Les Déesses de la Route

20.04.2013 Official site
Netherlands, One-day Road Race, 120km
UCI 1.2

Large-scale map - click to enlarge

The Omloop van Borsele is the final event in one of those wonderful cycling festivals that take place in the Netherlands and Belgium - there is also a three-stage race for Junior women (time trial stage on Friday, stages 2 and 3 on Saturday and Sunday), a time trial for Elite women on Friday, time trials for Junior men and Promises on Saturday and a Junior men's race on Sunday.

Zeeland, in the far south of the Netherlands, consists largely of islands, many of them reclaimed from the sea; many points lie below sea level and the region is extremely flat - so it's no surprise that the Omloop has been dominated by sprinters with Kirsten Wild (racing with Argos-Shimano this year; 114) holding the record of four victories, won consecutively between 2008 and 2011. Wild's superb sprints at the Tour of Qatar earlier this season proved that she has lost none of her skill and she will be one of the favourites again this year. Last year's winner Ellen van Dijk (Specialized-Lululemon; 1) also returns; her third place finish behind Wild at Qatar, victory at Le Samyn and second place at the Ronde van Drenthe are indication that she too is a rider to watch.

Parcours
The race begins in 's-Heerenhoek, home town of five-time (the record) winner of the Amstel Goild race Jan Raas, where the start and finish lines are located at the same point on on Kuipersdijk, a curious two-level street where the western side is 2m lower than the eastern side. The route, passing through typically flat Dutch countryside that leaves the riders at the mercy of the powerful winds that blow in off the North Sea at this time of year, is 24.311km from start to finish; riders must complete five laps to finish.

Kuipersdijk is wide, flat and smooth, encouraging a fast start as the riders head south out of town. After some 0.6km, the road changes its name and becomes the 's-Heerenhoeksedijk, then 2.52km from the start it becomes the Monsterweg for a short distance before a left turn carries the riders onto the Westeindsedijk, where the road narrows - add the tight turn into the equation and there's plenty of potential for a crash at this point. Westeindesdijk continues south to the Westindense Dreef lake where it turns to the south-east and takes in some wide, sweeping bends - the ideal place for a break to get away, assuming the peloton hasn't made the predicted fast start - before straightening out for a 2km section ending at a left onto Bandijk, with a nasty pavé-like rumblestrip running either side of the road to slow down any rider forced onto it as they round the corner . A right follows immediately after, taking the race onto the Hooglandesdijk (with more rough verges) heading south-east again for 1.6km and a left onto Weldijk, soon passing through the tiny village Koekoek ("Cuckoo").

Weldijk leads east for 1.5km, then becomes Noordpolderdijk; 100m ahead it changes again and becomes Oudelandsepolderdijk which, after 0.2km, forks; riders keep left to take Kruipuitsedijk heading north-east until, 2.1km later and 10.455km from the start, they turn left at a crossroads (with more rumplestrip on the verges) and proceed north along the wider, smoother Dierikweg. After 1.4km, they reach a left turn onto Stelsedijk, then turn sharply right just metres ahead for Kruiningenpolderweg. This being the Netherlands, the junction has been designed in a way that gives priority to a cycle lane that intersects it; the road has been surfaced in red brick to alert drivers to the fact that they need to slow down, but they're not rough enough to cause problems for the riders.

Kruiningenpolderweg is almost perfectly straight, another fast section where the peloton can turn up the speed to put pressure on any break that's managed to get away; it lasts for approximately 1.1km before a wide left leads onto Drieweg, another good fast road, heading north-west via the town of Nisse for 3km until a left turn leads onto Grotedijk, a narrow road running through an avenue of trees. 0.14km from the turn, riders turn right Nissezandweg, equally as narrow and heading west for 1.7km to a left onto Zuidzamsedijk. After 0.5km, it bends to the left and becomes Oudekamersedijk, stretching for 0.79km south-east to another left, taking the race onto Oudekamerseweg by a little redbrick cottage. A few metres ahead, with a small lake called Schouwersweel on the left, riders turn right and continue west on Nieuwekamerseweg, a narrower road that becomes Oudekamersedijk until reaching a fork where they keep right and take Oude Zandijk north for 1.8km until a tight left onto Boomdijk marks a point 20.121km from the start. Boomdijk is very narrow; with only 4km from here to the finish on the last lap, chasers may experience problems getting out of the peloton to bring back any surviving breaks and victory contenders may not be able to take their places at the front of the pack, potentially ruining tactics. The road heads first west, then bends north for a short while until a pair of right-hand bends carries the race onto Oudelandseweg.

0.6km further on, the riders arrive at a junction with the Heinkenszandseweg, the widest and most important road the race has seen for some time. Turning left leads west and the road runs straight for 2.4km (forming an ideal place for the chasers to swing into action, though on the last lap there is now only 3km to the finish - so it might be too late) before sweeping left around a wide bend and continuing south as the Molendijk. Just around the bend lies a junction, where a road (Middelburgstraat) heads off to the right; riders do not take it and continue ahead. From the junction, there are 750m left along the straight road to the finish line - meaning that the race is most likely to end once again with a sprint.

Starters

A long sprint to the finish line? Ideal
territory for Kirsten Wild to take a
record fifth victory!

(Provisional)

Specialized Lululemon
1 van Dijk, Ellen
2 Brennauer, Lisa
3 Colclough, Katie
4 Rowney, Loren
5 Teutenberg, Ina-Yoko
6 Carleton, Gilian
R1 Wiles, Tayler
R2
R3
R4

Dura-Vermeer
7 van Gogh, Natalie
8 Bongaards, Amanda
9 Coppens, Kirsten
10 van de Klundert, Rowena
11 Peeters, Charlotte
12 deHeer, Jorinda de
R1 Roos, Birgitta
R2 Verstraten, Chantal
R3
R4

Germany
13 Fischer, Lisa
14 Küllmer, Lisa
15 Lechner, Corinna
16 Scharbach, Sarah
17 Ludwig, Marie-Therese
18 Ortmüller, Madeleine
R1 Delev, Charlene
R2 Fennel, Esther
R3
R4

Hitec Products-UCK
19 Longo Borghini, Elisa
20 Hosking, Chloe
21 Fahlin, Emilia
22 Ratto, Rossela
23 Neylan, Rachel
24 Johnsen, Cecilie G
R1 Moberg, Emilie
R2 Lima, Tone Hatteland
R3 Thorsen, Thea
R4

Orica-AIS
25 Spratt, Amanda
26 Hoskins, Melissa
27 Edmondson, Annette
28 Cromwell, Tiffany
29 Maclean, Jessie
30 Gunnewijk, Loes
R1 Johansson, Emma
R2 Elvin, Gracie
R3 Villumsen, Linda
R4

Ronald McDonald-Huis Groningen
31 Fokkens, Trieneke
32 Karssies, Elise
33 Schuitema, Astrid
34 Tiessens, Ivana
35 van Slochteren, Hilde
36 Pit, Annet
R1 van den Berg, Eline
R2 Ensing, Janneke
R3 Meijering, Danielle
R4

Restore
37 Rockx, Anouk
38 van Hoek, Lotte
39 Klomp, Manon
40 Goosens, Veerle
41 Rockx, Simone
42 Bloem, Judith
R1 de Beus, Margiet
R2 Niessen, Kirsten
R3 Arnouts, Lauren
R4 Roberti, Chiara

Bigla
43 Lamborelle, Natalie
44 Beckers, Isabelle
45 Ehrler, Désirée
46 Hanselman, Nicole
47 Weiss, Martina
48 Weiss, Sandra
R1 Hranaiova, Katarina
R2 Aubry, Emilie
R3 Imstepf, Rita
R4

USA
49 Hall, Lauren
50 McGrath, Kristin
51 Winder, Ruth
52 Crowell, Jacquelyn
53 de Crescenzo, Lauren
54 Anderson, Elle
R1 Abbott, Mara
R2 Dvorak, Andrea
R3 Balboni, Rebecca
R4

Swabo
55 van Santen, Dominique
56 van Wijk, Eltina
57 van Horik, Sofie
58 Koorn, Harriet
59 de Boer van Velzen, Olga
60 van Tol, Nina
R1 Pasveer, Annemarie
R2 Blom Visser, Stella
R3 van der Star, Simone
R4

Rabobank Liv/Giant
61 Guarnier, Megan
62 Jong, Thalita
63 van Paassen, Sanne
64 Talen, Rebecca
65 van Vleuten, Annemiek
66 de Vocht, Liesbet
R1 Stultjens, Sabrina
R2 Knetemann, Roxane
R3
R4

Sengers
67 Arijs, Evelijn
68 Buyl, Kimberly
69 Lavrijssen, Birgit
70 Soek, Julia
71 Koedooder, Vera
72 Roggeman, Inge
R1 Jankute, Gabriele
R2 Schreurs, Geerike
R3 Vanderbreggen, Anna
R4

Cramo Go:Green
73 Olsson, Madelene
74 Kihlbom, Jessica
75 Söderberg, Isabelle
76 Nilsson, Hanna
77 Thomasson, Martina
78 Nilsson, Johanna
R1 Nessmar, Alexandra
R2 Sjöblom, Linnea
R3 Ehrin, Mirella
R4

Cyclelive Plus-Zannata
79 van de Ree, Monique
80 Otten, Marissa
81 Dom, Annelies
82 Depoorter, Daisy
83 Hatch, Liz
84 Ryan,Carla
R1 Verbeke, Grace
R2 van an Doorslaer, Annelies
R3 Decroix, Lieselot
R4

RusVelo
85 Kuchinskaya, Elena
86 Bondarenko, Alina
87 Burchenkova, Alexandra
88 Pankova, Larisa
89 Kupfernagel, Hanka
90 Blinduk, Yulia
R1 Bocharnikova, Elena
R2 Kozonchuk, Oksana
R3 Japarova, Aizhan
R4

Wiggle-Honda
91 Bronzini, Giorgia
92 Bartelloni, Beatrice
93 Barker, Elinor
94 Gilmore, Rochelle
95 Roberts, Amy
96 Schnitzmeier, Anna Bianca
R1 Trott, Laura
R2 Collins, Emily
R3 Hagiwara, Mayuko
R4 Kitchen, Lauren

Futurumshop.nl
97 Elzing, Karen
98 Gercama, Alie
99 van der Kamp, Laura
100 Koster, Anouska
101 van der Meer, Janine
102 Pijnenborg, Marscha
R1 Hofman, Sarah Lena
R2 Wagenaar, Mirthe
R3 Verhoeven, Aurore
R4 Kroger, Mieke

Park Hotel Valkenburg
103 Eshuis, Aafke
104 van den Hoek, Bianca
105 Klep, Inge
106 Markus, Riejanne
107 Slik, Rozanne
108 Soemantha, Lisanne
R1 Hoeksma, Ilona
R2 Koster, Claudia
R3 Post, Jermaine
R4 Visser, Annelies

Argos-Shimano
109 Becker, Charlotte
110 Garner, Lucy
111 Markus, Kelly
112 Pieters, Amy
113 Tromp, Esra
114 Wild, Kirsten
R1 Busser, Janneke
R2 Jöhrend, Marlen
R3 Knol, Willeke
R4

ABC Ladies Denmark
115 Fugl, Mette
116 Lauenborg, Britt
117 Lorentzen, Trine
118 Hegelund, Karina
119 Stenberg, Anita
120 Frederiksen, Rikke
R1
R2
R3
R4

Faren-Let's Go Finland
121 Bastianelli, Marta
122 Cecchini, Elena
123 Ferrier Bruneau, Christel
124 Mustonen, Sara
125 Schwager, Patricia
126 van Baarle, Ashlynn
R1 Confalonieri, Maria Giulia
R2 Saarelainen, Sari
R3 Zorzi, Susanna
R4

ARC Ulysses-West Frisia-Matrix Fitness
127 Smits, Jessica
128 Lof, Nynke
129 Coney, Sarah
130 Claessen, Elleke
131 King, Dani
132 Buurman, Eva
R1
R2
R3
R4

ZRTC Theo Middelkamp
133 Mathijsse, Mathilde
134 Janssen, Esmee
135 Harris, Nikki
136 Bremmers, Ingeborg
137
138
R1
R2
R3
R4

People's Trust
139 Dijkman, Aagtje
140 Koning, Bianca
141 Kreuze, Ingeborg
142 van Steenis, Samantha
143 Stokman, Marjan
144 Lassche, Miriam
R1 de Croon, Linde
R2 Jolink, Nathalie
R3 Meijer, Rixt
R4 Paus, Berdienke

Boels-Dolmans
145 Armistead, Lizzie
146 Bras, Martine
147 Visser, Adrie
148 Daams, Jessie
149 de Baat, Kim
150 Kasper, Romy
R1 Wanroij, Marieke
R2 Trott, Emma
R3 Martin, Lucy
R4

Jan van Arckel
151 van de Berg, Kimberly
152 Peetoom, Kisten
153 Spoor, Winada
154 Tenniglo, Moniek
155 Kogelman, Silke
156 Francke, Agnieta
R1 Wilderman, Jet
R2 Nieuwpoort, Tessa
R3 Hellemans, Ashley
R4

Water, Land en Dijken
157 Jeremiasse, Bernadette
158 Kuiper, Jitske
159 Beckering, Nike
160 Slewe, Melissa
161 Welling, Renee
162 Smit, Corinne
R1 Weijers, Trude
R2 Landsman, Lisette
R3 de Boer, Maartje
R4 Jochems, Sigrid

NWVG Bike4Air
163 van Katwijk, Nathalie
164 van Kessel, Femke
165 Donkers, Djoeke
166 Lissenberg, Daniëlle
167 Hoeke, Geerte
168 Peer, Anne
R1 Postma, Mary Rose
R2 van Buel, Eveline
R3 Heijting, Natasja
R4

Endura Lady Force-WV Zeeuws Vlaanderen
169 Klok, Ines
170 Bolangier, Elke
171 Braam, Joukje
172 Corthout, Shauni
173 Haers, Carolien
174 Verstichelen, Femke
R1 Versluis, Wendy
R2 Janssen, Christel
R3 Kloppenburg, Margriet
R4

Breast Cancer Care
175 Bradley, Amy
176 Brogan, Kayleigh
177 Horne, Ciara
178 Leth, Julie
179 Shaw, Gabriella
180 Rawson, Penny
R1 Weaver, Molly
R2
R3
R4

Autoglas Wetteren-Group Solar
181 de Ravet, Karolien
182 Coolens, Kristina
183 Dhoeye, Karen
184 de Ridder, Amy
185 de Vestele, Adeline
186van den Steen, Kim
R1 Embrechts, Elien
R2 de Boeck, Jasmien
R3 Wellens, An
R4

GSD Gestion-Kallisto
187 Pawlowska, Katarzyna
188 Rocha, Mayra Del Rocio
189 Brien, Alizee
190 Schink, Lina-Kristin
191 Harkowska, Anna
192 Deverell, Kael
R1 Labrie, Audrey
R2 Morin, Anne-Marie
R3 Pepin, Roxanne
R4

Servetto-Footon
193 Lari, Marina
194 Defile, Corinna
195 Cornolti, Veronica
196 Bortolotti, Simona
197 Tasca, Roberta
198 Nisi, Maria Cristina
R1 Nanni, Giorgia
R2 Ferrari,Isabella
R3
R4

How to follow the race
Hitec-UCK manager Karl Lima provides regular Twitter updates during all the races his team enters and, when time permits (ie, not mid-race!) he's usually happy to answer fans' questions. To find him, click here.

