgian national champion who won a sprint unexpectedly, Kaat Hannes, who could do the same, and Maria Giulia Confalonieri who had several good placements in the Giro. Cylance are a more interesting team with Olds out, but are also much less likely to impact a race like this as they'll be reliant on Sheyla Gutiérrez in the sprint, who's quick but not as experienced in positioning as the veteran American. Hitec probably aren't as much a threat as they would have been with Kirsten Wild starting, while one of the best all-out sprinters in the whole péloton, Lotta Lepistö, is hamstrung by a team which only enters four riders (herself included). Finally, Orica have Sarah Roy and Loren Rowney who are both capable of mixing things up here.
The strange thing is that even with a Team France national selection, there's no place for the national champion, Edwige Pitel - the 49-year-old hasn't raced since winning that title, which left a very inexperienced team at the Giro from her squad from whom she's the clear biggest name, and you'd have thought that the national champion on the Champs Elysées was something the organizers would want (the last two years have seen some serious déjà vu as we've had the national champion - on both occasions PFP - attacking in the same place and crashing in the same place...).
I describe the race as ambivalence-inducing as I have made my feelings on La Course clear many times; while it's nice to get the women racing in front of a large crowd and get coverage of the race, I'd much rather ASO have thrown some money at the Route de France's organisers and given us a proper race rather than this borderline crit, which reeks of them doing the absolute least they possibly could have done (especially as the set-up was in response to the questioning why there was no Tour for women nowadays) to pat themselves on the back because it's some of the most coverage women's cycling will get all year. At the same time, seeing coverage given to these borderline crits and not given to the races where there are battles from deep (such as this week in Thüringen, or the Signora della Guardia stage in the Giro, or Flèche Wallonne, or the GP Elsy Jacobs, or... you get the idea) may well serve to only perpetuate the myth that women's cycling is boring because the races that get the most coverage are those with the least interesting parcours (though a shout out to the Aviva Women's Tour for producing a much more racing-conducive route this year). I'm also rather bored (and have seen others comment to similar effect) that it has caused a spate of similar token women's races, a flat circuit or criterium race on one day of the men's race that, despite attractive prize pots, isn't a great advertisement. The RideLondon crit is particularly frustrating because the women put on a great race at the 2012 Olympics and the men's London race has produced some good races since it's been running; Madrid Challenge and La Course are flat courses on the same day as flat races. I know that the women's standalone TT at California led to a crit, and that has eventually grown into the women's Tour of California which is now a decent race, but this is probably the best we can hope for with the others.
Anyway, enough of the moaning: the race is tomorrow, and has a good field as you might expect. It'll be short, it'll be fast, and while it's likely to be a sprint, the past editions have a 50-50 record, as well as Rabo-Liv having a 100% record, as Vos won the sprint in the inaugural edition but last year Anna van der Breggen "did a Vino" in the rain to hold on by just one second ahead of the sprinters.
There may be hopes for a repeat of that type of performance, although the lady herself isn't going to achieve it since Anna isn't racing tomorrow; in her place Marianne Vos steps in to wear bib#1. Many of the big teams are not going all out for sprinters so things could get interesting. For example, while Vos obviously is one of the best on more or less any terrain, the other big names in the Rabo team are Brand, Ferrand-Prévot (a rare road excursion pre-Olympics for her) and Niewiadoma. Boels will likely be all out for Chantal Blaak or Christine Majerus as their main sprint options; none of their North American contingent are here and nor is Lizzie Armitstead - though with a huge lead in the World Tour they can likely afford to miss a couple of events and won't want to risk jeopardising their Olympics in a crash. Chloe Hosking will be Wiggle's main sprinter it seems, though Pieters is also here; no Bronzini, no d'Hoore, no Longo Borghini and no Johansson. Guarischi and Barnes are Canyon's options, although Cromwell won a sprint in the Giro, but they start with only 5. Liv may have a strong chance here if Kirchmann or Mackaij are healthy. Lotto bring Claudia Lichtenberg, one of the worst sprinters in the entire péloton, as nominal leader but realistically Kopecky is probably their best chance of a strong result here. Alé can impact the race with Bastianelli or Tagliaferro, while UHC have Coryn Rivera riding the crest of a wave after a win in Thüringen. You have the young Parkhotel girls competing for placements, and Lensworld have got the surprise Belgian national champion who won a sprint unexpectedly, Kaat Hannes, who could do the same, and Maria Giulia Confalonieri who had several good placements in the Giro. Cylance are a more interesting team with Olds out, but are also much less likely to impact a race like this as they'll be reliant on Sheyla Gutiérrez in the sprint, who's quick but not as experienced in positioning as the veteran American. Hitec probably aren't as much a threat as they would have been with Kirsten Wild starting, while one of the best all-out sprinters in the whole péloton, Lotta Lepistö, is hamstrung by a team which only enters four riders (herself included). Finally, Orica have Sarah Roy and Loren Rowney who are both capable of mixing things up here.
The strange thing is that even with a Team France national selection, there's no place for the national champion, Edwige Pitel - the 49-year-old hasn't raced since winning that title, which left a very inexperienced team at the Giro from her squad from whom she's the clear biggest name, and you'd have thought that the national champion on the Champs Elysées was something the organizers would want (the last two years have seen some serious déjà vu as we've had the national champion - on both occasions PFP - attacking in the same place and crashing in the same place...).
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