Cecilie Season

Plus THANK YOU for you support 💘

Aug 19, 2022

Hello! Welcome to Women’s Cycling Weekly 🚴‍♀️

First of all THANK YOU to everyone who signed up for our paid tier after we sent out the first ‘addish content’ newsletter on Wednesday 💘🥺 your support means a lot and I’m so glad you enjoyed Tilda’s excellent piece!

Remember, if you want to keep getting those extra bits from WCW then subscribe!!

Now that we’re upping the ante a bit here at WCW Towers (this will never get old) we thought we’d check in with you guys, the lovely subscribers, to find out what YOU want to see from this newsletter in the future. To that end I had a lil play around on Google Forms (how fun) and made this survey which I would be so grateful if you could fill in!! I promise it won’t take ages and you don’t even have to answer every question if you don’t fancy it. Thank you!!

Take survey

Amy x

Let me start off by saying that the title for this newsletter is pure plagiarism from the wonderful Gracie Elvin 😬 our Freewheeling co-host and commentator extraordinaire 💕.

I know Tilda wrote about Scandinavia on Weds but the last time this newsletter went out the final weekend hadn’t been raced yet! (Why does that feel so long ago??) Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig won the queen stage and cemented the overall in yet another stunning performance in what’s shaping up to be a real breakthrough season for the Danish rider. In the words of the great Lizzo, it’s about damn time! Cecilie’s characterful interviews and aggressive racing are exactly what the sport needs so it’s great to see her getting the results that she’s been knocking on the door of for a few years now.

In case you need reminding here’s some vintage Cecilie:

P.s the women’s WorldTour calendar REALLY needs some rearranging, no?

News 📰

Niamh Fisher-Black will be out of action for a few weeks after fracturing her collarbone in a crash on stage 4 of the Tour of Scandinavia.
After initially saying she did not have any injuries from her crash in Scandinavia, SD Worx have said Demi Vollering will sit out the European Championships due to concussion symptoms.
A crowdfunding campaign has been set-up to try and launch a new Australian domestic women’s team. The effort is being led by former racer Pat Shaw to try and help create better pathways for aspiring professional riders in Australia.
The GP Yvonne Reynders was cancelled mid-race on Monday after flooding on the course made the new Belgian one-day unraceable.
Canyon-SRAM’s Tiffany Cromwell took her second gravel victory of the year at the weekend, winning the 100 mile SBT GRVL Blue Course in Colorado.
Registration for the 2022 Zwift Academy - the programme that started the careers of Neve Bradbury and Ella Harris - is now open.
The UCI and Discovery Sports have announced the Mountain Bike World Cup calendar for 2023 as Discovery take over organising the series. The main addition is that the Enduro World Series will now be organised in tandem with the World Cups.
SD Worx have given an update on Amy Pieters’ condition and recovery. She will continue her rehabilitation at the Daan Theeuwes Centrum, a dedicated neuro rehabilitation facility in the Netherlands.
You can find a running list of transfers here, but here’s a few that stood out this week:
- Amanda Spratt is joining Trek-Segafredo after 11 (!) years aka her whole career at BikeExchange-Jayco.
- Mavi García is off to Liv Racing Xstra, a big bolstering of the team’s climbing/GC ambitions.
- Le Col-Wahoo’s French sprinter Gladys Verhulst will be racing in the colours of FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope in 2023.

The Cyclists' Alliance @Cyclists_All

There were 1.5 million unique user views🧑‍💻 on the Tour de France Femmes website 💻 during #TdFF. 45% of international television viewers were located in The Netherlands🇳🇱. (Over 75 million hours of #TdFF were watched on television 📺, around the world 🌎!) -@LeTourFemmes

Read 🗞️

Bike riders are from another planet exhibit A: “Kristen Faulkner had the worst physical experience at the Tour de France Femmes, but would do it all again.”
Something a bit different! Here, Rebecca Bland — Le Col Wahoo press officer at the TDFF — documents the BTS of her role.
NOT cycling but this is an important piece on menstruation and sport from middle and long-distance runner Eilish McColgan.
Sarah Sturm is honestly a breath of fresh air in human form. Here she is talking about her project ‘It’s Supposed to be Fun’ and riding her bike into a cow (accidentally ofc!!)
This Glorious interview with friend of the newsletter, photographer Jojo Harper 💘.
This fantastic and extremely well-researched piece from Isabel Best about the stats behind the TDFF!
More TDFF stats and that!!
Tilda dropped this into the google doc with the note ‘political queen’ and tbh I had not thought of Audrey Cordon-Ragot that way before.
‘Would you collaborate with the very people standing between you and your lifelong dream of an Olympic medal?” asks Lea Davidson in her TedX talk.
Finally ICYMI here’s Tilda’s excellent essay on the riders behind the headlines at the Tour of Scandinavia!

Watch 📺

Was researching a piece on Tour of Scandinavia and found this gem 🐥

Update on said chicken:

How The Race Was Won® @Cyclocosm

@matildaprice_ @OutOfCycling definitely going to start using the phrase "hug the chicken" to mean winning a stage and taking the overall lead.

emmoberg

A post shared by Emilie Moberg (@emmoberg)

I cannot get enough of the chicken.

And a success story of which there are many thanks to the work of individuals. This week I interviewed Shannon Galpin who you might remember I also spoke to last year while she was working night and day to evacuate some of the Afghan women cyclists that she worked with while over there. The piece isn’t ready yet but look out for it next week and meanwhile here is the latest fundraiser.

Listen 🎧

Dissecting Scandinavia on Freewheeling. (N.b STAY TUNED for a big pre-MTB world’s spesh from Tildz and I next week!!)
The hilarious (and talented) Ella Harris 🥝 on the Matt Stephens Unplugged podcast.