The Women's Road Racing Thread 2017

[Libertine Seguros]

Tomorrow sees the 2017 edition of the Giro del Trentino Donne, which is in its 24th year. The race has tended to grow and shrink between up to three days and a single-day race; last year saw it jump back up to a stage race in Critérium International format, but this year it returns to a one-day format. It has historically been a happy hunting ground for the climbers in its various forms, with Fabiana Luperini the most successful rider with six wins, and Svetlana Bubnenkova and Pia Sundstedt are the only other multiple winners. The last time it was a one-day race, Amanda Spratt won, although then the climbs were in the middle with a flatter run-in; last year's race had a mountaintop finish on the first day, followed by a short TTT and a rolling circuit race, and so although it was a stage race, with the medium-sized MTF it more closely resembles what tomorrow's race should look like profile-wise. That stage was won solo by Kasia Niewiadoma, with a small chasing group capturing Claudia Lichtenberg just before the line, the German grimpeuse taking 2nd on the GC on the second day, so the race was much to my liking.

The folks at Lasterketa Burua have mapped the course, which is, essentially, Unipuerto:

As you can see, the climbing is essentially two-stepped, but 4,3km at 8,5% to finish should be enough to sort the women from the girls. The field isn't the strongest, with many top names electing to rest up between Britain and the national championships; WM3 had been slated to ride, but Vos' collarbone break and the amount of energy expended on defending the race lead in the Women's Tour means that they have withdrawn. Alé have a strong team with Janneke Ensing and Soraya Paladin - 3rd last year and 2nd on the Daone-Pracul MTF - as well as Carlee Taylor and Ane Santesteban who are both capable climbers. BTC's leader ought to be Batagelj I think, Cylance have Ratto and Jasinska, the latter of whom was climbing well in the Women's Tour, plus the Italian péloton has quite a few young prospects and flaky, mercurial names like Cauz and Muccioli in it. Parkhotel have a couple of interesting names, with Rooijakkers being a pretty capable climber and Buurman having been surprisingly durable in País Vasco, although I think the finish being at the summit should eliminate her from contention. Pavlukhina for Astana is well-suited here, but the race should really suit Rasa Leleivyte's skillset. Orica have much of their Women's Tour team here again, albeit without Sarah Roy, but still without most of their biggest names - Annemiek, Amanda Spratt and Katrin Garfoot are all absent. The most exciting thing to see, perhaps, will be how Nikola Nosková does, after her incredible baptism of fire at the Emakumeen Bira. Guderzo is also riding for the national team and is a superb rider at her best, however her form at the Women's Tour was pretty bad.

And one more piece of news, Allie Dragoo has left Cervélo-Bigla mid-season, returning to the US to race for Twenty20, the same team she left to come to Europe.

 

[jmdirt]

Re:

Tomorrow sees the 2017 edition of the Giro del Trentino Donne, which is in its 24th year. The race has tended to grow and shrink between up to three days and a single-day race; last year saw it jump back up to a stage race in Critérium International format, but this year it returns to a one-day format. It has historically been a happy hunting ground for the climbers in its various forms, with Fabiana Luperini the most successful rider with six wins, and Svetlana Bubnenkova and Pia Sundstedt are the only other multiple winners. The last time it was a one-day race, Amanda Spratt won, although then the climbs were in the middle with a flatter run-in; last year's race had a mountaintop finish on the first day, followed by a short TTT and a rolling circuit race, and so although it was a stage race, with the medium-sized MTF it more closely resembles what tomorrow's race should look like profile-wise. That stage was won solo by Kasia Niewiadoma, with a small chasing group capturing Claudia Lichtenberg just before the line, the German grimpeuse taking 2nd on the GC on the second day, so the race was much to my liking.

The folks at Lasterketa Burua have mapped the course, which is, essentially, Unipuerto:

