The Women's Road Racing Thread 2017

[Libertine Seguros]

GP Vårgårda just finished, have been following the action on Twitter. A sizable group of 11 got away, with most of the major teams having one representative, but nobody outnumbering anybody else, so it became an intriguing game of cat and mouse over the course which is not especially tough but does include a few dirt sections and small hills (profile from Road+Mud).

Once they got onto the smaller circuit, however, the group split in two and left us with a leading quintet of Chantal Blaak, Alexis Ryan, Giorgia Bronzini, Amanda Spratt and Sabrina Stultiens. From those, obviously Bronzini is the strongest sprinter with Blaak the only one who might fancy her chances, so cohesion wasn't great. At 30k to go the péloton caught the remainder of the break. Perhaps the most important name recollected by the group was Cervélo's 21yo prospect Lisa Klein, a very strong engine for this type of race with great TT skills and a fast kick. A high tempo in the group brought the quintet back and simultaneously exploded the bunch in to several pieces on the circuit's climb, with a lead group of 22 getting away and with Jolien d'Hoore being one that missed the selection, the pace was high as nobody fancied sprinting against the Belgian (and with pretty good reason of course). Kirsten Wild was another elite sprinter to miss out, as was defending champion and hometown favourite Emilia Fahlin. Despite the best efforts of Boels-Dolmans and WM3 to keep the pace high, however, there were just too many vested interests behind to allow the gap to snowball, and the first two groups reconvened with 20km remaining. Lots of periodic attacks - the most notable from Sarah Roy, Anna van der Breggen and Susanne Andersen - but none that could gain significant time on the field until they got back round to the climb, when it was Lizzie Deignan that launched, however she is not in the form she had in early 2016 and, though this is the best climbing Lizzie we've probably ever seen, she couldn't make any ground. This did enable Anna VDB to go again when Lizzie was brought back but, once more, she wasn't able to get the required distance. Amy Pieters was the next Boels footsoldier to try her luck, and she was less tightly marked and had more success, but it was only temporary. Guarnier was next as Boels tried to use the advantage of numbers to rid the group of some of the specialist sprinters, not being equipped for that outcome to the same extent as some.

It wasn't just Boels that were attacking though, as Janneke Ensing then pre-empted their next move by going as soon as Guarnier was to be brought back, however it's hard to sneak away when you're wearing a fluoro yellow and orange Alé-Cipollini kit and she was brought back too, as was Amanda Spratt, having been able to recharge after her earlier escape was thwarted. Majerus and Dani King were next as the race came into its last lap, and then finally the elastic snapped when Amy Pieters went again. She has had quite some success at the race, having podiumed before (even though the commentators somehow thought she was Claudia Lichtenberg at the time). However, while an incredibly versatile rider, Pieters is not an elite climber and so her small gap was reduced to nothing when they got to the small climb and an elite climber, Kasia Niewiadoma, went to the front to string the group out. D'Hoore, Wild and the other purer sprinters were suffering, so Kasia was joined at the front by another elite climber, Ash Moolman-Pasio, as the two looked to set this up for their team's sprint options, the more durable Marianne Vos and Lotta Lepistö.

But no sooner had the climbers done their bit than they were back to rouleur terrain, and Ellen van Dijk is one of the toughest of all rouleurs, so when she went nobody wanted to give her any leeway; her wheel was watched like a hawk, and Lizzie Deignan was the first to counter, and was joined by Longo Borghini, Niewiadoma, Cecchini and Sarah Roy, a really great aggressive ride from somebody who might have been expected to wait for the sprint. Cervélo were chasing hard however, so the group was caught, and when Lizzie attacked again it was Floortje Mackaij with her this time as Sunweb looked to poop the former World Champion's party. Nobody wanted to let that duo go, however, but they were powerless to prevent the counter from Anna van der Breggen, who took Amanda Spratt in her wheel with just a couple of kilometres to go and opened up a good sized gap.

But cometh the hour, cometh the woman, and the mightiest turn of the day came from Lisa Klein, the young German national champion on the Cervélo team, whose work on the front to bring back such an elite duo was herculean, succeeding where everybody had failed in the Ardennes in preventing Anna VDB getting a decisive gap in the closing kilometres, before Sunweb started to set their leadout. Cervélo may have burnt one of their best leadout riders by having Klein, who is plenty quick in her own right, take that pull, but without it they wouldn't have been able to sprint for the win. And Lotta Lepistö is versatile enough that she doesn't need too much looking after - with the constant attacking having rid the group of so many of the pure sprinters, the Finnish champion was the one that came through to take the victory ahead of Vos and an almost dead heat between Leah Kirchmann and Christine Majerus, so Boels couldn't quite salvage a podium out of all of their hard work. Lotta won the sprint pretty convincingly and has even been awarded a time gap, although I think that is a bit excessive!

