Transfers and a tapering season
➕ the first women's Tour de l'Avenir!
Hello lovely subscribers and welcome to Women’s Cycling Weekly! 🚴♀️
I hope everyone had a wonderful week! I spent most of mine fending off a nasty cold and there wasn’t even any women’s racing to watch while I sat on the sofa feeling sorry for myself. If I’d caught this cold in May, however, I would have had myriad options almost every day and it led me to once again bemoan the fact that the WWT calendar is a whole mess 😵💫.
I (and others) have talked about this so many times already but it just makes NO sense that we were all (riders and team staff especially) running around like headless chickens from February to July only to be sitting here on the first of September wondering why there are so few races remaining, why the races that are coming up are all slightly random stage races and why there are no really big ones left to look forward to.
Rachel and I talked about this on the podcast this week which you can listen to on Apple, and Spotify👇.
Elsewhere, Tour de l’Avenir gave some developing WWT pros a chance to shine (but not so much up-and-comers from smaller teams) and was a good step in the right direction for the U23 scene in women’s racing and there’s been transfers galore including Zoe Backstedt to Canyon//SRAM and Claire Steels to Movistar — ooooh.
Enjoy the newsletter! ✨
Amy x
News 📰
After worsening symptoms throughout the season, Marianne Vos underwent surgery on her left iliac artery.
Jessica Allen of Jayco AlUla has announced that she will retire at the end of the season after 10 years as a pro.
Read 🗞️
Meet Clara Emond: The Canadian who took Annemiek van Vleuten's advice to race
From catastrophe to victory: the fastest tandem at Paris-Brest-Paris
Unsung heroes: Antri Christoforou on being the odd one out, life as a bike mom, taking her own path
Watch 📺
Mona Mitterwallner on how she won the XCM World Champs.
Louise Ferguson takes on Megavalanche in a way we’ve never seen before.
Listen 🎧
Listen to Rachel and I get increasingly less coherent as we discuss Scandinavia, Tour de l’Avenir, transfers and more!
Wheel Talk covers all things Tour of Scandinavia.
Results 🏆
Road
Tour of Scandinavia (2.WWT)
Stage 4 (ITT): Grace Brown (FST)
Stage 5: Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FST)
Overall:
Annemiek van Vleuten (MOV)
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FST)
Amber Kraak (JVW)
Tour de l'Avenir Femmes (2.2U)
Stage 1 (ITT): Antonia Niedermaier 🇩🇪
Stage 2: Linda Zanetti 🇨🇭
Stage 3: Fem van Empel 🇳🇱
Stage 4: Gaia Realini 🇮🇹
Stage 5: Shirin van Anrooij 🇳🇱
Overall:
Shirin van Anrooij 🇳🇱
Anna Shackley 🇬🇧
Gaia Realini 🇮🇹
MTB
🇦🇩 UCI MTB World Cup: Vallnord, Andorra DH #4 & XCO+XCC #5
DH Elite: 🥇 Nina Hoffmann 🇩🇪 🥈 Vali Höll 🇦🇹 🥉 Tahnée Seagrave 🇬🇧
XCO U23: 🥇 Noëlle Buri 🇨🇭 🥈 Ronja Blöchlinger 🇨🇭 🥉 Noemie Garnier 🇫🇷
XCO Elite: 🥇 Mona Mitterwallner 🇦🇹 🥈 Alessandra Keller 🇨🇭 🥉 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot 🇫🇷
Upcoming races 📆
Road
Saturday 2nd September: Classic Lorient Agglomération (1.WWT)
How to watch:
Sunday 3rd September: Grote Prijs Beerens (1.1)
5th - 10th September: Simac Ladies Tour (2.WWT)
How to watch:
Live on Eurosport/GCN+ from 14:45 CEST on Tuesday, 14:20 CEST on Wednesday, 12:30 CEST on Thursday and 14:30 CEST on Friday.
Startlist here.
5th - 11th September: Tour Feminin l'Ardeche (2.1)
MTB
🇫🇷 UCI MTB World Cup: Loudenvielle, France DH #5
Saturday 2nd September: DH Junior
How to watch:
Live on Eurosport/GCN+ and YouTube from 12:30 CEST.
Sunday 3rd September: DH Elite Semi Final and Final
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.
🇫🇷 UCI MTB World Cup: Les Gets, France DH #6 & XCO+XCC #6
Thursday 7th September: XCC U23
Friday 8th September: DH Junior and XCC Elite
How to watch:
DH Junior: Live on Eurosport/GCN+ and YouTube from 12:40 CEST.
XCC Elite: Live on Eurosport/GCN+ from 18:00 CEST.
Friday fun 🕺
What a World Cup win means to Nina Hoffmann 🥹
That’s all 👋
Thanks for reading Women’s Cycling Weekly! 💘
If you want to see more from us then please consider becoming a paid subscriber!
And you can also
Amy x