Women's Cycling Weekly Issue Two
A weekly curation of women's cycling news and content straight to your inbox
Welcome to the second issue of Women’s Cycling Weekly! Before I crack on with this week’s waffle I want to say a huge thanks to everyone who has subscribed to and supported WCW so far and given feedback on last week’s edition. It’s wonderful to see such support for women’s cycling and a confirmation of the deservedly growing interest in the women’s side of the sport. So, without further ado, here’s the latest.
This Week in Women’s Cycling
An in no way exhaustive summary of the latest news and content from the past week.
Transfer Season Continues
It’s a fast one this week, with lots of sprinters on the move!
It’s nearing the end of November and as such many teams have filled their rosters already, however there are a few who are yet to announce their squads for 2021. Most notably Canyon//SRAM who as yet have only have Chloe Dygert and Kasia Niewiadoma to their name thus far. The majority of the team is likely to be comprised of current riders but nothing has been confirmed to date.
CCC-Liv, or Liv Racing as they will be known from 2021, are rounding off their roster and this week announced that they had signed Canadian rider (and prolific Tik Tokker) Alison Jackson who will transfer from Team Sunweb. Having lost headline act Marianne Vos to the new Jumbo-Visma women’s team they appear to be constructing the new squad around punchy young sprinter Lotte Kopecky who transferred from Lotto Soudal. Jackson has proven herself as a solid lead-out rider for Coryn Rivera this season and sprinted to 6th place on stage 5 of the Giro Rosa.
Movistar rounded off their 14-rider roster - which, of course, includes the formidable Annemiek van Vleuten - by extending the contracts of Jelena Erić, Paula Patiño, Katrine Aalerud and Gloria Rodríguez for a further two years up to the end of 2023.
Elsewhere, the Rally Cycling women’s team announced they would be adding three more riders in the form of Holly Breck, Madeline Bemis, and Olivia Ray. Having lost Australian sprinter Chloe Hosking to Trek-Segafredo the American team are looking to add their next fast finisher in the form of Ray, who is New Zealand criterium champion, while aspiring maths teacher Bemis prefers TT efforts and experienced Breck has previously raced for Cylance Pro Cycling and Sho-Air TWENTY20.
No News
There are a handful of noteworthy riders who have not announced where they’ll be spending the 2021 season, among them are; Mavi Garcia, Arlenis Sierra, Eugenia Bujak and of course the Equipe Paule Ka riders mentioned last week.
In Other News
Canyon//SRAM’s Omer Shapira took her fourth Israeli national road title in a row this week in a solo victory ahead of Lianne Witkin. Shapira is also Israeli ITT and XCM MTB champion.
Norwegian team Uno-X will launch a new women’s team for 2022 spearheaded by former Danish pro Lars Bak and with ambitions to target the WWT.
The Cyclist’s Alliance - the independent women’s cycling union - has launched a new Approved Agent Quality Standard for rider agents and will issue a ‘stamp of approval’ to allow riders to see which agents are trusted. The TCA Tweeted on Tuesday:
“In response to the insights from our annual rider survey we have launched a new platform to bring approved agents to our rider members and educational resources so that they understand why, when and how to secure proper representation.”
The outcome of the riders survey, mentioned in last week’s WCW, revealed the unsettling stat that 77% of riders sign their contracts without any legal advice or under agent review.
UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup Returns
Time to get dirty! The 2020-21 UCI ‘cross World Cup kicks off this Sunday in Tabor, Czech Republic. Newly crowned European Champion, and current World Champion Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado, has already outlined her ambitions to better her 2019-20 performance as well as her long-term goals. Also racing are 2019 Tabor winner Annemarie Worst, Lucinda Brand, Sanne Cant, and Sophie de Boer. The women’s race starts at 13:10 CET and you can watch on Eurosport and GCN amongst others.
Virtual Reality
The cycling gamification revolution rumbles on as virtual cycling platform Zwift this week released details of the first UCI Esports World Championships which it will be hosting on the 9th December. The course will be the same for both men and women as will prize money and the event has attracted some of the biggest names in women’s cycling including the current and former real-life world champions Anna Van der Breggen and Annemiek Van Vleuten as well as Zwift lockdown success Ashleigh Moolman Pasio and former Zwift academy winners and prolific e-racers.
Image: Zwift.com
Votes for Women!
The team over at Voxwomen have been awarding their ‘Rider of the Year’ since 2016, and as of 2018 the award has been in memory of the late, great Sharon Laws. Voting for the 2020 Voxwomen Sharon Laws Road Rider and Young Rider awards is now open and given the calibre of the shortlist it’s going to be a tough one to pick! Votes can be cast here - you have until 2nd December to vote and the winners will be announced shortly afterwards.
Listen
This one is technically from last week, but anyone who follows women’s cycling will be aware of the figure of Orla Chennaoui, who presents Eurosport’s coverage of grand tours but is also a fierce advocate for women in sport as well as hosting the Cycling Podcast Feminin. The Northern Irish journalist and broadcaster appeared on the ‘Sigma Sports presents Matt Stephens Unplugged’ podcast talking about her career and her journey into cycling journalism as well as, you guessed it, women’s cycling.
Book Club
There’s been a lot of fast-twitch fibres mentioned in this week’s newsletter so far, but at the opposite end of the spectrum albeit no less impressive is ultra endurance cyclist Emily Chappell and her beautifully-written memoir Where There’s a Will. The book was originally published last year but was released in paperback form earlier this month. In it, Chappell describes her attempts at the gargantuan 4,000km ride across Europe as part of the 2015 and 2016 editions of the Transcontinental race and the battles, both mental and physical, she overcame in the process. Put it in your Christmas stocking.
Feel Good Friday
Apologies in advance for the fact that this piece that is behind a paywall, but if you can access it then it’s definitely worth a read. All hail the team at Telegraph Women’s Sport for everything they do, but especially for commissioning this delightful insight into female athletes’ canine companions. It’s not all fluff (sorry), however, there’s a serious case to be made for the psychological edge that having a ‘companion animal’ can provide.
ICMYI, and to make up for the paywall, here’s some additional dog-related content in the form of INEOS rider Owain Doull’s good deed earlier this week. It’s not even remotely linked to women’s cycling but too good not to share:
FIN
That concludes this edition of Women’s Cycling Weekly. Once again thank you for reading and supporting women’s cycling. If you have any suggestions or comments please don’t hesitate to get in touch and if you liked what you read then I’d love it if you shared the link!
Have a lovely weekend,
Amy x
Think the only thing to add is that the UNO-X team story is a little bit bigger, with their open letter to the UCI complaining about not being able to be WWT in their first season in 2022.
https://www.unoxteam.no/post/thechallenge
Jumbo-Visma were in the same boat but seem relatively fine about it as Vos' points will ensure they get an invite to any race of interest anyway.
Looking forward to Issue 3!