04.06.2013 Official Site
Russia, One-day Road Race
UCI 1.2

With most of the Elite Women keeping themselves busy at Chongming Island and Gooik-Geraardsbergen, the Grand Prix of Maykop was given over entirely to riders from the ex-Soviet nations when it was held for the first time on the 13th of May in 2012: out of the ten riders first over the line, nine were Russian (including all the first seven); all the other riders to take part were either Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian or Lithuanian. This led to the race losing its UCI points due to a failure to satisfy Article 2.1.003 in the UCI rules, "To be able to be registered on the international calendar, a race must guarantee the participation of at least 5 foreign teams. A mixed team is regarded as a foreign team if the majority of its riders are of foreign nationality."

The race takes place some three weeks later in early June this year, which probably had the organisers hoping for a more international field - unfortunately, it now clashes with the Emakumeen Saria which, as important preparation for the Emakumeen Bira in addition to being an important and prestigious race in its own right, is likely to attract more riders than Maykop can, possibly leaving the Russian race in the same situation. With so many races having vanished forever in the last couple of years it'd be a great pity if this one did the same after only two years.

However, the organisers might find that their event generated a lot more interest if they made some information available now that there's less than a month to go until it takes place. Over an hour spent on Google has turned up nothing other than the results from last year - no map, news or anything at all, even on the official website (which would be of much more use to a great many cycling fans in this world if the English version didn't have such limited information and functionality, incidentally).

Anyway, I'll add any details I can find here when (and if) I find them.

Tour Languedoc Roussillon cancelled... then reinstated

"What a scandal!" tweeted Martine Bras

The biggest news of the week is the cancellation of the Tour Languedoc Roussillon - announced the day before the race was due to begin, when numerous teams were either already at the start town on en route, causing much anger among riders and fans alike. The precise reason for the cancellation hasn't yet been made clear with some claims that local police had stopped the event while others suggested financial problems. The latter seems most likely to be true as the race was reinstated a day later, reduced by one stage and shortened in length, after a new sponsor was reportedly found. Nevertheless, some teams - including Rabobank, who later listed "just a few reasons" for their decision - declined to go ahead as an act of protest.

Since the Languedoc-Roussillon organisers don't have the best reputation in cycling (having cancelled last year's edition a fortnight before the start, which also created problems for the teams), this raises an even more important and, for those organisers, extremely awkward question: why didn't they tell anyone that they were experiencing difficulties at an earlier date? Women's professional cycling teams operate on budgets that are mere pocket money when compared to those enjoyed by men's teams and the cost of getting a team, bikes, team officials, team car and so on to a race in the first place accounts for a large percentage of that; cancelling a race with so little notice could bring one of the poorer teams close to bankruptcy. If they have lost money, will they be recompensed? The organisers have no money, so it'd be down to the UCI. That, for many fans, equals "no they won't."

Finally, one of the most shocking aspects of the story less than a year after the world started to take notice of women's cycling at the Olympics, is that the news has been almost entirely overlooked by the media with most of the well-known cycling news websites ignoring it entirely.

The Unofficial Unsanctioned Women's UCI Cycling Blog has much more on what the news means for women's cycling.
More from Bridie O'Donnell.
(See also: Photo of the Week, at the bottom of this page)

Wiggo rides like a girl - he wishes!
Bradley Wiggins (no medieval honorifics on this blog, comrades) has kicked up a bit of a stink by explaining his loss of time at the Giro d'Italia thus: "I descended like bit of a girl really after the crash."

"Oh, but Wiggo won a Tour!" some fans may argue. True. However,so did Luperini. Three times.

Throwaway comment? Perhaps, but a very stupid one all the same - especially since Wiggins put some of his own money towards backing British-registered pro women's team Wiggle-Honda, who've been doing more than their fair share of work to try to raise awareness of women's cycling. Let's hope team boss Rochelle Gilmore has a little word.

Or perhaps what Wiggo meant to say was "If I'd descended like a girl after the crash, I'd have still had a chance of winning." After all, if he really did ride like a girl he might actually have won the Giro, just like Fabiana Luperini won the Giro Donne five times.

The price of forgiveness? An admission that he's been a bit stupid and another few thousand for Wiggle-Honda ought to do the trick, I reckon.

Neben breaks hip and ribs
Current US National Time Trial Champion Amber Neben will be unable to defend her title on the 25th of May after a bad crash at the Tour of California left her with a fractured hip and cracked ribs. The 38-year-old was caught by a strong crosswind on a steep descent, putting her out of her line as she went into a corner. Braking the caused her to skid off the road where she collided with a cliff and hit the ground hard.

"Bummer. This hurts literally and figuratively. I'll recover, though... Believe it or not, there can be positive stuff that comes out of adversity," she told reporters afterwards.

Wanna see a women's cycling documentary?
Would you like to see a documentary film about women's cycling and the issues that surround it? Of course you would - and with a little help from your wallet, Kathryn Bertine can make it happen.

"HALF THE ROAD is a documentary film that explores the world of women’s professional cycling, focusing on both the love of sport and the pressing issues of inequality that modern-day female riders face in a male dominated sport. With footage from some of the world’s best international UCI races to interviews with Olympians, World Champions, rookies, coaches, managers, officials, doctors and family members, HALF THE ROAD offers a unique insight to the drive, dedication, and passion it takes for female cyclists to thrive.  Both on and off the bike, the voices and advocates of women’s pro cycling take their audience on a journey of enlightenment, depth, strength, love, humor and best of all, change & growth."

Any donations, in any currency, are welcomed; donations of $50 or greater will get the donor's name in the film credits.

Other reports
Cycling sexism: BMX bandits steal money from women
"At the 2013 BMX Nationals held in Brisbane last week, female competitors received half the prize money of male riders in the main event..." (Herald Sun, Australia)

Stevens, van Garderen call for equal footing for women’s racing
"The one-day-a-year spotlight the women racers get at the Amgen Tour of California is wonderful. Just not wonderful enough. Not hardly." (VeloNews)


Afghan National Women's Team organiser wins prestigious award
Shannon Galpin, founder of a charity that provides aid to women in war zones and one of the main figures behind the newly-organised Afghanistan Women's Cycling Team, has been awarded the National Geographic Humanitarian of the Year Award. More from the Huffington Post.


Joanna Rowsell to lead out Great Manchester Cycle
"The Olympic gold medal track cyclist will be leading out this year's Great Manchester Cycle on Sunday June 30." (Road.CC)

Ipswich round of Johnson HealthTech GP relocated to Redditch
More from Eastern Daily Times

Mara Abbott finds her way back to road
More from ESPN-W

Raheela Bano wins Pakistan Nationals
More from The News, Lahore

More News
UK
Pendleton hails rising popularity of women's cycling (GiveMeSport)
More Pendlenews (AllMediaScotland)
CTC: 'Why we launched an elite women's race team' (BikeBiz)
Sexism is endemic in cycling. Keep calm ladies and ride on (Daily Telegraph)

Worldwide
Pedal-pushers hail new Woodstock women's bike race (Recordonline.com, NY, USA)
Good performance from Cuba in PanAmerican women’s cycling championships (Granma, Cuba)

Photo of the Week

Riders stage a sit-down protest at the Tour Languedoc Roussillon Tweeted by Lotto-Belisol Ladies

06-09.06.2013 Official Site
Euskadi/Spain, Four stages, 296.9km
UCI 2.1


Once upon a time there were three Grand Tours in women's cycling, just as there are three in men's cycling. They were the Grand Boucle (also known as the Tour de France Féminin, Grand Boucle also being a nickname for the men's Tour de France), the Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin and the Giro d'Italia Femminile (better known as the Giro Donne and now renamed the Giro Rosa).

The Tour de France Féminin was last held in 2009, by which time a lack of sponsorship had left it a pale shadow of its former self - trimmed down to just four stages (in 1985, when Maria Canins won, there had been 17 and a prologue), only 66 riders started and winner Emma Pooley joked ruefully that it had become the Petite Boucle. The Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin, which had grown from four stages to ten and developed into perhaps the most beautiful women's race of them all, went the same way for the same reason a year later. Then only the Giro Rosa was left (and it came close to disappearing in 2012, too; fortunately, new organisers and sponsors came onboard and the race has been saved).

Fans, riders and team officials are united in wanting more women's Grand Tours; either new versions of those that have vanished, completely new events or bigger, better versions of races that already take place. The third option is the most practical for three main reasons: an experienced organising committee is already in place, the race has an established name that fans already know and those same fans already look forward to the race. How would such a new Grand Tour be developed? Simple, really: as ever, it's down to money - money from the UCI (and all indicators suggest they could afford it), then even more money from sponsors once the sport gets that financial kickstart and begins to look more attractive to the bean-counting suits who get to decide whether a company is going to sponsor something or not (sadly, very few companies genuinely care about women's sports; one example is Boels - everything between this set of parantheses exists merely to give mention to them, simply because they deserve it for being as willing as they are to put money into women's cycling when so many other firms are not).

That leaves one question: which races would be a good choice for development? Why not copy men's cycling's example and have one in Italy (as is the case), one in France (La Route de France, which has massive unrealised potential) and one in Spain? The Emakumeen Bira would be a fantastic choice for the Spanish Grand Tour: imagine that it was given the funds to expand to ten stages with four in the autonomous Basque Country of Northern Spain, two in the stunningly gorgeous Haute Pyrenees, then four in the French Pyrénées-Atlantiques Basque region Iparralde - what a superb showcase not just for women's cycle but for professional cycling in general that would be.

One day, perhaps. In the meantime, the Bira is already a superb race with a unique character all of its own; so enough of that for now and let's have a look at the 2013 race. (Oh, and by the way - the organisers are superb, too. When I emailed them to ask for details of the race, they sent back large scale profiles and route guides from the race manual. Thanks, Roberto!)

Past Winners 
1988 Imma De Carlos, 1989 Maria Mora, 1990 Josune Gorostidi, 1991 Joane Somarriba, 1992 Lenka Ilavská, 1993 Elena Barillová, 1994 Elena Barillová, 1995 Jeannie Longo, 1996 Teodora Ruano, 1997 Hanka Kupfernagel, 1998 Hanka Kupfernagel, 1999 Hanka Kupfernagel, 2000 Leontien van Moorsel, 2001 Joane Somarriba, 2002 Edita Pučinskaitė, 2003 Mirjam Melchers, 2004 Joane Somarriba, 2005 Svetlana Bubnenkova, 2006 Fabiana Luperini, 2007 Susanne Ljungskog, 2008 Marianne Vos, 2009 Judith Arndt, 2010 Claudia Häusler, 2011 Marianne Vos, 2012 Judith Arndt.

The Parcours
Like mountains, do you? I'm guessing almost certainly so because all cycling fans like mountains, and for that reason you'll be pleased to know that this race has mountains. Proper ones in the Pyrenees, with the first categorised climb - a Cat 3 (and the Bira organisers don't tend to use quite so much poetic licence when categorising the climbs as organisers at some other races do) - comes in the first 60km of the first stage. Don't go thinking that an ace grimpeur such as Pooley, Vos or Moolman is a sure-fire winner though (on the other hand, any one of those three could very well win), because this parcours has been cleverly designed to include plenty of opportunities for other kinds of riders to push their names a few places up the General Classification listings each day.

Stage 1 (Iurreta-Iuretta, 06.06, 91.3km)

Click to enlarge

Many roads and locations in the Bira will be familiar from its sister race the Emakumeen Saria, which takes place two days earlier. Among them is Iurreta, where Stage 1 begins by the car park at 14 Maspe Kalea with 200 flat, straight metres to a tight right turn leading onto the N-634 heading east. The route climbs slightly to the next junction, where the riders turn right to head south over a level crossing to pass Matiena before continuing past a large industrial estate (where, as is always the case on any road regularly used by heavy trucks, there's a possibility of hazardous diesel spills on the road surface) and on to Abadino, where the terrains begins to climb more steeply - nevertheless, expect early attempts to break away from the peloton as those riders who aren't here to do battle on the mountains to come try to get into a position to bag the best points at the first intermediate sprint, 10.5km from the start on the San Fausto Kalea leading into Elorrio.

The race turns north and keeps climbing, reaching a point 250m above sea level some 13.8km from the start in the woods between Elorrio and Miota. At Olakueta, the road passes under the AP-8 motorway before leading into the village, then the riders immediately follow a bend to the left and travel back under the motorway to rejoin the N-634 which will take them downhill via Eitua and Matiena and back into Iurreta at 22.5km. It's downhill for the next 5.8km to Euba, then an easy climb gains 50m over 6.5km en route to Gumuzio where the race leaves the N-634 behind and heads north to Larrabetzu. Another climb, without GPM points, begins here and gains approximately 100m in 3.7km to Astoreka 44.9km from the start; the ascent isn't tough enough to give the climbers any serious advantage but the descent, which drops 150m in 4.9km to Fika and is considerably steeper than the average gradient of -3% in places, may put them at a disadvantage - something any heavier riders, who are able to maintain better control on a descent than the featherweight grimpeurs, will have noted.

