Sorry I'm late! 🙏

➕ LOADS of news and content

Hello! Welcome to Women’s Cycling Weekly! 🚴‍♀️

SO sorry that this newsletter is coming to you late and that this is going to be the world’s most boring intro. I have been struck down by some disgusting (non Covid, thankfully!) cold/flu and my head feels like it’s wrapped in cotton wool and my brain is simply not functioning 🤒.

Luckily, there’s plenty to get your teeth into without my waffle this week anyway so I’ll let the news and content do the talking, enjoy!

Amy x

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News 📰

• Marianne Vos will not defend her rainbow jersey at the Cyclocross World Championships next week. The team have said Vos has not been at her best this season “due to complaints brought on by a constriction of her pelvic artery”.

• But in good Vos news, she’s extended her contract with Jumbo Visma until the end of 2025, so it doesn’t sound like she’s planning to go anywhere just yet.

• Unfortunately, Shirin van Anrooij had her Trek race bike stolen at Benidorm world cup last weekend.

• Van Anrooij has also announced that she will be staying in the U23 category for the world championships next weekend and therefore will not come up against Puck Pieterse and Fem van Empel who will race in the elite category.

• After 25 years, organisers of the Vårgårda WestSweden team time trial and road races have been forced to cancel their events, citing financial and organisational constraints. 

• Despite the new guidelines around maternity leave in the Women’s WorldTour, SD Worx and Uno-X have confirmed they won’t be signing ‘replacement’ riders for riders like Chantal van den Broek-Blaak and Joss Lowden going on maternity leave this season.

• Details of the route for the first women’s UAE Tour have been revealed. The four-day tour is mainly a sprinty race (it’s the desert, duh) but it features one summit feature on the Jebel Hafeet.

  UAE Tour Official @uae_tour

  WATCH: Re-cap of the route and jersey presentation for the 2023 editions of the UAE Tour and UAE Tour Women 🙌

• ASO have announced what teams are invited to Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Paris-Roubaix - mainly the usual suspects, but interestingly Zaaf Pro Cycling have earnt themselves a start at Roubaix.

• The US-based National Cycling League has announced its four-race calendar for 2023, with a $1 million prize purse across the criterium series.

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Read  🗞️

• Elisa Balsamo says that the Glasgow ‘super worlds’ are not so super for her.

• A Q&A with photographer Jojo Harper.

• Stepping up to a superteam - the former teammates reuniting at SD Worx

• For the tech heads: Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig's Danish national champion-edition bike.

• WorldTour relegation round two: Women's teams prepare for survival battle.

• Hungarian national champion Blanka Vas has recovered from illness and is focused on Cyclocross Worlds before hitting road for SD Worx.

• Lizzie Deignan: It could take a year before I feel like myself again.

• Veronica Ewers on becoming a leader at the Tour de France Femmes.

• Life after Lorena Wiebes: Pffeifer Georgi explains how Team DSM will keep winning races.

• ‘I want to give kids a handlebar to hold instead of their phone’: Interview with ultracyclist Lael Wilcox.

• Chloe Hosking: ‘My career is facing its end, when I don’t feel I’m done’

• Ellen van Dijk: Every rainbow jersey has its own story to tell.

• 8 conclusions from the 2023 Tour Down Under.

• Megan Jastrab: Things I wish I had known when I started racing.

• Back from the brink: Ayesha McGowan ready to race after illness ruined her WorldTour debut.

• Lorena Wiebes ‘I think it will be hard to have more victories than last year.’

• Elena Pirrone seeks world-class return at Israel Premier Tech-Roland - 2023 Team Preview

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Watch 📺

A cute little 3 min film in which double junior world champion Zoe Backstedt documents her move away from home to race cyclocross in Belgium.

And it isn’t live until 1am CET, but the first episode of ‘Call of a Life Time’, the docuseries from the Life Time Grand Prix, comes out tonight on YouTube.

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Listen 🎧

No pod from us this week but we’ll be back next week! 

Meanwhile, reader Dan pointed out this series on menstrual health from Maghalie Rochette on her podcast Fever Talk which people might find interesting off the back of the conversation we had with Sophie Capewell.

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Results 🏆

Road

Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race (1.WWT)

1. Loes Adegeest

2. Amanda Spratt

3. Nina Buijsman

CX

UCI Cyclocross World Cup, Benidorm (Rnd 13)

Elite:

1. Fem van Empel

2. Puck Pieterse

3. Shirin van Anrooij

Junior:

1. Lauren Molengraaf

2. Isabella Holmgren

3. Ava Holmgren

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Upcoming races 📆

Road

28th January: Women Cycling Pro Costa De Almería 1.1

CX 

28th January: X2O Flandriencross 

• GCN+/Eurosport from 13:45 CET 

29th January: World Cup Besançon

• GCN+/Eurosport from 13:30 CET

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🕺

I hate that Substack won’t let you embed reels!!! Here’s Alice Barnes and Mieke Kroger having a track stand-off. And new Alison Jackson reel just dropped.

Here for this lewk from Lotte Kopecky 🔥

teamsdworx

A post shared by Team SD Worx (@teamsdworx)

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That’s all 👋

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Amy and Tilda x