Weather
More information closer to the race.

2012 winner Kim de Baat

21.04.2013 Official Site
Belgium, One-day Road Race,
UCI 1.1

Though not one of the better-known races outside Belgium, the Dwars door de Westhoek is a race full of interest - it takes place in a fascinating region full of history and, with numerous sharp corners, technical sections, tough climbs and - the Dwars' speciality - fast and dangerous descents along its compact 125.08km parcours, it's an easy-to-watch introduction to the fast and thrilling character of Flemish racing.

2013 will be the fourth edition of the race. The first and second, in 2010 and 2011, were won by the Belgians Liesbeth de Vocht and Grace Verbeke, then the Dutch rider Kim de Baat took the honours last year. As of yet, a start list including riders' names has not been published, but 18 UCI teams, twelve clubs teams and yet-to-be-announced national teams promise another fine battle between the Belgians, the Dutch and the rest.

Parcours

Click to enlarge

Looking at Boezinge today, it's difficult to believe that less than a century ago it was almost completely destroyed: lying just to the north of Ieper (better-known to English-speakers as Ypres) it was heavily shelled by both sides during the First World War - there are no fewer than nine British military cemeteries within the town's environs with 5,003 graves, and there are more in the town churchyard. The inhabitants stayed during the First Battle of Ypres but fled during the Second Battle; when the conflict ended, they returned to find virtually nothing was left and had to build wooden huts to live in while they rebuilt the town.

The race begins at the marketplace by the church, which was turned to rubble by shelling, with the riders first heading NNE along the Katspel for 80m until they reach the first left turn - because this is Flanders and the Flemish like their races punishing, this first section is cobbled. Around the corner, on Boezingestraat, the central part of the road is tarmac but there are more cobbles on the right. The road continues SE for 1.34km to a crossroads with Reningsestraat, marking the end of the neutralised section and the beginning of racing just past a row of cottages on the left; a wide right-hand bend just ahead leads into Tuinwijk and Elverdinge, home to an impressive chateau (or kasteel, as they're known in Flemish), where the riders take a wide left-hand bend past a Dexia bank and find themselves on Steenstraat. 75m ahead, at a crossroads, the road becomes D'Ennetieresplein; 160m later a left turn leads onto Sint-Livinusstraat, then 85m after that another right turn carries the race onto Vlamertingsestraat, with a small climb up to and through the wooded section, then a small descent. Just past the woods, on the right, is Vermuelen's Molen - at 29m, the tallest windmill in West Flanders, offering such good views of the surrounding landscape that it was put into use as an observation tower by the Nazis during the Second World War. The mill has been without its sails since 1909, when it was converted to run on electrical power.

Main route profile - click to enlarge

Vlamertingsestraat isn't wide, but the good surface and long straights interspersed by occasional sweeping bends are likely to generate the highest speeds seen so far in the race, making it the ideal place for the peloton to catch and swallow up any early breakaway groups; however, it's also very exposed and wind could create problems. Once in Vlamertinge the road becomes Guido Gezellestraat, then Hugo Verriesstraat after a crossroads as it begins an uncomplicated journey to Reningelst. Bellestraat starts after a level crossing and continues south out of the town with the riders going straight ahead at a roundabout and onto a fast, straight section of 4km to Ouderdom, 10.19km from the start, then another 1.5km to Reningelst - where an annual cycling festival is held. As the riders arrive at the town, a tight right corner leads onto Zevekotestraat; the road surface is covered in tarmac but, in places, it's worn away to reveal the old cobbles beneath - some of which look more than capable of causing punctures. Opposite the church, 340m ahead, is a far less technical left onto Heuvellandsweg, a wide and fast road that will carry the race for 2km to Poperingestraat, becoming Westouterstraat towards the end.

Poperingstraat is also wide and fast, presenting no challenges on the way into Westouter (where the international Edvald Boasson Hagen fanclub is based, incidentally); in the centre of town, just past the AXA bank on the right and before the church on the left, the surface changes from tarmac to cobbles. Reasonably smooth at first, they become rougher after the road forks and the riders keep left for Schomminkelstraat (with the suddenly much narrower route having the potential to cause problems if the entire peloton tries to get down it at once), but the tarmac starts again only a few metres ahead past the patisserie. Schomminkelstraat then passes out of town and into the countryside; it's flat for the first 0.4km, then the race begins climbing Schomminkelberg for the first time, gaining more than 65m over the last 1.1km - an average gradient of 4.4% that reaches 14% at the steepest section. The first riders to the top win the first GPM points of the race - under the name Rodeberg West, the climb is more familiar as one of those in the Gent-Wevelgem race, as is the Rodeberg itself, which continues to climb to 138m above sea level just around the left turn onto Rodebergstraat. Though the road beyond the junction is wide and smooth, it's a challenging climb in its own right and reaches 11% before the woods at the top.

Vermeulen's Molen, the tallest windmill in
West Flanders

Whatever fears Schomminkelberg holds for the sprinters, the Rodeberg descent has greater terrors for the climbers who, being small and lacking the weight needed to control a bike on a fast descent, tend to dislike sharp declines: the 0.9km to the sharp right turn leading onto Dikkebusstraat is even steeper than the ascent, with one part rated -17.6%. If a climber got away on the way up, she could see her advantage turn rapidly into a big disadvantage as heavier riders plunge away. Any rider could see their chance at finishing the race vanish if she fails to brake in time for the corner - not only is it tight, there is plenty of street furniture to hit as the route turns toward Loker, where another cobbled section begins by the church; the cobbles continue after the left turn onto Kemmelbergweg, then end at the right turn onto Godtschalkstraat, a narrow but smooth road running for 1.35km to another right onto Koenraadstraat, 20.6km from the start. Narrow and rough, Koenraadstraat is little more than a farm track; riders stay on it for a kilometre until they reach the smoother two-lane Lettingstraat, then turn left to begin climbing the Monteberg - another hill familiar to fans from Gent-Wevelgem; the average gradient is 7%, the maximum is 13%, just like Schomminkelberg, there are some very steep sections on the descent.

At Kemmel, a left turn leads onto Reningelstraat, a fast 5.8km road ending at a left turn onto Vlamtingerseweg at Reninghelst; 0.2km later the riders arrive back at the right turn onto Zevekotestraat, following the same route as earler via Heuvellandseweg and back to Schomminkelberg and Monteberg. After climbing Monteberg for the second time 41.2km from the start, they turn right on Lettingstraat, heading along Smijterstraat. Just over 820m in length, Smijterstraat's maximum gradient is -6.8%; steep but not excessively so. However, "straat" is somewhat misleading - from the entrance opposite the cafe at the top of Monteberg, it looks more like a narrow footpath than a road, and just a few metres away it drops so suddenly away that it becomes invisible. While the surface is good, the prospect of tackling it among a large pack of riders all travelling at speed is enough to strike fear into the hearts of even the bravest descender, and there are thick, thorny hedges along the first part - a crash caused by a puncture here could send the entire peloton into chaos. It ends with a tight right turn onto Kruisabelestraat, a much wider road where riders who found themselves pushed to the back on Smijterstraat have a chance to fight their way back to the front of the pack. A very tight - but, due to the width of the roads, not especially technical - left carries the race onto Dranouterstraat, 3.5km of smooth, straight tarmac leading to Nieuwkerk and a sharp left onto Seulestraat, which becomes Nieuwkerkstraat after a few metres and remains so for 3km to Wulvergem where an easy right turn finds Dorpstraat some 50km from the start.

Dorpstraat becomes Mesenstraat just outside Wuvlergem, with two small climbs en route for Mesen. The race turns left at a sharp corner on the outskirts of the town, made more dangerous due to the possibility of diesel spillages from trucks visiting the depot just over the road, then progresses along Kruisstraat for 1.85km before coming to an easy right onto Wulvergemstraat, a straight and fast road to Wijtschate. At the end of the road, left leads onto Sint-Medardusplein, a wide urban route with cobbles at the edges of a tarmac central section. Once the riders have left the town behind, the road becomes known as Vierstraat and, after crossing the N331 road, passes through an industrial area. 1.74km from the crossroads is a left turn onto Hallebaststraat; a right turn at another crossroads 0.75km ahead is a right turn leading over Dikkebussweg and into the tiny village of Hallebast where the road becomes Ouderdomseweg. At the end of an unchallenging 1.95km stretch the race turns right onto Vlamertingeseweg; this soon becomes Bellestraat and reverses the same route as earlier to lead into Vlamertinge and over the level crossing (marking 70km from the start), then continues past Vermuelen's Molen into Elverdinge and Tuinwijk before taking Boezingestraat to a point 450m past the official start where a sharp right leads onto the narrow Hynderickstraat - another potentially dangerous spot if too many riders try to take the corner at the same time. A left 1.3km ahead finds Kapellestraat, which continues for 0.9km into Boezinge and a left turn onto Diksmuidseweg and arrives at back at the cobbled start of the neutralised zone after 976m, 78.68km from the start.

Local circuit altimetry profile - click to enlarge

Local circuit map - click to enlarge

At the start line, the riders begin the first of four laps of an 11.6km local circuit continue straight ahead for 540m to a left turn onto Ravestraat, following it through countryside for 1.95km to a T-junction with Steenstraat. At the junction they turn left, taking Steenstraat for 3.7km back to Elverdinge where another left leads back onto the Boezingestraat through Tuinwijk, then via the official start and the right turn onto Hynderickstraat to return to the start of the neutral zone in Boezinge. There are numerous good places from which to watch the race along the circuit.

Starters
A start list with riders' names has not yet been made available; however, teams confirmed as taking part are as follows.

UCI teams
Boels-Dolmans
Lotto-Belisol
Hitec Products-UCK
Orica-AIS
Wiggle-Honda
Cramo-Go:Green
CycleLivePlus-Zannata
Vienne Futuroscope
Polaris
RusVelo
TopSport Vlaanderen
Faren-Let's Go Finland
Sengers
Rabobank-Liv/Giant
Argos-Shimano
Specialized-Lululemon
Bourgogne-Pro Dialog
Servetto-Footon

Clubs
Restore
NWVG-Bike4Air
Endura Lady Force
Keukens Redant
Breast Cancer Care
Park Hotel Valkenburg
Jan van Arckel
De Sprinters Malderen
Autoglas Wetteren-Group Solar
Bigla
RTC Zuid Oost Nederland
Napoleon Games-Sint Martinus

The race is also open to national teams.

How to follow the race
As ever, Hitec-UCK's manager Karl Lima is well worth a follow on Twitter - he provides regular and informative updates on all the races his team enters. Boels-Dolmans mechanic Richard Steege does the same.

Weather
More information closer to race day.

24-28.04.2013 Official Site
Czech Republic, 5-stage Road Race (+ prologue), 413.9km
UCI 2.2

2012 winner Evelyn Stevens

For the sixth stage race of the season (yes, six already!), the peloton stays within Europe and remains at a similar latitude to the Belgian and Dutch races of the last few weeks but heads to the east for one of only two non-National Championship visits to the Czech Republic. Now in its 27th edition, the race was - as you'd expect - dominated by East European and Russian riders in the early years with Angela Ranft (East Germany) winning in 1987 and 1989, Radka Kinclova (Czechoslovakia) in 1988 and 1990, Ildiko Paclova (Czechoslovakia) in 1991, Valentina Gerasimova (Russia) in 1992, Rasa Polikeviciute (Lithuania) in 1993 and Goulnara Fatkulina (Russia) in 1994.

Hanka Kupfernagel (born in East Germany before Reunification) won the first of three consecutive victories in 1995, then in 1998 the race was won by a rider from the West for the first time - the Swiss Marcia Vouets-Eicher. Kupfernagel won again in 1999 and 2000 and remains the most successful rider in this race to the present day, East German-born Judith Arndt won in 2001, 2005, 2006 and 2007, making her the second most successful rider; while another Swiss - Nicole Brändli - won in 2003 and 2004. Marianne Vos is of course among the winners, having recorded the fastest overall times in 2008 and again in 2010; Trixi Worrack, another rider born in East Germany before Reunification, won in 2009. Russians dominated in 2011 with Tatiana Antoshina, Natalia Boyarskaya and Svetlana Bobnenkova taking first, second and third, then in 2012 Evelyn Stevens became the first American winner. British riders have come third twice - Nicole Cooke in 2010 and Sharon Laws in 2012.

The race this year consists of a 2.2km individual time trial prologue, a 105.1km road race, a 26km individual time trial, a 58km road race, a 122,4km road race and a 100.2km road race on a circuit; further details can be found below. For those fans who like to get a really in-depth feel of what the riders face, the good news is that the Gracia Orlova organisers provide what are very possibly the best maps offered by any UCI race - highly detailed and interactive with zoom and other functions, they're comparable to large-scale British Ordnance Survey maps and, although in Czech, are easy to understand. You can find links to them here.

Parcours

Prologue (24.04.2013)

Interactive map here

A short individual time trial of only 2.2km, the prologue takes place in Havířov located in the east of the Republic, only 12km from the Polish border and less than 40km from Slovakia. There's not much in the way of climbing - that 3m ramp at the beginning of the altimetry profile turns out to be only a gentle rise on the road and shouldn't prevent fast starts, but the 12m climb over the final 1km to the finish line will sap the strength of riders who put too much into the first half.

