TWO races to go 🤯

+ has the BRF hit?

Hello! Welcome to Women’s Cycling Weekly 🚴‍♀️

If you’re a paid subscriber you’ll have read all about what we’re calling ‘bike race fatigue’ (BRF) and how both Tilda and I are suffering from it lately. It’s a term that came from our friend and colleague Abby Mickey and since we put out that addish content™ Abby herself sent through an insight as to what it feels like to experience some serious BRF:

"“Oh crap there’s a race today” was my reaction to the first stage of Simac Ladies Tour. Me. A person who sits in front of the TV for thirty minutes before every women’s race starts in anticipation.

I’ve barely missed a second of action this year, and maybe that’s why I forgot that we’ve still got a few stage races to get through. (It could also be new motherhood who knows.)

With the expansion of the Women’s WorldTour this season there has been even more live racing to watch. It’s incredibly exciting, and the women’s peloton has delivered. Perhaps another contributing factor to my current feelings. Perhaps I just have an internal limit of yearly excitement to give bike racing, and with all the excellent racing we’ve had this season I’ve hit that quota.

But it’s not just women’s racing — that I really need to stress I LOVE — I haven’t watched a single stage of the Vuelta. I don’t know what is going on, I simply can’t give it my energy.

There’s been much talk over the years about streamlining the racing calendar. Making it easier to follow, doing some trimming. Not every race needs to be WorldTour. In the past, the women’s calendar was nearly perfect. Lacking in stage races, sure, but there was just enough to leave us wanting more.

Now we are facing a problem of teams being understaffed, riders being run thin, and fans losing interest, because every race wants to be in that top tier. Every team as well, which is another issue. The race fatigue is real. When you get too much of a good thing it loses it’s appeal.

Am I already excited for the Classics? Yes. Will I tune in to every stage of the Madrid Challenge? Yes. But can I remember who even won the Tour of Scandinavia? No."

While I am very much going through some BRF — and also just general ‘F’ — at the moment, finding out that there are only TWO WWT races left this season actually did make me feel a bit 😢. So with that in mind I’m going to be hitting the final few stages of Simac and the Ceratizit Challenge with renewed vigour in the final push to the end of the road season — I hope any other BRF sufferers can manage to do the same!

Amy x

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News 📰

• GCN have been forced to pull the final two stages of Simac Ladies Tour from their platform as a result of a rubbish feed.

  GlobalCyclingNetwork @gcntweet

  @MatMitchell30 Hey Matthew. Unfortunately, Discovery have had to pull the rest of the weeks broadcast due to the issue with the feed quality as it doesn't meet the standard required to broadcast. Apologies for this.

  If you want to keep watching the race, tune in to L1.nl.

• Downhill rider Jess Blewitt is set to become the first woman to race RedBull Hardline next month. The Kiwi has earnt a place in the invitation-only downhill race that takes place in Wales on September 10-11. 

• From next season, all Spanish Continental teams will be required to pay their riders Spanish minimum wage.

• Cycling Ireland have announced they will not be sending a team to the World Championships, citing commitment to other goals and the increased costs of sending riders and staff to Australia.

• Coryn Labecki will miss Worlds and the rest of the season after suffering a fractured collarbone and a broken rib in a crash on the first stage of the Simac Ladies Tour.

• After previously announcing her intention to retire at the end of this year, Marta Bastianelli will continue her career in 2023, signing on for another year with UAE Team ADQ

• Blanka Vas will be skipping the World Champs - despite being a strong contender for the U23 title - after SD Worx asked her to ‘reconsider her start’ ahead of the CX season.

• As usual, you can head here for the running list of transfers, but here’s a few key moves from this week:

  • Brodie Chapman is the latest rider to join Trek-Segafredo in what has been a fruitful transfer season for the American team.

  • Movistar are strengthening their team with the addition of Liane Lippert

  • SD Worx have picked up the Parkhotel Valkenburg duo of Mischa Bredewold and Femke Markus, who both impressed at the Tour de France Femmes. 