As you can see, the climbing is essentially two-stepped, but 4,3km at 8,5% to finish should be enough to sort the women from the girls. The field isn't the strongest, with many top names electing to rest up between Britain and the national championships; WM3 had been slated to ride, but Vos' collarbone break and the amount of energy expended on defending the race lead in the Women's Tour means that they have withdrawn. Alé have a strong team with Janneke Ensing and Soraya Paladin - 3rd last year and 2nd on the Daone-Pracul MTF - as well as Carlee Taylor and Ane Santesteban who are both capable climbers. BTC's leader ought to be Batagelj I think, Cylance have Ratto and Jasinska, the latter of whom was climbing well in the Women's Tour, plus the Italian péloton has quite a few young prospects and flaky, mercurial names like Cauz and Muccioli in it. Parkhotel have a couple of interesting names, with Rooijakkers being a pretty capable climber and Buurman having been surprisingly durable in País Vasco, although I think the finish being at the summit should eliminate her from contention. Pavlukhina for Astana is well-suited here, but the race should really suit Rasa Leleivyte's skillset. Orica have much of their Women's Tour team here again, albeit without Sarah Roy, but still without most of their biggest names - Annemiek, Amanda Spratt and Katrin Garfoot are all absent. The most exciting thing to see, perhaps, will be how Nikola Nosková does, after her incredible baptism of fire at the Emakumeen Bira. Guderzo is also riding for the national team and is a superb rider at her best, however her form at the Women's Tour was pretty bad.

And one more piece of news, Allie Dragoo has left Cervélo-Bigla mid-season, returning to the US to race for Twenty20, the same team she left to come to Europe.

I see KA on the trails frequently, and even though I don't know her well, maybe I'll ask what happened. Her easy out answer is simple, "personal reasons". Which is likely the reason, but I might be able to get a slightly more specific answer.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Youth rules at Trentino, with Nosková continuing to look like the next climbing superstar and taking the win ahead of the Swede Hanna Nilsson, who rides for the Slovene BTC team, and another young rider, 19-year-old Sina Frei, pushing more established riders like Kristabel Doebel-Hickok and last year's third-placed rider, Soraya Paladin. Guderzo scraped into the top 10, nevertheless after the Women's Tour that's a real step in the right direction form-wise...

 

[GuyIncognito]

Youth rules at Trentino, with Nosková continuing to look like the next climbing superstar and taking the win ahead of the Swede Hanna Nilsson, who rides for the Slovene BTC team, and another young rider, 19-year-old Sina Frei, pushing more established riders like Kristabel Doebel-Hickok and last year's third-placed rider, Soraya Paladin. Guderzo scraped into the top 10, nevertheless after the Women's Tour that's a real step in the right direction form-wise...

Pretty sure to be a superstar you have to win more than 1 race a year
Being a mountain climber in women's races is even more restrictive than being a pavé only specialist in the men's

Why yes the repetitive women's routes are a pet peeve of mine, why do you ask?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Youth rules at Trentino, with Nosková continuing to look like the next climbing superstar and taking the win ahead of the Swede Hanna Nilsson, who rides for the Slovene BTC team, and another young rider, 19-year-old Sina Frei, pushing more established riders like Kristabel Doebel-Hickok and last year's third-placed rider, Soraya Paladin. Guderzo scraped into the top 10, nevertheless after the Women's Tour that's a real step in the right direction form-wise...

Pretty sure to be a superstar you have to win more than 1 race a year
Being a mountain climber in women's races is even more restrictive than being a pavé only specialist in the men's

Why yes the repetitive women's routes are a pet peeve of mine, why do you ask?

I did say 'next', as in for the future - bearing in mind it's only her third pro race.

And yes, more climbing races would be appreciated but then I would say that, with my favourites being Niewiadoma and Lichtenberg.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Youth rules at Trentino, with Nosková continuing to look like the next climbing superstar and taking the win ahead of the Swede Hanna Nilsson, who rides for the Slovene BTC team, and another young rider, 19-year-old Sina Frei, pushing more established riders like Kristabel Doebel-Hickok and last year's third-placed rider, Soraya Paladin. Guderzo scraped into the top 10, nevertheless after the Women's Tour that's a real step in the right direction form-wise...

Pretty sure to be a superstar you have to win more than 1 race a year
Being a mountain climber in women's races is even more restrictive than being a pavé only specialist in the men's

Why yes the repetitive women's routes are a pet peeve of mine, why do you ask?

I did say 'next', as in for the future - bearing in mind it's only her third pro race.

I know. It was tongue in cheek.

It's one of my buttons. Right up there with the disappearance of time trial kms in grand tours and the fact I can't seem to find video of non-Vuelta spanish races from 2003 and 2004

And yes, more climbing races would be appreciated but then I would say that, with my favourites being Niewiadoma and Lichtenberg.

More or, you know, any. There's none in the world tour, other than maybe that July circus act they've come up with.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The Giro normally at least gives a chance for pure climbers, but this year isn't very enticing in that respect. LBL is a good addition on that front but yes, would be nice to see something like Bira go WT, or La Course merging into the Route de France and giving us some proper climbing like the PDBF MTF won by ELB ahead of Lichtenberg a couple of years ago.