Euskadi has many industrialised areas, some of which are visited on this stage, which has enabled it to remain more prosperous than Spain during the current recession. However, modern and ancient sit comfortably side-by-side and there is much to interest tourists, such as the medieval buildings in Elorrio.

However, at the end of the less steep descent over the next 3.5km to Elgezabal, the tables are turned when the race arrives at the first categorised climb - a Cat. 3 ascent of 160m in 3.3km, average gradient 4.8km and steeper in places. This climb, being approximately two-thirds into the parcours with more climbs to go, might turn out to be decisive: if a good all-rounder (which could happen; the grimpeurs could decide to save energy for the bigger climbs in later stages, and this isn't a hugely taxing climb) or a climber who didn't lag behind on the descents earlier on (and doesn't do so on the one just ahead either) gets to the top at Arritugane, 57.7km from the start, first they may do so with a sufficient lead on the pack to stay away for the remainder of the stage. If not, the descent - 150m in 3.5km at -4.3% - is opportunity for the pack to reduce a leader's advantage.

There's a flat section of around 3.7km between Derio and Zamudio which will see some jostling for position because as the parcours starts to climb again at Lezama, 68.9km from the start, the riders arrive at the second intermediate sprint. The route passes through Larrabetzu again at 72km, then Gumuzio at 79.5km where it rejoins the N-634. The next 6.5km to Euba descend gently, then the final 5.3km climbs around 50m to carry the peloton back to Iurreta and the finish line at the same location as the start on Maspe Kalea.

Stage 2 (Aretxabaleta-Aretxabaleta, 07.06, 103.5km)

Yesterday, the riders faced climbs right from the start; today is entirely different with hardly any climbing at all in the first 39km. There's no reason to think this is a sprinters' stage, though: that long, flat section terminates with a Cat. 3 ascent and then, in the final 20km, there's a harsh Cat. 1 gaining 350m in 6km at an average gradient of 5.8% with several steeper bits on the way to the summit. If a climber can leave the pack behind on the way there, she'll only have to stay away 15.5km to win the stage - but the descent over the next 9.5km is steep too, and many climbers don't like descents. Add a far more gentle descent over the final 6km back into Aretxabala into the equation and the eventual outcome is far from certain.

Aretxabaleta is around 11km south (as the crow flies) from Elorrio, the southernmost point of Stage 1, and the race begins there at 32 Durana Kalea. The riders first take a complex route south-west via Errota Barri to Eskoriatza and then back to Aretxabaleta, north to Arrasate, back to Aretxabaleta (with the first intermediate sprint at 18.5km, hence probable breaks in the first section) and Erroto Barri again and north once more to return to Arrasate after 25km before heading north-east, then south-east to Onati.

View of Kurtzebarri from Aretxabalete across Apotzaga

Just east of Onati is the Cat. 3 climb, complete with four hairpin bends in the forest on the way up - if you're lucky enough to be able to visit the race, the second hairpin is a very good place to watch it go by due to a spectacular view of the mountains (the third bend is a better choice if you want to paint riders' names on the road, though). Following a descent likely to be too short for the pack to catch up with leading climbers, the race reaches Legazpi 50km from the start and begin a less taxing climb of 100m in 5km; the descent that comes after it loses 300m in a little under 7km on the way to Bergara and could see the climbers lose time, giving the others time to catch up on the far gentler incline over the next 20km via San Prudentzio, Arrasate (with the second intermediate sprint at 73km), Aretxabalete and Eskoriatza. After 81.5km, the parcours turns right at Aingeru Guarda and heads to Marulanda, beginning the Cat. 1 climb at 85km; the summit and GPM points are 3km ahead.

Although the climb is sufficiently challenging to make it entirely possible for a climber to get away and build up a lead, the descent has the potential to change everything - in parts, it's much steeper than the average gradient of -4.5%. After arriving back at Eskoriatza, there are 6km of far less steep descending via Aretxabaleta and Mugarri, then back to Aretxabaleta to reach the finish line located at the same point as the start on Durana Kalea.

Stage 3 (Orduna-Orduna, 08.06, 13.4km Time Trial)
Time trials are usually fairly flat - but there isn't much flat space in Euskadi and this is the Emakumeen Bira, so this time trial has around 300m of climbing along its 13.4km.

The stage gets underway at Orduna's grand Foru Enparantza, a civic square that looks as though it belongs to Bilbao, Paris, Rome or one of Europe's other great cities rather than to what is, despite its official city status, a town of only a little over 4,000 people; and it leaves by heading west out of the city along narrow streets and then turning north to join the Tras Santiago Bidea for a straight 0.7km section to the next turn - a good place for those riders who know they'll be slower than the climbers on the two hills later in the stage to get their heads down and bank a few seconds. The Arbieto Auzoa leads off to the right, continuing for 0.45km to a sweeping right-hand bend; as it passes the car park for the football ground on the left (football being another Basque passion), it begins to climb. Just around the bend the road becomes the Vista Alegre Auzoa and the riders stay on it for 0.5km, traveling south to a sharp left turn leading into a gently curving 0.3km section that begins to climb from 0.15km, bcoming steeper in the final third prior to a very tight right onto the Ibazura Auzoa. The following 0.7km section is straight but climbs steeply in the first half, giving the climbers a chance to gain time on their rivals; it descends gradually in the second half but riders will need to brake towards the end in order to take the extremely tight right turn leading into the next section, a steep 0.3km descent ending with a 90-degree left turn at a crossroads. They climb gradually for the next 0.3km to arrive at a junction between three roads where they turn left again, heading uphill along the Aloria Entitatea for half a kilometre to another crossroads where they turn right and continue south for 0.86km, crossing another crossroads on the way to a left onto the BI-4907. Climbing for the next 0.7km brings them to a tight right turn just north of the little village Artomana, followed by a 0.5km descent to a left at a crossroads and a straight 1.68km section along the Artomana Entitatea - it descends in the first half, then climbs slightly in the second and the view at the end, where Delika nestles among the mountains all around, is remarkable.

Delika Canyon

A surprisingly high percentage of cycling fans say they don't like time trials. Some of them say this is because a stage races can be all too easily won with a good trial time, which is a fair accusation - nobody wants to see a rider who hasn't performed well in other stages snatch victory from a rider who has on the back of one short stage (well, unless it's Fabian Cancellara, since we all love him) but the majority aren't able to give a reason, disliking them for some other reason that they perhaps don't know for themselves. I'm willing to hazard a guess that, for a good few of those in the latter category, it's because time trials aren't usually routed along roads chosen to show off an area's natural and architectural beauty, as other stages tend to be - and we all love professional cycling as much for the places as much as for the sport, hence the "chateau porn" at the Tour de France. This isn't going to be a problem in the Bira because this time trial goes past one of Europe's most incredible and surprisingly not very well-known landscapes - the vast Delika Canyon, carved out of the rock over millions of years by the Nervion River that plunges 300m into it, creating one of the world's most spectacular waterfalls. Just a pity the race won't be televised so we could see it, isn't it?

Turning left leads them along the BI-4906 into Delika and they follow the road as it curves through the town, then negotiate a left-left-right series of corners to lead onto a bridge crossing a railway on the way out of town. The road climbs for 0.2km en route to a right turn, beginning the 2.48km section to Tertango; the first kilometre is mostly downhill, but there's a short and steep climb through the woods over the next 0.25km before more downhill in the final kilometre. At a T-junction just east of Tertanga the riders turn right (they'll be glad they don't go left - there's a series of seven hairpin bends carrying the road 200m upwards 2km further south) and begin heading back to Orduna. The first part is o.63km in length and downhill, passing under a railway bridge on its way to a left turn at a roundabout that leads into a 0.3km flat section along a new road, ending at another roundabout and a right turn onto the Gama Erripdea - the first 0.26km is wide, but it becomes far narrower over the final 0.6km leading past the bull ring (the Basques, fine people that they are, unfortunately share the Spaniards' love of torturing cattle to death) and into the city. Just beyond the left turn at the bull ring is a 0.34km section along the straight and wide Barrio San Francisco; it ends at a junction of roads followed by a final 0.16km along very narrow streets leading back to the Foru Enparantza.

Stage 4 (Fruiz-Gatika, 09.06, 88.7km)
There are 24km at the start of this stage - with both intermediate sprints falling within it, at 10 and 23.2km - before the rest of the race is handed over to the climbers to decide the outcome of the stage and, unless anybody managed to build up an unbeatable lead earlier on, the final overall General Classification: there are five big climbs in the last 63km, including one Cat. 3 and two Cat. 2s, as well as an uphill approach to the finish, making it a stage that needs to be ridden intelligently - if a rider uses up too much energy on the first couple of climbs (an easy thing to do after the last three stages), she could very easily burn out on the Cat. 2s and fall several places down the GC list.

The first 5km is downhill, then the terrain rises gently over the next five to the beginning of the first intermediate sprint at the Cafe Lekuona in Maruri-Jatabe; a situation likely to encourage early breakaways with domestiques battling one another for valuable points while the climbers and GC contenders preserve themselves for later. The following 6.8km is flat, then another gentle leads 3.8km to take the riders for the first time to Gatika, where another downhill section of 2.6km will probably see more attempts to break away as the race approaches the second intermediate sprint 23.2km from the start at Mungia - and, so far as those riders who can't keep up with the real mountain goats are concerned, that's the end of the race: from this point onwards, it's mountains all the way. The first, an uncategorised ascent of approximately 110m over 5km, leads to Meñaka, more a collection of hillside micro-hamlets than a village. The descent isn't particularly challenging but provides an opportunity for climbers who don't fear descending to gain a lead over those that do on the way to the next climb, a Cat. 3 175m in 5.4km ascent with an average gradient of 3.2% but much steeper in parts. The descent, lasting for 14.1km, takes the race into Gernika, the Basque spelling of Guernica - the town that was bombed by the Luftwaffe in 1937, an event that inspired Picasso's most famous (and, by far, most disturbing) painting.

The next climb, beginning at Gernika, is one of the most difficult in the race and, in the right circumstances, may even prove to the pivotal point that decides the winner. Rising 275m in 5km at an average gradient of 5.5%, a rider able to make a solo break to the top might be able to build up enough of a lead to stay away on the next climbs and get to the finish line alone. There's a descent over the next 4.2km to Atxika, followed by another climb which, at 75m in 4.9km, doesn't look much on paper but the fact that it's rated at Cat.2 suggests some sections much steeper than the 1.5% average gradient and some very difficult road surfaces; the name of the village at the top of the climb, Arrieta, comes from the Basque word harrieta, meaning scree - extremely slippery and abrasive stuff when it collects on bends and corners. With that in mind the descent, 175m in 2.7km (average gradient -6.4%), begins to look rather like it might be the most dangerous section anywhere along the parcours since the race started in Iurreta and the riders will need to tackle it with very great care.

Butroeko Gaztelua

There is still one considerable, if uncategorised, climb to go. Beginning at the foot of the Arrieta descent at Ibarra some 71.1km from the start, it gains 100m in 5.2km; an average gradient less than 2% but sufficiently steep to potentially affect the leadership order so near to the end of a mountainous stage. It leads back to Meñaka, where a 7.4km route differing to the one taken earlier continues back to Maruri and to the last uphill 5km section to the finish line at Gatika, a town famous for Butroeko Gaztelua, Butron Castle - which looks so much like a medieval castle is romantically supposed to look (a grand palace for a benevolent lord and place of refuge for his subjects), as opposed to how they actually look (grim expressions of military power also intended to suppress any revolutionary ideas among the peasants) that it seems too good to be true. And in fact it is - although it really is a medieval castle, it was extensively and radically remodeled by a romantically-minded 19th Century architect and marquis Francisco de Cubas, who made it look like a Bavarian mountain castle (that it manages to do so despite being surrounded by distinctly non-Bavarian palm trees is evidence that the Marquis knew what he was doing).

Starters
Full team rosters are not yet available but will be added here when published.