1 Lotta Lepistö (Cervélo-Bigla) FIN
2 Marianne Vos (WM3 Energie) NED +1"
3 Leah Kirchmann (Sunweb) CAN +st
4 Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans) LUX +st
5 Eleonora van Dijk (Sunweb) NED +st
6 Chloe Hosking (Alé-Cipollini) AUS +st
7 Marta Bastianelli (Alé-Cipollini) ITA +2"
8 Emilia Fahlin (Wiggle-High5) SWE +st
9 Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Lensworld-Kuota) ITA +st
10 Kirsten Wild (Cylance) NED +st

Wild did a great job with her team to stay in contention but the efforts required to still be in the mix seemed to take the edge off her sprint, while Alé have the problem that Hosking perhaps has the better top end speed than Marta, but Marta is more durable, and here it wasn't really clear who would be the best option when it came to sprinting at the end of a long and hard-fought race. Considering she isn't really renowned for her sprinting and d'Hoore was obviously plan A for the team with Bronzini as a secondary sprinting option, Emilia Fahlin's defence of her surprise victory last season is plenty creditable, while clearly Marianne Vos - freshly shod in her new European Champions' kit - is starting to creep back towards what we know she's capable of, which could be very dangerous indeed come World Championships team because, even if as Ina-Yoko Teutenberg once said, "everything is Vos territory", some courses suit the Cannibal of 's-Hertogenbosch better than others, and Bergen looks like a very favourable course for her...

 

[Forever The Best]

Nice race. (both profile and how it was raced)
Lepistö has really become much more versatile over the years.

 

[Jonhard]

Rumours (on Peter van der Veen’s site) that Jolien might not be at Wiggle in 2018. Not seen anything else about that and it would be a surprise.

 

[Hakkapelit]

Watched pretty much the whole race on Swedish Broadcastings on demand service - Emma Johansson was pretty solid as a expert commentator already (she did some 3d wheel commentating with Eurosport already during the TDF), apart from some Norwegianisms. The leadcommentator was a bit more unfocused and derailed som of her lines of thought with own inputs.


The race itself i haven't watched to many times before so maybe I'm not the best to make comaprisson but seemed like this year was more controlled than previous iterations. Maybe a testament to a higher average level of the peloton that nobody escaped this year even though the long breakaway was pretty stacked and the last circuits rolled with punches and counter punches from BD- But as a Finn I was pretty stoked with the end result.

PS. The gravelsections were prolly better than some tarmac-sections they've raced on.

 

[GuyIncognito]

I appreciate that the Tour of Norway has a livestream, and I do appreciate the commentator's enthusiasm....but a little more knowledge of women's cycling wouldn't go amiss. Perhaps a co-commentator who can help with that.

Never thought I'd hear the words "Marianne Vos of the Veegle-Hi5 team" :lol:
That's going up there with Carlos de Andres' "Chaba Jimenez with Gil y Gil y Gil"

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yes, an interesting call there. The Ladies' Tour of Norway is a nice race, well organized, and Halden clearly loves the sport as it held a shortish event prior to this race becoming an international event, let alone World Tour, although it is a bit like the GP Elsy Jacobs with a more or less set parcours, and that means one that doesn't really represent everything that Norway has to offer (how could it?) rather as the men's Tour of Norway does, in all fairness. It fits in well with the earlier tendency of the WWT towards flat to rolling races, but I think that as a comparatively young WT race there's every sense in keeping it around Halden for the time being in order to help the race establish itself before looking further afield for more varied terrain, a bit like the Women's Tour.

Anyway, we've had two stages and two world class winners; firstly a test against the clock won by Ellen van Dijk and then a sprint stage where Jolien d'Hoore, arguably the world's pre-eminent sprinter at the moment, won and was able to use the time bonuses to nudge herself into the overall lead. Some very close times over the prologue, with Vos just 1" behind her compatriot and level on time with both Katrin Garfoot and Lisa Klein, it's a very time compressed field; indeed everybody down as far as Floortje Mackaij in 22nd was in bonus seconds' grasp of the lead. Canyon give a debut to 19-year-old stagiare Christa Riffel here as well, perhaps the highest profile team to take on a stagiare this season, which shows they have quite high hopes for the German.

