Women's Cycling Weekly Issue 75

A weekly curation of women's cycling news and content straight to your inbox

Hello! Welcome to Women’s Cycling Weekly issue 75 🚴‍♀️

We are SO CLOSE to the Tour de France Femmes now! I know so much is made of the importance of this race and that some, including Elisa Longo Borghini, think it’s overstated but watching the Giro Donne and the men’s Tour has just amplified the excitement for the women’s race for me.

Of course, it helps that I’m actually going there but even if that weren’t the case I would still be buzzing to watch the coverage and see the women’s peloton get their own slice of the biggest bike race in the world. It really does feel like a turning point and one that will undoubtedly harness even greater interest in the sport amongst those for whom it might previously have flown under the radar.

I’m sure that next week’s newsletter will be brimming with content and news around the race as we build up to the grand depart. For now, this week is still relatively quiet but the excitement is brewing and in just over a week the peloton (and journos like me!) will be descending on Paris for the start of something really special.

Amy x

---

News 📰

• Le Col-Wahoo have become the first team to announce their Tour de France Femmes team, lining up a group of strong young riders to take aim at stages and breakaways. 

• UCI President David Lappartient has reaffirmed that WorldTour status is ‘still a possibility’ for the provisionally-demoted RideLondon Classique. 

• 2023 will see the launch of a women’s Tour de l’Avenir, a dedicated U23 development race organised by ASO. It will be 5 stages in 2023, taking place just after the men’s event.

---

Read 🗞️

• What we learned from the Giro Donne.

• A look back at the history of the various iterations of a Women’s Tour de France featuring the winner of the first* edition in 1984, Marianne Martin.

• A course breakdown of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.

• Will the Giro Donne move to a new date?

*after the actual first edition in 1955 won by Millie Robinson

---

Listen 🎧

Freewheeling:

On this week’s Freewheeling we reflected on a fantastic edition of the Giro Donne and get a bit ahead of ourselves about TDFF.

Never Strays Car:

Bear with me, because this is a podcast about some men’s bike race called the ‘Tour de France’ (apparently it’s really popular). I know, you’re thinking ‘what is it doing in this newsletter, then?’ Well, dear reader, I’ll admit that I am partial to this podcast despite eschewing, if I’m honest, almost all cycling podcasts, on account of the fact that I really like the hosts. So imagine my delight when none other than Lizzie Deignan aka Queen Lizzie joined them for week two. Obviously, she is fantastic (and hilarious) and insightful so while this pod is not about women’s racing at all, it features a legend of women’s racing so I hope that’s not too tenuous as to warrant its inclusion.

---

Results 🏆

Road

Giro Donne

Stage 9: Kristen Faulkner (BEX)

Stage 10: Chiara Consonni (VAL)

Overall: 

1. Annemiek van Vleuten (MOV)

2. Marta Cavalli (FDJ)

3. Mavi García (UAD)

Districtenpijl - Ekeren-Deurne: Daria Pikulik (APW)

Baloise Ladies Tour

Prologue: Ellen van Dijk (TFS)

Stage 1: Lorena Wiebes (DSM)

Stage 2: Lorena Wiebes (DSM)

🇪🇺 Junior and U23 European Championships:

Junior Road Race: Rayer Eglantine 🇫🇷 

U23 Road Race: Shirin van Anrooij (TFS) 🇳🇱 

MTB

🇨🇭 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Lenzerheide - DHI #4 & XCO/XCC #5

DH juniors: 🥇Gracey Hemstreet 🇨🇦 🥈 Phoebe Gale 🇬🇧 🥉 Jenna Hastings 🇳🇿 

DH elite:🥇Myriam Nicole 🇫🇷 🥈 Camille Balance 🇨🇭 🥉 Eleonora Farina 🇮🇹 

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

XCO elite:🥇 Loana Lecomte 🇫🇷 🥈 Jenny Rissveds 🇸🇪 🥉 Alessandra Keller 🇨🇭

---

Upcoming Races 📆 

Road

13th-17th July: Baloise Ladies Tour (2.1)

• Watch live here

• Startlist here

MTB

15th-17th July: UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Vallnord - DHI #5 & XCO/XCC #6

• Friday: short track 17.30 CEST

• Saturday: DH juniors 10.30 CEST, elite 12.30 CEST

• Sunday: XCO U23 8.30 CEST, elite 12.20 CEST

Watch live on RedBull TV

---

Tour of yore 🇫🇷🥐

In the past few editions of Tour of Yore, we’ve looked at the riders and teams who raced the Tour de France Féminin, the last real equivalent to a true Tour de France that the women’s peloton had back in the 1980s. The race ran for six editions, but in 1989 it was axed, with Tour director Jean-Marie Leblanc citing a lack of media coverage and the financial cost of organising the race (surprise, surprise, eh).

However, the notion of a women’s Tour de France did not go away when the Tour Féminin did. With the return of the Tour de France Femmes this year, a lot will be said about it being the first women’s Tour since the 1980s, and in terms of an ASO-organised race this is true, but there’s been a rich history of long, tough French stage races over the last 40 years.

In 1990, the Tour de France Féminin became the Tour de la C.E.E Féminin - the name changed to ensure there was no connection to the men’s race - and continued for four more editions, but eventually faded to the same fate as the Tour de France-backed race. The most enduring race was born in 1992, when Pierre Boué first organised the Tour Cycliste Féminin - which would later become the Grande Boucle Féminine (because ASO objected to the use of the word ‘Tour’). In 1992, the Netherlands’ Leontien van Moorsel pulled off an impressive double, winning both the Tour Cycliste Féminin and the Tour de la C.E.E. Féminin. Van Moorsel is sometimes forgotten in the shadow of her great rival Jeannie Longo, but she was one of the most dominant riders of the 90s, winning four Olympic golds and holding the Hour Record until 2015. After Van Moorsel, Fabiana Luperini would win the Tour Féminin three times as the race became one of the biggest goals on the calendar.

Though the race was a prestigious one, the conditions were difficult. Despite Boué’s enthusiasm, he struggled for money and support and the riders faced long transfers, late nights, bad hotels and poor food. Riders had to choose between eating, sleeping or having a massage after a stage, making recovery almost impossible. Prize money was, predictably, non-existent. Riders who had the chance to race those events describe being grateful for the chance to race, often taking in some of France’s most iconic mountains, but the experience was a struggle.

The Grande Boucle continued until 2009, but after repeatedly shrinking, the race finally ended with Emma Pooley its final winner. It was survived by races like the Tour de l’Aude, the Route de France and the Tour de l’Ardeche, tough races which were won by the likes of Amber Neben, Marianne Vos and a young Annemiek van Vleuten. The return of the Tour de France Femmes next week (!!!) will be a big moment for the sport, and it’s important to have the Tour name and the backing of ASO, but let’s not forget that women have been battling it out in French stage races for a long time now.

---

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.

Until next time!