The corners may turn out to be far more daunting. The first is a left into the car parking area; though not tight it's lined with trees on both sides and, if conditions are wet and windy, could be slippery. The second is the left back out of the car park; it also isn't tight, but the road surface isn't in great condition (this may have been improved by race day, of course). The third is the right-hand U-turn at the end of the road where the riders turn back the way they came.

Prologue altimetry - click to enlarge

Stage 1 (25.04.2013)

Interactive map here

A 105.1km road race, Stage 1 takes in very different terrain to the Prologue with some big hills in the latter half - nothing like as big as the mountains of Stages 3 and 4, but taste of what lies ahead. After setting out from Dětmarovice the riders travel 18.1km south to Havirov, then swing east to encircle the lake to the south-east of the city. There are plenty of small climbs, some steep but rising no more than 50m or so, along this section.

At 45km, the peloton begins the day's big climb; ascending 260m in 23km gives an average gradient of only a little over 1% but the profile reveals numerous steeper sections, especially towards the highest point at around 510m above sea level - more daunting for the climbing specialists, who in many cases dislike descending, is the road on the other side: it drops 175m in 5km, average gradient -3.5% and steeper in places. Another climb of around 100m begins at 70km, this time with an average gradient of 3.3% - the profile reveals that this one too has steeper sections, with one looking to be something of a wall; the descent is, the climbers will be relieved to see, far less steep than the previous climb.

Stage 1 - click to enlarge

At the bottom of the descent, some 85km from the start, a flatter section with hills no higher than 50m begins and lasts for 17km. This is a good opportunity for climbers to even things up with any heavier riders who might have gained an advantage on those two descents and dangerous ground for sprinters, who'll need to expend energy they'd rather save for the last few kilometres where the day's final climb is waiting. Ascending 100m in 2km, the average gradient is 5% and makes it very likely that this stage will go to a climber - but not without a fight.

Stage 2 (26.04.2013)

Taking place in the morning with the first riders starting out at 9:30, Stage 2 is a 26km "out-and-back" individual time trial - but one with a difference: the riders travel from Havirov to Ostava, return to Havirov and then repeat the journey, making it an "out-and-back-and-out-and-back" time trial.

Havirov, a new town built largely since the end of the Second World War to house mining workers and their families, is but for a few fields contiguous with neighbouring towns Senov, Radvanice a Bartovice and (much larger) Ostrava. The riders would never be able to tell from what they can see along the dual carriageway Route 11 road that forms the entirety of this stage, however, because due to a ridge of low hills running alongside the road very little other than an occasional and very typically Soviet-era concrete towerblock and a handful of modern industrial units little or nothing can be seen of the towns (to British fans, the similarity between this part of the Czech Republic and the more boring bits along the M25 motorway are striking).

Stage 2 - click to enlarge

What is obvious is that although this isn't a flat parcours - there are humps rather than hills, but a couple of sections reach a gradient near 6% - it's a fast one: the road is smooth and in very good condition with only a sweeping bend between the turning points. The lightning-quick time trial specialists are going to light this one up and set some blisteringly fast times; given the right weather conditions, we may see some of them complete the stage in around 30'.

Stage 3 (26.04.2013)

Interactive map here

The time trial specialists had everything their own way this morning, but this afternoon the race is being handed over to the climbers - after 30km with only a couple of small hills, the second half of Stage 3 starts to climb and doesn't stop until it reaches finish line 800m above sea level. In other words, this is a stage for the climbers.

The race sets out once again from Orlova, this time beginning in the north of the town and heading north briefly before turning south-east towards the same lakes seen in Stage 1, then turns south at Stonava and south-west at Albrechtice. It passes Lakes Terlicko and Zermanice before progressing south via Dobra and Nosovice, where the terrain begins to climb more steeply; at Raskovice, with 12.4km to go, the race enters the mountains with the finish line located at the Visalaje ski resort.

Stage 3 - click to enlarge

Stage 4 (27.04.2013)

Like mountains? Then you'll like this stage because, over the course of its 120km, it features four of them - one reaching 1000m with a 6% gradient climb of 600m over 10km to get there, one reaching 800m with a 5.3% climb of 425m in 8km, one to 900m with another 6% climb over 4km before it flattens out slightly over the last kilometre to the summit and a final climb to 550m with a leg-busting 12.5% section over the last kiloemtre to the top. Then there's another very steep, short climb to the finish line, just in case anyone found the rest of the parcours a bit too easy.

Stage 4 - click to enlarge

Stage 5 (28.04.2013)

Interactive map here

The Stage 5 route, winding through Orlova, is only 16.7km long and climbs no higher than 270m above sea level. However, that route must be completed six times, giving a total distance of 100.2km, and the altimetry profile reveals that some of the climbs are very steep indeed - it is very much not an easy day to finish off the race. With the last of these coming in the run-up to the finish line, the race is not likely to end with a bunch sprint.

Stage 6 - click to enlarge

Starters
To be confirmed

How to follow the race
TV coverage is, of course, not available, leaving Twitter looking the best bet once again.

Weather
More information closer to the date of the race.

Women's cycling's last Grand Tour the Giro Donne looked to be dangerously near to going the same way as the defunct Tour de France Féminin in December last year when organiser Epinike revealed it would not be seeking a renewal of the contract to run the event, which is owned by the Italian Cycling Federation.

After widespread calls to save the race - from, among others, Emma Pooley ("It would be terrible for women's cycling if our Giro stopped") and Evelyn Stevens ("...the Giro, that's the race... You hope that maybe it will be saved because it's such a beautiful bike race. I love it.") - Federation president Renato di Rocco assured fans and riders alike that if he was re-elected, he would make preventing the Giro's disappearance a priority.

Di Rocco - who also revealed that Giuseppe Rivolta, who ran the event between 2002 and 2005, again from 2007 to 2009 and then continued as race director after Epinike took over, would be his choice as president of the organising committee - didn't break his promise. Following negotiations and the creation of a new organising company by Rivolta, Erre 4, the race began to find itself on firmer ground and early this year it was confirmed that the 2013 edition would go ahead under a new name - the Giro Rosa.

The Giro's Twitter is @GiroRosa2013 and it has a Facebook page. The official homepage is here.

26-28.04.2013 Official Site
Luxembourg, 2-stage road race + prologue, 203.5km
UCI 2.1

If you love women's professional cycling - and, since you're reading an article about a women's professional cycle race on a website devoted to women's professional cycling, it seems at least reasonably likely that you do - there's a very great deal to love about the Festival du Ely Jacobs: having started as a race, it's become a three-day celebration of the sport, the athletes and the uniquely involved, passionate fans that women's cycling attracts.

Elsy Jacobs was born into a cycling family in Garnich on the 4th of March 1933. Three of her brothers were professional cyclists and enjoyed varying degrees of success: Raymond, born in 1931, won the Flèche du Sud in 1960; Roger, born in 1923, was crowned National Cyclo Cross Champion on three occasions and won the National Road Race Championship for Independents (riders who either supported themselves or had some limited sponsorship - in his case, Helyett-Hutchinson - but were not paid members of a professional team) in 1950; Edmond, born in 1928, rode in the Tour de France and came third three times at the Flèche du Sud, including the one that Raymond won. Elsy, meanwhile, was destined for greater things - in 1958, she became the first ever female World Road Race Champion and set a new Hour Record at 41.347km. In 1959 she became National Road Race Champion and retained the title every year until 1969, when it went to Sylvie Welter; then she won it back in 1970 and kept it until 1974, by which time she was 41 years old. More than half a century since she became World Champion, cyclists in Luxembourg (many of them not even born when Jacobs was racing) still frequently refer to her by her nickname: The Grand Duchess.

2012 winner Marianne Vos

In 1998, not long after Jacobs died, cycling residents of Garnich organised a mass-participation ride in honour of the Grand Duchess, open to anyone who wanted to take part. So fondly was she remembered even a quarter of a century after she'd last been National Champion that the event proved enormously successful, so it became an annual event and grew larger every year. In 2008, to mark the tenth anniversary of her death, an official, UCI-sanctioned race was added and the GP Elsy Jacobs was born; for the first two years it took the form of a criterium race, then became a road race. In 2011, it was joined by another race in memory of Nicolas Frantz, who was born in the nearby village Mamer on the 4th of November 1899 and went on to win two Tours de France and 12 National Road Race Championships. Initially, the Elsy Jacobs and Nicolas Frantz events existed as separate races (and they still feel that way, having completely different characters, to this day); the time trial Prologue was added in 2011 and then in 2012 the results of all three events were collated to create an overall General Classification. It retains that format for 2013.

The first edition was won by the Italian Monia Baccaille, then Russian Svetlana Bubnenkova won in 2009 and Britain's Emma Pooley (better known as a climber) won the last criterium race in 2010. Since then, the race has been dominated by one woman - the Grand Duchess for the 21st Century Marianne Vos won in 2011 (she won the GP Niolas Frantz too, because she's Vos), then won the Elsy Jacobs stage and the General Classification in 2012 when she beat her team mate Annemiek van Vleuten, who had won the Prologue and the GP Frantz stage, by 13" overall. Vos, current World Champion, recently won the Ronde van Vlaanderen after many years of trying and seems to be on even better form than in previous years; she'll be favourite among many fans for another victory here this year.

Parcours

Prologue (26.04.2013)

Prologue - click to enlarge

Last year the 1.7km individual time trial prologue felt like a party, running in the evening through the centre of Garnich where crowds of people stood outside the houses and bars to cheer the riders on. The parcours has been moved some 7km north-west from Luxembourg City where it ran around a large park to Mamer this year and the start and finish lines are separate, rather than the riders finishing where they began as was the case in 2012. Taking place on a Friday evening (first riders go at 17:30), it's likely that most of the town will be out to watch the race and enjoy the "Fête du cyclisme" that takes place afterwards.

The start line is located on the Rue du Marche at the Chateau du Mamer (which now houses the town hall), with the riders passing by it before a sharp right-hand bend just 150m from the line. An easy left at a tarmac-covered circle leads east for 470m along a narrow road through parkland, then a tighter left leads onto the much wider Rue de la Liberation, ending at another left onto the Rue du Marche 482m ahead. After 150m, a gentle right carries them along the Rue J. Barthel for 170m to another left and the Rue du Millenaire which, following a wide left-hand bend 150m ahead becomes the Rue de Dippach running straight for 260m to the finish line next to the football ground. The total distance is 1.8km, short enough for riders to put in all their strength right from the start without needing to worry about conserving energy for later; with an absence of hills (there are a couple of inclines of around 4.5%, but they rise only 3m) we can expect to see some very fast average speeds.

prologue altimetry - click to enlarge

GP Elsy Jacobs (27.04.2013)
The centrepiece of the race, Stage 2 consists of 53.6km main route followed by five laps of a 9.8km circuit. The riders set out from the Rue des Trois Cantons in Jacobs' birthplace Garnich and head north via Windhof; both towns are located on hills approximately 335m in height with a valley in between. Following a short climb when leaving Garnich the riders travel downhill, experiencing gradients as steep as -7% in places, while the climb to Windhof reaches 4.4%. Most of the section from Windhof to Koerich slopes gently downhill, but the final 1.25km is steeper, at one point reaching -8% - potentially just sufficient for a small group of riders to get away in an early break.

Map - click to enlarge

The left turn onto the CR109 at the T-junction in Koerich is marked with a red triangle in the race book, but as the roads are wide it shouldn't be especially dangerous unless made slippery by rain or if approached too fast after the preceding descent. Once through the town, the riders enter a rolling forested area and continue north to another junction at the end of a very steep descent (more opportunity for a break to escape, or extend their lead), this time turning right to join the CR105 as it heads through more forest and past some attractive buildings, then into open country along a river en route to Septfontaines, at which point they have covered 12km from the start of the race. They then continue on the CR105 through Leesbech to Roodt, then climb a short but steep hill to Bour and a right turn onto the N12. Keeping left 0.4km later takes the CR105 to the Grand Château d'Ansembourg, a stupendously grand and beautiful country house that is open to the public. Approximately 1km away is the Buerg Aansebuerg, a real castle built for strength rather than to look pretty; it's the home of the Count of Ansembourg and is very much not open to the public (except for those rich enough to stay in the extremely exclusive hotel housed in one of the buildings). Once past the chateau, the CR105 passes through more rolling countryside, initially forested and then open as it heads north via Marienthal and Hunnebur to Reckange and then into Mersch, by which time the race has covered 26.9km.

Having crossed the A7 motorway as it disappears underground into a tunnel, the riders dip only briefly into Mersch on the Rue Quatre-Vents before turning right onto the Rue de Langheck, a junction marked as dangerous in the road book. It leads them onto the CR102 leading to Schoenfels, where they switch to the CR101 continuing south to Kopstal, then onward to a junction with the Route d'Arlon heading into Mamer to the the Rue du Commerce.

Keeping left as the Rue de Commerce forks takes the riders onto the Rue de Dippach - a road that will rapidly become familiar as one of those used in yesterday's time trial. Just past the Prologue finish line at the football ground, a tight right turn takes the road through a short tunnel under a railway, through fields and into a forest where, 3.75m from the tunnel, it joins the CR103. This section climbs all the way and, coming near to the return to Garnich, could potentially change the race entirely - a break could be caught, ruining its chances in the final laps at Garnich, and a group of climbers could get away and enter the laps with a handy advantage. Dippach lies 1.5km after the junction; when they reach the right turn onto the N5, the riders have covered 48.2km. At the far side of the town they turn right at a roundabout onto the N13 leading to Dahlem, then follow the road for 4km as it bends right and heads north back to Garnich. The first half of this section is flat, the second descends all the way before climbing 8m in the last 0.4km to return to the start line.

GP Elsy Jacobs altimetry - click to enlage

As the riders cross the start line for the first time, they've covered 53.6km and begin the first of five laps around a 9.8km circuit; having crossed the line they come to a left turn leading onto the Rue de la Montee and follow it out of the village, keeping right as it becomes the Rue Kahler - the road climbs and, 55.5km into the race, the day's first GPM climbing points will be awarded (more will be awarded on the third lap). Although vertical gain is only 34m over 0.75km, giving an average gradient of 4.5%, 12m are climbed in the first 0.1km (average gradient 12%) before the slope lessens for the remaining distance to the summit. Much of the descent into Kahler is also steep (-7.8%) which leaves the climbers, who tend to dislike steep downhill sections since they lack the weight to comfortably control their bikes at high speed, at risk of losing any advantage they gained on the way up on the -7.8% gradient. Immediately upon reaching Kahler, riders negotiate a very tight left-handed switchback lying at the end of a short descent where it can easily catch out anyone who fails to brake in time. After it, the road becomes the Rue de Hivange, climbing the Reiberg hill as it heads south for 2.87km to Hivange village - gaining 94m in 1.9km with an average gradient of 4.9% (the gradient increases near the top), the climb is neither long nor especially steep and would present a professional cyclist with few problems if encountered once on a parcours; the combined effect of climbing both hills five times each in close succession will be far greater and may well decide the outcome of the race . At the top of the hill after 1.53km, the race passes to the right of a spectacular conical water tower; by the time the race has reached Hivange, it's covered 59.6km.

