Another Italian job? 🇮🇹
➕ what about that women's Milan-Sanremo?
Hello! Welcome to Women’s Cycling Weekly! 🚴♀️
It’s time for the annual Binda/Milan-Sanremo/monuments debate! Should there be a women’s MSR? WILL there be one? Would it come at the expense of a standalone women’s race that has existed since 1974? Does the women’s calendar have monuments? What are monuments anyway? We had a Serious Discussion about all of this on our latest podcast (well, serious for us).
All that aside, thankfully, there won’t be any snow disrupting Binda like we saw at Drentse Acht and Ronde van Drenthe last week so let’s hope we get a proper, uninterrupted race this weekend! Will it be won by an Italian rider for the third year in a row?
Hope you enjoy this week’s edition of WCW!
Amy x
News 📰
Kristen Faulkner of Jayco AlUla has been disqualified from Strade Bianche by the UCI after it was found that she was wearing a continuous glucose monitor during the race. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig will now take the third spot on the podium. Faulkner has since released a statement attesting that the monitor was not connected to any devices at the time saying “I have never used glucose data in competition, which I provided ample evidence of to the UCI.”
Lotte Kopecky won Nokere Koerse on Wednesday in a solo move. The win comes after Kopecky’s brother very sadly died last Saturday and she very touchingly said after the race: “It seemed like there were two of us riding.” Kopecky’s win also makes for three SD Worx wins in a row.
Elisa Longo Borghini will not be starting Trofeo Alfredo Binda this weekend. After missing Omloop and Strade Bianche through illness, the Italian confirmed she has been suffering from Covid.
After the route announcement last week where they revealed a large budget deficit for this year’s race, The Women’s Tour organisers have set up a crowdfund where anyone can donate as little as £5 to get the race off the ground.
Read 🗞️
Spotlight on Ricarda Bauernfeind, one of cycling’s most exciting young prospects.
An interview with Hannah Barnes on winding down her career, helping her teammates, and what’s next.
Annemiek van Vleuten envisions a 'crazy long' Milan-San Remo for women.
Nancy Baranet – Tackling the Tour de France predecessor that redefined women’s racing in 1956.
Are there monuments in women’s cycling, and what are they? (side note, listen to this week’s podcast for more thoughts from us on this!)
What are Continuous Glucose Monitors? Explaining their use, the ban, and Faulkner's DSQ.
Listen 🎧
The Big MSR/Monuments Debate ft. Amy and Tilda
Tilda is also in this v familiar-sounding podcast!!!!
Tilda is not on this podcast x
Watch 📺
Marley Blonsky takes on her first century ride in the Gravel Graceland of Emporia Kansas.
It’s another TDFF film!!
Results 🏆
Road
Miron Ronde van Drenthe
Lorena Wiebes (SDW)
Susanne Andersen (UXT)
Maike van der Duin (CSR)
Trofeo Ponente in Rosa
Stage 5: Léna Gérault (Team Feminin Chambery)
Overall:
Jolanda Neff (Switzerland)
Yanina Kuskova (Uzbekistan)
Sina Frei (Switzerland)
Danilith Nokere Koerse
Lotte Kopecky (SDW)
Lorena Wiebes (SDW)
Marta Bastianelli (UAD)
Tour de Normandie Féminin
Stage 1: Gladys Verhulst (FDJ)
Upcoming races 📆
Road
19th March: Trofeo Alfredo Binda (1.WWT)
Starts 12.10 CET, finishes ~16.00 CET
Live on Eurosport/GCN+ from 14.30 CET
Start list here
Preview here
18th-19th March: stages 2 & 3 Tour de Normandie Féminin (2.1)
23rd March: Classic Brugge-De Panne (1.WWT)
Starts 12.55 CET, finishes ~17.30 CET
Live on Eurosport/GCN+ from 14.45 CET
Start list here
Friday fun🕺
It’s all just about goats but no Marianne Vos in sight 🐐
That’s all 👋
Thanks for reading Women’s Cycling Weekly! 💘
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Amy and Tilda x
I’m late to this conversation but I really appreciated your thoughts in the podcast! One way to say it would be that it’s not a failing of women that women’s cycling doesn’t have a longer history, it’s a failing of the patriarchy that kept women out. We don’t need to pretend that women were racing Paris Roubaix a hundred years ago in order to appreciate women cyclists of the past and present. We know how incredible the peloton is now, and I’m sure women would have absolutely torn it up at Liège in 1892!
200K+ for any women's MSR with Cipressa and Poggio. No exceptions.
Thanks for the sage insight on the pod this week, it's always appreciated. My (less than) two cents is that cycling is a sport, regardless of whether men or women are riding the bikes, and the history belongs to everyone. Let's take the good parts and avoid the shit.
So I think that having the same races designated as "monuments" can be good, but I also think it would be cool for women to have their own. Binda has the history, and has the parcours to favor a variety of riders. I think they should declare themselves the "orginal" monument for women's cycling and really hype it up, and do whatever it takes to make sure all the top riders are there. And then everyone can discuss it and get the clicks (or listens, or hearts, or whatever the kids like these days along with The 1975).
Tilda was also quite good on that other podcast last week.