Women's Cycling Weekly Issue 3
A weekly curation of women's cycling news and content straight to your inbox
Welcome to Women’s Cycling Weekly issue three. It may feel like it should be the depths of the off-season and a slow time for news but this is The Year 2020 and as such there’s plenty to get through this week!
News
This Week ~ish~ in Women’s Cycling
An in no way exhaustive summary of the latest news and content from the past ~ week~ .
The transfer news keeps coming
Clara Koppenburg is the latest ex-Equipe Paule Ka rider to find a ride for 2021: she will be joining Rally Cycling as they round off their roster for next year. Koppenburg’s new team were also responsible for a very innovative Twitter game this week (as if people need an excuse to spend more time on Twitter):
Former Israeli national champion Rotem Gafinovitz will move from Canyon//SRAM to the Canadian Instafund La Prima Racing team.
Arlenis Sierra, Katia Ragusa and Lizbeth Yareli Salazar extended their contracts with Astana who from 2021 become A.R. Monex Women's Pro Cycling Team and will be registered in Italy. Also joining the team are 18 year-old Italians Emma Faoro and Maria Chiatto, as well as Maria Vittoria Sperotto who joins from Paule Ka, with other spaces on the roster yet to be announced.
Swiss national champion Elise Chabbey and Giro Rosa young rider jersey winner Mikayla Harvey are the only remaining Paule Ka riders who have yet to announce teams for 2021.
Long-standing Spanish Continental squad Bizkaia Durango announced the renewal of five riders for 2021 in the form of Lucía González, Irene Loizate, Ariana Gilabert, Lizzie Holden and Yurani Blanco as well as June Herrera, Julia Sánchez y Marina Garau as new signings.
UK continental team CAMS-Tifosi extended their current riders’ contracts as well as adding 30 year-old American Emma Edwards and 19 year-old Brit Kate Wooton to their line-up.
Appointments
In the latest episode of Cycling Has Finally Reached the 21st Century comes the news that former pro and experienced men’s team manager/DS Cherie Pridham will join Israel Startup Nation from 2021 as the first ever female directeur sportif in the men’s World Tour. Before Pridham’s appointment there had only been one instance of a woman directing a men’s WT event when Rachel Heal (now Hedderman) directed the men’s United Healthcare team at the 2014 Milan Sanremo. Pridham herself said in a press release:
“I feel truly proud and privileged to be the first woman to serve as a sports director at the WorldTour level, joining one of the best teams in the world and being entrusted with great and legendary riders. So, for me, I want to get it right because when I do, I know that it will inspire others to take the same journey and that really does mean something to me.”
Over on the boards. And after the shock departure of Paul Manning a few weeks ago, the Great Britain women’s endurance team were left without a coach less than a year our from the Tokyo 2021 Olympics. However, this morning it was announced that Monica Greenwood - who has been a GB coach since 2012 - would replace Manning in leading the squad to Tokyo.
Results
In the first round of the UCI Cyclocross world cup Lucinda Brand beat the favourite Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado by 24 seconds to make it another all-Dutch podium with Denise Betsema taking third.
Unfortunately, in the same race, junior world champion Shirin van Anrooij was hospitalised after sustaining a deep wound to her arm following a crash in the first lap. She is now recovering at home in the Netherlands.
Upcoming Events
UCI cyclocross Telenet Superprestige - De Schorre Boom will take place on Sunday 6th December and the women’s race promises even more excitement as world champion Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado tries to hold on to her one-point series lead over an on-fire Lucinda Brand. For a guide on how to watch click here.
Zwift naysayers may want to look away now as the eSports world championships will take place on the platform next Wednesday - 9th December - from 13:45 CET with the women’s race starting at 14:40 CET. Full details can be found here and a start list can be found here. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing how this one pans out!
Elsewhere
Rapha have issued a statement ‘wholeheartedly’ condemning Chloe Dygert’s ‘apology’ as ‘not sufficient’ following the controversy (mentioned in Issue One) surrounding Canyon//SRAM - for whom Rapha are the clothing sponsor - having signed the American, who was seen publicly endorsing racist and transphobic views on social media.
Also revealing unsavoury views on social media was Rochelle Gilmore, former owner of the Wiggle High 5 team (which she announced the closure of in a deranged video in 2018). She posted a (since deleted) Tweet this week in which she described the alleged perpetrators of her brother’s smashed car window as ‘a few of our #indigenous friends’ (she literally used the hashtag) and - in a wild twist - tagged all of her sponsors. Unaware or unashamed, Gilmore’s Tweet stayed up for days receiving a huge amount of backlash before she eventually took it down without so much as an ‘I’m sorry if anyone was offended.”
The only redeeming thing to come out of the debacle is the fact that it led to this act of understated shade by former Wiggle High 5 rider Elinor Barker:
Chapeau.
A Fond Farewell
Get to grips with who you (sadly) won’t be seeing in action in 2021, recap the careers of some of the greats and find out what they’ll be up to next with this feature from by CyclingNews.
Book Club
Covering all levels of sport from PE to professional and outlining how being active can benefit women of any ability, Eat Sweat Play by Anna Kessel (now editor of Telegraph Women’s Sport) delves into a range of topics and argues the case for how to improve the reputation of and increase participation in women’s sport. I read this a few years ago and found it galvanising and inspiring.
Listen
If all this talk of Cyclocross has you wondering what it’s all about then let legend of the sport Katie Compton give you a tutorial on the latest Freewheeling podcast from CyclingTips.
Feel Good Friday
Two examples of Women Doing Brilliant Things on Bikes this week come in the form of Helen Proudfoot who - after her work as a bike tour leader dried up due to the pandemic - went in search of towns and villages in the UK with the name ‘Hope’ to raise money for The Bike Project.
And this woman, Kerri Barnes (no relation), who cycled naked around London’s landmarks to raise £7,000 for the mental health charity Mind.
If those stories don’t make you feel warm and fuzzy on this December afternoon then you’re dead inside.
That’s All
Thanks again for reading this week’s edition of WCW and for supporting women’s cycling. As usual, if you liked what you read then please share away on social media etc. If you thought it was a load of tripe then my ego doesn’t want to know. For anything in between please leave a comment or send an email.
Have a lovely weekend,
Amy x