Women's Cycling Weekly issue 37
A weekly curation of women's cycling news and content straight to your inbox
Hello! Welcome to Women’s Cycling Weekly issue 37 🚴♀️
It’s track week at the Olympics! Like shark week but with fewer teeth and maybe only slightly less peril. If you don’t like track cycling then we can’t be friends, srry. I mean, what’s not to love? It’s short and sweet, dramatic, all happens in one place, and is easy to unders— no forget that last part I just watched a Madison. Of course, it wasn’t just ANY Madison though, was it? It was the first ever women’s Madison in the Olympic Games in which Laura Kenny make all kinds of history.
Aside from people riding around in circles we also had another round of the WWT last weekend with Clásica San Sebastian (which I said last week would be wide open before it turned out Annemiek van Vleuten rocked up so I guess not so much.)
Otherwise, there’s not a whole lot else going on out there this week or next. On that front: this newsletter will be taking a hiatus for a week. It will be back on the 20th hopefully refreshed, with Norway results and loads of other stuff to talk about. The plan is to use the time to shake things up a bit, take a look at the format and buy some time to reinstate the research-heavy ‘names you should know’ section as well as other bits and bobs. In short: I’m a bit frazzled and I need a break, ok? If you have any suggestions I’d love to hear them, just hit reply (I think) but if your idea is that I write about men’s cycling the answer is: neverrrrr.
See you on the other side x
News 📰
Laura Kenny is now the most decorated female cyclist in Olympic history and Britain’s most successful female Olympian after securing her 6th Olympic medal and her 5th gold today. She is also the first GB Olympian to win gold at three Games in a row. Bow down.
Another team are heading for the Women’s World Tour: Rally Cycling have announced their intention to apply for a WWT license for 2022 and beyond. More info via the team website here.
Not really news because we knew it was happening already but now it’s official: Drops Le-Col s/b Tempur rider Joscelin Lowden will take on the Hour Record in September.
Two more races in the WWT have been cancelled due to Covid: the three-day Tour of Chongming Island, and the one-day Tour of Guangxi scheduled between the 14th and 19th October.
Transfer news:
Australian rider Rachel Neylan has transferred to Parkhotel Valkenburg for the remainder of the season.
American rider Ayesha McGowan’s stagiaire stint with Liv Racing has officially started. No news as so when her first race is yet, though, that I have seen…
Results 🏆
Olympic track results:
Team sprint: 🥇 China, 🥈 Germany, 🥉 ROC
Team pursuit: 🥇 Germany (in a multi-time world record beating ride)🥈 Great Britain 🥉 United States
Kierin: 🥇 Shanne Braspennincx 🇳🇱 🥈 Ellesse Andrews 🇳🇿 🥉Lauriane Genest 🇨🇦
Madison: 🥇 Great Britain 🥈Denmark 🥉 ROC
Road results:
The Clásica San Sebastian 1.WWT was won by Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), Ruth Winder took second (Trek-Segafredo), and Tatiana Guderzo (Ale BTC Ljubljana) third. View highlights here. Some analysis here.
The Swedish ITT champs were won by Nathalie Eklund of GT Krush Tunap.
Skylar Schneider of L39ION of LA is ripping up USA Crits.
Elsewhere:
Charlotte Worthington of GB won the first BMX Freestyle gold medal.
Upcoming Races 📅
The women’s omnium and sprint conclude the Olympic track events on Sunday, starting at the ungodly hour of 3am CEST (10am local time) with the omnium scratch race and concluding with the points race from 5:25am. The sprint finals are at 5:05am. Set your alarms if you hate sleep.
This weekend it’s the Swedish, Polish, and Turkish national XCO champs.
Next week the Ladies Tour of Norway 2.WWT gets underway from the 12th- 15th. The women’s peloton will race the final edition of this event in its current iteration before it becomes the dramatically-named ‘Battle of the North’ in 2022 and extends to six days. Race preview here. Startlist here.
Read 🗞️
An interview with the Olympic road race champion, Anna Kiesenhofer (don’t 4get).
How Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald pulled off their Madison win.
A great profile on Laura Kenny.
A gallery of the women’s Kierin.
This isn’t about women’s cycling, but it’s about defending women, and I got a lovely little email about it so it’s going in.
Inside Christina Mackenzie’s LEJOG record.
A touching interview with Kelly Catlin’s parents.
Watch 📺
Putting the latest Bunnyhop in here again because I can. ICYMI.
Listen 🎧
Freewheeling wasn’t out when I sent last week’s WCW so here it is now! Loren had just had a baby, Abby was about to get married, Gracie was re-living her Olympic days and I was…thinking about my breakfast. We discussed the Olympic RR and ITT. Listen wherever you get your pods.
That’s all 👋
Thanks for reading Women’s Cycling Weekly.
If you liked what you read you can buy WCW a ‘coffee’ on Ko-Fi. A huge thanks to everyone who has done so already!
Have a great weekend.
See you in two weeks!
Amy x