The first road stage went to a sprint, which was quite inevitable; the field was reduced by around half with just over 60 contesting it, while in the bunch Floortje Mackaij underwent her annual early August crash, which had an air of inevitability about it and I am starting to fear she won't become the powerhouse she threatened to be as she seems to be waylaid by injury too often. Floortje could finish the stage without too much delay however so hopefully all is well. As mentioned, d'Hoore won the stage and took the race lead, finishing ahead of Gracie Elvin and Christine Majerus, who has really been an unsung hero for Boels this year, with Guarnier missing time due to injury and Deignan down on her 2016 monster form for much of the year, meaning they've continued to accumulate results even when the stars are misfiring or simply not firing at all. Another teenager, Elisa Balsamo of Valcar-PBM, was 4th, easily her best result to date at this level and beating a trio of extremely venerated sprinters in Marianne Vos, Chloe Hosking and Kirsten Wild.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Stage 2 of the Tour of Norway has just finished. It was a tough, hard-raced stage once they reached the final circuits in Fredrikstad, with some short repechos and a stretch of cobbles on the final 7,5km circuit. With two laps to go, there had been not one but two groups at the head of the field organised, with a leading quartet of Katarzyna Pawlowska (Boels-Dolmans), QOM Rossella Ratto (Cylance), Leah Kirchmann (Sunweb) and Mieke Kröger (Canyon-SRAM) having established a 30" advantage over a chasing quintet which had been formed by the aggresive moves on the uphill sections from Janneke Ensing (Alé-Cipollini), who was joined by Stine Borgli (Norway), Christina Siggaard (Véloconcept), Moniek Tenniglo (WM3) and Clara Koppenburg (Cervélo-Bigla). They in turn established around 15-20" lead over the péloton, and with several of the biggest teams having representation up in the two moves, there were few willing to help Wiggle-High 5 with the chase. Heading towards the final lap, however, it became clear that the Ensing group was not working well together, whereas the leading quartet was rotating the work well, knowing they needed to take it all the way towards the end to have a chance of making it; with Kröger the best placed on GC and both Kirchmann and Pawlowska backing their sprints, only Ratto was a wildcard to escape the group toward the end. Once it was clear that group 2 and group 1 were not going to merge, WM3 and to a lesser extent Cervélo-Bigla joined Wiggle in pacing the péloton, deciding that they had a better chance of a victory enabling Vos or Lepistö to sprint than they did from a secondary break group that wasn't catching the leaders; the quintet were re-absorbed around 6km to go with the gap having held firm at the 30" mark.

Then DISASTER struck for the breakaway, and will have caused massive embarrassment for the organisers. With just 5km remaining, a bridge had to be closed for a passing boat, completely ruining the race, with the bunch rolling up behind the leaders and the péloton having to stand there getting cold for minutes while the bridge was lifted, the boat passed through and the whole thing was just a bit of a disaster. It wasn't even a large or important boat from what I could see, just a fairly small private yacht rolling along its merry way. Emma Johansson was absolutely mortified by it on the commentary.

And with the breakaway's advantage having been reduced down to 20 seconds, having to then set off from a standing start would leave their chances limited. Owen Rogers on commentary pointed out that UCI regulations allow for the race to be neutralised if a level crossing blocks the breakaway, but only if the break has a lead of 30 seconds or over. Obviously the break had slightly less than that, and so they were not afforded that option, so when the barriers came up again, it became open season with the bunch completely together. The women attacking so aggressively at the second the barrier opened meant the motorbikes had real trouble getting through as well, creating a very uncomfortable stretch of racing before it settled down with 4km remaining.

Ellen van Dijk drilled it on the cobbled city sector to try to put a bit of time into a few of the sprinters. A bit of perhaps unnecessary corner cutting and bumping and barging from Kopecky and even more so Majerus as the teams jostled for position in the final kilometre, though Majerus was eventually squeezed out of position by getting caught between Lepistö and Gutiérrez. Van Dijk pulled a bit away from the field as she tried to go for a long one; she didn't quite manage to pull it off, being passed by a very tight duel between Chloe Hosking and Marianne Vos, shoo were split by half a wheel. D'Hoore recovered from the pressure put on by van Dijk to win the sprint just behind the leading trio ahead of Lepistö, but with bonus seconds from the intermediate sprints also to take into account, Vos now assumes the overall race lead.

1 Chloe Hosking (Alé Cipollini) AUS
2 Marianne Vos (WM3 Energie) NED +st
3 Ellen van Dijk (Sunweb) NED +st
4 Jolien d'Hoore (Wiggle-High 5) BEL +st
5 Lotta Lepistö (Cervélo-Bigla) FIN +st
6 Roxane Fournier (FDJ-Nouvelle Aquitaine-Futuroscope '86) FRA +st
7 Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM) AUS +st
8 Floortje Mackaij (Sunweb) NED +st
9 Claudia Koster (Team Véloconcept Women) NED +st
10 Alexis Ryan (Canyon-SRAM) USA +st

Rogers still very upset about the boat bridge, and with it being so close to the finish as well. Johansson a bit more philosophical about it now than she was at the time of the actual incident. Chloe Hosking in her interview points out it happens in Paris-Roubaix all the time and is just another factor that has to be taken into account, and it was only right to make it open season when the gate was reopened. Hard to argue - protocol was followed as the gap was only 20 seconds and coming down, and of course Hosking would be in favour as, as a sprinter, it did favour the bunch in that, while WM3 and Wiggle seemed to have the break under control, it did make it certain, but at the same time, it is a problem that a bridge of that kind so close to the finish and in the position that a small single person type yacht requires it to be raised (it wasn't like it was a cruise ship!) can be a part of the circuit as surely they would have been aware of expected timings given that it was on a circuit so the péloton had to take it on several times.