Tense women's race in the Dutch national TT, with Ellen van Dijk flatting at the line and missing out to Annemiek by just 4 seconds - though apparently it was likely she would have been outside van Vleuten's time anyway. Anna VDB took the bronze, 26" back in the 25km test. Boels did pick up one jersey though, with Kasia Pawlowska winning in Poland in the absence of Niewiadoma, ahead of Ratajczak and Team Astana's Agnieszka Skalniak, 21 and 19 respectively. Aromitalia's Lija Laizane took her third straight title in Latvia.

Skalniak's success may dampen the disappointment for Astana after failing to secure a win in Kazakhstan, losing out to Natalia Sokovnina of Servetto-Giusta as well as Ekaterina Yuraitis, who they dropped for this season. Other outsider success includes 42-year-old Yevgenia Vysotska winning in Ukraine, now riding for a small Italian-based but Albanian-registered team, ahead of the storied Hanna Solovey and Tetyana Riabchenko. The strangest result of all was in Sweden, however, where the absence of obvious favourite Emilia Fahlin and the retirement of the great Emma Johansson left a pretty open competition, won by 32-year-old pro triathlete Lisa Nordén. And in Israel, VéloConcept's Shani Bloch beat WM3's Roten Gafinovitz.

A handful of Road Races have taken place too, but mainly in countries where the results are no shock - for example Lotta Lepistö defending her awesome Cervélo Finnish flag jersey, and Arlenis Sierra becoming Cuban champion in both Road Race and Time Trial.

 

[RedheadDane]

Ludwig regained her Danish title, ahead of Mathiesen and Norman*.











(*Louise, obviously. In case you were wondering...)

 

[carolina]

For some strange reason, the portuguese women's nationals will be held during Giro Rosa. This means Daniela Reis will not have the chance to defend her TT and road race titles. Ridiculous...

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

For some strange reason, the portuguese women's nationals will be held during Giro Rosa. This means Daniela Reis will not have the chance to defend her TT and road race titles. Ridiculous...

So does this mean she wears the jersey at the Giro one day and not the next?
And what about the day of the nationals, does she have to switch jersey mid stage? :lol:

 

[Libertine Seguros]

That seems absurd on the Portuguese front. And yes, presumably Reis will have to change jersey for a team issue one mid race.

Switzerland: Marlen Reusser, an amateur, wins the TT ahead of 47-year-old Marcia Eicher and Nicole Hanselmann.

Estonia: Liisi Rist, formerly with Fanini and INPA but without a team this year, her 5th title in a row. Mari-Liis Mottus is getting closer year on year however and hasn't turned 20 yet.

Luxembourg: in an inevitable battle between the three main pros in the country, Christine Majerus pipped WNT's Elise Maes, with Chantal Hoffmann a relatively distant third.

Norway: late convert Vita Heine took a dominant win as Hitec placed 5 riders in the top 6; Thorsen and Aalerud rounding out the podium but both over a minute behind their Latvian-born teammate.

Denmark: As mentioned, Ludwig took the win in a very close battle with 7 riders separated by 30". The move towards youth is quite marked; Ludwig is 21, silver medallist Pernille Mathiesen is 19 and Louise Norman Hansen is 22.

Belgium: Ann-Sophie Duyck dismantled the opposition with a margin of over 2 minutes, which to be honest isn't surprising; she's an elite TTer and, realistically, is the only one of those in the field.

France: Cordon-Ragot took her 3rd title in a row, not as comfortably as Duyck but still with over a minute's advantage over the FDJ duo of Séverine Éraud and Aude Biannic. No PFP for comparison, but Audrey has been on good form and apart from FDJ's advantage of numbers ought to be the favourite in the RR too. Labous is a wildcard.

GB: Dropping in following her relocation to the US, Claire Rose took the gold with a solid advantage of 20" ahead of a tight battle for the medals, Hannah Barnes and Katie Archibald just relegating the defending champion, Hayley Simmonds, to 4th.

 

[ajsko29]

Re:

Switzerland: Marlen Reusser, an amateur, wins the TT ahead of 47-year-old Marcia Eicher and Nicole Hanselmann.

Heh, that was a surprise, I know Marlen, she rides with the local amateur club here in Bern sometimes, she had the best woman time in Alpenbrevet 2014 (a gran-fondo style event over few Swiss Alps passes where they measure your time, so lots of people take it as a race), but would never expect her to win nationals - seems the Swiss female pro RR scene is almost non existent (do they all ride MTB like Jolanda or do Triathlons?)

