The Giro starts tomorrow 🤠

Because did it really start today?

Hello lovely subscribers and welcome to Women’s Cycling Weekly! 🚴‍♀️

While the organisers decided that the Giro was going to go ahead, the elements had other plans ☔. After so much anticipation once we knew the race was finally happening the first stage, a 4.4km ITT, was rained off despite the fact that around 3/4 of the field had already had to tackle the soggy conditions and suffer in the rain.

We can moan at the Giro organisers for a lot of things but I guess cancelling a stage in the interest of rider safety isn’t one of them. Letizia Paternoster, who was leading at the time of the cancellation, Chloe Dygert and Mavi Garcia, who crashed, and Marianne Vos and Annemiek van Vleuten who posted some really decent times, will be pretty fuming, but it is what it is and the race now starts from scratch tomorrow.

This year’s course is a bit of a weird one, it doesn’t necessarily favour pure climbers like the Giro often does, and some teams (Trek) have brought squads that cover pretty much all bases. I’m finding it really hard to gauge who the GC favourite should be, but my money is on Shirin van Anrooij (hence the interview you’ll hear about below) but Tilda (who still gets a mention round these parts, is backing Dygert all the way.

Who’s your pick?

Forza 🇮🇹

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WCW’s Giro coverage

Throughout the Giro Donne, paid subscribers of WCW will receive exclusive subscriber-only content including interviews, analysis, and other insider bits and bobs starting tomorrow with an exclusive interview with Shirin van Anrooij!

Plus, if you want to make sure you get all of the subscriber-only content in the lead up to the Tour de France Femmes and the daily newsletter from the race (from on the ground, woo!) then make sure you subscribe before the build up begins! We are also running a 20% discount on paid subscriptions throughout the Giro and TDFF 🥳.

If you’re already signed up (ily 🫶) then you can still get yourself some discounted WCW with the new referral programme from Substack. It works like this: 1 referral = one month comp, 3 referrals = 3 months comp, and 5 referrals = 6 month comp!

Okay I’m done being Sales Amy now, back to regular programming!

Enjoy the newsy!

Amy x

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News 📰

• The 2024 Tour de France Femmes is set to start in the Netherlands.

• The route for Tour Down Under 2024 has been announced, with Willunga Hill making its Women's WorldTour debut.

• Kristen Faulkner has sustained a knee fracture after being hit by a car while training.

• The 2024 Women's WorldTour calendar has been published, which will see the Giro start July 7th and TDFF moved to mid August, after the Paris Olympics.

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Read  🗞️

• Calm, measured, mature - Catching up with Mavi Garcia

• The biggest talking points ahead of the Giro d'Italia Donne

• 'Overcome, fight and don't give up' - Inside Elena Bris's recovery from a major crash

• Elisa Longo Borghini to race with 'true grit and tenacity' at Giro d'Italia Donne

• 'More bikes on the rack:' Sarah Sturm brings Michaela Thompson onto the team 

• Bigger than bike racing: the importance of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift

• 10 riders to watch at the Giro Donne

• Outdoors: Evie Richards

• The Giro d'Italia Donne: Confusion, chaos, and complacency 

• Unbound XL 2023 winner Kristen Legan talks gravel bike setup, checkpoint strategy, and more

• 'I'm ready to take this step' – Bastianelli to retire after Giro d'Italia Donne 

• Meet Mischa: is Bredewold the next SD Worx star in the making? 

• 'It's not good enough' - Lizzie Deignan critical of Giro d'Italia Donne organisation 

• Annemiek van Vleuten recharged and 'back again' for Giro d'Italia

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Listen 🎧

The Cycling Podcast Féminin had a chat with Claire Steels of Israel Premier Tech who, at the age of 36, has had an incred first season in the WorldTour.

 Some idiot with whom you may be familiar made a guest appearance on this week’s Wheel Talk and I’m obviously not talking about the wonderful Becca Charlton.

Tahnée Seagrave on her concussion and her journey back to even wanting to be on a bike again.

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Watch 📺

A whole load of off-road vids this week! Starting with Puck Pieterse’s course preview of this weekend’s XC world cup course in Val di Sole.

Vali Höll takes her elusive home win

Gravel racer Sarah Sturm’s experience at the Traka race in Girona.

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Results 🏆

Road

Giro d’Italia Donne (2.WWT)

Stage 1: 🚫 Canceled 🚫 due to weather

National Championships results can be found here. 

MTB

XCO Elite European Championships 

🥇 Puck Pieterse 🇳🇱 🥈 Mona Mitterwallner 🇦🇹 🥉 Sina Frei 🇨🇭

🇮🇹 UCI MTB World Cup: Val di Sole, Italy DH #3 & XCO+XCC #4

XCC U23: 🥇 Ronja Blöchlinger 🇨🇭 🥈 Sofie Pedersen 🇩🇰 🥉 Noemie Garnier 🇫🇷

XCC Elite: 🥇Laura Stigger 🇦🇹 🥈Puck Pieterse 🇳🇱 🥉Pauline Ferrand Prevot 🇫🇷

DH Junior: 🥇 Sacha Earnest 🇳🇿 🥈 Erice van Leuven 🇳🇿 🥉Lisa Bouladou 🇫🇷

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Upcoming races📆 

Road

30th June - 9th July: Giro d’Italia Donne (2.WWT)

How to watch:

• Live on Eurosport/GCN+ from 13:00 CEST everyday (we’re not sure if this is fully confirmed so check your local broadcaster!)

• Starlist here

• Preview here

Sunday 2nd July: Tour de Berlin Feminin (1.2)

MTB

🇮🇹 UCI MTB World Cup: Val di Sole, Italy DH #3 & XCO+XCC #4

Saturday 1st July: DH Elite Semi Finals and Finals

How to watch:

• Elite Semi Final: Live on Eurosport/GCN+ and YouTube from 10:30 CEST

• Elite Final: Live on Eurosport/GCN+ from 12:45 CEST

Sunday 2nd July: XCO U23 and Elite

How to watch:

• U23 race: Live on Eurosport/GCN+ and YouTube from 8:25 CEST

• Elite race: Live on Eurosport/GCN+ from 12:30 CEST

European Championships

Thursday 6th July: XCC Junior and Elite

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Friday fun 🕺

Juliette Labous with her many fans

Puck Pieterse being iconic as usual 👑

One heck of a bottle save!

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That’s all 👋

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Amy x