• Leah Kirchmann has announced her retirement after 12 years in the professional peloton. Her last race for Team DSM will be this week’s Simac Ladies Tour, before bowing out after the World Championships in Wollongong, representing Canada.

leahkirchmann

A post shared by Leah Kirchmann (@leahkirchmann)

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Read 🗞️

• Rejuvenated and recharged: Tayler Wiles eyeing return to the pro peloton after surgery

• A Q&A with Megan Jastrab

• Who’s got BRF?

• Pro leg: Meg Fisher’s custom carbon bike prosthesis

• A look inside AG Insurance-NXTG’s plans and goals for the future with team manager Natascha den Ouden.

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Watch 📺

Canyon’s new film: “Uncovers an otherwise unseen part of Emily and Jenny’s careers. Conscious that they are not alone in their struggles with body image, they openly discuss their relationship with their bodies with the goal of encouraging others to be kinder to themselves.”

The TDFF content keeps on coming!

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Listen 🎧

Quite fun for me (Amy) this week as I get to be a Freewheeling listener without knowing what’s on the pod this week! And you all get a break from me x but dw I’ll be back in ur ears next week!!

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Results 🏆

Road

Classic Lorient Agglomération - Trophée Ceratizit

1. Mavi García (UAD)

2. Amber Kraak (JVW)

3. Grace Brown (FSF)

Simac Ladies Tour

Stage 1: Lorena Wiebes (DSM)

Stage 2: Lorena Wiebes (DSM) 

Stage 3: Charlotte Kool (DSM)

Stage 4: Riejanne Markus (JVW)

MTB 

🌈 UCI Mountain Bike (XCC/XCO/DHI/EMTB) World Championships, Les Gets 🇫🇷 

XCC: 🥇 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot 🇫🇷 🥈 Alessandra Keller 🇨🇭 🥉 Gwendalyn Gibson 🇺🇸

Downhill juniors: 🥇 Jenna Hastings 🥈 Gracey Hemstreet 🇨🇦 🥉 Valentina Roa Sanchez 🇨🇴 

Downhill elite: 🥇 Valentina Holl 🥈 Nina Hoffmann 🇩🇪 🥉 Myriam Nicole 🇫🇷 

XCO U23: 🥇 Line Burquier 🇫🇷 🥈 Puck Pieterse 🇳🇱 🥉 Sofie Pedersen 🇩🇰 

XCO elite: 🥇 Pauline Ferrand-Prévot 🇫🇷 🥈 Jolanda Neff 🇨🇭 🥉 Haley Batten 🇺🇸

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Upcoming Races 📆 

Road

3rd-4th September: Simac Ladies Tour (2.WWT) stages 5 & 6

• Stage 5 (ITT) starts 11.45 CEST, live 13.00 CEST

• Stage 6 starts 10.05 CEST, live 13.00 CEST

• The race will no longer be shown on Eurosport/GCN, but you can watch on L1.nl (no geoblocking) or on Ziggo in the Netherlands.

• Start list here

7th-11th September: Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta (2.WWT)

• Live on Eurosport/GCN+

4th September: Grote Prijs Beerens (1.1)

6th-12th September: Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l’Ardèche (2.1)

MTB

2nd-4th September: 🇮🇹 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, Val di Sole - DH #8 & XCO+XCC #9

• Friday: XCC at 17.30 CEST

• Saturday: Downhill juniors at 10.30 CEST, elites at 12.30 CEST

• Sunday: XCO U23 at 8.30 CEST, elites at 12.20 CEST

• Watch live on RedBull TV (for the last time 😢😭💔)

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Friday fun

Did you think we were going to go an issue without MTB pics?

twtrip

A post shared by TWT (@twtrip)

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That’s all 👋

Thanks for reading Women’s Cycling Weekly! 💘

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And ICYMI we want to hear from you about how we can improve WCW!!

Amy and Tilda x