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Lithuania: none of the remaining pros like Tuslaite and Leleivyte participated in the TT. Two 19yos and a 20yo on the podium, though the winner, Ernesta Strainyte, will be 20 during the week.

Japan: injury to Hagiwara left FDJ's Eri Yonamine short of competition to defend her jerseys, and the ITT was won comfortably ahead of young prospect Yumi Kajihara, who had some useful Euro showings late last season. This morning Yonamine has doubled up, taking the road race as well.

Austria: age matters in the TT, with pros like Cervélo's Christina Perchtold and Lares' Sarah Rijkes missing the podium; Drops'Martina Ritter was the only pro on the eventual podium, but the 34yo took the win ahead of 41yo German (?!) cross-country mountain biker Manuela Hartl and 36yo triathlete Astrid Magnet.

Spain: with Anna Sanchis, who has won the TT on 4 of the last 5 occasions, out due to injury, it was fairly open especially with a couple of riders making clear improvements in their development. In the CRI though, none more so than Lourdes Oyarbide, who took a 38" lead to the line over Mavi García and Sheyla Gutiérrez. She's really strong nationally this year and should now look to try and replicate that in the more international fields.

Belarus: there are two well-established Belarusian pros; Amialiusik has a broken hip, and Tuhai's ITT classifies as an offensive weapon. Former Gauss pro Tatsiana Sharakova won ahead of some younger prospects in their absence.

Russia: A bit of a turn up for the books as 20yo unheralded Kseniya Tsymbalyuk won ahead of Pliaskina and Syrodoeva (who has joined BePink; the other two have no pro team) with more renowned prospectss such as Iakovenko, Kuznetsova and Dobrynina relegated. Again it's a very young podium though, mostly around 20-21 years of age - in fact Dobrynina in 6th is the first rider not to qualify as U23.

Kazakhstan: more egg on face for Astana in the road race as another rider they jettisoned from the pro team took the win, this time 20yo Tatyana Geneleva, who held off an elite group including several Astana riders. To add insult to injury, another offcut, Faina Potapova, outsprinted the team's best for 2nd.

Italy: a very disappointing time from Guderzo - down in 9th - meant relatively plain sailing for Elisa Longo Borghini, so both 'twins' have a national skinsuit for the Giro. Cecchini went well enough in second to keep Elisa honest, however, while Silvia Valsecchi pipped Rossella Ratto for bronze.

Germany: a very long TT (31,2km) settled in an incredibly tight battle, who said TTs don't provide good spectacle? In the end, the perennial battler Trixi Worrack took the crown to defend her title but she really had to work for it - former World Champion Lisa Brennauer missed out by just two seconds! Cervélo's Stephanie Pohl was just 12" behind Worrack's time, but also interestingly Lisa Klein's time, 25" back, is a statement of intent for the 20yo especially as Trixi can't continue forever (though knowing Trixi she'll give it a good go!!!). Mieke Kröger and Corinna Lechner made it 6 riders within 33" to showcase the depth of TT talent in Germany, though there's a bit of a gap to Charlotte Becker and an even bigger one to Claudia Lichtenberg in 8th, 2 minutes down.

Romania: Ana Maria Covrig took her third straight title in the Road Race, since taking up her ancestral nationality. And it was kind of Marc de Maar in Curação levels of domination - the Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo rider winning by a comfortable margin of TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES...

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

Spain: with Anna Sanchis, who has won the TT on 4 of the last 5 occasions, out due to injury

That's an interesting way to describe it
She's expecting a baby, as far as I know.

Thanks for the updates, as always

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

Spain: with Anna Sanchis, who has won the TT on 4 of the last 5 occasions, out due to injury

That's an interesting way to describe it
She's expecting a baby, as far as I know.

Thanks for the updates, as always

Lol, I could have sworn I saw an injury story and then hasn't been on the road since. May be that she had some minor knock before becoming inactive and I assumed her absence was because of that, or maybe I just forgot the pregnancy news and am getting confused, that certainly wouldn't be the first time either!

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re: Re:

she had some minor knock

Again....technically correct :lol:

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

she had some minor knock

Again....technically correct :lol:

Sounds like a major knock to me.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Blaaki is the Dutch road race champion, after the break she got into was able to go - with strong representation from Boels, Sunweb and WM3 those teams were content with the makeup of the break, leaving outnumbered riders like Knetemann and van Vleuten, and smaller teams in charge of the chase. Chantal was able to get away from her breakmates and came to the line solo, a few seconds ahead the remainder of the group, led by defending champion Anouska Koster of WM3 and Floortje Mackaij of Sunweb. Believe it or not, it's her first national title, with the tendency of Marianne Vos - absent through (actual) injury - to help her teammates divide up the spoils meaning that this is the first time in ten years (since Marlijn Binnendijk in 2007) that a rider not on Vos' team (obviously including Vos herself) has won the jersey.