I don't want to bag on the organizers of the race because the Tour of Norway, for all my gripes about the flat to rolling parcours not really being representative and adding another race of similar altimetry to the WWT, has established itself well and organically and though the parcours has been repetitive the towns have embraced the race well and it is quite well supported, and I'm enjoying the stream being available too. However, they will need to learn from this incident as we were robbed of a potentially interesting chase and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the breakaway quartet lost time at the end, having expended a lot of energy on staying away and then having to get back to pace from a cold open amid the péloton with a lot of their impetus having been lost.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The final stage was the hilliest and saw the race break up with a number of selections being made and giving us a variety of groups on the road. In the front group, several major contenders had been able to make the group, but these did include race leader Marianne Vos, who had her right hand woman Kasia Niewiadoma on hand to help chase down attacks on the hills and return the favour for the work Marianne did for her until her injury in the Women's Tour. Most major teams also had good representation in the group - Boels had Majerus, Blaak and Guarnier, Orica had Elvin, Garfoot and Neylan, Sunweb had van Dijk, Mackaij and the very promising Juliette Labous, Canyon had Ryan and Cromwell, and Cervélo had Klein and Lepistö. Wiggle were slightly underrepresented with only Bronzini making the move, and Alé only had Hosking. A few other in-form riders were foraging alone in the group, such as Lotte Kopecky and Linda Villumsen, so there was a good gap able to be made by the selection.

Quite a few names with potentially significant GC impact were missing from the group too, most notably Jolien d'Hoore, sitting 2nd overall, who was distanced on the climbs and with only Emilia Fahlin for company, plus a lot of hangers-on in the group who had teammates in the front group, such as Dideriksen, Kirchmann, Pawlowska and Ensing, so cohesion in the second group, numbering around 30, was not sufficient to bring back the front group of 20. With WM3 happy to help push the group on to protect Vos' lead, and nobody able to escape the Dutch destroyer's grasp, it came to the reduced sprint of the group across a lumpy closing stretch. As a result the finish didn't favour the pure sprinters and, as yesterday, Ellen van Dijk was up at the business end, but just as yesterday was unable to make it stick, finishing 3rd behind Vos. However, though she made the selection it was not Hosking who was sprinting against Vos at the end but Megan Guarnier, who took the stage win and with the inherent bonuses vaulted up to 2nd place on the GC behind Vos. Again behind Ellen van Dijk came the most elite sprinters of the group, with Lepistö in 4th.

1 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA
2 Marianne Vos (WM3 Energie) NED +st
3 Eleonora van Dijk (Team Sunweb) NED +st
4 Lotta Lepistö (Cervélo-Bigla) FIN +st
5 Floortje Mackaij (Team Sunweb) NED +st
6 Gracie Elvin (Orica-AIS) AUS +st
7 Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle-High 5) ITA +st
8 Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans) LUX +st
9 Tiffany Cromwell (Canyon-SRAM) AUS +st
10 Demi de Jong (Parkhotel Valkenburg Continental) NED +st

Final GC Tour of Norway:
1 Marianne Vos (WM3 Energie) NED
2 Megan Guarnier (Boels-Dolmans) USA +13"
3 Eleonora van Dijk (Team Sunweb) NED +st
4 Katrin Garfoot (Orica-AIS) AUS +26"
5 Lisa Klein (Cervélo-Bigla) GER +st
6 Chloe Hosking (Alé-Cipollini) AUS +27"
7 Christine Majerus (Boels-Dolmans) LUX +28"
8 Lotta Lepistö (Cervélo-Bigla) FIN +st
9 Juliette Labous (Team Sunweb) FRA +29"
10 Alexis Ryan (Canyon-SRAM) USA +30"

Alice Barnes not racing here in Norway and not scoring in Vårgårda now means that Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig is now unbeatable in the WWT U23 jersey; her lead is now 30 points with only 18 remaining to play for. Klein also wins the maximum U23 points for the race just to underscore Cervélo's excellent ability to pick out the young talents at present.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Transfer news now, and Sabrina Stultiens is going to jump back across the Netherlands to WM3 to fill part of the void left by the loss of Niewiadoma. Sabrina's both a strong cyclocross rider and a useful climber who has still plenty of potential; she moved across to Liv-Plantur (now Sunweb) after being lost in the shuffle at Rabobank with so many strong potential leaders in that 2014 team, but has lost over a season due to injuries, and now just as she's finding her feet again she finds herself lost in the shuffle at Sunweb, with the team strengthening with riders like Rivera emerging and last year's Rabobank auction and Boels' top-heaviness meaning strong and established riders like Brand and van Dijk were available in the market; the nature of the team's direction with those leaders is also a bit at odds with her skillset, whereas with WM3 she'll likely get a bit more freedom, especially if Vos starts to get back to her old level, where Sabrina will have the chance to score some victories in the way that Annemiek used to.