2km later the riders reach Dalhem and turns right, once again heading north to return to Garnich, where the riders will have covered 63.4km at the completion of the first lap, 73.2 after the second, 83 after the third, 92.8 after the fourth and 102.6 after the fifth, as which point the race ends.

GP Nicolas Frantz (28.04.2013)

GP Nicolas Frantz altimetry - click to enlarge

Stage 3 takes a similar format to the GP Elsy Jacobs: the start line has been moved to Mamer, Frantz's birthplace, but otherwise the race consists of the same main parcours followed by five laps of a different 9km circuit to give total length is 99.1km. The start line will by now be very familiar to the riders as it's in the same location as the finish line of the opening prologue on the same Rue de Dippach; heading south, they turn sharply right to pass once again through the tunnel under the railway and then follow yesterday's route west, north, east and south to return to Mamer.

The race again ends with five laps of a circuit. Having taken the same route through the tunnel under the motorway and onto the CR102 into the forest, the riders turn a sharp right to head north on the CR103 to Holzem where a right turn carries them via the Route de Garnich onto the CR101, then back to Mamer. 216m after the bridge over the railway, another right takes the Rue de Millenaire back to the start line. GPM points are awarded at the Montee du Barendal on the main parcours, located at 51.2km as the riders make the first return to Mamer, and 3.1km after the railway tunnel (57.5 and 66.5km from the start of the race) on the first and second laps of the circuit.

Start List

Weather
More information closer to race day

04.05.2013 Official Site
Belgium, 1-day Road Race (Lotto Cycling Cup), 112.8km
UCI 1.2

Official race Twitter

2012 victor Liesbet de Vocht, pictured
at the 2012 Olympics

Last year, of the 129 riders to begin the Knokke-Heist - Bredene, 38 finished 8'15" after winner Liesbet de Vocht (click here for an excellent gallery of photos by Krist Vanmelle and here for video of the race) after spending much of the race simply trying to survive absolutely atrocious weather, with a powerful and bitterly cold wind blasting in straight off the North Sea bringing heavy, driving rain with it, and the total domination of the race by Rabobank, de Vocht's team, which got four riders into the top ten (results here). Throw in some cobbles - this is West Flanders - and you've got a seriously tough race.

Chances are the weather will be, at best, only marginally better - the parcours follows a similar route with a 52.3km main section running from Knokke-Heist and inland via Bruges then along the coast to the first of five laps of a 12.1km circuit, leaving the riders at the mercy of the wind all the way. This wasn't the only race in which Rabo seemed almost without challengers in 2012 and they remain one of the most well-drilled outfits in cycling, a troop of riders who bring their specialist skills and strengths together to form one of the most effective teams women's cycling has ever seen. However, other teams have been working long and hard to put themselves into a position from which they can take Rabo on and win. So, while horrible weather seems virtually certain, the outcome of the 2013 edition is anything but.

Parcours
This is not a hilly race - in fact, with the highest point anywhere along the route being just 11m above sea level and several points below sea level, the climbers will stay at home and let the cobbles specialists and sprinters have a day in the spotlight. With much of the parcours running through open, arable land, there is very little shelter from the wind: if it's blowing in from the North Sea, the peloton will be driven through the first few kilometres by a tailwind, but as soon as they turn south-west they'll have to deal with potentially very powerful crosswinds for most of the section leading to Houtave, then a headwind to Wenduine and an even stronger crosswind along the coast past De Haan to the finish of the main parcours.

Main parcours altimetry - click to enlarge

Main section - click to enlarge

The race begins on Krommedijk (Krommedijkstraat in the race book, Krommedijk on maps) as it passes under the railway in Knokke-Heist, then progresses between the Laguna Beach lake to the left and tennis courts to the right. It's a wide, smooth road that ought to see a good fast start; however, the available road surface narrows considerably at the left turn onto Westkappellestraat 460m ahead, which may well lead to some pushing and shoving as the riders fight to find and then hold their positions in the pack or, as a small group may attempt, to get a few metres' lead ready to try their luck at an early break. If anyone gets stuck at the back, there's plenty of space and time along long, straight Westkappellestraat just around the corner, but with the first riders through the corner likely to make good use of the probable tailwind on this stretch by cranking up the speed, it'll be hard work to get back to the front.

Westkappellestraat forks after 2.25km; the riders keep right and need to avoid a raised traffic-calming device in the middle of the road. 1.55km ahead is another right on a brickwork section by a white house with a red roof - bollards on the edge of the road present a hazard and the route bends to the left a third of a kilometre ahead, then arrives at a junction 190m later. Having turned right and continued for 150m, they arrive at another junction and turn right again to join Dudzelestraat, a smooth fast road that leads for 2.76km to a roundabout and then onward for another 0.8km, crossing the picturesque Leopold's Canal just before the road forks. Riders keep right again, joining the Havenrandweg Zuid and reaching another roundabout 0.48km later before continuing for 3.58km to Dudzeelse Brug crossing the Boudewijnkanaal. Like the last bridge, the road remains wide and should cause no problems; as the race leaves it behind, the riders have covered 13.3km from the start line.

After the bridge, the peloton stays left and crosses a motorway flyover before coming to a junction with the main Zeelaan road, a technical section with several raised islands and concrete blocks lining the road. The race turns right here, but the riders get to enjoy the benefits of a major road for just 230m before turning left onto Stationsweg, this junction being made tight by another traffic island where the two roads meet. Stationsweg is much narrower than Zeelaan and any rider who wants to remain at the front of the pack will need to make sure she's one of the first through the corner - or, as sprinters are capable of doing, elbow her way through. 0.38km from the junction is a level crossing with two sets of tracks, the road between the them being made of wood and extremely slippery when wet; the road then continues for 0.65km - along the side of the road is a narrow footpath, separated from traffic by a strip that, towards the end, turns from grass to some very rough-looking cobbles. The section ends at a junction where the riders turn right for the Blankenbergsesteenweg, at which point they are 15.5km from the start line.

Blankenbergsesteenweg is smooth, wide, fast and runs NNW for 1.2km, making it a good stretch for riders to bridge to a lead group if one has got away by this stage or for the peloton to catch them. Their time on it ends with an easy left turn at the Kruiskalsijde bar, after which they continue for 1.35km along the fast but for much of its length very exposed Nieuwesteenweg before turning left on smooth and regularly-sized cobble to take Blankenbergsedijk Zuid south-east (hence a possible tailwind) for 2km ending at a crossroads and a tight right-hand turn for Blauwe Torenstraat. The crossroads marks 20km since the race began, after it Blauwe Torenstraat runs north-west through exposed country where the race may face strong headwinds for 1.46km ending with a tight left onto the narrow Heerweg, promising more crosswinds for the following 0.6km to the next left turn onto Brouwerijstraat - the turn isn't especially tight, but a rider who took it too fast and lost control might easily end up in the ditch running along the fields either side of the road. The road forks after 0.22km with the riders keeping right to take Klinkestraat as it winds its way over the next 2.56km, passing farms - always bringing the need for caution as farm vehicles frequently damage road surfaces and leave various slippery substances on the asphalt - and becoming Zuienkerkestraat at some point roughly halfway along. This section is narrow but flat and heads south-west, meaning that a tailwind is likely here; if a break has not yet been successful in escaping the peloton, this may well be the ideal place for one to do so in the hope of getting away so as to be able to enter the circuit with a healthy and potentially race-winning advantage - we can expect to see determined and repeated attacks by the lesser-known riders and teams here, aided by the fact that with the narrowness of the road the top teams might not be able to get chasers through to the front of the peloton in order to go after them.

Zuienkerkestraat ends with an easy left onto the Oostendse Steenweg followed immediately by a more difficult right onto the Ossenstraat - a combination of factors including narrowness and poor-quality road surface (which in places exposes the old cobbles below the asphalt) makes this a dangerous corner. After 0.54km, at a junction, Ossenstraat becomes Molenweg and leaves the riders at the mercy of the crosswinds for the next 2km to the left turn onto Mareweg: the junction between the two is made interesting by an unusual hazard - a tiny chapel, narrower than a large car, standing right in the middle of the road as though dropped there by a passing giant. Mareweg then continues for 1.85km, taking in some tight bends and passing more farms on the way to the next junction (30km from the start) where the riders will turn right to take the Oosternieuwweg-Zuid, a wide and mostly straight road that will carry them north for 3.95km, where a simple left takes them 4.4km to Wenduine on the coast - a fast section if the weather's calm, a long slog in the more probable headwind.

At Wenduine, the parcours turns left over a pedestrian crossing and takes Ringlaan heading west. This being an urban area, the road is the best quality since Westkappelle and - an even more welcome prospect for the riders - is sheltered from the wind by the surrounding buildings; however, at just 0.48km in length, it doesn't provide much of a window of opportunity for breaks to be caught or to escape. It ends where it crosses the Leopold II-Laan, becoming the very exposed coastal Koninklijkebaan running south-west along the sand dunes and through De Haan for 6.65km to a wide left turn onto the Vosseslag road by a flyover, at which point the race is just shy of 45km from the start line and dips back inland for the last section of the main parcours. Vosseslag is straight, in parts downhill and heads roughly south for most of the next 2.12km; a combination that, now that the entry into the circuit is only a few kilometres away, will generate some high speeds even if the expected tailwind isn't blowing, perhaps enabling a lead group to build up a good advantage that, provided they can work together to combat the wind during the five laps to come, could even win them the race. Over the last third of a kilometre before the next junction Vosseslag becomes Dorspstraat, then an easy right takes a road that the race book calls Zuid-Oostwijk and maps call Duiveketestraat; it's exposed to crosswinds for the next 1.6km where it ends at a crossroads and the riders turn right onto what definitely is Zuid-Oostwijk. After another 1.1km fighting the headwind, the race turns onto Batterijstraat for a short 0.29km section, then takes an easy left onto Koerslaan leading for 1.17km into Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe-ter-Duine, a town contiguous with Bredene-an-Zee. At the end of Koerslaan riders turn left on regularly-sized cobbles before following Kapelstraat for the remaining 1,150m to the finish line located by No.133, a bar called De Nieuwe Artiesten.

Circuit - click to enlarge

Upon first reaching it, the race isn't over: the riders still have to complete five laps of the 12.1km circuit, adding up to another 60.5km of racing - and with numerous tight corners, fast straights and plenty more wind, just about anything could still happen.

Having continued for 0.91km from the finish line, the riders come to an intersection between Kappellestraat and Koninklijkebaan, turning right on regular, brick-shaped cobbles and then right again to head north-east, following the road for 3.8km to a right turn onto Vosseslag where they'll repeat the same parcours as earlier to return to the finish line. With the coastal sections being so exposed to crosswinds, it's likely that most teams will want to remain together and form echelons; keeping the peloton together right into the final lap before trying to get their sprinters into place for a bunch finish.

Circuit profile - click to enlarge

Starters
To be confirmed

Weather
More information closer to race day

How to follow the race
Here's an idea that might appeal to some British fans: why not actually go to see the race? Belgium is far closer to the United Kingdom than many people realise and the race takes place within walking distance of the ferry terminal at Zeebrugge. Sailing as a foot passenger or with a bike from Hull on P&O on the 3rd of May and returning after the race on the 4th would cost £203. Calais to the finish line is only 84.9km, an easy distance on a bike and one that could be very simply tailored to visit some other famous cycling towns such as De Panne and Koksijde - sailing from Dover to Calais on the 2nd of May and returning on the 6th (thus leaving time to ride to and from the race), again with P&O, can cost as little as £19.50. If you go by bike rather than by car you can be certain of a warm welcome from the cycling-obsessed Belgians; if time is of the essence the Eurostar can get you to France in no time at all and driving the remaining distance to the race won't take much longer.

If you can't get to the race, following it is limited to Twitter - however, the good news is that the Lotto Cup has recently launched an official Twitter account, promising updates from and information on all the six races that make up the series. At the time of writing, they have only 79 followers - add yourself to the list and show more race organisers that Twitter is a great way to keep fans informed and that they need to follow the Cup's example.

Karl Lima (manager of the Hitec Products-UCK team) and Richard Steege (Boels-Dolmans mechanic) are both passionate fans of women's cycling and provide regular, informed updates from the races in which their teams take part. Bart Hazen (photographer and journalist) and Anton Vos (brother of Marianne) may also be at the race and are both worth following.

We hear frequently about how nice Marianne Vos is, how she manages to remain humble despite being a World Champion and, in the opinion of many fans, the greatest cyclist since Eddy Merckx (or even of all time) and how she's graceful even in (rare) defeat.

This is how nice she actually is: nice enough to finish this interview without telling the interviewer he really ought to learn something about women's cycling and storming off right after the first question...

Flèche Wallonne 2013 - Marianne Vos : "Génial...by Cyclismactu

That's supernice.

08-05.05.2013/12.05.2013 Official Site
China, Stage Race; One-day World Cup Road Race
UCI 2.1; CDM

So you thought the Energiewacht Tour was flat? Pah - it's positively mountainous when compared with Chongming Island! Held on an alluvial island in the Yangtze Delta, last year's parcours didn't exactly threaten altitude sickness, the highest point at any time during the event being 3.9m above sea level.

There are two races - the three-stage Tour takes place from Wednesday to Friday, then Sunday brings the fifth round (yes, more than halfway through already) of the UCI Elite Women's World Cup.

It is, as you might imagine, strictly for the sprinters with the climbers not even bothering to make the flight over. No information on this year's race has been made available as of yet; bookmark this page to check for updates. In the meantime, here's the stats from previous editions...