The Polish road race had no Niewiadoma, and in the absence of the country's current superstar was won by Karolina Karasiewicz of the Néstle Fitness team, the development team from which Kasia and her friend Anna Plichta, who annihilated last year's race, sprang. Although Karasiewicz is already 24, so unsure how much further her progression is likely to take her. Monika Brzeźna was 2nd and Plichta 3rd, with a number of names like Jasinska and Pawlowska and especially Bujak, who this course suited imo, not up there in the podium places, it'll be interesting to see how it developed.

 

[RedheadDane]

Camilla Møllebro (VeloConcept) won in Denmark.
She finished together with Trine Andersen (Snejbjerg) and Louise Haubak (Scandic Thylander), though I don't know what order they finished in, or how far back the bunch was.

 

[May0maniac]

Longo Borghini winning the Italian ITT was no surprise, but in the WJ ITT winner Letizia Paternoster lost less then 3 seconds to her on exactly the same route, for someone who'll turn 18 in about a month that's really impressive.
The riders from the Mendelspeck team (a team from South Tyrol that focusses a lot on ITTs and TTT) finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th, but that's not a big surprise, the 2 girls on the podium, Alessia Vigilia and Elena Pirrone, already finished 8th and 10th at the last WJ WC ITT.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Not sure what's more impressive. Paternoster's time or that the juniors rode the same distance.
Even 2nd placed Alessia Vigilia would've been 5th in the pros' race, just a few seconds off the podium.

Anyway, hopefully Longo Borghini actually gets the use the jersey in a WT race soon. Sadly she never did the last 12 months.

 

[the delgados]

Just saw the bizarre end of the RR in France.
The eventual winner from FDJ was part of a four rider break and she didn't take a single turn in the last 13 km's. I don't speak French, but I understand the universal gesture made by her DS to stay at the back.
The peloton gave up the ghost approx 10 km's from the finish, yet the rider in pink and blue (Mazda?) kept towing the group as though the chasers were hot on the heel of the breakaway. She was clearly the strongest, but she towed the entire group until she blew up 500 metres from the finish.
It was one of those wtf? moments where I wish i knew what the commentators were saying. Maybe she didn't have a sprint in her, but why not relax a bit before taking a flyer and try to get rid of everyone rather than tow them to the line?
Good on the FDJ rider for winning, but it was heartbreaking to see the strongest rider pull a Cancellera and waste an opportunity to win.
Anyway, i just needed to get that off my chest.
Carry on.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Bravard was sitting on because FDJ had Roxane Fournier, probably the best sprinter in the field, in the peloton behind, though continuing to do so after the péloton gave up is a bit more questionable. Not sure why Bazin did all that work though (the rider in pink, for SAS-Macogep). She was 2nd last year, too. She'd be a great helper in a bigger team as she's a tough worker, but has been taken advantage of tactically.

Vysotska defended in Ukraine, outsprinting Tetyana Riabchenko after the two-woman break of the race's strongest climbers pulled 4'00 out on the field.

Omer Shapiro of Giusfredi-Bianchi won the Israeli RR ahead of Paz Bash, Shani Bloch and Roten Gafinovitz.

The Czech RR was without reigning champion, Martina Sábliková, the speed skater electing not to compete this year from the looks of it? Either way, fast-rising CX and climbing starlet Nikola Nosková took the win from the splintered remains of a 7-woman break in which she was the only pro name.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Sara Penton took her first pro win in the Swedish champs, Mavi Garcia got another silver in spain losing to Shey Gutierrez and Lisa Klein won the almost bunch sprint in Germany

I get the overall feeling of a changing of the guard from many of the weekend's results

 

[MightyWheelSucker]

Nats in Poland:
1. Karolina Karasiewicz
2. Monika Brzeźna
3. Anna Plichta
A bit surprising win by 24 years old former track specialist. She is none Elite group rider. The podium was set after 10 km of 126 km race, when 3 ladies formed a breakaway. Karasiewicz and Plichta were mostly working in this group, with about 5 min advantage over next group at the finish. Karasiewicz was the best sprinter among them so Plichta tried several attacks before the finish.
Niewiadoma was not present as she prepares to Giro.