 

[oldcrank]

Very quick turn around for Letizia Paternoster
who just won silver in the TT and bronze in the
RR at the recent Euro Juniors to help Italy place
first in the qualifying round of the team pursuit at
the World Junior Track Champs by six+ seconds(!)
over NZL. Martina Fidanza who placed fourth in the
RR at the Euro Juniors is also part of the Italian team
pursuit squad at the Championships in Montichiari, Italy
and has already won the Gold in the 7.5 km. scratch race.

 

[Jonhard]

Re:

Transfer news now, and Sabrina Stultiens is going to jump back across the Netherlands to WM3 to fill part of the void left by the loss of Niewiadoma. Sabrina's both a strong cyclocross rider and a useful climber who has still plenty of potential; she moved across to Liv-Plantur (now Sunweb) after being lost in the shuffle at Rabobank with so many strong potential leaders in that 2014 team, but has lost over a season due to injuries, and now just as she's finding her feet again she finds herself lost in the shuffle at Sunweb, with the team strengthening with riders like Rivera emerging and last year's Rabobank auction and Boels' top-heaviness meaning strong and established riders like Brand and van Dijk were available in the market; the nature of the team's direction with those leaders is also a bit at odds with her skillset, whereas with WM3 she'll likely get a bit more freedom, especially if Vos starts to get back to her old level, where Sabrina will have the chance to score some victories in the way that Annemiek used to.

Stultiens is due a break. good luck to her.

There are whispers that Sunweb will make some more big signing this year, possibly elevating them to the Boelsosphere.

Also, the Italian junior track endurance squad is fearsome.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re: Re:

Transfer news now, and Sabrina Stultiens is going to jump back across the Netherlands to WM3 to fill part of the void left by the loss of Niewiadoma. Sabrina's both a strong cyclocross rider and a useful climber who has still plenty of potential; she moved across to Liv-Plantur (now Sunweb) after being lost in the shuffle at Rabobank with so many strong potential leaders in that 2014 team, but has lost over a season due to injuries, and now just as she's finding her feet again she finds herself lost in the shuffle at Sunweb, with the team strengthening with riders like Rivera emerging and last year's Rabobank auction and Boels' top-heaviness meaning strong and established riders like Brand and van Dijk were available in the market; the nature of the team's direction with those leaders is also a bit at odds with her skillset, whereas with WM3 she'll likely get a bit more freedom, especially if Vos starts to get back to her old level, where Sabrina will have the chance to score some victories in the way that Annemiek used to.

Stultiens is due a break. good luck to her.

There are whispers that Sunweb will make some more big signing this year, possibly elevating them to the Boelsosphere.

Hopefully not a trillionth sprinter
A few weeks back there was an often repeated rumor that one of the main names at Boels wanted out. Wonder if it's true and if it's Guarnier.

 

[RedheadDane]

Any live coverage of GP Plouay?

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

Any live coverage of GP Plouay?

Eurosport player plus a few channels in select countries

https://prowomenscycling.com/2017/08/24/2017-gp-de-plouay/

 

[RedheadDane]

Oh, thanks. Checked on the Player but couldn't find it.
I've found it now.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Finally getting to catch up on Plouay now, which usually gives us some good racing. Obviously it's also something of an unusual one-dayer as the defending champion wasn't from one of the big teams but instead the relatively small BTC City-Ljubljana squad, after Eugenia Bujak's great sprint from the splintered group last year. There were a few big names missing from the startlist - most notably, while WWT leader Anna van der Breggen was in attendance, commanding the ever-overpowered Boels-Dolmans lineup, the second- and third-placed riders in the rankings, Annemiek van Vleuten and Kasia Niewiadoma, were both absent, and both have been key animators of the race on the Côte de Ty Marrec in recent times. In fact, WM3 were without either of their two leaders, as Vos also skipped the race, while Sunweb left Coryn Rivera in the team but couldn't call on the services of either Lucinda Brand or Ellen van Dijk, who are focusing on the upcoming Boels Rentals Ladies Tour in the southeastern Netherlands. Similarly, a lot of the superstar young prospects were absent - as far as I can tell U23 WWT winner Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig managed to pick up yet another maximum despite only finishing 39th on the day.

This did mean we got a strangely superpowered break quite early, with Elisa Longo Borghini getting up the road with her compatriot Rossella Ratto, who seems to be regaining some of her mojo (although I've got my hopes up about her returning to her best prematurely a few times now, so I'm a bit more circumspect about letting myself get excited now!), only to be joined by a further superpowered duo of Anna van der Breggen and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, with Änna Zita Maria Stricker managing to join them to give the defending champion's team a presence in the escape; Stricker is also a usefully fast finisher, which in a group with a couple of riders without a sprint didn't help with cohesion. With no bullets in their gun other than Rivera and Kirchmann, and no presence in that break, however, Sunweb were not keen to let such a high power group escape and eventually the move was neutralised. Canyon then sent Hannah Barnes up the road, which was strange with her being one of the best sprinters left in the rapidly-dwindling péloton, but with only Alé's Janneke Ensing being tempted to go off in pursuit - and Ensing has been very often tempted to initiate attacks or make pursuits of others' attacks this season, as she's had a great year - and the two working well together, with Ensing able to look after Barnes on the climbs but needing the Briton's help to build and maintain an advantage on the flat, it could have been a coup.