Stage Race
2012
Stage 1 Melissa Hoskins
Stage 2 Monia Baccaille
Stage 3 Melissa Hoskins
General Classification Melissa Hoskins
2011
Stage 1 Lizzie Armitstead
Stage 2 Ina-Yoko Teutenberg
Stage 3 Chloe Hosking
General Classification Ina-Yoko Teutenberg
2010
Stage 1 Ina-Yoko Teutenberg
Stage 2 Kirsten Wild
Stage 3 Ina-Yoko Teutenberg
General Classification Ina-Yoko Teutenberg
2009
Stage 1 Chloe Hosking
Stage 2 Marlen Jöhrend
Stage 3 Chloe Hosking
Atage 4 Marlen Jöhrend
General Classification Chloe Hosking
2008
Stage 1 Yun Mei Wu
Stage 2 Meifang Li
Stage 3 Thatsani Wichana
Stage 4 Cherise Taylor
General Classification Meifang Li
2007
Stage 1 Ellen van Dijk
Stage 2 Belinda Goss
Stage 3 Belinda Goss
Stage 4 Meifang Li
Points Classification Belinda Goss
General Classification Meifang Li

CDM Race
2012 Shelley Olds
2011 Ina-Yoko Teutenberg
2010 Ina-Yoko Teutenberg

16-18.05.2013
China, Three-stage Road Race
UCI 2.2

2012 winner Emile Moberg

China is a long way from Europe and America, where the majority of the UCI Elite Women are based, and even a considerable distance from Australia and New Zealand, where most of those who aren't from Europe and America are based. It makes practical sense, then, to hold China's third race in the series a few days after Chongming Island before the riders spend all but a few sorties into Canada, the USA, Brazil and the Middle East (where three races are due to take place in Syria, but might very easily not due to the situation in that country) in professional cycling's more usual haunts.

It sounds like a replay of Chongming with three stages on a large Chinese island, but is in fact Zhoushan is very different: whereas pancake-flat Chongming is formed from silt washed down the Yangtze River and doesn't rise any higher than a few metres out of the water, Zhoushan (in fact one of an archipelago of 1,390 islands) was created by different geological processes and boasts valleys, dales and a highest point 503m above sea level. Nevertheless, the first edition in 2012 was won by Hitec Products-UCK's sprinter Emilie Moberg; that year, there were two races with the one-day Tour of Zhoushan Island II being won by Chinese rider Xiao Hui Liu after the stage race. This year, only the stage race takes place.

There's no official website for the race as of yet and details are sketchy - more information will be added here as it becomes available.

2012 statistics
Stage 1 Emilie Moberg
Stage 2 Zhao Juan Meng
General Classification Emilie Moberg

17-22.05.2013
France, 7-stage Road Race
UCI 2.2

With less than a month to go before the race was due to start in 2012, organisers of the Tour Languedoc Roussillon, who had hoped their event would develop into a replacement for the defunct women's Grand Tour the Tour de l'Aude, announced that a combination of factors had left them with no option but to cancel the race - but promised to do all they could to bring it back for 2013.

The race is listed on the UCI calendar as taking place on the above dates, but there appears to be no website as of yet (the link on the UCI site doesn't work) and no details of the race have been available. However, there is also no suggestion that organisers have been unsuccessful in finding ways around their problems - more details here as they become available.

18.05.2013 (GP) and 20.05.2013 (Time Trial) Official Site and FaceBook
Canada, One-day Road Race, 132.34km (GP) and 9.2km (TT)
UCI 1.1

Joelle Numainville won in 2010 (when she
rode for Webcor), was second in 2011
(riding for Tibco) and was best-placed
Canadian rider with fourth place in 2012
(with current team Optum)

Back in 2010, Canada found itself suddenly lacking in UCI women's cycling races when several events - faced with financial difficulties or lack of interest - fell by the wayside. Fortunately, instead of deciding that this was evidence that the sport is less interesting than men's cycling and cutting funding as some national federations might do, the Canadian Cycling Association decided to look into why those races hadn't been as successful as they might have been and to investigate ways in which a new event might be given a better start in life.

The reason, they decided, wasn't that women's cycling is boring or less competitive than men's cycling; awareness of it just isn't sufficiently widespread - there is an audience for it, but most of that audience didn't know it yet. The answer they came up with was one that many professional riders and fans have been advocating for years: combine some UCI races with an already-popular family cycling event. That way, the existing event benefits when more professional cycling fans show up and the race benefits from a ready-made audience, many of whom then go home as new fans thinking that this pro cycling thing all seems rather good fun.

What's more, they had the perfect event in mind. Since 2004, Quebec's La Grande Visite de Gatineau cycling festival had been offering a popular mix of gran fondo, bike show, bike market, children's races, fairground attractions, food and all the other things that have made similar events - like Luxembourg's Festival Luxembourgeois du Cyclisme Féminin Elsy Jacobs and the Belgian Omloop van Borsele, both of which attract enormous crowds with more coming every year - as successful and glorious as they are in cycling's Low Countries homelands. So La Grande Visite gained a UCI time trial and a road race, and both of them (along with a couple of new men's races) were so popular that the entire shebang was renamed the Grand Prix Cycliste de Gatineau. And it's been getting bigger and better every year since.

If you're running an event designed to showcase cycling, you don't want to use the traditional point-to-point format in which riders begin in one town and then ride to another town a couple of hundred kilometres away, as is the case in stage racing; the problem being that people who haven't already fallen in love with cycling or casual fans really can't be bothered with waiting around for a few seconds of excitement when the race flashes past. Thus Gatineau, like many other races, uses the circuit format: the riders complete thirteen laps of a 10.18km route, allowing spectators to see them go by twelve times without even having to move. With each lap, the riders become more familiar with the parcours and the race becomes faster instead of slowing down due to fatigue and, often, a rider or group of riders who weren't among the favourites will make an all-or-nothing effort to get into the final lap with a big lead on the bunch, putting the favourites under pressure to respond. Watch the start, find a decent cafe and a decent beer with a view of one of the most crucial points along the parcours, then stroll to the finish line - there's no better way to watch a race.

Previous winners: 2010Joelle Numainville, 2011Giorgia Bronzini, 2012Ina-Yoko Teutenberg

Grand Prix Parcours

GP map - click to enlarge

The race begins on the Boulevard des Allumettières, a wide, smooth and flat road that promises a fast start despite the roundabout, left-hand bend, right-hand bend and right corner all within the first 0.5km; the right corner leads onto the Promenade du Lac des Fées heading north for 1.48km. The first 1.1km are entirely flat, then the road climbs 20m on the approach to the non-technical left corner onto the Rue Gamelin, giving an average gradient of 5.26% - just enough for a group of climbers to make a breakaway attempt (expect the less-well-known riders to do so early on, possibly in the first lap, to get a chance to ride out in front and please sponsors by getting noticed, and the favourites to do so later on nearer to the end of the race) in an effort to leave the sprinters behind.

The Rue Gamelin continues arrow straight south-west for 0.96km; the first 0.2km is flat and followed by a 17m descent in 0.234km, the average gradient of -7.26% being potentially enough for climbers in a break to lose their advantage as, being lighter than sprinters, they tend to lack the weight to maintain efficient control on downhill sections (this isn't true of all climbers, however; some don't fear descents and could maintain or even increase their lead here). There's a small climb of around 10m between 0.5km and 0.6km from the corner, the average gradient is therefore 10% - but this isn't an accurate description of the climb because most of it is far less steep; however, for a short while it tops 14%, which over the course of thirteen laps will take its toll. After descending for the next 0.225km, it climbs again; this time gaining 13m in 0.123km - an average gradient of 10.6% with a few much steeper points before it flattens out before the next corner.

GP altimetry - click to enlarge

There is loose gravel along the roadside at the left corner onto the Promenade Gatineau Sud, but there's plenty of room for riders to avoid it even if the corner is approached by a complete peloton. The section is 1km long and the first 0.27km descends steeply, losing 22m at an average gradient of -8.1% with plenty of scope to let the sprinters catch the climbers again, then following a flat central part riders climb 10m in 0.15km, average 6.6%. It ends at an easy right turn onto a 0.2km access road leading back onto the Boulevard des Allumettières, where the riders turn right to continue traveling west. The first 0.125km of the access road is flat, the rest descends very steeply between two rocky outcrops. If you take a closer look at the route on Google Earth, note that the mad -40% descents at the end of the access road and the first 0.15km of the Allumettières don't actually exist and appear as features on Google's elevation profiles due to the difference between the altitude of the road (which first passes through a cutting between the rocks and then over an embankment) and the surrounding landscape isn't taken into account - neither of them appear on the race organisers' profiles.

The race now continues along the westbound carriageway of the Boulevard des Allumettières for 1.7km, a flat and gently bending fast section that passes under a flyover 0.82km before a turning point where the riders switch onto the eastbound carriageway and head back the way they came, passing by the access road from earlier before coming to another one 1.82km from the turning point. Turning right onto it carries them up a small climb and onto the Promenade Gatineau heading north; they cross Allumettières on a flyover and then return to the first access road 0.34km after joining the Promenade, following it back down onto Allumettières where they travel east on the westbound carriageway for 1.31km to a roundabout, going right around it before heading west once more. 0.28km later - an ideal distance on a flat and straight road for a good bunch sprint, should the race come down to one - they arrive back at the finish line to either begin a new lap or complete the race.

Time Trial Parcours

TT map - click to enlarge

The time trial, which takes place two days after the Grand Prix, uses a parcours made up of the same roads but in a different order; this makes it 9.2km in length, slightly shorter than the GP's lap length of 10.18km. Evelyn Stevens won the first edition in 2010, Clara Hughes won in 2011 and 2012.

The start line is slightly west of that used in the GP, being located at the roundabout where the Rue Labelle crosses the Boulevard des Allumettières; instead of turning left onto the Promenade du Lac des Fées access road as they did in the GP, the riders continue west along the Allumettières for 2.59km, arriving at the same turning point between the carriageways. They then travel east for 1.82km to the Promenade Gatineau access road, turning right onto it and, rather than turning left after 0.33km on the Promenade to get back onto the Allumettières, proceed north-west for 1.41km to the Rue Gamelin - not an easy route at all due to the steep climb up to the junction. The Rue Gamelin carries the race just under a kilometre to the east, where a right turn leads onto the Promenade du Lac des Fées heading south for 1.48km - the first half-kilometre is downhill and should generate some very fast speeds - to the left turn and access road to get back onto Allumettières; once on Allumettières, the finish line is approximately 110m ahead at the roundabout where the race started.

TT altimetry - click to enlarge

Other Events
The women's Grand Prix and Chrono are just two of many events and activities that make up the GP Cycliste de Gatineau. In addition there road races for Junior, Senior and Masters men, the new-for-2013 Coupe du Québec Cuisses Or de l’Outaouais young riders' race; a 102km gran fondo promising some of the best roads and most beautiful scenery in Quebec; a Ride with the Pros event in which children aged 4-9 can ride on the circuit with some of the professional stars shortly before they race in the Grand Prix; and the 20km family nocturne that formed the very first Grande Visite de Gatineau back in 2004. Velo Village - a combination of bike show, bike market and food/music/art festival, takes place on the Rue Laramee immediately south of the Boulevard des Allumettières start lines throughout the duration of the meeting.

How to follow the race
Keep an eye on Twitter (#Gatineau?) to find riders, team officials and fans tweeting directly from the events.

Starters
No start list has yet been made available. Further details here as soon as possible.

Weather
More information closer to race day.

24.04.2013 Official Site
Netherlands, One-day Road Race, 120km
UCI 1.2

DIY and plant machinery rental companies aren't especially well known for their connections to the cycling world - in fact, they're not really well known for anything much and, upon finding themselves in need of the services of one, most people probably exhibit little brand loyalty and go to whichever one is closest or, if they have a choice, cheapest. So the fact that one such company - Boels, which has some 300 outlets in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as a few more in other nations - has decided to invest in women's cycling by sponsoring a team (Boels-Dolmans) and a selection of races (this one - hence the change from its previous name, the Valkenburg Hills Classic or, as it was before that, the Holland Hills Classic; the Holland Ladies' Tour, which was the Brainwash Ladies' Tour last year and will be the Boels Ladies' Tour this year; the Ronde van Drenthe) is a very promising indication that, in those countries at least, the sport is increasing in popularity. There'll be some cycling-obsessed executive who liked the idea in the head office at Sittard (where, incidentally, the race will both start and finish), but what really counts is that the bean-counters decided women's cycling offered a good enough chance of a return and gave the go-ahead.

So thank you, Boels; if I'm ever asked to recommend a plant hire firm by anyone from one of the countries in which you operate, I'll immediately recommend you. There, you see, other companies? Sponsoring women's cycling works. That's why Parkhotel Valkenburg, who are sponsoring the Mountains classification, is still involved too. Give it a try.

The Dutch have won most editions of this one with Mirjam Melchers-van Poppel taking the honours in first edition back in 2004. Anita Valen de Vries became the first Norwegian winner a year later and German Theresa Senff won in 2006. Dutch Marianne Vos of course gets her name onto the list and, having won in 2007 and 2009, she's the only rider to have won twice. Larissa Kleinman, another German, won in 2008 and the Belgian Grace Verbeke won in 2010. In 2011 the race wasn't held, it reappeared in 2012 when Vos was widely expected to take a third victory; however, an official motorbike on the parcours turned out to be too slow to get out of her path and caused a crash. Completing the race in very obvious pain, she was "only" able to manage second place with the same time as the winner, her team mate Annemiek van Vleuten; x-rays later revealed Vos had fractured her collarbone.

Parcours
Neither a map nor altimetry has yet been made available; however, since we know that the race is 120km long, where it starts and finishes and that it will in all likelihood pay a visit to Valkenburg and the Cauberg, it doesn't seem implausible that the riders will face either three laps around a circuit of approximately 40km or four around one of 30km, beginning at Sittard before heading south to Valkenburg, up and over Cauberg and then north back to Sittard again. A good 40km route would be easy to create, going Sittard-Munstergeleen-Puth-Schinnen-Hegge-Nuth-Hulsberg-Emmaberg-Valkenburg/Cauberg-Broekhem-Groot Haasdal-Schimmert-SBeek-Sittard; or vice-versa. Two possible routes are shown below, the official map will be added here as soon as it becomes available.

Start List
No start list has yet been published.

How To Follow The Race
In years gone by, the Holland Hills stood out among Dutch races in being really rather difficult to follow with little information on the official website, virtually no coverage elsewhere even days after the event and nothing at all on Twitter other than an occasional snippet from a fan at the race. Boels have set up a brand spanking new website; since their commercial webpages are clear, concise and very informative, this is hopefully a sign that things will change this year.

