Women's Cycling Weekly issue 38
A weekly curation of women's cycling news and content straight to your inbox
Before I go on to the normal newsletter and the usual introduction I want to use this top section to highlight the heartbreaking situation of women, and in particular female cyclists (this is a cycling newsletter after all) in Afghanistan. Many of you might have seen this piece on CyclingTips in which I interviewed Shannon Galpin, an activist and human rights worker who has worked alongside Afghan women for over a decade to share the freedom of two wheels. Now, Shannon is helping the same women escape a country that is becoming an increasingly dangerous place to be a woman — especially one who is known to practise sport.
Shannon has set up a fund to support the evacuation of these women and if you would like to donate then the link is right here. For more information follow Shannon on Instagram.
Hello! Welcome to Women’s Cycling Weekly issue 38 🚴♀️
Sorry it’s so late pls forgive me xo
ANYWAY: After a week off there’s a LOT to get through in this one, after races, transfers, and other news having come through in the past fortnight. The Olympics feels like 100 years ago now but there’s some last results to come out of that as well.
Hate to make this all about me but reader, I’ll level with you: I’m still pretty knackered. I started this newsletter when I didn’t have much else going on and now I have A Lot Going On so maybe my promises about revamping the format and reinstating ‘names you should know’ were a bit premature and that might have to come at a time when things are a bit calmer for me.
Either way, I hope you enjoy the return of your weekly women’s cycling roundup!
News 📰
Transfers:
Hannah Barnes: Canyon//SRAM ➡️ Uno-x
Susanne Andersen: Team DSM ➡️ Uno-x
Lotte Kopecky: Liv Racing ➡️ SD Worx
Leah Thomas: Movistar ➡️ Trek-Segafredo for 2 years
Sarah Gigante: Tibco-SVB ➡️ Movistar for 3 years
Grace Brown: Team BikeExchange ➡️ FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope
Vittoria Guazzini: Valcar Travel & Service ➡️ FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope
Marlen Reusser: Ale BTC Ljubljana ➡️ SD Worx for 2 years
Gladys Verhulst: Team Arkéa ➡️ Drops-Le Col s/b Tempur
Contract extensions:
Romy Kasper has extended with Jumbo Visma for another season.
Anna Henderson Jumbo Visma until 2024
Alice Towers Drops-Le Col s/b Tempur - 2023
Clara Honsinger and Lauren Stephens Tibco-svb until 2023
This is a great site for a full list of everything transfer-related.
Elsewhere:
Grace Brown is out for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury. The Australian posted on social media: “My tendons have pulled some bone fragments from the head of my humerus and are preventing proper healing. Basically I need surgery if I don't want a bung shoulder for life.” Best of luck to Grace in her recovery.
In other injury news, Lotte Kopecky can’t race after Olympics Omnium crash in which she injured her hip. She told CyclingNews that she was planning to race the Simac Ladies Tour but will no longer be racing due to her injuries.
The Cyclists’ Alliance have released the second part of their annual survey under the theme of ‘Legal and Ethics’. I won’t list all the findings here but it’s definitely worth a read. Further details can be found via there website here.
Le Col have extended their support of Drops Le Col s/b Tempur for two more years plus they have tripled their financial investment. Further info here.
Katie Compton has been banned for four years by USADA for testing positive for an anabolic steroid following an out of competition test last September.
Applications for the 2021 Zwift Academy are now open. Further details can be found here.
Roubaix (Vélodrome Couvert Régional Jean-Stablinski) has been revealed as the location for the track Worlds which will take place between 20-24 October.
Zoe Backstedt has set the new Women Juniors Individual Pursuit World Record of 2'17"489 at the Junior/U23 European championships.
Boxer Anthony Joshua is now a rider agent??
Illi Gardner has broken Emma Pooley’s Everesting record by twenty minutes with a time 8:33:47.
Results 🏆
Ladies Tour of Norway:
Stage one: Kristen Faulkner (Tibco-SVB) ahead of Susanne Andersen (DSM), and Alice Barnes (Canyon//SRAM). Highlights here.
Stage two: Riejanne Markus (Jumbo-Visma), ahead of Coryn Rivera (Team DSM), and Alison Jackson (Liv Racing). Highlights here.
Stage three: Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (SD Worx), Mavi Garcia (Ale BTC Ljubljana). Highlights here.
Stage Four: Chloe Hosking (Trek-Segafredo), Coryn Rivera (DSM), Chiara Consonni (Valcar - Travel & Service). Highlights here.
Tokyo Olympics track:
Omnium:
🥇 Jennifer Valente 🇺🇸
🥈 Yumi Kajihara 🇯🇵
🥉Kirsten Wild 🇳🇱
Women’s sprint:
🥇 Kelsey Mitchell 🇨🇦
🥈Olena Starikova 🇺🇦
🥉Lee Wai Sze 🇭🇰
Other:
French rider Pauline Ferrand Prevot is the new European MTB XCO champion, she won ahead of Anne Terpstra (Netherlands) and Anne Tauber (Netherlands).
La Picto - Charentaise 1.2: Marta Lach (Ceratizit-WNT), Marta Bastianelli (Ale BTC Ljubljana), Laura Asencio (Ceratizit-WNT).
La Périgord Ladies 1.2: Marta Bastianelli, Erica Magnaldi (Ceratizit-WNT), Nadia Quagliotto (Bepink).
Upcoming Races 📅
The third stage race on the WWT calendar: the 2.WWT Simac Ladies Tour starts next Wednesday, 24th August until Sunday 29th. The final hour and a half will be broadcast live on GCN+/Eurosport and the usual places. Startlist here. There isn’t a whole lot of course info out there atm but stay tuned for any race previews that might pop up around the place.
The 2.2 Joe Martin Stage Race returns next week between the 26th and 29th.
And finally, it’s the MTB World Championships next week in Val di Sole, Italy between 25th-29th. Race schedule here.
Read 🗞️
“Anna Kiesenhofer wants more cycling in her life but she won’t be turning pro.”
A guide to sprinting from the best in the women’s peloton.
Four conclusions from the Ladies Tour of Norway.
Evie Richards on her Olympic debut.
Listen 🎧
Even my mum listens to Freewheeling, so if you don’t then why not? Because she literally knows nothing about cycling. This week Loren was busy being an actual real life mum and legend so it was Abby, Gracie and I holding down the fort as we chatted about LTON and transfers and all that. I reckon this really is the one where I confirmed my status as the resident heckler surrounded by actual real-life experts. Anyway, plug her in yr ears.
ELSEWHERE:
The Life in the Peloton pod featured one and only Ashleigh Moolman Pasio who chatted all about things like the Olympics, her business and all sorts of other things like I guess her ‘life in the peloton’ u kno? Give it a listen here.
More of this sort of thing
Couldn’t not highlight this great post by Rally Cycling and their rider Olivia Ray:
That’s all 👋
Thanks for reading Women’s Cycling Weekly.
Not sharing the Ko-Fi link this week because if you’re inclined to donate to anything then please let it be the fund linked in the intro.
Have a great weekend.
Until next week,
Amy x