BIZKAIA-DURANGO

BOELS-DOLMANS 

FAREN-LET'S GO FINLAND

HITEC PRODUCTS-UCK

LOINTEK

LOTTO-BELISOL

S.C. MICHELA FANINI-ROX

SENGERS

ARGOS-SHIMANO

SPECIALIZED-LULULEMON

BEPINK
FRAPPORTI Simona

ORICA-AIS
GUNNEWIJK Loes

RABO-LIV/GIANT
BRAND Lucinda
VOS Marianne

How To Follow The Race
The first point of call for race information is obviously the official race website - Bira organisers do a better job of keeping it all up-to-date than the organisers of, shall we say, some other races that took place over the last few weeks. Regular readers of this site will already be familiar with Karl Lima, the manager of the Hitec Products-UCK team - Karl somehow finds the time while following his riders at races to provide regular and detailed Tweets. Many fans rely on him to keep them informed as to what's going on in races and he's very much worth following. Anton Vos, brother of World Champion Marianne, also attends the big races in his capacity as a photographer, as does photographer and journalist Bart Hazen - both are also top-value Twitter follows. Most of the teams have official Twitter feeds too, which can be found by clicking the links in the start list above.

Creswick wins Round 1, Johnson HealthTech GP
The Johnson HealthTech GP Series has grown and developed over the course of its existence and is now one of the best-known, most hotly-contested and popular women's events on the British cycling calendar. Running in conjunction with the men's Pearl Izumi Tour Series, the original idea was that the races would benefit from having the ready-made audience there to watch the men race; now in its third year, the GP Series attracts large numbers of fans in its own right - for many of them, getting to see the men's race too is a bonus rather than the reason to be there.

Mulebar Girl-Sigma Sport (image credit: Sigma Sport)

This year's series got underway in Stoke-on-Trent on the 21st of May, where Natalie Creswick of Mulebar Girl-Sigma Sport did her bit to persuade even more people that women's cycling is every bit as exciting and interesting as men's cycling with a ride that was widely hailed as the most outstanding in either race and also netted her the Combativity Award - launching her attack soon after the competition started, she metered out her energy impeccably to stay ahead of strong challengers Hannah Barnes and Charline Joiner (both MG-Maxifuel), Jo Tindley, Gabby Day and Hannah Walker (all Matrix Fitness Race Academy), Sarah Byrne (Champion Systems-MaxGear-Base), Alice Barnes (Scott Contessa-Epic) and Hayley Jones (Node 4-Giordana) to cross the line with an advantage just short of a fill minute. Meanwhile, Creswick's team mate Louise Mahé was third.

Creswick leads Barnes in the overall Series standings with 20 points to 19. Matrix, with three riders in the top ten, were the winning team for the round and Hannah Walker won the Sprints. Matrix lead the overall team standings with 45 points, Mulebar and MG-Maxifuel are second and third with 38 points apiece.

 Highlights of the race will be broadcast on ITV4 at 10pm on the 22nd of May.

@CiclaCycle
One chuffed @NatCres doing her team @MuleBarGirl proud winning @JHTUK GP series last night in Stoke. #womenscycling pic.twitter.com/udQUmy6CHT

Natalie blogs about her victory.

Result, Round 1
1. Natalie Creswick (MuleBar Girl-Sigma Sport)
2. Hannah Barnes (MG-Maxifuel)
3. Louise Mahé (MuleBar Girl-Sigma Sport)
4. Jo Tindley (Matrix Fitness Race Academy)
5. Sarah Byrne (Champion Systems-Maxgear-Base)
6. Gabby Day (Matrix Fitness Race Academy)
7. Charline Joiner (MG-Maxifuel)
8. Hannah Walker (Matrix Fitness Race Academy)
9. Alice Barnes (Scott Contessa Epic)
10. Hayley Jones (Node4-Giordana)
Full Round 1, Overall and other classification standings

Next Rounds
Round 2 30th May (Colchester)
Round 3 4th June (Redditch)
Round 4 11th June (Woking)
Round 5 13th June (Aylsham)

More reports
UK
Herne Hill Women's Track Cycling  (Track Cycling News)
Raising the Barr - Jane Barr's rise to the top (Herald Scotland)

Worldwide
Ukrainian Milavitsa amateur race will take place in 2013 (Ukrainian News)
"It’s like the government is saying, “Look, we’re giving you something! Shut up, women!” - Saudi Arabia isn't having a feminist revolution (Vice.com)
Cycling's Occupational Hazard - Amber Neben on crashing (Wall Street Journal)
Bike-themed festival kicks off with Boston woman’s tale (Boston Globe)
Largest ever women's field for third round of [Benchmark Homes] cycling series (Yahoo Sport)
“Paris Roubaix? That would be awesome” Marianne Vos on MTB and the future (CX Magazine)
Afghan Women's Cycling Team is working all the gears (Green Prophet)
Top Five Worst Arguments Against Promoting Equality in Pro Cycling: It's Not Worth It (Women Cyclists)
Finegan wins at Victoria Country road cycling championships (Bendigo Advertiser)

Photo of the Week

Boels-Dolmans Ladies (image by Pauliena Rooijakkers)

06-09.06.2013
Russia, Road Race
UCI 2.2

The second of Russia's two UCI Elite Women's events, the Tour of Adygeya - like the Grand Prix of Maykop that takes place two days before the Tour begins - does not have a dedicated website, the link on the UCI calendar leading to the Russian Federation's page where its impossible for non-Russian speakers to track down any information (there is an English version, but it consists of a brief history of the Federation and has no search function). Last year, when the race took place for the first time, there were four stages; it appears that this will be the case again in 2013.

2012

1 Alexandra Burchenkova 9h08'19"
2 Marina Likchanova +04'41"
3 Irina Molicheva +05'14"


Start List
Subject to change, more details as they become available

RusVelo

15-16.06.2013 Official Site
Italy, 3-stage Road Race, 204.4km
UCI 2.1

Also known as the Giro del Trentino Femminile, the Giro del Trentino Alto Adige-Südtirol is now in its 20th edition and is an event that has grown to become perhaps Italy's most popular women's race after the Giro Donne (renamed the Giro Rosa this year) for which, with a good selection of steep climbs along the parcours, it forms important preparation for the riders (the Italian National Championships take place in between the two races, making the race doubly important to the Italian riders - expect teams to be sending any riders they have who'll be in the Championships).

However, its been won by an Italian rider only once in the last decade - Fabiana Luperini, who also won in 1995, 1996, 1999 and 2002, took the honours for a record fifth time in 2008. Luisa Tamanini, another Italian, won in 2003; German Tina Liebig won in 2004; the Russian Svetlana Bubnenkova won in 2005 and 2006; Lithuania's Edita Pucinskaite dominated by winning both stages and overall in 2007; Britain got its first win when Welsh Nicole Cooke won in 2008, then British riders dominated in 2009 when Emma Pooley won the first stage and Cooke won the second and overall in 2010; Judith Arndt from Germany won in 2011 and the Danish-born New Zealander Linda Villumsen won in 2012. (Incidentally, Luperini also came third in the first edition back in 1994 and second in 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001 and 2007. Still racing to this day, she's likely to compete once again this year with her Faren-Let's Go Finland team.)

The most notable difference this year is the addition of a team time trial stage (Stage 1). In 2012, there was a 5km individual time trial, won by Villumsen, but in the years prior to that the race had consisted entirely of mass-start road races. The race has also grown in length when compared to 2012 with 204.4km compared to 166.8km.

Parcours
More information when available.

Stage 1 (TTT, Revò - Lauregno, 11.80 km)

Stage 2/1 (Termon di Campodenno, 88.80 km)

Stage 2/2 (Sanzeno - Sarnonico, 103.8km)

Start List

Subject to change; further details to be announced. Women Cycling Fever has a regularly updated list.
BIGLA

HITEC PRODUCTS-UCK

LOTTO-BELISOL

RUSVELO

MAXX-SOLAR

WIGGLE-HONDA

BEPINK
FRAPPORTI Simona

ORICA-AIS
JOHANSSON Emma


Following the Race
The Giro has an official Twitter account via which organisers provide regular updates on race day, as well as various interesting snippets of information on the event, the riders and Italian cycling in general throughout the rest of the year.

Links
2012 Photostream

Charlotte Becker's parting company with Argos-Shimano

There's no Women's Cycling Weekly News round-up this week because I'm off on a week's holiday in an especially rural part of rural North Wales and won't have an Internet connection or mobile phone signal for six days (we have, however, been promised otters).

Here's some stories from the last seven days:

Charlotte Becker leaves Argos-Shimano

United Arab Emirates Cycling Federation targets 400 girls to take up the sport by opening new academies in Abu Dhabi and Dubai

Hannah Barnes on the Colchester round of the Johnson HealthTech GP

For the love of bikes: women and cycling

See you next week - in the meantime, enjoy the Philly Classic, the Emakumeens Saria and Bira and, if you can find any information on it, the GP of Maykop.

04-07.07.2013 Official Site
Czech Republic/Poland, 5-stage Road Race, 424.6km
UCI 2.2

It's been two-and-a-half months since the Gracia Orlova, now the Elite Women's peloton returns to the Czech Republic for the Tour de Feminin, the second of the nation's two big stage races (they've also got the European Under-23 Championships later on in July). The Tour has taken place every year 1988, when it was known as the Tour Krasna Lipa after the town that hosts one start, two finishes and is visited several times during the race. The winner's list from the first edition to 2012 looks like this:

Hanka Kupfernagel (who still races today, though sadly not in this event as she now focuses on cyclo cross) has won the Tour a record five times - her first and final victories were an incredible 11 years apart.

1988 Radka Kynelova
1989 Radka Kynelova
1990 Ildiko Paczova
1991 Ildiko Paczova
1992 Alena Barillová
1993 Sandra Schumacher
1994 Zinaida Stahurskaya
1995 Lenka Ilavska
1996 Hanka Kupfernagel
1997 Hanka Kupfernagel
1998 Svetlana Guiguileva
1999 Hanka Kupfernagel
2000 Hanka Kupfernagel
2001 Sandra Wampfler
2002 Bogumila Matusiak
2003 Valentyna Karpenko
2004 Trixi Worrack
2005 Tina Liebig
2006 Theresa Senff
2007 Hanka Kupfernagel
2008 Angela Brodtka
2009 Alexandra Burchenkova
2010 Trixi Worrack
2011 Amanda Spratt
2012 Larisa Pankova

...and there's very good reason to expect more excellent Czech races in the future, because Czech organisers seem to understand far better than certain other race organisers that if you want your race to grow and be successful in this day and age then you need a top quality, informative, updated website. The Gracia Orlova has one, offering some of the best maps in the sport; the Tour du Feminin, although its maps aren't so good, also has a very good website - whereas many races don't reveal details until a few days before the riders start, just about everything a fan could want to know about the 2013 edition is already online more than a month before race day. That's great: letting fans know what's going on creates a buzz, which in turn creates a following, and more fans following a race means more interest from the all-important sponsors, securing the future of the race and helping to secure the future of women's cycling. So, keep setting a good example, Tour organisers, and here's to another 35 years.

Parcours
They like a complicated route, those Tour de Feminin organisers - with the exception of the Stage 3 individual time trial and the simple circuit of Stage 5, the parcours loops this way and that, then revisits the same stretches of road (sometimes several times) before suddenly veering off in another direction altogether. With that in mind, I'd like to point out that I created the maps below from the text directions on the website before official maps had been published; for that reason, they should be considered to be for illustrative purposes only - refer to official directions if in doubt and, if my maps differ from the official directions, I recommend you assume the organisers are correct and I'm wrong.

There are no big mountains in this race, but there are plenty of challenging hills in all but the time trial. The majority of the roads are of good quality, the Czech equivalent of an English A-road (but not some Welsh or Scottish A-roads), which when combined with the flat or slightly descending final 3km sections of each stage creates an interesting situation similar to that created by the parcours at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda in which neither climbers, rouleurs nor sprinters start the race with an obvious advantage - the Tour will most likely be won not by the rider to whom the route is most suited, but to the rider who performs best overall.

Stage 1 (4.7.2013, 112.2km, Krásná Lípa-Krásná Lípa)

View TdF in a larger map

Stage 2 (5.7.2013, 100.7km, Jiříkov-Jiříkov)
Final lap completed four times.

View TdFSt213 in a larger map

Stage 3 (6.7.2013, 17.8km Time Trial, Bogatynia, Poland)

Stage 4 (6.7.2013, 95.2km, Rumburk-Rumburk)

View TdFSt4, 2013 in a larger map


Stage 5 (7.7.2013, 98.7km, Varnsdorf-Krásná Lípa)
Final lap completed two-and-a-half times.

View TdFSt5, 2013 in a larger map


Start List
Subject to change; for updates check the official website and Women Cycling Fever.

Note that several of the Elite Women teams aren't sending squads to this race and those that are will be sending their less well-known riders in addition to a few big-hitters. Meanwhile, there are a number of team names that aren't so immediately familiar: if you want to see the potential stars of the future, pay attention to the results their riders chalk up - you can guarantee that the more famous teams with their bigger budgets will be looking out for new talent.