Hitec-UCK manager Karl Lima, Boels-Dolmans mechanic Richie Steege (being from Beek, Richie will be good for all sorts of info) and journalists Bart Hazen and Anton Vos are all, as always, the safest bets for accurate Twitter updates.

Weather
More information closer to race day.

25.05.2013 Official Site
Netherlands, One-day Road Race, 121.2km
UCI 1.2

Only the Dutch could ever have come up with a name such as the one this race bears. In fact, it's not really a name as such, but a description - "Rabobank-sponsored tour of seven villages in Aalburg" - and an accurate one at that, because a tour (sponsored by Rabobank) of seven villages in Aalburg is precisely what it is. One of those villages, incidentally, is Meeuwen; the most famous resident of which is a certain Marianne Vos, who has won four of the six editions of this race - 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011 (Loes Markerink won in 2008, when Vos was third; Annemiek van Vleuten won for Rabo in 2012 when Vos was recovering from a broken collarbone sustained at the Valkenburg Hills Classic) - and has given her name to the recreational cycling route that follows the same parcours as the race and to which a new bench is added every time she wins a World Championship (so the local authority had better arrange a good supply of benches for the future).

Parcours

The Elite Women's race (there are other events too, more information below) consists of three laps around a 28.5km circuit (shown on the map in purple) and three around a 11.3km circuit (shown in orange), making a total distance of 121.2km. The parcours winds around the polders and is entirely flat; however, the wind blows in uninterrupted from the North Sea and can make it a difficult race.

Setting out from Bergstraat in Wijk en Aalburg, the riders first travel 1.3km west to arrive at a bridge over the N267 marking the end of the neutralised zone and beginning of the race proper on Veldstraat. Immediately after the bridge lies a sweeping right-hander bend, followed a little over 100m later by a sweeping left-hander between two farms. 470m beyond the second bend is a crossroads; they continue straight ahead for another 1.43km on Veldstraat to a left turn leading onto Lange Pad. Sheep sometimes graze along the verges here and, if the weather's been wet, the droppings they leave on the road can become slippery - as can be deduced from the damaged bollards. Lange Pad travels south, completely straight and very much prone to strong crosswinds, for 1.81km to a junction with the N283; the riders go around a roundabout to cross it and enter Genderin on the Kelderstraat passing between a petrol station and a car dealership on the way into the village.

390m after the N283 crossing is a fairly tight right turn on regular cobbles (actually bricks) between a convenience store and a branch of Rabobank. This leads onto Hoofdstraat, which will carry the race west for 775m to the western end of the village where it becomes narrower and changes its name to Nieuwe Steege. 1.86km further on the race arrives at Eethen, crossing a bridge just before the village and then, 450m later, negotiating a left turn onto Molensteeg. The entry into the corner is simple, the exit out of it is made more technical by the presence of a traffic island with bollards between the two carriageways, reducing space dramatically - if the peloton is still complete when it reaches it, it would be possible for a small group of riders at the front of the bunch to power away in an attempt to form a break at this point whilst the main body of riders are squeezing through.

Kasteel Meeuwen

Molensteeg leads south for 480m, then crosses a bridge before continuing for a further 630m to a sharp right-hand bend followed 60m later by a wider left. There is a cycleway running along the road, separated from it by a strip of grass, which would be an ideal place from which to watch the riders as they go through this section. After the left bend, the road becomes Kruisstraat and leads into Drongelen; after 289m on it the riders reach a brickwork cobbled crossroads and turn sharply right onto Gansoyen. The road is surfaced with herringbone pattern bricks and there are two mini-roundabouts which may be slippery in the wet in the first 210m, then 300m later the race leaves Drongelen behind and crosses another bridge where the road becomes Eindesestraat and heads back into open countryside. There are several bends in the 700m immediately after the bridge: the first four (right, left, right, right) and gentle; the fifth, a left, is much tighter. The remaining 1.08km of the section is much straighter and ends at a tight right turn onto Matersteeg heading north through an avenue of trees (providing welcome shade if the weather's as hot as it was in 2012). It then crosses a bridge and, 527m ahead, arrives at a junction where the riders turn left onto Moleneind to enter Meeuwen, home of Marianne Vos. 100m after the turn is a T-junction where another left leads onto Dorpstraat, carrying the race through the middle of the village and onward for 1.14km to a junction with the N283 - it's easy to see why Vos chooses to live here, being an attractive village with good transport links but sufficiently small and anonymous for someone as famous as she is to be left alone.

2012 winner Annemiek van Vleuten

Crossing the N283 takes the race north along the Meeuwensesteeg, from where the Kasteel Meeuwen can be seen - it dates from the 19th Century and is surrounded by the moat that once encircled the proper castle that was demolished to make way for the present building. Meeuwensesteeg runs straight for 1.4km with, in places, some trees to offer a little protection from crosswinds, heading north to a bollarded right turn onto Hillsestraat leading into Babyloniënbroek. The road becomes Broeksestraat with two bends, a sweeping left and right, just beyond the village; there's another bridge 710m later, then the road becomes known as the Klaverplak and continues for 2.01km to a left turn leading onto Dodesteeg - the surroundings may seem familiar because the turn is only 60m west of the Veldstraat/Lange Pad junction the riders used earlier on. The corner isn't technical, but Dodesteeg is narrow enough to cause the peloton to have to change shape in order to fit onto it, creating another opportunity for a break; last year the trees on the left of the road blocked the wind and reflected the afternoon sun onto the road, making the 740m section leading to the crossroads unbearably hot and leading to several abandons. After the crossroads the road becomes the Zwaansheuvel; another crossroads lies 466m ahead and becomes Duizendmorgen; 376m after that it crosses a bridge spanning the N267 before continuing for 387m to a third crossroads where the riders turn right onto what is at first Middenweg before becoming Veensesteeg half a kilometre ahead.

Can Vos take a fifth victory? Probably - she is Vos,
after all!

2.02km from the crossroads is a T-junction in Veen where the riders turn right, traveling south for 60m along Schmitzstraat to a left turn onto Nieuwstraat; 320m ahead they turn right onto Rivelstraat and head south, crossing the 3km to the finish line point a few metres before passing by Korvertweg on the left. Rivelstraat bends gradually to the east and becomes Engelsestoof as it approaches Spijk and, at the next T-junction, the riders turn right onto Perzikstraat, following it for 239m before turning right to take De Kroon; 440m ahead the road forks and the riders keep right for Grote Kerkstraat heading back into Wijk en Aalburg, then turn right to continue on the same road at the next T-junction 313m ahead. 335m later, a right carries the race back onto Bergstraat where the riders continue for 237m, passing over the start line to reach the finish line at the junction with Anjelierstraat.

The long circuit described above is completed three times. Having passed over the finish line for a third time, the riders continue along Bergstraat and take the same route west along Veldstraat. At the junction with Lange Pad, they go straight ahead rather than turning left, arriving 60m later at the junction with Dodesteeg that featured in the long circuits; they turn right here and follow the same route via Veen and Spijk leading back into Wijk en Aalburg. This circuit will also be completed three times.

Start List
To be confirmed

Other Events
In addition to the Elite Women's race, there are a total of nine Youth races suited to various categories and a race for handcyclists. The official website is still showing last year's programme; the 2013 should soon be listed here. Other festivities and events also take place; the programme should appear soon here.

How to follow the race
Karl Lima (manager of the Hitec Products-UCK team), Richie Steege (mechanic of Boels-Dolmans), Bart Hazen (photographer and journalist) and Anton Vos (journalist and brother of Marianne) did such an admirable job of providing accurate updates last year that it was possible to follow what was happening in the race on Twitter - a good thing, because as is so often the case with women's cycling there was no other coverage.

Weather
More information closer to race day

Broken shoulder for Wild - All over at Orlova for RusVelo - English Op de Troon on the way - Afghan National Women's Team aiming for Rio - Johnson HealthTech GP details announced - UK and Worldwide

(Issue 1 of what I'm going to try to make a regular feature on Les Déesses - a weekly digest of women's cycling news stories, anecdotes and links that you might not have seen elsewhere)

Broken shoulder for Wild

Kirsten Wild

Kirsten Wild, Dutch powerhouse sprinter for Argos-Shimano, crashed early on in the Omloop van Borsele on the 20th and finished the race in 20th place, taking 10'23" longer than winner Vera Koedooder (Sengers) to complete the parcours. Initial investigation after the race failed to show any serious injury; subsequent examinations and x-rays have revealed that she has fractured her shoulder and has fluid on the joint and a partially torn tendon, meaning that she'll be unable to compete at next month's Tour of Chongming Island - where the flat parcours guarantees the sort of no-holds-barred bunch sprints at which she excels.

"The pain is bearable but it is just impossible to lift my arm," the 30-year-old says on her team's website. She'll now undergo physiotherapy and hopes to attend a training camp beginning in the latter half of May. Argos-Shimano report here.

RusVelo: All over at Orlova

The Gracia Orlova (taking place in the Czech Republic until the 28th) ended early and in rather embarrassing circumstances for RusVelo- on Friday Natalia Boyarskaya finished Stage 3 in fourth place, Alexandra Burchenkova was in ninth place overall at +1'33" and the team was fourth in the teams classification. Then, on Saturday morning, they arrived at Lichnov ready to start the stage and discovered... that they were in a different Lichnov, some 70km from the one hosting the stage start. The same mistake has been made by other teams in the past; this year RusVelo were the only victims.

Marianne's book will be
published in English

English language Vos autobiography to be published

World Champion and Officially The Best Cyclist In The World Marianne Vos' Op de Troon (which translates every so slightly unfortunately into English as On The Throne; which for the benefit of non-British readers is slang for "having a crap") was published recently, much to the delight of those womens' cycling fans who possess the necessary Dutch language vaardigheden to read it. Geweldig nieuws, then, that an English version is in the pijpleiding - more details here and on Twitter just as soon as I know more*.

*PS: I can't really speak Dutch, and apologise to the Dutch people if Google's just tricked me into saying something awful about your grandmothers.

Afghan women aiming for Rio

Female pro cyclists face certain issues that male cyclists don't - issues such as the fact that they don't get a guaranteed minimum wage (the men do), the ridiculous prize money at races ("Just won the Ronde van Vlaanderen? Chapeau - here's €1,128, quite a bit less than you'd get paid of you gave up cycling and put in a full week behind the counter in McDonald's instead"), the uncertainty over whether your sponsors will still be around next season or decide out of the blue that they're going to back a men's team instead and the uncertainty over whether or not the entire Elite Women series will still exist next season or vanish into a huge abyss of debt and National Federation apathy. On the bright side, riders can generally go out on training rides without worrying that they might be shot at or kidnapped and executed by a load of fundamentalist nutters who think that God doesn't like women to ride bikes for some reason - very, very real possibilities for the new Afghan National Women's Team. Read more about them and their dreams of Rio here.

Johnson HealthTech details announced

Seven-time British CX champion and
2011 GP winner HelenWyman (who is
also super-friendly and very much
worth a follow on Twitter) returns to
the Johnson HealthTech GP

After only two years, the Johnson HealthTech GP - a series of races in which Britain's best female riders compete on tight, fast, challenging urban circuits - is already one of the most popular competitive cycling events in the UK. Stoke-on-Trent will host the first round, taking place on the 21st of May - and if you can't make it to the race, highlights will be broadcast on ITV4 the following day.

Round 1 - 21.05.2013
Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
Round 2 - 0.05.2013
Colchester, Essex
Round 3 - 11.06.2013
Woking, Surrey
Round 4 - 13.06.2013
Aylsham, Norfolk
Round 5 - 14.06.2013
Ipswich, Suffolk

Other News
UK
Laura Trott to race Elveden Estate Cycle Series, 11.05.2013 (Eastern Daily Press)
Sophie Faulkner wins Tudor Grange No Frills Racing (Solihull Observer)
Brailsford hails rising Welsh female talents (Wales Online)
Worldwide
Samantha de Riter leads Mersey Valley Tour (The Mercury, Australia)
Moolman-Pasio realises dreams in Belgium (SuperSport)

Tweets

Matrix Fitness RA ‏@onthedrops
Great 'Introducing' article with @jesiwak thanks to @TourSeries - http://thetour.co.uk/news/1542.php#.UXwUdrWce7T… - #ClickThruThurs @JHTUK

Lauren Kitchen ‏@LaurenKitchen1
Yay! Best news when u realize all that suffering was worth it when u get to the finish line to hear that @GiorgiaBronzini wins!

TeamCrescent D.A.R.E ‏@TeamCrescent
@EmmaAhlstrand gives the team our first victory of this season! 1st place on the criterium in Hammarö 3-dagars. Big congratulations!

Bridie O'Donnell ‏@Bridie_OD
83 women across 3 grades will race #TOSW this w/e in Warrnambool, 40 of whom are 1st timers. Pretty fantastic to see #womenscycling growing!

Roger H. ‏@rogerha
All today's winners & jersey holders on the podium of #ElsyJacobs #womenscycling race in Garnich, Luxembourg pic.twitter.com/UWuxgOOBYi

Competitive Cyclist ‏@CompCyclist
Crush it, ladies! RT: @DNA_Plan7_K4: Beautiful day at the depot! @CompCyclist #TourofTheDepot pic.twitter.com/DT0otfGbsN”

Wiggle Honda ‏@WiggleHonda
The amazing @GiorgiaBronzini wins GP Elsy Jacobs in Luxembourg! @Wigglebikeshop @Honda_Uk @honda_australia pic.twitter.com/EBxmYJtiG8 #Champion

26.05.2013 Technical Guide here
Belgium, One-day Road Race, 133.1km
UCI 1.2

In 2012, Gooik-Geraardsbergen-Gooik formed part of the Lotto Cup; in 2013, there's precious little information on the race to be found - the link provided by the UCI and elsewhere to the official site leads to the site of Telenet (presumably a sponsor, but with no obvious link to a page with race details). Googling the name only comes up with start lists offered by a few sites (and with the exception of the excellent Cycling Fever, which informs us all that Emma Johansson and Marianne Vos will be taking part, none of them know anything either). The average casual fan, those who wanted to know a few facts and figures but isn't especially bothered about the finer details of the race, will have given up at that point, perhaps assuming that Gooik-Geraardsbergen-Gooik is just the latest in a succession of races to have fallen prey to financial pressures, vanishing forever as a result. So, that fan forgets about it all and, if he or she fancies a bit of cycling action that weekend he or she will have a look at the Boucles de l'Aulne-Châteaulin, Race Horizon Park or Città di San Vendemiano-GP Industria e Commercio, three men's races all taking place on the same day, each of them with an excellent website to keep fans up to date, and by 2014 he or she will have forgotten Gooik-Geraardsbergen-Gooik ever existed... which, ladies and gentlemen, is why it's absolutely essential that all organisers of women's cycling races follow the example set by races such as the Energiewacht Tour and Trofeo Binda and provide up-to-date informative websites. Races, and women's cycling, need fans in order to survive; but we need information if we're going to be fans.