I then marked out like crazy, in the forlorn hope that Claudia Lichtenberg could make it when she attacked solo once the duo were caught; I so desperately want her to sign off on a high, but am also all too well aware that she is a completely mountain-biased rider whose sprint could kindly be described as "non-existent", so realistically with the likes of Pooley and Abbott now retired there aren't many - if any at all - groups from which I'd back her to the line. She hung out in front of the group, but never sustained an advantage that looked like a winning one.

The most important move - and perhaps the most important upshot of the race - came on the penultimate time on Ty Marrec, where Pauline Ferrand-Prévot did the job Niewiadoma did last year and Pooley used to do throughout the "GP de Pooley" era - getting to the front and lighting it up right at the bottom of Ty Marrec and shredding the field. First to the back wheel of the Rémoise all-rounder was Elisa Longo Borghini, with Lizzie Deignan - as the 2015 winner, Boels' chosen leader for the race - and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, before a gap started to emerge. Anna van der Breggen, poorly placed before the climb, found herself buried a bit as less climbing-adept all-rounders like Coryn Rivera struggled to keep to PFP's pace, and had to dig very deep indeed to wrestle her way across the rapidly-emerging gap to join the quartet at the front. Sunweb and Orica seemed keen to bring this back for a sprint, but with some of the missing star power sorely, well, missed in their attempts to manage the quintet's gap, a group of such established strength - let's face it, if I tried to recount the various accomplishments of each of the five, it would take all day - was always going to be hard to chase down. Doing so took almost all of the strength the chasers had in reserve, so when the re-formed group arrived at the final ascent of the climb, there were few legs that could respond when the pace was set.

Much had been made last year about the bubbling feud between PFP and Deignan, mainly due to the perceived preferential treatment given to the Briton in her whereabouts failures being kept secret until the ban was overturned, followed by some rather unnecessary personal dirty laundry airing by Lizzie's other half when PFP raised her head above the parapet by describing the decision to fast-track her successor as World Champion's appeal as "shameful" (interestingly Phil had nothing similar to say about Scandolara or Hosking, who both also posted critically of Lizzie's reprieve, which raised the personal stakes on this); however with the Frenchwoman suffering an injury-ridden 2016 and a reduced road calendar in 2017, and Deignan having had an unusually quiet Classics season until the Ardennes and only really hitting the level we know she's capable of later in the season (plus exceeding this at times, such as her incredible performance on the Izoard), this was one of the first times we've really had the chance to see the two rivals head to head in strong form; though it was Ferrand-Prévot who made the original selection, the last time up the climb it was the Boels rider who took the initiative, pre-empting her adversary from across La Manche, launching a characteristically blistering attack on this type of 1km ascent that she has made her own, and ridding herself of every tail... except for Pauline.

If their previous history with one another made them wary of working together, it didn't show, the two successfully establishing their advantage, until they were within touching distance of the finish. At this point, Lizzie stopped collaborating and used her usual tactic of allowing others' gains to encourage them into doing work for her - Canyon's chances from the sprint were limited with both Brennauer and Barnes having been dropped, not to mention that the WWT podium would be Pauline's best road result since 3rd at the same race two years ago, while her last road win was 2015's Giro MTF at Aprica, and her chances of outsprinting Lizzie even if they shared the workload until the last 150m were going to be limited anyhow; Lizzie sitting up and letting the risk of the group behind catching them push her breakmate into working just served to make PFP's limited chances even slimmer, and so when the sprint was eventually opened up the inevitable victory for Deignan became the reality we all knew it would, while Orica's hard work in the chase was rewarded after Sarah Roy won the sprint for 3rd from the depleted remains of the péloton, just beating Bujak, who put up a spirited defence of her biggest career win, and Elena Cecchini, putting two Canyon-SRAM riders into the top 5. Impressively, two of the smaller teams, TIBCO and BTC, were able to put two riders in the top 10 which could be vital points for them towards next year's race invites system.