NSR
TBA (to be announced)

Endura Lady Force
11. Kloppenburg Margriet
12. Classen Marjolein
13. Klok Ines
14. Van den Stelt Iris
15. Goeghegan Michelle
16. Verstichelen Femke
17. 
18.

Park Hotel Valkenburg
21. Eshuis Aafke
22. Van den Hoek Bianca
23. Klep Inge
24. Markus Riejanne
25. Slik Rozanne
26. Soemantha Lisanne
27.
28.

CTC
31. Boylan Lydia 
32. Juniper Nicola 
33. McKay Helen 
34. Oliver Tamina 
35. Wingler Astrid 
36.
37.
38

Australian National Team
41. Cure Amy 
42. Sulzberger Grace 
43. Roper Emily 
44. McConville Chloe 
45. Ankudinof Ashlee 
46. Baker Georgia 
47. Heather Taryn 
48. Wiasak Rebeca

Peugeot-Start Lublin
51. Wasiuk Olga 
52. Krawczyk Monika 
53. Urbaš Kinga 
54. Tuhai Ksenia 
55. Wasiuk Izabela 
56.
57.
58.

Slovenian National Team
61. Batagelj Polona 
62. Pintar Ursa 
63. Novak Alenka 
64. Opeka Ajda 
65. Kalan Urska 
66. Kern Spela 
67.
68.

NWVG-Bike4Air
TBA

Racing Students-NSR
81. Büchel Andrea 
82. Costa Rute 
83. Hammes Kathrin 
84. Heiny Elen 
85. Lorch Dorothee 
86. Meizer Steffi 
87. Sägesser Jennifer 
88. Stienen Jutta

Pra Tomagno
91. Stolsova Bubnonigova Světlana 
92. Boyarskaya Natalia 
93. Molicheva Irina 
94. Gonez Sandra 
95. Marcelli Emma 
96. Fazeli Niknaz 
97. Drobysmeva Olga 
98. Godart Suzia

Maxx-Solar
101. Beck Luisa 
102. Fischer Lisa 
103. Klein Theres 
104. Lechner Corinna 
105. Trotman Reta 
106. Weigl Magdalena 
107. Wotsch Melanie 
108. Zanner Beata

TKK Pacific Torun
111. Niewiadoma Katarzyna 
112. Brzezna - Bentkowska Paulina
113. Brzezna Monika 
114. Wilkos Katarzyna 
115. Fraczek Natalia 
116. Wasiuk Olga 
117.
118.

Stevens 1A CrossTeam
121. Bachmann Liv-Susanne
122. Scheuch Jannika
123. Dittmann Sabine
124. Buchholtz Michelle
125. Roersch Inge
126. Hoyer Xenia
127. Lambracht Bettina
128. Wesselhoeft Benita

Bigla
131. Graus Andrea 
132. Hranaiová Katarina 
133. Aubry Emilie 
134. Ehrler Désirée 
135. Hanselmann Nicole 
136. Brühwiler Larissa 
137.
138.

RusVelo
141. Bocharnikova Elena 
142. Bezrukova Iana 
143. Dobrynina Olga 
144. Shamanova Tatiana 
145. Dobrynina Kseniia 
146. Zavershinskaya Anna 
147. Nikolaeva Ksenia RUS 19950225
148.

Breast Care
151. Ryan Carla 
152. Barr Jane 
153. Bradley Amy 
154. Ewing Anne 
155. Galloway Claire 
156. Rivera Coryn
157. Shaw Gabriella 
158. Weaver Molly

Squadra Scappatella
TBA

Johansson bosses Vos at Bira

Emma Johansson, 2013 Emakumeen Bira victor

Rabo-Liv/Giant's Marianne Vos is widely considered the most successful cyclist in the world, so when she won Stage 1 at the Emakumeen Bira much of the women's cycling world sat back and waited for what very often seems to be inevitable - Marianne's total domination of the race. However, Marianne's incredible success has not negatively affected the sport by reducing competition as some commentators suggested it might: in fact, the opposite is true and, just as Helen Wyman wisely argued in January 2012, competition has become stronger as other riders have stepped up their efforts to take on the current World Champion.

One of those riders is Emma Johansson, who moved from Hitec Products to Orica-AIS for 2013 and has been no stranger to the podiums this year, proving herself a very strong adversary to Vos in the process and beating her at Gooik-Geraardsbergen-Gooik in May. The Swede got into a break with Orica team mate Tiffany Cromwell, old Hitec team mate Elisa Longo Borghini and Vos during Stage 2, leaving the pack behind shortly after the middle point of the stage as heavy rain created treacherous conditions. At the final climb, Johansson and Longo Borghini were able to split the break and began heading towards the finish together.

With Vos marooned away from helpers and with Longo Borghini having used up more energy due to not benefiting from the assistance of a team mate in the earlier break, this seemed an ideal situation for Johansson, but she knows that Vos must never be underestimated. "Elisa and I knew we had to go at it together. We couldn’t start playing games. We needed to try to keep the distance between us and the chasers as big as possible. We knew Marianne would take risks on the descent, but we played it safe. We worked together all the way to the line," she explained after the stage.

Elisa Longo Borghini, a rider heading for the top of the sport...

Stage 1 had ended with a bunch sprint, meaning that although Johansson had finished 18 places behind Vos the Dutch woman had started Stage 2 without a time advantage; when Longo Borghini took second place Johansson now found herself with a very valuable 26" overall lead - and Stage 3 was to be an individual time trial, a discipline at which by her own admission Vos doesn't excel (her palmares suggests it's the only one at which she doesn't excel) but one at which Johansson performs very well indeed. A difficult parcours and more heavy rain made it a very hard stage. "I was suffering the whole time," she said later, but the first time check revealed that her speed was not - she was 10" faster than Longo Borghini and, as the stage progressed, she got even faster: "I was confident in Emma’s ability, but I was pleasantly surprised at the time gaps,” Orica directeur sportif Dave McPartland admitted. “Technically, her ride was brilliant. It had been raining to varying degrees all day, and it was a slight drizzle on and off during Emma’s ride. She rode as if it was dry and told me after her race that she hadn’t taken any risks. I’d like to see what she looks like when she is taking risks!" When the stage ended, she had finished 38" faster than second, third and fourth-placed riders Ellen van Dijk (Specialized-Lululemon), Longo Borghini and Anna van der Breggen (Sengers) and taken Orica's 200th podium place since the team came into being at the beginning of 2012.

...as is Anna van der Breggen

She thus began the fourth and final stage with 38" on Longo Borghini and a whole 1'51" on Vos, time gaps sufficient to allow her to win the race by cruising along in the peloton surrounded by a phalanx of protecting team mates. Except that women's cycling doesn't tend to work that way - after the first hour-and-a-half of racing had been spent with numerous attacks, counter-attacks and constant changes at the front of the pack, Longo Borghini and Johansson escaped again, this time accompanied Evelyn Stevens (Specialized-Lululemon) and Shara Gillow (Orica-AIS). Gillow worked hard for her leader, finally leaving the break between the two final climbs; that the 23-year-old Anna van der Breggen was able to bridge and join the break as the other three riders collaborated and increased their advantage on the way up the last hill is indication that she's a rider destined for greatness and very much one of the riders to watch at the forthcoming Tour de Bretagne, which she won in spectacular style last year. This time around, the stage deservedly went to Longo Borghini who had worked so hard throughout the race. Stevens followed her over the line for second with Johansson right on the American's back wheel for third, the three women recording an equal time while van der Breggen was three seconds slower; Vos was 1'06" down in sixth place.

"This is as close to a hometown win as anything for me,” the jubilant Johansson said once she'd climbed down from the podium and begun celebrating her first General Classification victory since 2012's Tour de Free State. "My first contract was with a Basque team based in Durango. I lived up north in Sweden at that time, so I couldn’t go home between races. Instead, I stayed with the girls here. I became good friends with my teammates. Their family became my family. I saw a lot of familiar faces out on the course every day. It feels like I’ve won at home." The Basques have a tradition of adopting riders they see as being worthy of becoming honourary Basques; Emma may ride for an Australian team these days, but she'll always find a warm welcome in Euskadi. (Race results further down the page)

Hannah Barnes wins Woking Johnson HealthTech GP

Hannah Barnes, who required nine stitches in her chin after winning

She crashed hard enough early on in the race to need medical assistance once she'd crossed the finish line, but a rider like MG-Maxifuel'sHannah Barnes doesn't let anything as trifling as pain get in her way and her injuries didn't prevent her winning the round.

Her biggest rivals were Louise Borthwick of Edinburgh RC, who attacked time and time again throughout the race and finished up winning both the Sprints category and the Combativity award, and France's Roxanne Fournier who put up a stiff fight in the final sprint, only just missing out to Barnes at the line. MG-Maxifuel have provisionally been declared the winning team and will go to the fifth and final round, due to take place in Aylsham on June the 13th, with 180 points amassed so far to second-placed MuleBar Girl-Sigma Sport's 152, closely resembling the individual riders category which is led by Barnes with 72 points while Louise Mahe (MuleBar Girl-Sigma Sport) has 52.

Highlights of the race will be broadcast on ITV4 at 10pm on the 12th of June.

Top Five
1 Hannah Barnes (MG-Maxifuel)
2 Roxanne Fournier (France)
3 Coryn Rivera (Breast Cancer Care)
4 Ella Hopkins (Breast Cancer Care)
5 Charline Joiner (MG Maxifuel)
Full results

Trott wins the Nocturne in front of record crowd

Laura Trott

Britain's female professional cyclists are flying higher than ever before right now - ask your non-cycling friends to name some male riders from this country and they'll tell you Wiggins, Cav and Hoy, ask them for some female riders and chances are they'll have heard of Pendleton, the Trotts, Rowsell, King, Armitstead, Cooke, Pooley, Houvenaghel and perhaps - if you choose your friends wisely - Wyman, who really ought to be much better known in her home country than she is. So that's three men who've become household names and at least nine women: truly a superb state of affairs and one that caused the organisers of the IG Markets Smithfield Nocture to predict that the Elite Women's race would draw a larger crowd than the Elite Men's race this year.

"The crowd was absolutely phenomenal" - Dani King

It being a free event, accurate figures are had to come by, but videos and photographs of the event prove beyond doubt that the women rode in front of a considerably larger crowd than last year - and every single one of the thousands that watched the race unfold will be glad they made the effort, having been treated to a thrilling race that kept things uncertain right to the end.

Reigning Olympic Team Pursuit and Omnium champion Laura Trott (Wiggle-Honda) and Hannah Barnes (MG-Maxifuel) fought hard in the final sprint, crossing the line so closely together than judges required a photo finish to decide who'd actually won: Trott had gained a miniscule advantage and got her wheel over the line first, while Barnes (who'll be on that list of household names by the next Olympics) recorded the same time of 34'51".

With Trott's victory being the first on home soil for her British-registered team, it had been a superb day out for Wiggle-Honda and got even better when Dani King took third place one second down on Trott and Barnes; it then got even better when Lauren Kitchen was sixth, Jo Rowsell seventh and Charlotte Becker ninth with the team thus accounting for half of the top ten places.

Highlights of the event - with, hopefully, a decent-sized slot devoted to the Elite Women and the Women's Criterium - will be broadcast by Channel 4 at 07:35 on Sunday 16th of June.

Video

Matrix Fitness RA2013 UK women's Calendar has been amazing. Top races, riders, teams & TV. Belgium is so last year as a proving ground. UK is where its at.

Women's cycling-friendly British Cycling boss to stand for UCI president
Current UCI president Pat McQuaid has come in for a great deal of criticism over his perceived failure to develop women's cycling and apparent lack of concern for the sport during his time in office, most memorably from Australian rider Chloe Hosking, who called him "a bit of a dick" and was then to all intents and purposes let off without punishment by her National Federation when she apologised, but also by numerous other riders and (probably) the majority of women's cycling fans.

Few of those fans - including me - will have been at all upset when the Irish Federation's nomination of him to stand as a candidate for a third term was found not to have been carried out in accordance with the constitution of the organisation and declared void (the Federation then called an Extraordinary General Meeting, to be held on the 15th of June); now comes the good news that Brian Cookson, president of British Cycling and a staunch supporter of women's cycling in the past and has argued for equality between male and female athletes, intends to stand for the post.

"Cycling is quite a male chauvinist sport, culturally it has been for years, but it's taken a long time to change,"  said Cookson, who is also the current president of the UCI Road Commission, following a Management Committee meeting in October last year. "What I asked the senior management team to do was look at short, medium and long-term actions we can put in place. I'm not clear that we've actually got that process right; we've got a lot of work to do."

