Women's Cycling Weekly: Vos is boss

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

Aug 12, 2022

Hello! Welcome to Women’s Cycling Weekly issue 78 🚴‍♀️

Literally just now I decided that I hate how boring it is to just number the issues in the subject line so from here on out there’s going to be proper titles!

ALSO: thanks to the person who pointed out on Twitter that Gmail can clip messages if they’re really long (this one will be) so make sure you hit ‘view entire message’!

Tilda @matildaprice_

Tour of Mariannedinavia

Pronounce that, I dare you.

As some girl called Tilda (neither) pointed out on Twitter: it really is just all about Marianne Vos this week, eh? It’s her world and we’re all just living in it.

I’ve only just recovered from the Tour de France Femmes and all I did was drive around and do some talking and typing so I have no idea how the peloton have scraped themselves out of the energy hole in time to line up in Scandinavia and go again. Perhaps something to do with being elite endurance athletes idk.

Anyway, there actually isn’t a whole lot of them who’ve opted to do both but one of the biggest name in the bunch, Marianne Vos, just LOVES racing (and winning) and so she hopped over first to Sweden (we mentioned her controversial DSQ last week) and then to Denmark, back to Sweden and now Norway for the Tour of Scandinavia.

Is she not tired?! Apparently not, because she’s only gone and won all three stages so far — just further cementing her GOAT status and leaving the rest of the peloton like ‘ffs’ when it comes to the idea of ever beating her on this sort of finish. Take former Tour of Norway winner Lucinda Brand who is pretty fed up with trying to beat Vos:

Trek-Segafredo @TrekSegafredo

🎙️ @lucinda_brand "It cost me energy in the sprint, but now it's an illusion thinking about beating Marianne on her ground. 6th is still a good result in this sprint. It was nice to race aggressively, have better legs than the others day. We have to keep trying" 💪 #TOSC22 (2/2)

Now, I always thought it was a truth universally acknowledged that Vos’s total number of wins was actually unknowable thanks to the fact that she’s competed in so many disciplines (and probably won a few races in her sleep, or something.)

But I *think* that her road (JUST the road) wins are countable because apparently she’s a mere four wins away from TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY victories 🤯.

FirstCycling.com @FirstCycling

Counting down to the magical 250th UCI win @marianne_vos #UCIWWT #TOSC22

I hate odd numbers so thanks so much to the commissaires from Vårgårda for that one x

Finally, if you’re wondering why this newsletter is coming to you on a Friday morning rather than afternoon (and also just really sorry that it has appeared at random days and hours of late) then that’s because I will be away from my laptop for the rest of the day — gal’s gotta have a life. It’s also about that time of year where I start to crack (literally HOW did I do this without Tilda last year?)

I pinky promise that normal service will resume next week.

Amy x

News 📰

In a great crossover for us (we are secretly just all about MTB), Swiss mountain biker Sina Frei (who rides for Specialized on the MTB circuit) has joined SD Worx for the Tour of Scandinavia. The move is not permanent but may continue in the future, according to the team.
Ashleigh Moolman Pasio has put off her retirement and will be racing for AG Insurance-NXTG next season. Formerly just an U23 team, the team will now have an elite squad too for 2023.
Team DSM have strengthened their squad for 2023 by signing a trio of first-year elites: Eglantine Rayer, Maeve Plouffe and Eleonora Ciabocco.

Read 🗞️

Guys I missed SO many things last week from the TDFF so I’m just going to add them now because they are worth it. ESPECIALLY this piece from Rachel Jary at Rouleur about what a phenomenal week in women’s sport it was.

Also this from Fi at Telegraph Women’s Sport detailing her day on the back of a moto (!!) at the race.
Other TDFF stuff: ‘the good, the bad, and the future of the Tour de France Femmes’
TDFF ‘exceeded expectations.’
EF Education Tibco founder Linda Jackson on the TDFF.
Elsewhere:
Krista Dobel Hicock can’t believe what just happened.
WHAT a ride by Emilia Fahlin, and what a comeback.
It’s all a game to Marianne Vos.

Listen 🎧

Tilda went digging in the archives for this old episode of Freewheeling in which Abby interviews The Woman Who Nearly Beat Marianne Vos aka Emilia Fahlin.

And ICYMI Monday’s Freewheeling in which we recap our fav moments from TDFF!