The post-race interview saw Deignan in characteristically "magnanimous" mood, praising herself for how well she performs under pressure and explain how this has made her a great world champion (presumably some fighting talk ahead of Bergen), while her vanquished opponents were thankful for their teammates for helping them work to the position they achieved. I know I bag on Lizzie's attitude and sense of entitlement a lot, but the juxtaposition of her self-aggrandizing words with Pauline and Sarah's only served to really underline that on this occasion.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

More transfer news:

- Line Marie Gulliksen to Hitec Products with immediate effect; the 27-year-old has had a decent season on the Belgian and Norwegian domestic calendars.
- Astana bolster their Latin American quotient, bringing in another Cuban, bringing in 19-year-old Jeydy Pradera to keep Arlenis Sierra company, along with the Colombian escaladora Blanca Liliana Moreno, who was 2nd in the Vuelta a Costa Rica, just 9" off Sierra, after winning the MTT at Carrizal.
- Ana Cristina Sanabria from Servetto-Giusta, who scored a top 10 in the Col d'Izoard hillclimb at La Course, was also rumoured to the Kazakh-Italian squad but will stay with her current team.
- 18-year-old Lorena Wiebes, Junior European Road Race Champion from Herning and a very strong sprinting prospect, had offers from multiple WWT teams but has elected to go with Team Sunweb as her first pro team, joining the rest of their very strong youth corps, as although Floortje is no longer U23-eligible next season, Lippert, Labous and Wiebes all will be.
- Lauren Kitchen joins her fellow Australian ex-of Vos' team, Shara Gillow, at FDJ. She's not been able to have the season she's capable of at WM3 and has mostly had to expend her energy as a helper for the team's two leaders, whereas with FDJ she will likely have a freer hand. Losing Lauren and missing out on Wiebes as well is a bit of a double-blow for WM3 as they seek to recover from the loss of Niewiadoma next season, which looks like an increasingly shrewd move for Canyon with PFP (who was Kasia's roommate at Rabo and has good rapport with the Pole) appearing to be rediscovering her road legs.
- FDJ continue to strengthen as well, signing Dutch youngster Rozanne Slik from Sunweb's corps, she has good recovery and has gone well in breaks in the Giro as well as being a good Classics helper, but with Sunweb building up a core of young prospects alongside their strengthened 2017 core she was going to start to be crowded out.
- Véloconcept have signed both Emilie Moberg and Katrine Aalerud from Hitec, which will be something of a blow for the Norwegian team, which is now being rather swamped compared to the days when they were an important building block in the careers of Longo Borghini, Moolman-Pasio and Ratto. Moberg has been a vital source of points for them thanks to her sprint acumen, and unless Susanne Andersen can develop quickly they may be overly reliant on the veteran Charlotte Becker and the sprinting skills of Nina Kessler.


This week, though, the WWT continues with one of the more familiar short Tours, the Boels Rentals Ladies Tour of Holland. Running over six stages (a prologue, four road stages and an ITT, an improvement over previous editions' inclusion of a TTT which overbalanced the parcours in favour of those teams who were already liable to crowd the upper echelons of the GC anyway), it boosts, for the most part, an all-star lineup with the vast majority of major names wanting to compete and put a marker down for the Worlds.

The race opens with a 4,3km technical prologue through the streets of Wageningen. Wageningen is, of course, the hometown of Annemiek The Prologue Queen, so the choice of town would not seem to be coincidental. The first road stage is into Arnhem, and includes the small Monnikensteeg climb within the city on the final circuit, although not using all of the potential of the region. This is followed by an 18km ITT in Roosendaal, which alternates expansive long straights with sequences of difficult corners. There's then a pan-flat stage from Gennep to Weert before the final two stages in the Limburger Heuvelland, with the traditional Valkenburg/Cauberg stage having been eschewed now that its route has been almost exactly co-opted for the women's Amstel Gold Race. The first stage heads into the region via well known climbs like the Slingerberg before a final circuit around Vaals including Pas van de Wolfhaag (1,9km @ 5,1%, max 11%), Lange Bosweg (officially 2,4km @ 4,1% but half of this is false flat and the steepest 300m is at almost 12%) and the second half of Camerig West (from 1,4km to 2,5km on this profile). Finally, like in the Binck-Bank-Tour, we get a Sittard-Geleen circuit which consists of three circuits and is of a marathon 160km in length. There are too many climbs to mention although the Raarberg, Biesberg, Slingerberg, Sweikhuizerberg and the Schelberg - the latter of which comes for the final time just 6km from the line - are all included.

Vos is the biggest name absent; otherwise the top WWT names are present and correct. Boels have van der Breggen in bib #1 although Blaak is the defending champion I think; Chantal is here though, alongside a characteristically super-strong lineup with Deignan, Dideriksen, Pieters and Majerus. Longo Borghini leads Wiggle, with Lichtenberg, Cordon, Edmondson, Fahlin and Cure backing her. WM3 as mentioned are without Merckx, but Niewiadoma won two stages here last year and is present and correct. Coryn Rivera skips the race for Sunweb but otherwise all their big hitters are out in force, with Brand, van Dijk, Mackaij and Stultiens backed up by Slik and Soek. Despite her renaissance at Plouay, PFP is also missing, but Canyon still have Cecchini, Brennauer and Barnes on hand, while Alexis Ryan's had a strong breakout season to offer another option too. Orica's GC threat will undoubtedly crystallise around Annemiek van Vleuten, but Amanda Spratt gives able help and apart from the Vaals stage, Sarah Roy should be able to handle all of the road stages too. Alé have Bastianelli and Hosking for the sprints, fresh from the latter's success at the Tour of Norway, and Janneke Ensing on home roads for the GC. Cervélo are the big absentees, but with AMP looking to build for the Worlds elsewhere, their position in the top positions of the WWT under no threat at all and Cille's U23 jersey completely sewn up, they have elected not to contest the race.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

...and as sure as the night is long...