Cookson has opened a Twitter account and will publish his manifesto on his website in the near future.

New US MTB race seeks to even up pay disparity
The Specialized Catamount Classic, a new mountain bike competition to take part in Vermont, USA, is a UCI Cat 2 Pro XCT event and, as a result, female riders that take part have to be paid only 65% as much as their male counterparts.

You'll have read several stories that begin with similar sentences if you've followed women's cycling, on road or off, and will no doubt consider it absolutely unjustifiable. This time, however, thanks to the Catamount organisers agreeing that it's unjustifiable, the story takes a different course: in order to help give women's cycling the financial boost it needs to get onto an equal footing with men's cycling, they're spending an equal amount on the men's and women's races that make up the event - and, for the first time in mountain biking history and probably in the entire history of cycling, the women will be paid more than the men.

That'll probably bring some accusations that the men are now being discriminated against; but with prize funds in other races and so many more races open to them it's hard to make such an argument stick - the men will still earn a great deal more, and enjoy a lot more support, over the course of the season.

"We have been striving to support women in cycling for years and are excited that we can do this on a national stage with the support of companies like G-form and Specialized," says race promoter Eric Bowker.

Interesting Links
Britain
Highly recommended: Chris Davies' Redditch Johnson HealthTech GP photos
Annie Simpson on the Redditch Johnson HealthTech GP (Cycling Weekly)
Jo Rowsell latest rider to demand more women's races running alongside men's
Crystal Lane wins Paralympic bronze in Italy (British Cycling)
Live in Newcastle? Fancy a talk on Emily Davison and the role of the bicycle in the Women's Suffrage movement (June 14th/15th)?
Velo Club Walcott searching for new female members (NowBath)
Video: Becky James urges young riders to try out track at the Chris Hoy Velodrome (Daily Record)
Emily Kay wins Hillingdon GP (British Cycling)
Worldwide
Julie Emmerman wins North Boulder Park Classic (Daily Camera, Colorado, USA)
Fatehah Mustapa wins Keirin at SE Asian Track GP (New Straits Times, Malaysia)
An interview with Loren Rowney (ROAR)

Elite Women Results
Tour of Adygeya, Russia
1 Natalia BOYARSKAYA (Russia) 9h06'34"
2 Eivgenia VYSOTSKA (Ukraine) +30"
3 Anna ZAVERSHINSKAYA (Russia) +01'33"
4 Alexandra BURCHENKOVA (RusVelo) +02'22"
5 Anna EVSEEVA (Russia) +02'50"
6 Elena KUCHINSKAYA (RusVelo) +03'45"
7 Tatiana SHAMANOVA (Russia) +04'44"
8 Svetlana STOLBOVA (Russia) +04'54"
9 Aizhan ZHAPAROVA (RusVelo) +05'04"
10 Marina LIKHANOVA (Russia) +05'05"
Points: Boyarskaya (32p, Russia) KOM: Kuchinskaya (19p, RusVelo)
Stages: 1. Burchenkova (RusVelo) 2. Boyarskaya (Russia) 3. Chulkova (RusVelo) 4. Boyarskaya (Russia)
Full results here

Emakumeen Bira
1 Emma JOHANSSON (Orica-AIS) 7h56'47"
2 Elisa LONGO BORGHINI (Hitec Products-UCK) +38"
3 Evelyn STEVENS (Specialized-Lululemon) +02'14"
4 Anna VAN DER BREGGEN (Sengers) +02'45"
5 Marianne VOS (Rabo-Liv/Giant) +02'57"
6 Alena AMIALIUSIK (BePink) +04'12"
7 Megan GUARNIER (Rabo-Liv/Giant) +04'15"
8 Lucinda BRAND (Rabo-Liv/Giant) +04'35"
9 Fabiana LUPERINI (Faren-Let's Go Finland) +04'44"
10 Shara GILLOW (Orica-AIS) +04'45"
Points: KOM:
Stages: 1. Vos (Rabo-Liv/Giant) 2. Johansson (Orica-AIS) 3. Johansson (Orica-AIS) 4. Longo Borghini (Hitec Products-UCK)

IG Markets Smithfield Nocturne
1 Laura Trott (Wiggle-Honda) 34'51"
2 Hannah Barnes (MG-Maxifuel) ST
3 Dani King (Wiggle-Honda) +01"
4 Coryn Rivera (Breast Cancer Care) +02"
5 Corrine Hall (Matrix Racing Academy) ST
6 Lauren Kitchen (Wiggle-Honda) ST
7 Jo Rowsell (Wiggle-Honda) ST
8 Louise Mahe (MuleBar Girl-Sigma Sport) +04" 
9 Charlotte Becker (Wiggle-Honda) +05" 
10 Natalie Creswick (MuleBar Girl-Sigma Sport) +41"
Full results and Women's Criterium results

Photo of the Week

Johnson HealthTech GP, Redditch, 2013 Used with the very kind permission of Chris Davies; do not reuse or reproduce without gaining the permission of the owner.

Giro Trentino Donne
The 20th edition of the Giro Trentino Donne, also known as the Giro del Trentino Alto Adige-Südtirol, got underway in Italy on Saturday the 15th of June with two stages taking place. The first, running from Revò to Lauregno, was an unusual 11.8km team time trial that climbed almost all the way; the second was a more conventional 88.8km mass-start stage starting and ending at Termon. For a more detailed look at all the stages with interactive maps and other information on the race, see Les Déesses preview.

Stage 1a

Dalia Muccioli wore the leader's jersey after Stage 1a

BePink blitzed the Stage 1 team time trial course with Alice Algisi, Noemi Cantele, Simona Frapporti, Dalia Muccioli, Doris Schweizer and Georgia Williams completing the parcours in 26'19.96", beating Les Déesses stage favourites Specialized-Lululemon into second place by a full 13.23" and MCipollini-Giordana into third by 13.92". As is traditional in team time trials, times were decided according to the time recorded by each team's third rider over the line; BePink's 20-year-old Muccioli thus became the first race leader of the 2013 edition.

Stage 1a Result
1 BePink 26'19"
2 Specialized-Lululemon +14"
3 MCipollini-Girodana ST
4 Hitec Products-UCK +01'00"
5 Pratomagno +01'06"
6 Top Girls-Fasso Bortolo +01'17"
7 Boels-Dolmans +01'21"
8 Orica-AIS +01'26"
9 TKK Pacific +01'48"
10 France +01'50"
Full result

Stage 1b

Rival teams will have their work cut out for them if they want to dislodge Evelyn Stevens from the top spot

Lululemon may have been pipped to the post in Stage 1, but with only two more stages to go they weren't about to let BePink keep Muccioli in the pink leader's jersey - that they meant to get it on Evelyn Steven's back by the end of the day was obvious soon after Stage 1b got underway, but whether or not they'd achieve their aims was far from certain through the flat section that made up much of the stage and right into the closing kilometres. Finally, on the last climb up to the finish, Stevens made her move; Tatiana Guderzo (MCipollini-Giordana) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Hitec Products-UCK) tried to go with her but, while their efforts kept them in the running for a possible overall victory tomorrow, they were both outclassed. As she crossed the line the American, who was third behind second-placed Longo Borghini at the Emakumeen Bira last week, had an advantage of 25" - more than enough to take the pink jersey.

Stage 1b Result
1 Evelyn STEVENS (Specialized-Lululemon) 2h19'23"
2 Emma JOHANSSON (Orica-AIS) +39"
3 Elisa LONGO BORGHINI (Hitec Products-UCK) +40"
4 Tatiana GUDERZO (MCipollini-Girodana) ST
5 Paulina BRZEZNA (Poland) +01'09"
6 Francesca CAUZ (Top Girls-Fasso Bortolo) ST
7 Tatiana ANTOSHINA (MCipollini-Girodana) ST
8 Jessie DAAMS (Boels-Dolmans) ST
9 Jennifer FIORI (Top Girls-Fasso Bortolo) ST
10 Svetlana STOLBOVA (Pratomagno) ST
Full result

Stage 2
The Giro Trentino Donne is a race that packs a lot into its two days, including three very different types of stage - whereas Stage 1 was a time trial and 1b a typical point-to-point mass start race, Stage 2 used the fan-pleasing circuits format with the riders completing a short neutralised zone (there for no reason other than to show off the beauty of the Santuario di San Romedio, which is a perfectly good reason) followed by a brief transitional section, then finished with six laps of a 15.3km circuit that allowed spectators to see the riders go by several times or, due to the compactness of the route, even travel around to see it from different points.

Shara Gillow scores her first stage win of 2013

As predicted, the first break got away very early on. A strong break probably could have survived to the finish, but this one was simply too big and lacked coherency;  once Valentina Scandolara of MCipollini-Giordana joined it, the riders collectively decided it was too big and stopped working, permitting the peloton to catch them.

At the end of the third lap another break formed, consisting this time of Scandolara, Rossella Ratto (Hitec Products-UCK) and Christel Ferrier-Bruneau (Faren-Let's Go Finland). With 45km to go the break had built a gap of 1'20"; the peloton wasn't keen on letting the three riders get any further away up the road but saw no need to panic, simply upping the pace a little and beginning to slowly reel it back in. Shara Gillow (Orica-AIS), who had also been in the first break, wasn't so sure and thought that there was a chance events might take a different course; having first discussed matters with team leader Emma Johansson, she was the only rider to bridge.

Had the peloton have chased down the break immediately, Gillow would have rapidly been returned to the pack. However, because they didn't, by the time the gap was reduced to 40" Gillow decided she might as well launch an all-or-nothing attack and see what happened, going into what she described as "time trial mode" and powering towards the line. Having ended Stage 1b with an overall time deficit of 03'04" to race leader Evelyn Stevens (Specialized-Lululemon), Gillow was never a real threat to the eventual outcome and, as a result, perhaps escaped more determined efforts to chase her down; nevertheless, her stage win was a glorious one and, leading the next riders by 01'05", she jumped from 19th place in the General Classification at the start to 7th at the end. Johansson led the ten-strong following group and took second place, followed over the line by Ratto. Stevens, also in the group, took 6th place.

Stage 2 Result
1 Shara GILLOW (Orica-AIS) 3h17'27"
2 Emma JOHANSSON (Orica-AIS) +1:05"
3 Rossella RATTO (Hitec Products-UCK) ST
4 Tatiana GUDERZO (MCipollini-Girodana) ST
5 Valentina SCANDOLARA (MCipollini-Girodana) ST
6 Evelyn STEVENS (Specialized-Lululemon) ST
7 Tatiana ANTOSHINA (MCipollini-Girodana) ST
8 Elisa LONGO BORGHINI (Hitec Products-UCK) ST
9 Svetlana STOLBOVA (Pratomagno) ST
10 Jessie DAAMS (Boels-Dolmans) ST
Full result

General Classification
1 Evelyn STEVENS (Specialized-Lululemon) 6h04'22"
2 Tatiana GUDERZO (MCipollini-Girodana) +46"
3 Tatiana ANTOSHINA (MCipollini-Girodana) +01'15"
4 Elisa LONGO BORGHINI (Hitec Products-UCK) +01'30"
5 Georgia WILLIAMS (BePink) +01'41"
6 Emma JOHANSSON (Orica-AIS) +01'47"
7 Shara GILLOW (Orica-AIS) +01'49"
8 Svetlana STOLBOVA (Orica-AIS) +02'07"
9 Jessie DAAMS (Boels-Dolmans) +02'22"
10 Rossella RATTO (Hitec Products-UCK) +02'31"
Full result

Points: 1 Evelyn STEVENS (Specialized-Lululemon) 47; 2 Emma JOHANSSON (Orica-AIS) 40; 3 Tatiana GUDERZO (MCipollini-Girodana) 37. 
KOM: 1  Rossella RATTO (Hitec Products-UCK) 21; 2 Valentina SCANDOLARA (MCipollini-Girodana) 17; Shara GILLOW (Orica-AIS) 9.

Hitec Products-UCK riders take all three podium places at the Norwegian Criterium Championships (photo by team DS Karl Lima)

Great day out for Hitec Products
Hitec Products-UCK had a superb day at the Norwegian Criterium Championships - all three steps on the podium went to riders from the team. Thea Thorsen, Junior National ITT Champion in 2009 and 2010, took first place; Emilie Moberg, the winner of the Tour of Zhoushan Island last year, was second and Tone Hatteland, who won the National Criterium title in 2010, was third - and as if that wasn't a satisfactory definition of the term "domination," their Hitec team mate Mirian Bjørnsrud was fourth.