Anyway, being an obsessed fan rather than a casual one and therefore somewhat more determined (plus the chances of there being more than a handful of English-language pages covering this race are minute, so it's a good chance to drive up the ol' hit counter a bit), I eventually tracked down a technical guide. So, here's the preview.

The Parcours

This is another race in which the organisers have wisely adopted the big circuit/little circuit format that consists of one large main section followed by several laps of a small section, thus allowing fans to see the riders go past (or to move to different locations) several times, rather than having to wait at the roadside for just one glimpse. The Grote Ronde, or main section, is 58.9km; the small circuit is 10.6km long and will be completed seven times to give a total distance of 133.1km. A look at the altimetry profile reveals that this most definitely isn't a race for the sprinters with four GPM climbs and numerous smaller hills along the main section and a selection of smaller climbs that, although not as steep, will have a painful combined effect over the course of the seven laps around the small circuit. The final approach to the finish line is also uphill.

Gooik, home to around 9,000 people, is a pleasant-looking town that seems to have grown up along the various roads connecting it to other places rather around a central feature, making it look a bit like a spider's web on the map. The Grote Ronde main section begins on the flat cobbles of Dorpstraat by Cafe Feestzaal de Vrede, within sight of the impressive 12th Century Sint-Niklaaskerk church, then follows the road as it bends to the east and becomes Wijngaardstraat 100m from the start line; 730m from the bend is a roundabout where the race turns south onto the N285 Edingsesteenweg opposite a spectacularly boring shopping centre. The N285 is wide, smooth and, for the first 800m, downhill; there are two small climbs in the section's remaining 3.3km at Lerbeeke and just before Brugge but their gradient is only a little over 4% and won't slow the race down, so there's very little opportunity for an early breakaway. At Brugge, 4.9km from the start of the race, the parcours turns right onto N272 Langestraat at a junction made technical and potentially hazardous by the presence of a slightly raised brickwork cobbled section running between the two roads - it's the perfect place for spilled oil, loose gravel and an assortment of puncture-causing debris to collect.

Big circuit altimetry

Langestraat, also wide and smooth with three 20m climbs no steeper than 4.5% runs west for 6km, then the riders turn right onto the N255 Ninoofsesteenweg. The junction isn't technical and leads via a small climb (maximum 6.8%) into Vollezele before the parcours continues north, mostly downhill, to Denderwindeke and, 15.6km from the start, a left turn with another slightly raised brick section leading onto Krepelstraat which runs west for 3.6km via Nieuwenhove, uphill all the way (but not steeper than 4.6%) to a right-hand junction onto Heidestraat. The following 100m climb as steeply as 6%, then the road flattens out for the next 260m until the riders arrive at a left turn onto Bovenkassei, a corner that may prove dangerous to the poor condition of the road surface. The road passes through forest (more prime puncture territory) for 400m, then emerges for 1.5km to Zandbergen; all but the first stretch into the forest is downhill and, in places, descends steeply enough to put those climbers who dislike descending (as many of them do, due to lacking the weight needed to keep a bike steady on a downhill) at a disadvantage - this could, therefore, be the first time in the race that a break has a chance to get away from the peloton. In Zandbergen, 21.7km from the start and on more brick cobbles, the race turns left onto Peperstraat and begins to travel south-west. Peperstraat becomes Lestpolder and then Rijtestraat en route to Grimminge, then once more changes name to become Klakvijverstraat after the village; a fork in the road at Onkerzele marks 24.7km ridden and the peloton stays left to take Onkerzelestraat. The first part of the Zandbergen to Onkerzelestraat section is flat, but over the last 950m it climbs approximately 25m at an average gradient of 3.6%, maximum 6%. After 26.2km, on the outskirts of Onkerzele, the riders turn right onto the much narrower Kampstraat, following it downhill for 480m to a left turn at a crossroads leading onto Volderstraat. 2.23km later, the section ends at a large roundabout on the edge of Geraardsbergen (Grammont), the largest town on the parcours and 28.8km from the start line.

Riders tackle the Muur van Geraardsbergen
during the 2006 Ronde van Vlaanderen voor
Vrouwen

At the roundabout, the race continues straight ahead on Weverijstraat for 410m, then turns left onto Denderstraat which becomes Abdijstraat after a couple of hundred metres. After 388m, it turns right for Vesten leading onto Oudenbergstraat and, 30km from the start, to the first of the big GPM climbs - the Muur van Geraardsbergen, also known as the Mur de Grammont or Kapelmuur for the little chapel on top. Narrow, cobbled and in places as steep as 20%, the climb is well-known to cyclists as the scene of many decisive moments in numerous races including the men's and women's Ronde van Vlaanderen; the cobbles are laid in a horizontal pattern designed to make life easier for pedestrians (and coincidentally much harder for cyclists) by acting as low steps, according to COTACOL it's the hardest climb in Flanders, but with 101km still to go to the end of the race it's unlikely to prove decisive today.

Leaving the Muur via Driepikkel, the riders soon come to a right turn onto Oude Steenweg. Going straight ahead at the crossroads 70m from the turn carries them back onto Onkerzelestraat, then 400m the road forks and they stay right to take Brusselsestraat heading south-east for 1.5km to Atembeke - the first 750m descends steeply, giving riders left behind on the Muur a chance to reduce any gap the climbers gained. They follow the road left, then 40m later right to pass through the village, arriving 32.8km from the start at a left turn onto Kapellestraat, leading onto the second GPM climb Bosberg.

Bosberg has, since 1950 when it featured in the Omloop Het Volk, appeared in many races over the years and has frequently been the final climb in the Ronde van Vlaanderen. The maximum gradient is 11%; the cobbles start as the road enters the forest and are made more demanding by occasional concrete slabs. The forest is Raspaillebos which, long before it became a nature reserve, contained a monastery; deep among the trees is a tiny chapel called Juffrouwkapel which, sadly, seems to attract more vandals than pilgrims nowadays. Once over the crest of the climb the road becomes Heirbaan and continues to a point 35.1km from the start where the riders keep right to take Dorekensstraat heading downhill to Waarbeke; at 36.9km the riders turn right onto the very narrow Bronstraat - if a small group got away on the preceding descent, they may choose this section to increase speed in an effort to get away knowing that the restricted road width will make it more difficult for the peloton to organise chasers. After 82m, they turn left onto Steenberg; 1.7km further on at substantial redbrick farm buildings the road becomes Congobergstraat and begins the third GPM climb, Congoberg. It's not such a well-known hill as the Muur and Bosberg, but coming so soon after them and with a maximum gradient when climbed from the west of over 8% it's definitely a challenge and could very easily end any break that got away on Bronstraat.

At the top of Congoberg, 39.8km from the start, the race turns right onto Reepingestraat and heads downhill for the next 1.7km on a road straight and wide enough for even the lightest climbers to let gravity do the work, making it a very fast section. It ends with a tight left-hand bend (with a ditch waiting to catch out anyone who doesn't brake in time on the far side of the road), then 270m ahead the riders turn left to join the same section of the N255 Ninoofsesteenweg they took to leave Langestraat earlier on. They continue through Vollezele and back into Denderwindeke, but this time turn right onto Linkebeek 120m before the point where earlier they turned left onto Krepelstraat. 924km after the turn they turn right again to take Vreckom for 1.5km to another right onto Opperstebosstraat - a difficult corner as the smooth tarmac on the approach is replaced by rough cobbles just around the apex. 400m ahead the cobbles continue as the race turns left onto Blijkheerstraat, then for the next 650m until they give way to asphalt for the remaining 280m to the gentle right turn onto Bergstraat which leads to a tight left onto Vollezelestraat 51km from the start. Bergstraat to Vollezelestraat is the fourth and final GPM climb, ascending around 50m with an average gradient of 7.3%, rising to 12% at the steepest point by the forest on the right.

In Gracht, 52.3km from the start, the road forks and the riders go left to take Kloosterstraat into Oetingen. At a gentle right bend it becomes Kerkstraat, then past the crossroads just ahead Lenniksestraat leading 1.6km to a junction with the N28 Ninoofsesteenweg, where the race turns left - there's a traffic island in the middle of the N28, reducing space if the peloton try to get round en masse. They remain on the N28 for 1.7km; the first 1.5 are downhill and the entire stretch is smooth and straight, so it'll be no time at all until they arrive at the right turn onto Strijlandstraat 56.7km from the start. The road bends to the right 110m later, then proceeds for 2km to a left/right pair of bends where it becomes Terlostreet; at another left bend 0.5km ahead it becomes Koekoekstraat leading for 650m to a gentle right bend onto Dorpstraat in Gooik, at which point the finish line is 150m ahead.

Small circuit altimetry

The little circuits begin at the same point at the big circuit and take the same route onto the N285 Edingsesteenweg. However, instead of continuing south to Langestraat, the parcours turns right at Leerbeek 2.9km from the start line to take the N28 Ninoofsesteenweg heading west for 3.99km (a small climb with a maximum gradient of 6.3% in the first kilometre will have a big effect over the course of seven laps) to the same junction with Strijlandstraat, then retraces the route back into Gooik.

Start List
To be confirmed

Weather
More information closer to race day

How to follow the race
With no official website available at the time of writing it's impossible to know what sort of coverage will be available. As ever, Karl Lima (manager of the Hitec Products-UCK team), Richie Steege (mechanic of Boels-Dolmans), Bart Hazen (photographer and journalist) and Anton Vos (journalist and brother of Marianne) will be the best choice for regular informed and informative live updates from the race.

All the photographs below are by Bell X One, who has very kindly given me permission to use them here. I was going to use them in a report, but they speak for themselves - I haven't seen any better images from this year's race and if you take the time to look at all the images on the owner's website, I think you'll agree.

Bell X One Photography

(please do not re-use without owner's permission)

Karla Boddy wins Cheshire Classic - Wiggle-Honda at Nocturne - UK women-only MTB marathon - Sheffield GP secure women's race sponsor - Kaarle McCulloch wins Sportstar award - other news - Tweets - Photo of the Week

Karla Boddy wins Cheshire Classic

Karla Boddy

She only had two team mates to back her up (other riders had seven) and was far from a favourite to win, but Karla Boddy (MG Maxifuel) knows that clever tactics will frequently prove mightier than brute strength. After she'd spent the Cheshire Classic (28th April) biding her time in the peloton, preserving her strength while attention was drawn away by the more crowd-pleasing, theatrical attacks of Penny Rowson (Breast Cancer Care) and Amy Roberts (Wiggle-Honda), most of those riders who were favourites had probably forgotten that she was even there; or if they knew they didn't pay any notice. Until, that is, she launched her sprint some 300m from the finish line during the tenth and final lap of the 7.7km circuit, catching the peloton by surprise. Matrix Racing Academy's Emma Grant responded quickest and went after her - but had she been quick enough? Even the two riders weren't sure at first, with joyous fans taking great pleasure in being able to reassure Boddy that she'd won. More here.

Cheshire Classic Top Ten
1 Karla Boddy (MG-Maxifuel)
2 Emma Grant (Matrix Racing Academy)
3 Emily Kay (Scott Contessa Epic)
4 Amy Roberts (Wiggle-Honda)
5 Gabriella Shaw (Breast Cancer)
6 Charline Joiner (MG-Maxifuel)
7 Hannah Walker (Matrix Racing Academy)
8 Louise Mahe (Team Mulebar Girl-Sigma Sport)
9 Amy Hill (Abergavenny RC)
10 Kayleigh Brogan (Breast Cancer Care)

Rowsell, Trott and King

Wiggle-Honda to race at London Nocturne
The Women's Criterium at the IG Markets London Nocturne has, within just a few years, become one of the most prestigious women's cycling events in the UK, able to attract the top names in the sport - to take part in the race and to support its future, as became necessary last year when pressure from British Cycling (who were concerned that the riders might be too tired to take part in a BC event the following day) very nearly led to the women's race being cancelled. This year, it's pulled in none other than the best-known women's team in the country: Rochelle Gilmore's British-registered Wiggle-Honda are sending Olympic stars Jo Rowsell, Dani King and Laura Trott to make the team's British racing debut at the event, which takes place at Smithfield Market on the 8th of June. More details here.

Britain's first women-only MTB marathon
I don't usually cover mountain biking on this site (the excellent Mountain Biking UK magazine and others began reporting on female riders and races right from the start of their existence, at a time when the road cycling mags didn't seem aware that women's road cycling even existed), but news that Wales is about to host Britain's very first women-only MTB marathon is well worth spreading.

The non-competitive event takes place near Builth Wells and features 20 and 40km off-road routes with something suitable for everyone; there is camping available and plenty of stuff to amuse children and dads whilst the mums are busy riding. For more information, see British Cycling.

Sheffield GP secure women's race sponsorship

Sheffield Grand Prix ‏@SheffGrandPrix
More big news. We are proud to announce that we have secured a headline sponsor for the Women's Grand Prix. All set for a fantastic race!!

McCulloch and Meares, 2011

Kaarle McCulloch is Tynan-Honda Sportstar of the Year
Chances are that, as the Olympic glow fades with every passing month since August last year, before too long the majority of the world's population will have once again forgotten that women's cycling exists as a sport. In the meantime, however, we can all enjoy seeing the athletes receive the attention they so rightfully deserve - as was the case with Australia's Kaarle McCulloch when she was named Tynan-Honda Sportstar of the Year this week. McCulloch, born in New South Wales, became Elite National 500m Champion for the fifth time in January this year.

McCulloch received the award for her bronze-winning Team Pursuit performance alongside Anna Meares - Australia's first track cycling medal at the Games.