Yea, this won't get confusing at all, the race leader being given an orange jersey with the Boels logo on the front. Anyway, in perhaps the least surprising result of the year, a technical prologue through the hometown of Annemiek van Vleuten was won by... Annemiek van Vleuten.

Seeing as she is Annemiek The Prologue Queen, the race was rather there for the winning for the veteran Dutchwoman, being as it was on home roads quite literally. It was a veritable parade of the top time triallists in the world too, with Ellen van Dijk 5" back in 2nd place, Lisa Brennauer 3rd with an 11" deficit and Anna van der Breggen leading the charge for the sponsor's own team at 15". The usual TT mayflies from the Worlds were absent so it was down to the all-year-round top names to make the running. There was also a bias towards the home roads, with 6 Dutch riders (van Vleuten, van Dijk, van der Breggen, Pieters, Blaak and Brand) in the top 10, along with three Germans (Brennauer, Worrack and Kröger) and the only interloper, Lizzie Deignan, meaning Boels successfully placed four riders in the top 10 after the prologue, which will make Orica's job controlling the front of the race very difficult (Majerus was also 12th, for good measure).

In fact, some relatively serious contenders are already some way down; Longo Borghini already has a deficit of 27", which will be especially troublesome for her given her lack of opportunity to mitigate her losses through intermediate sprint bonus seconds, and the same deficit is faced by Niewiadoma, who won the two toughest stages last year but without enough of a time gap to overcome time lost in bonuses and the TTT so may face the same issue here although Anouska Koster put in a strong TT to at least make WM3 a bit more hydra-headed than they often have been this season. Janneke Ensing, the ever-ebullient Alé rider who has made something of a habit of time-gaining attacks and counter-attacks this year, has a similar deficit and just earnt her first trip to the Worlds so will likely see fit to celebrate by making sure that that day-glo jersey is even more visible than usual.

 

[janraaskalt]

And apparently (Cycling Podcast) Movistar is starting a women's team.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

And apparently (Cycling Podcast) Movistar is starting a women's team.

Interesting. And good. Spanish women's cycling has been in the doldrums since....well, forever.

 

[Jonhard]

Annemiek turned up to the prologue on her 20kg orange Gazelle

I don’t know much about Spanish cycling beyond Sheyla Gutierrez and Ane Santesteban. You’d think Movistar equals reasonable budget and higher ambitions than Lointek or Bizkaia Durango.

 

[Forever The Best]

Nice to see PFP back at Plouay though I wanted her to beat Deignan.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Movistar should hopefully be a decent budget, but the question will be if they would be a division killer in Spain, or also if they are buying up an existing team or starting a new one since all the Spanish teams are based around the Basque Country and similar. Beyond Sheyla and Ane Santestebán, there's Eider Merino, who climbed very well in and around her home race earlier in the season and was very promising, and Mavi García who has shown some good capabilities but only took up the sport very late so is already in her 30s. They may well also hire in some South Americans, I wouldn't be surprised to see.

First road stage of the Boels Tour, and it ended in the not unexpected sprint, won by superstar veteran sprint engine Kirsten Wild, the 34-year-old taking advantage of a run-in that wasn't too favourable for some outright fast-women by outpacing Maria Giulia Confalonieri and Lisa Brennauer. It seems there was some chaos in the run-in including a crash, which took out Thalita de Jong, Eva Buurman and, perhaps most notably for the stage result if not the GC, Hitec's sprinter Nina Kessler, among others. There were also a number of time gaps opened up in the aftermath in and around the sprint, which may be reversed if they are adjudged to be the result of the climb, but if not, then they could have some potentially important GC effects.

Only 22 riders (plus those who crashed) were credited with the same time as Wild, although race leader Annemiek van Vleuten was safely among them, along with Brand, van Dijk, Pieters and obviously Brennauer (who also took some bonus seconds), Worrack, Mackaij and Longo Borghini the others who placed themselves well. Behind them a large group was credited with a time loss of 6", and this group included van der Breggen, Koster, Gillow, Cecchini, Niewiadoma, Dideriksen and the defending champion Chantal Blaak. Even heavier time losses were applied for Deignan, Majerus and Kröger, the trio among those losing 22" and dropping out of the top few GC positions that they had occupied.

 

[RedheadDane]

Well... Deignan is out of the race. She had her appendix removed last night... but appears to be okay.

(Haven't been able to find any links. Boels* simply posted a photo on FB)









*The team, that is. Not the race.

 

[yaco]

And AVV winst the stage 3 ITT by 4 seconds from Van Dijk - I understand that Holland's women's team is by far the strongest in the world, but it was strange AVV didn't get a ride in the European Championship.