Hitec have been enjoying a spectacular season in 2013 and seem to get at least one rider on the podium in every race they enter - results such as this one suggest that this year's successes are only the first of many more in coming seasons.

The Cycle Show returns to British TV - with increased women's cycling coverage
ITV took a considerable risk by giving The Cycle Show airtime in 2012: yes, Wiggo had just won the Tour, yes, Cav was nearing rockstar status and yes, Pendleton, Trott, Storey and the rest were about to become household names once the non-cycling public realised during the Olympics that they were all excellent athletes rather than just pretty faces in The Sun and FHM, but it was still a big risk. After all, cycling's a niche sport in Britain (or so we're told) - would The Public forget about it the moment the Tour was over, just as a large portion of the media seems to think was the case the moment Tom Simpson died?

In fact, the show was so immediately successful that, after only a few half-hour episodes, it got a one-hour slot and was massively improved as a result; whereas early episodes were rushed. That was no problem for Series 1 highlight interviewee Graeme Obree, who talks as fast as he rides and squeezed an hour's-worth of words into five minutes, but the laid-back mountain bike pioneer (and hippy) Gary Fisher didn't get to say much in his allotted time on screen.

Best of all, the producers held their promise that they wouldn't ignore women's cycling - women's professional cycling was mentioned frequently, there were several female guests and a number of short films encouraging women to take up cycling either recreationally, to commute or for sport. I asked if, following the unprecedented success of the women's races at the Olympics, the Johnson HealthTech GP and the IG Nocturne there'd be increased coverage this series, and received the following reply:

The Cycle Show ‏@thecycleshowtv The production company behind the show is @CenturyTV who produce JHTGP and Nocturne coverage. We're having a women's special... 

The Cycle Show ‏@thecycleshowtv ...as well as guests and features with women cyclists thought the series.

A one-hour show devoted to women's cycling? Incredible, fantastic news!

Understandably, they're not willing to reveal who the guests will be just yet (despite my begging for clues), so we'll have to watch to find out (but I'm guessing we'll see a bit of Wiggle-Honda). The first episode airs on the 8th of July at 8pm on ITV4. Promo:

Photo of the Week

Giorgia Bronzini @GiorgiaBronzini Vespa style! pic.twitter.com/R36C4KA7jA ...but is she faster with an engine or without?

30.06-07.07.2013 Official Site
Italy, 8-stage Road Race, 803km
UCI 2.1

Stage reports and results here

The legendary Giro Donne - the last Grand Tour in women's cycling - faced an uncertain future and, for a while, looked about to vanish forever last year when organiser Epinike revealed that it wouldn't be seeking a renewal of its contract to run the race. Fortunately, Renato di Rocco kept true to his promise that he'd make saving it a priority if he was successful in his bid to be re-elected as president of the Italian national federation; once he was he wasted no time in appointing a new race director, Giuseppe Rivolta, and a new company named Erre 4 was created to take on responsibility for making sure that the Giro went ahead under its new name the Giro Rosa.

Since its inception right back in 1988, the Donne has attracted the most talented and famous athletes in the sport. Maria Canins won that year, followed by Roberta Bonanomi in 1989 and then the Frenchwoman Catherine Marsal in 1990. The race wasn't held in 1991 or 1992, but Slovakian Lenka Ilavska became the first rider from the former Eastern Bloc to win with her victory when it restarted in 1993 and the race has been held every year since. Michela Fanini began a new era of Italian domination with her 1994 victory; just a few months later, at the age of 21, she was tragically killed but her memory lives on in the name of the team named after her - S.C. Michela Fanini-ROX, taking part in the race this year. Fabiana Luperini, who still races today and is competing with the Faren-Let's Go Finland team this year, won for the first time in 1995 and then did so again in 1996, 1997 and 1998 and Joane Somarriba became the first Spanish winner in 1999 and won for a second time in 2000. Nicole Brandli was the first Swiss winner in 2001, Svetlana Bubenkova the first Russian in 2002, Brandli won again in 2003 and then the Welsh wonder Nicole Cooke took Britain's first win in 2004, after which Brandli won for a third time in 2005. Lithuanian Edita Pucinskaite won in 2006 and 2007 and then, an incredible 13 years after her first victory, Luperini won for a record fifth time in 2008. Two more firsts came in subsequent years with Claudia Hausler (back with Tibco-To The Top in 2013) the first German winner in 2009 and Mara Abbott (riding with the USA team this year) the first American in 2010, bringing the race neatly up to the reign of Marianne Vos who was the first Dutch winner when she beat Britain's Emma Pooley by more than three minutes (and third place Judith Arndt by more than eight) in 2011, then did the same in 2012. Vos will be a popular favourite for this year, but she'll have a tougher time of it than in the past - the other teams and riders have a better understanding of precisely what they're dealing with when Vos races and are thus better able to react when she makes a move. There are those who believe that, with her return to mountain biking this year, Vos is spreading herself too thinly; however, many believe that she could probably add a few more disciplines and still win more races than any rider in the history of cycling.

Parcours

Stage 1 (30.06.2013) Giovinazzo-Margherita di Savoia, 124.3km

Stage 2 (01.07.2013) Pontecagnano Faiano-Pontecagnano Faiano, 99.6km


Stage 3 (02.07.2013) Cerro Al Volturno-Cerro Al Volturno, 111.6km
Stage 4 (03.07.2013) Monte San Vito-Castelfidardo, 137.2km
Stage 5 (04.07.2013) Varazze-Monte Beigua, 73.3km
Stage 5 is 64km shorter than Stage 4, but there's no way it could ever be described as easier - while yesterday's parcours was mostly flat with only a couple of little climbs along the way, today's finish line is located at the top of a Cat.1 climb 1,274m above sea level. To put that into context for British readers, it's 189m (620 feet) higher than the summit of Snowdon.

The finish line is only 74m below the summit of Monte Beigua, within sight of RAI's TV masts

The parcours starts climbing right from the finish line, gaining 210m at an average gradient of 3.3% over the first 6.3km; no real problem for the grimpeurs, but not at all a welcome prospect for the sprinters or any rider who isn't feeling their best. It's flatter - but not flat - for the next 7.5km to Santa Giustina, then climbs 174m in 2.7km (average gradient 6.3%) on the Cat. 3 ascent to Ponte Giovo, making this the perfect spot for a small group of climbers to leave the pack behind - especially as the coming descent isn't steep enough to give even the most birdlike of climbers too many problems, permitting them to maintain any lead they gain. They'll probably seek to increase it even further on the 17.3km, gently uphill section Pontinvrea, but the descent in the next 4.5km might easily whittle down their numbers: -3% average is not a steep gradient, but the climber who fears descending the least has an obvious advantage here. The next downhill section from 55.3 to 58.5km, with its average -4.3%, will have the same effect.

From 58.5km to the end, everything changes: a rider could arrive at this point alone and with an advantage of an hour, but it won't matter in the slightest if she hasn't got the strength left in her legs to tackle Monte Beigua - over the remaining 14.8km, there are 1,152m at an average gradient of 7.8% to be climbed.

Stage 6 (05.07.2013) Terme Di Premia-San Domenico, 121km
Stage 7 (06.07.2013) Corbetta-Corbetta, 120km
Stage 8 (07.07.2013) Cremona ITT, 16km
Classification Jerseys

General Classification

Points Classification

Mountains Classification

Italian Classification

Youth Classification

Start List
...as provided by the organisers. Women Cycling Fever maintains a regularly-updated list here; the official race website has a list here. One rider who isn't taking part, due to a knee injury, is Amber Pierce: last year, Amber hosted a series of interactive post-stage video conferences in which she chatted with fans and answered their questions, a prime example of a rider doing her bit to promote the sport.

11-14.07.2013 Official Site
France, 4-stage Road Race, 377.9km
UCI 2.2

2013 photos by Gwena

2012 victor Anna van der Breggen

Cycling enjoys enormous popularity in the Basque Country, the Netherlands and Belgium but for most people, largely due to the The Tour, the sport is primarily associated with France. There's a good reason for that - the French have loved the bicycle since the early days, have adored racing them ever since the first time two cyclists found themselves on the same road and many people throughout the country consider it to be their national sport, but if you want to meet some truly obsessed fans then you need to head for Brittany.

Brittany is to France what Wales is to England - once an independent nation, it has its own language (Breizh, a Brythonic language that predates French and has similarities to Welsh but more to Cornish, the language of their ancestors who emigrated to Brittany from Cornwall between the third and ninth centuries CE; just as Welsh and Cornish - or Cymraeg and Kernowek - are also Brythonic and predate English. The Bretons and the Welsh have long been aware of this and consider themselves more closely related to one another than they do to the French and the English - "You are Welsh? I'm Breton - we are cousins!" as one Breton, who I'd assumed to be French, told me when she heard I'm Welsh). Brittany also has a Celtic heritage of which its inhabitants have become increasingly proud (but doesn't yet suffer from huge numbers of gift shops specialising in fudge, plush dragons - or ermines, the ermine being the equivalent Breton symbol - and fridge magnets that have a message in the local language and "Made in China" in English on the back, as Wales does). Around half of all Bretons consider themselves to be Breton as well as French and early a quarter consider themselves Breton and then French while a small minority argue that they're not French at all; in some areas, therefore, it feels distinctly different to France, as though the visitor is in a different country altogether - and, although it's difficult to define exactly what makes them so, Breton races feel somehow different to French races. So, since Brittany is so easy to reach from Britain, why not go and support your favourite riders? There are details on how to get there on this page.

This one has existed since 1987, making it among the oldest women's races still taking place; from 1987 to 2000 it was open only to amateurs, but in 2001 it became a professional race for a single year. It then didn;t go ahead in 2002, reverted to amateurs in 2003 and has been for professionals from 2004 to the present. In 1987 it was won by Cecile Odin, who earlier that season had won the Tour Cycliste Féminin de la Drôme which also started in 1987, was run periodically up until 2006 and has now vanished (it also vanished between 1990 and 2002, though, so fingers crossed). Catherine Marsal won in 1988 and 1989 when she was a still a junior; in 1989 she also won the Junior World Pursuit title on the track, then went on to enjoy a glittering career that brought victory at Giro Donne, the Tour de l'Aude, numerous National Championships and, in 1990, the World Road Race Championship. The race didn't go ahead in 1990 but returned in 1991 when Lithuanian Daïva Chapelienne became the first non-French winner - Chapelienne won few other races and has been largely forgotten. 1992 went to an eighteen-year-old German few people had ever heard of named Hanka Kupfernagel - later that year, Hanka became Junior World Champion, then in 1995 she won 17 races including the Gracia Orlova and the National Road Race and Time Trial Championships; she would win the Tour again in 1997 and 1998, making her the joint most successful rider in the history of the race and, with numerous other wins to her name (including a record three - won consecutively - at the Emakumeen Bira), is now one of the most famous female cyclists in the world.

Jeannie Longo won in 1993 and 1995, 1994 having gone to the first Russian winner Svetlana Bubnenkova; 1996 went to Marion Clignet, the rider who was born in the USA and raced with an American licence until she was prevented from renewing her US Cycling Federation membership following her diagnosis with epilepsy - at which point, she joined the French federation instead and, in her first year racing for France, won the National Pursuit and Road Race Championships and the World Team Time Trial Championship, then delivered her new country another five World Championship medals over the course of the rest of her career. Germany came to the end of a three-year run of  victories started by Kupfernagel when Judith Arndt added her name to the list in 1999 and Anita Valen de Vries became the first and, to date, the only Norwegian winner in 2000, after which Arndt won again in 2001, when the Tour was open to professionals for the first time. The race skipped a year in 2002, then Edwige Pitel (who is still racing, with S.C. Michela Fanini-ROX) won in 2003 - the last ever amateur edition and the first of five consecutive French wins.

Another forgotten rider, Magali Finot-Laivier won in 2004, then Marina Jaunatre bettered Kupfernagels' three victories with three consecutive victories from 2005-2007. In 2008 Emma Pooley became the first and last British winner, also taking two stage wins, and - remarkably, considering their passion for the sport - the Belgians got their first win a year later thanks to Liesbet de Vocht. The race didn't take place again in 2010, when it returned in 2011 Alexandra Burchenkova took Russia's second win, followed by the first Dutch winner Anna van der Breggen who dominated the race with three stage wins in 2012.