Other News
UK
Cheshire Classic (Northwich Guardian)
An insight into cycle racing by Karla Boddy (ThameNews)
Jess Varnish: Pendleton left a void (Track Cycling News)
Chris Newton is new British Cycling women's Team Pursuit coach (Eurosport)
Worldwide
Grey Ghost Bicycles will host a Women’s Cycling Series event featuring Megan Guarnier (PostStar, NY, USA)
Tunisia to host third Arab Women's Cycling Championship (Magharebia)
Women-only cyclocross team races onto the Bay Area cycling scene (Bay Area Living)
Putting on a show in the Norwegian Cup (Tone Hattland, Cycling News)
Celebrate women in cycling on Women's Ride Day (CatWalkChatt, North Georgia, USA)
Cyclists get hearts racing at Spartanburg's Spring Fling (GoUpstate, USA)
All-women bike rides around the globe (Canoe Travel)
Bangladesh Ansar won two gold medals in the 8th Bangladesh Games (Financial Express)
Wiasak 'stoked' with hard-fought time-trial win (Canberra Times)

Tweets
Ashleigh Moolman ‏@ashleighcycling
"@TheDailyPeloton: Giro Rosa unveils participating teams and stages http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=20520… #womenscycling @GiroRosa2013" looking forward :-)

Marianne Vos ‏@marianne_vos
Meet the riders of my team @RaboLivGiant: http://youtu.be/kqsTNstYHsQ
Proud to be part of this motivated group!

CyclingFlash ‏@CyclingFlash
VIDEO Women Cyclingfever: G. Bronzini (@GiorgiaBronzini, @WiggleHonda) wins 1st stage #ElsyJacobs 2013 - http://women.cyclingfever.com/stage.html?etappe_idd=MjkxMzQ=&_ap=video…

Photo of the Week

From the Gracia Orlova
Photo by Bell X One; do not use without owner's
permission

Lucy Garner wins at Chongming - ITV4's Johnson HealthTech Tour coverage details - more news to come

Lucy Garner wins Stage 1 at Chongming

Lucy Garner wins Stage 1, Tour of Chongming Island
(image credit: 1t4i)

Sprinter Kirsten Wild was widely expected to dominate on the pancake-flat parcours at Chongming Island until a crash at the Omloop van Borsele left her with a broken shoulder. Wild, who is women's cycling's answer to Mark Cavendish, leaves a gap in the peloton that is very hard to fill - certainly one that few people would have expected an eighteen-year-old in her first year with an Elite team to be able to slot into, even if that eighteen-year-old does have two Junior World Champonships to her name. Argos-Shimano manager Jorn Knops is apparently something of a visionary, then, because he set up the team to support Lucy Garner in the first stage. She repaid his faith with interest, delivering her first professional stage victory.

"The plan was to prepare the sprint for Lucy. In the beginning the team looked after Lucy to keep her toward the front and make sure that she wouldn’t waste any energy," Knops says. "She has already progressed a lot this season, not only physically but also tactically, and it’s remarkable that she could stay so calm in a chaotic sprint like this. I am very pleased with this win."

The stage went smoothly until the final 2km when a crash threw the peloton into a state of flux and prevented several teams from putting their own plans into action, but this in no way detracts from Garner's achievement - her main rival in the dash to the line was none other than Chloe Hosking of Hitec Products-UCK, a rider who has outsprinted Marianne Vos and Giorgia Bronzini in the past. The next 69 riders over the line were awarded the same time (1h47'18") as Garner who, following bonification, has a 1" advantage in the General Classification.

Tour of Chongming Island Stage 1 results

ITV4 Johnson HealthTech Tour coverage details

Round 1 (Stoke-on-Trent) 22:00, Wednesday 22 May
Round 2 (Colchester) 22:00, Friday 30 May
Round 3 (Woking) 22:00, Wednesday 12 June
Round 4 (Aylsham) 22:00, Friday 14 June
Round 5 (Ipswich) 22:00, Monday 17 June

Coverage will be provided as part of ITV4's Pearl Izumi Tour coverage. In 2012, the Johnson HealthTech Tour only got a few minutes in each episode; we'll have to hope that following the enormous popularity of the Women's Road Race at the Olympics the producers will experiment with giving the women a little more airtime. More details (including coverage of the men's races) here.

02.06.2013 Official Site
USA, One-day Road Race
UCI 1.2

Click to enlarge

Despite looking like it might become the future home of women's cycling when a total women's prize fund of $100,000 was offered at the 2012 Exergy Tour - the largest ever in a women's cycling event - the USA almost didn't make it into the list UCI Elite Women's races this year with all the events to have taken place in 2012 coming to a halt for various reasons, most commonly difficulty in securing sponsorship; Philadelphia's famous Liberty Classic, run in conjunction with the men's Philadelphia Cycling Classic, was among them. Civic leaders eager to make sure enormous crowds of cycling fans continued to visit their region stepped in, wanting to keep their city on the international cycling map and make sure that fans bringing spending money with them kept visiting - it looked like the race might have been saved after all. Until January 2013 that is, when an official announcement brought the sad news that they'd been unable to find the financial backing they needed and the race had been cancelled again as a result.

However, those civic leaders didn't give up, which suggests they genuinely care about the event as well as the revenue it brings. Eventually, they managed to persuade local firms Parx Casino and New Penn Financial came on board as sponsors (Parx Casino have promised half a million dollars over two years, hopefully safeguarding the race for 2014 too) and the race was back on.

Changes needed to be made. Some local residents opposed the race and didn't want it to go ahead (it had an "escalating party scene" that attracted "unwanted, often alcohol-fueled, activities," apparently - wonder what they'd make of Dutch Corner on the Alpe d'Huez?), so organisers have slightly reduced the length of the parcours, making it 4.35km shorter than last year, and redesigned the course to make it more compact so that it can be more effectively policed (policing also becomes cheaper, as does paying local authorities for road closures and the clean up operation afterwards). The most important parts have been preserved with the same fast straights, tight 90-degree corners (the roads are set out according to a typically American grid pattern) and the notorious Manayunk Wall climb all remaining part of the route, so hopefully this year the race will prove to be a success with fans as well as acceptable to those locals who didn't like it in years gone by. In fact, the organisers are so certain that their changes will prove to be improvements that they claim this isn't a continuation of the Liberty Classic, insisting that it's an entirely new race - hence the new Philly Cycling Classic name.

One of the biggest changes is that the women's race will now begin before the men's, rather than both races being on the parcours at the same time - a logistical nightmare in previous years whenever one peloton came close to catching up with the other. Another big change, welcome among riders and fans alike, is the introduction of prize fund equality - the pot for the women's race is the same as for the men's at $30,000. "Equal pay for equal pain" say the organisers, and as far as I'm concerned they deserve our full support just for that.

View 2013 Philly Cycling Classic course map in a larger map

The Parcours
The parcours is 19.3km in length with the women completing five laps to finish the race. Other than the reduced length, the biggest change is that the race both starts and finishes at the top of the Manayunk Wall, a climb that gains 71m in 0.64% at an average gradient of 11.1% with a steepest point at 17%. Riders set out from Lyceum Avenue and turn right onto Pechin Street, beginning a straight section leading downhill for 370m which should ensure a fast start. The hill is gradually steeper towards the 90-degree right corner onto Roxburgh Avenue at the end - there's plenty of room, but still plenty of scope for an early crash if the peloton turn at full speed.

Altimetry - click to enlarge

Roxburgh Avenue is flat and straight; the riders remain on it for only 160m before a 90-degree left carries them onto Manayunk Avenue for a 1.01km stretch south-east to Ridge Avenue, accessed by a right-hand turn that, while not as tight as the last corners, has a drain cover roughly in the middle and looks like the ideal place to find slippery patches of spilled oil and diesel - it could be a hazardous spot in wet weather. Ridge Avenue heads south briefly, then follows a sweeping left-hand curve before merging with Main Street on the right and then continues for 200m to a flyover - once again, most of the section is downhill and will generate high speeds, probably preventing breakaways. The Google map isn't particularly clear at this point and appears to show the route turns right at the flyover to join Kelly Drive; closer examination shows that this is impossible. The ParxCasino map seen at the top of this article doesn't offer as much detail, but seems to show a slightly different route that has the riders pass under the flyover and then continue for 100m before turning right onto an access road leading onto Kelly Drive. This route then continues for 2.95km, following the banks of the river and passing under several bridges, until it arrives at the turn-off for Reservoir Drive on the right and is flat throughout.

The parcours changes nature once on Reservoir Drive, climbing (but without GPM points) during the first half-kilometre of a 2.25km section. It flattens as it passes by a baseball field on the right and a reservoir on the left, then descends steeply over the last 0.6km after turning away from the lake to return to Kelly Drive through the tunnel at the bottom of the hill, where the riders turn left at the statue of Ulysses S. Grant - the corner isn't tight but could be dangerous for any rider who fails to scrub off speed at the bottom of the descent. Ahead is a 0.74km flat section that starts off picturesque, running between the trees and the river, then gets even better after passing under a grand stone bridge and through a tunnel cut into a rocky outcrop. The left turn is 70m beyond the tunnel, just before another bridge, and presents no challenge; however, once around it the riders begin climbing Sugar Hill, the first GPM ascent on the parcours. For the first 0.25km it's very steep, then it flattens out and even descends briefly for 130m before a final climb over the next 0.25km to the highest point where the road emerges from the woods. The average gradient isn't particularly steep at around 6%, but it becomes much steeper at several points on the way; the remaining 0.61km along Sedgeley Road promises to be very fast indeed - fortunately the right turn back onto Kelly Drive at the bottom has plenty of room, allowing the peloton to get round en masse if need be.

The return journey follows Kelly Drive for 6.35km back to the access road used earlier to get from Ridge Avenue to Kelly Drive, passing through the feeding zone just prior to the Reservoir Drive turn. This time the peloton passes by the access road, continuing straight ahead to follow the road as it begins to bend right - the first part after the access road is wide but, just beyond the bridges 270m after it, the parcours uses a narrow cycleway leading for the final 120m to the left turn onto Ridge Avenue. This is the best opportunity for riders who can't compete with the climbers on the hills to form a break because the limited space will make it difficult for rival teams to organise chase groups and get them to the front of the pack ready to pursue any escapees.

200m ahead, the race arrives back at the Main Street/Ridge Avenue junction and stays left, taking Main Street for 1.6km to the start of the intermediate sprint at the Cotton Street intersection. A sharp right turn at the end leads onto Levering Street, passing by a shop with a large mural on the wall before coming to a section underneath an elevated section of road. The riders turn right here, following the road as it passes underneath the elevated section for 40m on worn Victorian cobbles, then turn left. The following 740m are what this race is all about: climbing steeply as soon as the elevated road is left behind it arrives after 225m at the Manayunk Wall which, perhaps in the final lap and perhaps earlier on, is likely to decide the outcome of the race - if a rider makes it to the halfway point on Lyceum Avenue by the junction with Fleming Street with a big lead over her nearest rivals, she'll only have to hold off her rivals over the last 300m to the finish line. However, a rider who has expended too much energy picking up points on the climbs in earlier laps might find that a rider who sat in the pack, allowing domestiques to make the climbs easier, now has sufficient strength reserves to overtake on the final stretch and take the victory.

Starters
Team rosters are to be confirmed; teams registered to compete are as follows:

Tibco-To The Top
Colavita
Now Novartis
Optum p/b Kelly Benefits
Specialized-Lululemon
MVP Healthcare
GSD Gestion-Kallisto-Specialized
Louis Garneau p/b Fuji
Nutrition Cyclepower
Peanut Butter & Co.-Human Zoom
Fearless Femmes p/b Pure Energy-Vie13
Stevens Racing p/b Cyclery
Farm Team Elite-Tristate
FCS
Vanderkitten
Magic Mushroom
EPS-CSS Riptide

How To Follow The Race
If you can get to the race, the most obvious places to watch from are the climbs at Reservoir Drive, Sugar Hill and the Manayunk Wall; one of the advantages of the new, more compact parcours is that it becomes far easier to see the race go by from a different point during each lap, then to get to the Wall to see the riders battling for position on the final approach to the finish. Organisers will be providing a guide for spectators on the race website.

If you can't, Twitter is likely to be the best way to find race updates - Specialized-Lululemon and Vanderkitten team officials do a fine job of providing fans with live, up-to-date information. Parx Casino has a Twitter feed too, as does the district of Manayunk.

04.06.2013 Official Site
Basque Country/Spain, One-day Road Race, 110km
UCI 1.2

After spending much of the last month visiting far-flung targets of the UCI's attempts to globalise professional cycling, the Elite Women's peloton returns to Europe for a race in what may be the only nation where the population's adoration of cycling rivals that of the Belgians - the Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria, a one-day race taking place in the ancient Basque Country.

Basque rider Joane Sommariba won in 2004, the first time that the race was held as a UCI 1.2 event, repeating her successes of 2003 and 2002 when it was a UCI 1.9.2 race, as it had been since 2001 when the Italian Sara Felloni won the very first edition. Miriam Melchers began the process of making the Netherlands the most successful nation in the history of the 1.2 race (three victories) when she won in 2005, then Susanne Ljungskog became the first and only Swedish winner in 2006 and in 2007 there was another first when Edita Pučinskaitė was the only Lithuanian to have won. In 2008 the race didn't take place, but Noemi Cantele continued the trend and became the first Italian winner in 2009. In 2010 the inevitable happened - Marianne Vos won; when she won again in 2011 she became the only rider to have won the 1.2 race twice and finished off what Melchers had started back in 2005 and, in 2012, Britain got its first podium when Emma Pooley won.

The Parcours

Details of the 2013 edition have not been released; however, it may be the case that the parcours will follow the same route as in 2012 - the map and profile from that year are on the right. I'll update to this year's versions when they become available; in the meantime we can be certain that this year's edition will bring more of the same tough climbs that make this race what it is.

Start List
To be confirmed

How To Follow The Race
More details as they're made available

EPZ Omloop van Borsele 2013

Dwars door de Westhoek 2013

Gracia Orlova 2013

Giro Donne becomes the Giro Rosa

Festival Luxembourgeois du Cyclisme Féminin Elsy Jacobs 2013

Knokke-Heist - Bredene 2013

Vos, a true professional

Tour of Chongming Island 2013 & World Cup

Tour of Zhoushan Island 2013

Tour Languedoc Roussillon 2013

Grand Prix Cycliste de Gatineau 2013

Boels Rental Hills Classic 2013

Rabobank 7-Dorpenomloop van Aalburg 2013

Weekly Women's Cycling News 22-28.04.2013

Gooik-Geraardsbergen-Gooik 2013

Gracia Orlova photos

Weekly Women's Cycling News 29.04-05.05.2013

Weekly Women's Cycling News 06-12.05.2013

Philly Cycling Classic 2013

Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria 2013