Parcours
Stage 1 (Pledran-Yffiniac, 97.9km+30.1km, 11.07.2013)
The Tour begins this year just a few kilometres south of Saint-Brieuc at Pledran, the birthplace of Maurice Le Guilloux who enjoyed a successful career in cycling during the 1970s and 80s and rode as a domestique to Brittany's most famous son Bernard Hinault on the La Vie Claire team (Le Guilloux is now Crédit Lyonnais' public relations officer on the Tour de France). Hinault was born in Yffiniac, where the stage ends, on the 14th of November in 1954; he, of course, won five Tours de France and is often considered the second most successful (male) cyclist of all time after Eddy Merckx - this stage takes in a few of the hills where, as a teenager, The Badger would go to slipstream behind trucks traveling at 50kph. Less famous is Zephirin Jegard, born there on the 28th of August in 1935 - in 2004, when he was 69 years old, Jegard set a new record for cycling from Brest on the French Atlantic coast to Vladivostok on the Russian Pacific coast, taking 66 days to complete the 13,850km - 209km on average each day.

There are no high mountains in Brittany, but all four stages in the race are hilly. This one reaches the highest altitude anywhere on the parcours and some of the climbs are steep - it's a day for a climber or a rouleur who can keep up with them on all but the toughest ascents. As with Stages 3 and 4, the parcours consists of two sections: the main route (blue on the map) is 97.9km in length, the circuit is 6.2km and will be completed four times before a part-lap of 5.7km. The total distance today is, therefore, 128km.


View Tour de Bretagne 2013 St1 in a larger mapStage 2

Stage 2 (Mohon-Mohon, 12.3km ITT, 12.07.2013)
Beginning at the small and very picturesque town of Mohon (that's the one in Brittany rather than the one in the Ardennes, RusVelo!), Stage 2 is an individual time trial taking place on a tricky 12.3km circuit with several sharp corners. With rural Fren... sorry, Breton roads being what they are, expect slippery conditions and numerous crashes if it rains.


View Tour de Bretagne 2013 St2 in a larger map







Stage 3 (Pipriac-La Chapelle Bouexic, 89.4km+34.5km, 13.07.2013)
Pipriac hosts today's start line - the town, home to around 3,500 people, was the birthplace in 1415 of one Jean Brito who, for many years from the 18th Century, it was claimed had invented movable type printing before Johannes Gutenberg, a claim that is now considered false.

The climbs are smaller than on Stage 1 though no less steep - but there are plenty of them and their combined effect will be very tiring. The main route is 89.4km, the 6.6km circuit will be completed five times in addition to a short transition of 1.5km; today's total distance is 123.9km.

View Tour de Bretagne 2013 St3 in a larger map

Stage 4 (Crozon-Poullan Sur Mer, 83.6km+27.2km, 14.07.2013)
Joseph Velly, winner of the 1969 GP de France, was born in Crozon in 1938. His distinctly Celtic name befits his origins because Crozon and its surroundings are peppered with dolmens and standing stones (Lostmarc'h, Ty-Ar-This-Hure) that give it an "feel" every bit as Celtic as Men-an-Tol (Cornwall), Pentre Ifan (Wales) or Newgrange (Ireland) - other megalithic sites that are associated in the popular mind with the Celts, despite the fact that every one of them was already ancient by the time the Celts found their way to Western Europe. The rocky Atlantic coastline, which this stage follows closely, also contributes to the ambiance - it's wild and rugged and doesn't really seem to be a part of France at all. It should be noted that there is another Crozon in Brittany, some 32km west of Rennes - the start line is at the other, larger Crozon much further West in the middle of the peninsula that shares its name; if I was going to visit the race this year (which I can't), this would be the stage I'd make sure I could see and, into addition to small hotels at Crozon and Poullan Sur Mer, there are many campsites along the coast ranging from well-appointed with electrical hook-ups for campervans to fields with space for a few tents, enabling the visitor to make the most of the race and the scenery.

Taking coastal roads makes this another stage characterised by its many short, steep ascents. The main section is 83.6km while the circuit, which is 5.5km, will be completed four times. There will also be a part-lap of 5.2km; the total distance of the stage is, therefore, 113.7km.

View Tour de Bretagne 2014 St4 in a larger map
Starters
A start list has not yet been made available. However, Women Cycling Fever is the best point of call for regular updates; their list can be found here.

How to follow the race
For expert race analysis and up-to-the-second news, follow Matrix Racing Academy and Hitec Products-UCK managers Stef Wyman and Karl Lima - and if you're a women's cycling fan, you really ought to be following both of them already. Finally, there is Gwena - the authority on women's cycling in France, Gwena will be at the race and will have some of the best reports going on her website Cyclisme Feminin.

Getting There, Staying There
Ferries
Getting to Brittany is as simple a process as getting to Calais, but much prettier when you get off the ferry. Brittany Ferries (the same one that persuaded the Tour de France to make its first visit to Britain back in 1974, as an advertisement for its new line) sails from Plymouth to Roscoff (approximately 90km from Crozon) twice most days. A return ticket for an adult with a bicycle is around £80.

Camping
Pen Bellec, just south of Telgruc-Sur-Mer, has everything that even an inexperienced camper might need and costs little enough to appeal even to us tight-fisted cyclists - estimate around €5 per night per adult, €5 per night per car and €6.50 per night per campervan, or go by bike: this is Brittany, the won't charge you for taking it onto the site and you'll be loved wherever you go (especially if you've got a vintage La Vie Claire jersey). Pen Bellec's location right on the beach makes it possibly the most beautiful campsite in Brittany. There are several other campsites nearby; Tourisme Bretagne has details.

Please note: although great care has been taken when producing these stage maps, they should be considered to be for illustrative purposes only. If in any doubt it should be assumed that official maps and directions provided by the race organisers are correct.

Rider assaulted by coach?

Erika Varela was attacked by her coach, says eye-witness

Erika Varela, winner of the Junior Road Race at the 2012 PanAmerican Championships, was allegedly subjected to a physical assault at the hands of her team coach Arturo Meneses - who is also the president of the Asociación de Ciclismo del Estado de México.

Gustavo Garcia, an eye-witness who took photos of the alleged attack at the Mexican National Championships, claims to have gone to see what was going on after hearing shouting and saw the rider and coach arguing over results. He says he then saw them struggling with one another next to a car, after which the rider was pushed to the ground. In one of the photos, Meneses has taken hold of Varela's arm; it is unclear whether he is trying to pull her back to her feet or twisting it. It would be possible to argue that the photos actually show Varela fainting with Meneses trying to catch her, then helping her back to his feet; however, in what is apparently the last photo, he has taken hold of her under the arms and is lifting her back up while she has taken firm hold of the car's door handle and is pulling herself up - which suggests she is fully aware of the situation rather than being dazed as would be expected had she just fainted.

Cycling is a dangerous sport, under no circumstances should any rider - male or female - ever be assaulted by a coach, manager, another rider or anyone else. The UCI must conduct an in-depth investigation as a matter of urgency and, if it is shown that what the photos seem to show took place really did, there is no place in the Asociación nor in the sport in general for Meneses.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery, Elisa!

Elisa Longo Borghini injured
It's been a superb season for Elisa Longo Borghini, who has brought her Hitec Products-UCK team numerous podium places and a couple of very impressive victories - including at the Trofeo Binda, where she beat Emma Johansson, Ellen van Dijk, Amanda Spratt, Chantal Blaak and Marianne Vos - but her luck ran out at the Italian National Championships.

The 21-year-old, considered one of the sport's most promising rising stars, crashed around 3km from the finish line in wet conditions and received a nasty cut to the abdomen; the official race medics sent her to hospital to be properly examined and it was there that X-rays revealed the rider had also suffered a fracture in her iliac crest, the large bone that forms the "shoulder" of the pelvis.

It's too early for doctors to be able to estimate Longo Borghini's recovery time, but with other riders who have suffered similar injuries taking several months to fully heal it looks as though her 2013 season is at an end. She will, of course, miss the Giro Rosa, which she had listed as her greatest goal this year.

Ever wanted to ask the Giro Rosa riders anything?
I know I have, and chances are you have too - or if not, you'll probably be able to think of something (what's the name of that men's race that takes place in France at the same time the Rosa's on in Italy, for example). Last year, Amber Pierce ran a series of post-stage video conferences in which she answered questions from fans and delighted us all with her willingness to spend time chatting about the world in general (thanks Amber!), but she won't be at the race this year.

Fortunately, the fantastic Sarah Connolly - who is largely responsible for convincing me that I like women's cycling more than men's, and as such partially inspired this website - has managed to persuade several Orica-AIS riders who will be there to answer questions with the answers then being published on Podium Cafe.

"You can ask questions for the team in general, or for individual riders - anything you've wanted to know about racing a Tour! Anything you like, from technical questions, what riders pack in their "survival kit" to worst moments from previous Giros, what's it really like riding up a mountain in the scorching heat, who are they all hoping they don't have to share rooms with - anything!" Sarah says. Read more about it here.

Interesting Links
UK
Joanna Rowsell wins British National Time Trial Championship (SkySports)
Lizzie Armitstead joins Sky Sports editorial team as a cycling blogger (SkySports)
New British TT Champ Jo Rowsell speaks to Road.CC (Road.CC)
Olympic star Laura Trott races at Otley (Telegraph&Argus)
Jess Varnish urges more women to cycle (GiveMeSport)
Worldwide

Athletes, organizers, USA Cycling consider challenges, benefits for big-time women’s racing (VeloNews)

Ferrand Prevot repeats as French time trial champion (Cycling News)
Maria Parker expected to finish RAAM today (Robesonian)
Tayler Wiles leaps from casual rider to international racer (Salt Lake Tribune)
Fort Collins cyclist Amanda Miller ready to put injuries behind her (Coloradoan)
Numainville wins Canadian ITT Champs (TheSpec.com)
Dirt Skirt revolution: Local cycling series aims to encourage women to race (Winnipeg Free Press)
Theresa Cliff-Ryan wins East Troy Classic (VeloNews)
Cyclist Dies After Crash at SD Velodrome (NBC San Diego)
Rebecca Rusch repeats as Dirty Kanza women’s champ (Idaho Mountain Express)
Tour of Elk Grove women’s race will be televised nationally (Daily Herald, US)
Wheels are turning for Victoria Gates (Worcester Telegram, Massachusetts)
Nursyazwana Mohd Jamil is new Malaysian Road Race Champ (New Straits Times)

Giro Rosa
The biggest news of the week can only possibly be the Giro Rosa which, as the new incarnation of the legendary Giro Donne, is the only Grand Tour in women's cycling. Race preview here.

Marianne Vos is, of course, hotly tipped for victory, just as she is in every race she enters. If she does win, it'll be her third Giro triumph in row - a feat thus far achieved only by Fabiana Luperini who won in 1995, 1996, 1997 and then for a fourth time in 1998. However, Vos' rivals are not content to sit back and let her win everything so they've all upped their game and the World Champion has some very strong competition this year with Emma Johansson and many others more than capable of giving her a run for her money, which is precisely how Vos likes it - so this may prove to be the most action-packed race of the year.

The Giro is one of the very few women's races that receives anything like the media attention it deserves and, as a result, it ought to be possible to find stage results and a brief outline of each day's events in the traditional cycling media. Nevertheless, I'll post details here when they become available and when I'm able to do so (likely to have an audit at work some time this week, so might be a bit pushed).

The Giro's official Twitter is here, the official site is here and my preview is here. Karl Lima, Bart Hazen, Anton Vos and Sarah Connolly are the people to follow on Twitter for race news. Don't forget that Sarah, who will be known to many women's cycling fans by her Twitter handle Pigeons, is running an excellent series of question and answers with the riders throughout the race over on Podium Cafe. For an insider's point of view, Tiffany Cromwell's stage reports on the Cycling Tips website are absolutely first-rate.

Cycling Direct ‏@CyclingDirectSAStill well pissed off by the crap level of @GiroRosa2013 prize money! @cooksonforuci please take note! #womenscycling

Stage 1
Marianne Vos (Rabobank) won both intermediate sprints; Julie Leth and Cecilie Gotaas Johnsen (both Hitec Products-UCK) took second and third at the first, then Rabo team mate Adrie Visser and RusVelo's Aizhan Zaparova were second and third at the second. Valentina Scandolara (MCipollini-Giordana) took the first GPM points on the Cat. 3 Terlizzi climb and thus leads the KOM competition; Martine Bras (Boels-Dolmans) and Edita Janeliunaite (Pasta Zara-Cogeas) were next to the top.

It wasn't a challenging stage and the peloton rolled along at high speed, nipping breaks in the bud. With so many riders bunched together, things began to get hairy in the final 10km when the pace picked up and teams began to rearrange themselves to position sprinters at the front; several crashes occurred. Katie Colclough (Specialized-Lululemon) and Gu Sung Eun (Orica-AIS) did not finish; Chloe Hosking (Hitec-UCK) will not start Stage 2.

Stage 1 winner Kirsten Wild

Vos, the current World Champion, is apparently going to waste no time this year and fought hard to the line but was pipped to the stage win by sprint specialist Kirsten Wild (racing for the Dutch National Team), who is making her return to racing following the fractured shoulder she suffered at the Omloop van Borsele back in April - doubtless a very reassuring victory for her. The next 124 riders, led by Marta Tagliaferro (MCipollini-Giordana), crossed in the same group and recorded the same time.

Wild won a 10" bonification for doing so; however, Vos had won 3" at each intermediate sprint and another 6" for her second place and, as a result, leads the General Classification by 2". The question is, can anyone prevent her from adding more and more to that lead over the coming stages, especially when the race reaches the mountains? One thing's for certain - Stage 2 offers plenty of scope for Vos to gain more time, but with another bunch finish on the cards there's a great deal of opportunity for Wild and the other sprinters too.

Stage 1 photos by Velofocus

Stage 1 Top Ten
1 Kirsten WILD (Dutch NT) 2h53'55"
2 Marianne VOS (Rabobank) +0"
3 Marta TAGLIAFERRO (MCipollini-Giordana) +0"
4 Edita JANELIUNAITE (Pasta Zara-Cogeas) +0"
5 Oxana KOZONCHUK (RusVelo) +0"
6 Annemiek VAN VLEUTEN (Rabobank) +0"
7 Shelley OLDS (Tibco-To The Top) +0"
8 Lauren HALL (USA NT) +0"
9 Lauren KITCHEN (Wiggle-Honda) +0"
10 Anna TREVISI (Vaiano-Fondriest) +0"
Full stage result and General Classification

Stage 2
With a steep climb on each of the four laps, Stage 2 looked more fertile ground for breaks - but it wasn't until the final kilometres that riders' attempts to get away succeeded, and even then they came to little. Martine Bras (Boels-Dolmans) tried to go in the first lap but was rapidly caught by the pack, then Annemiek van Vleuten (Rabo) and Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle-Honda) went on the climb in the second lap, but even working together they couldn't stay out for long.

Marianne Vos (Rabo) and Julie Leth (Hitec-UCK) were once again first and second through the intermediate sprint at the  close of the second lap, Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Rabo) was just behind for third. Aude Biannic of S.C. Michela Fanini-Rox managed to get away during the third lap and was going well enough for Vaiano-Fondriest's Valentina Bastianelli to make the effort to bridge across to her; the pair of them then mounted the day's most successful break which, for a time, saw them riding some 32" ahead of the peloton. However, with GPM points on offer soon after the start of the fourth, last lap, the pace picked up and they too were caught; Valentina Scandolara (MCipollini-Giordana) was fastest to the top again.

Stage 2 winner Giorgia Bronzini

With the climb completed for the last time, Inga Cilvinaite (Pasta Zara-Cogeas) broke away solo and gained a 15"; that Rabo and Wiggle-Honda gave chase and spared no efforts in making sure she got no further was evidence that they were going for a win today and, when Argos-Shimano moved up in order to get Kirsten Wild into position, there could be no doubt that there was going to be another bunch sprint - and what a sprint it turned out to be, despite Wild missing out when she punctured 8km from the line. Vos and Bronzini may be friends when not racing (they're both far too likable and nice not to be), but they have an old rivalry that goes back years; a Vos-Bronzini sprint duel is, therefore, a true clash of the titans. This time, it looked as though Bronzini wouldn't be able to generate the turn on speed she'd need to get out from behind the World Champion and overtake, but then fate intervened - Vos had chosen a line that led her straight into a section of rough, lumpy asphalt that caused her shoe to unclip from the pedal, which would have spelled disaster for a rider with anything less than excellent bike-handling skills. Fortunately, Vos has years and years of cyclo cross experience and remained upright, though she lost just enough speed for Bronzini to get what she needed - seizing her chance, she beat Vos by mere centimetres.

Vos, who led the General Classification after Stage 1, had picked up a 3" bonus at the sprint and then took another 6" for second place; Bronzini took 10" for the win. However, the Italian started the day uncharacteristically in last place with a deficit of 6'34"; she is now in 119th place (28 from bottom) and would need to find 6'33" to lead. Meanwhile, Vos increased her lead and is now 17" ahead of General Classification second place Marta Tagliaferro (MCipollini-Giordana). Tomorrow, the terrain becomes hilly (and there's an insanely steep 18% section with cobbles to the finish), then after a sprinter-friendly Stage 4 there are two days in the mountains - and Vos climbs as well as she sprints.

Stage 2 Top Ten
1 Giorgia BRONZINI (Wiggle-Honda) 2h34'03"
2 Marianne VOS (Rabo) ST
3 Barbara GUARISCHI (Vaiano-Fondriest) ST
4 Lauren HALL (USA NT) ST
5 Emily COLLINS (Wiggle-Honda) ST
6 Pauline FERRAND PREVOT (Rabo) ST
7 Oxana KOZONCHUK (RusVelo) ST
8 Cecilie Gotaas JOHNSEN (Hitec-UCK) ST
9 Alena AMIALIUSIK (BePink) ST
10 Marta TAGLIAFERRO (MCipollini-Giordana) ST
Full stage result and General Classification

Stage 3
The peloton was split early on when Valentina Scandolara (MCipollini-Giordana) attacked hard on the Cat. 3 climb at Castel San Vincenzo in the first 10km in an effort to retain the KOM jersey she's held since the first stage before the race heads into the big mountains and the likes of Evelyn Stevens and, perhaps even more of a threat, Ashleigh Moolman start to fight for it. Five riders - Barbara Guarischi (Vaiano-Fondriest), Lauren Hall (USA NT), Lucinda Brand (the Rabo star was celebrating her birthday today), Tiffany Cromwell (Orica-AIS) and Marianne Vos - got away with her; Vos won the intermediate sprint once again with Hall and Scandolara second and third and the rest of the group right behind them. By the time they arrived at Isernia some 41km into the parcours they'd managed to put a full minute between themselves and the pack.

For four of the escapees, the largely downhill 25km section to Pozzilli proved to be hard work: the peloton, using the terrain to sail along at a high rate of knots, constantly whittled down the gap while at the front Vos and Cromwell were simply getting faster. "It wasn’t so aggressive," Cromwell explained later. "There were no attacks. People started to drop off the group one by one as we started climbing. Somewhere around 40km to go it was just Vos and myself – we had dropped everyone else." With Cromwell pulling on the climbs, Vos leading on the descents and the pair of them working together on the flats, they reached escape velocity and headed off up the road together.

The stage featured a second Cat. 3 GPM climb (omitted from the altimetry profile) at 91km, where Cromwell led for the five points before the duo headed into the last section. The final 8km featured a difficult descent to Cerro al Volturno and it was this that proved to be Cromwell's downfall: the Australian, without making any obvious mistake ("I guess I pushed a little too far, but to hold Vos’ wheel for as long as I did is an achievement in itself. Vos is the best bike handler in the bunch," she said), suffered a crash on a descending hairpin 8km from the finish when her tyres simply gave up their grip. Although she was uninjured save for some painful grazes and wasted no time in getting back on her feet and setting off, her chances of going into a two-up sprint with the World Champion were gone (even the camera operator on the motorbike following them seems to have difficulty in locating Vos once the camera's turned away from Cromwell, she's already so far ahead) and she was swept up by a ten-strong chase group.

You'll have white knuckles watching the descents, but Vos takes it all in her stride

So when she finds herself alone near the finish with an insurmountable advantage, does Vos take it easy and cruise over the line at comfortable pace, banking energy for tomorrow? Not a chance of it. Finding herself without a challenger, she raced the clock instead and took the extremely difficult 18% cobbled last descent as fast as she possibly could. It took a lot out of her - she was unable to climb off the bike when she came to a halt, but the 45" between her and the next rider means a great deal more than the advantages she'd been picking up through the intermediate sprints and second places in Stages 1 and 2. Having also won the intermediate sprint earlier, she'd picked up an extra 6"; with bonification seconds awarded for the stage win she leads new second place Claudia Hausler by 1'13". That will change in the mountains when the climbing specialists go to work, but Vos is no slouch on the ascents either - and with another flat stage likely to end in a bunch sprint tomorrow, she might well have added even more time by then.

Finally, a special mention must go to Fabiana Luperini who, 48" behind Vos, took fourth place: Luperini, who turned 39 years old in January this year, holds the Giro Donne (the name by which the Giro Rosa was previously known) record having won an incredible five times. Perhaps even more incredible is the time span over which she achieved her victories - the first came in 1995; she then won again in 1996, 1997 and 1998 then again in 2008, thirteen years (longer than many professional cycling careers) after her first victory.

Stage 3 Top Ten
1 Marianne VOS (Rabo) 2h49'44"
2 Claudia HÄUSLER (Tibco-To The Top) +45"
3 Tatiana GUDERZO (MCipollini-Giordana) ST
4 Fabiana LUPERINI (Faren-Let's Go Finland) +48"
5 Rossella RATTO (Hitec Products-UCK) +50"
6 Ashleigh MOOLMAN (Lotto-Belisol) +55"
7 Evelyn STEVENS (Specialized-Lululemon) ST
8 Anna VAN DER BREGGEN (Netherlands NT) +58"
9 Mara ABBOTT (USA NT) ST
10 Shara GILLOW (Orica-AIS) +01'02"
Full stage result and General Classification

Stage 4
Before the Giro began it seemed certain that Stage 4, the last before the mountains, would be ruled by a breakaway. However, with Marianne Vos (Rabo) 1'13", a group of 13 riders headed by Claudia Hausler next and a 132-strong group including a selection of big name riders ranging from 3'01" to more than hour behind the leader at the start of the stage, it seemed that every team wanted to get as many riders into the break as possible; hence the entire peloton moved at high speed and remained together.

Tiffany Cromwell (Orica-AIS) was at the head of the race for the Cat. 2 climb at Fabriano-Colle Giglioni and took the lion's share of the points at the top, then Vos moved into the lead as the race approached the intermediate sprint a few kilometres later and picked up even more bonification points; Cromwell followed her for second place and Valentina Scandolara (MCipollini-Giordana), who had presumably intended to be first up the climb, was third.

Valentina Bastianelli managed a short solo breakaway

It looked, briefly, like Valentina Bastianelli (Vaiano-Fondriest) had achieved what nobody else could do when she managed to break away in the last 25km of the race, using the non-GPM Jesi climb to her advantage; she'll have pleased the fans and sponsors with her short time out in front but, with the pack still moving along at a high rate of knots she was soon caught.

Specialized-Lululemon made it patently clear that they were after a stage win today, moving up to the front of the peloton as the finish approached so as to be in the right spot to mark every move made by Rabobank. Their top GC contender Evelyn Stevens, who some say could steal victory from under Marianne Vos' nose later on in the race, demonstrated exactly why some say that  but was ultimately unable to match the incredible Dutch woman who reached the line alone, 3" ahead of the bunch. With the extra points from the intermediate sprint, her performance today was sufficient to increase her overall advantage to 1'31".

Tomorrow, everything changes - Stage 5 ends with a 1,000m climb to the finish line, favouring a whole new selection of riders. With a 560km transfer overnight to get to the start line, it'll be a challenge in more ways than one.


Stage 4 Top Ten
1 Marianne VOS (Rabo)
2 Evelyn STEVENS (Specialized-Lululemon) +03"
3 Ashleigh MOOLMAN (Lotto-Belisol) ST
4 Tatiana GUDERZO (MCipollini-Giordana) ST
5 Claudia HAUSLER (Tibco-To The Top) +07"
6 Anna VAN DER BREGGEN (Netherlands NT) +09"
7 Fabiana LUPERINI (Faren-Let's Go Finland) +09"
8 Francesca CAUZ (Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo) +18"
9 Tiffany CROMWELL (Orica-AIS) +20"
10 Mara ABBOTT (USA NT) ST
Full stage result and General Classification

Stage 5

Mara Abbott in 2011, before anorexia forced her to withdraw from racing

Not much more than a year ago, Mara Abbott - a rider who, in 2010, became the first American winner in the history of the Giro Donne - announced that she would be taking an indefinite break from racing as she was suffering from anorexia (for an excellent interview, which explains how Mara's condition, as is frequently the case with anorexia sufferers, stemmed not from a desire to lose weight but from a feeling that she was not in control of her life, see this ESPN-W article).

During Stage 5 of the 2013 Giro Rosa, she turned what many believed to be Marianne Vos' insurmountable advantage of 1'31" into a 3'20" disadvantage, and in doing so placed herself in the top position with a lead of 1'27" over second place Tatiana Guderzo.

Vos had been looking good in the first kilometres, remaining near the front of the pack as it stayed tight over the day's first categorised climb to Sassello, some 17.2km from the start, though it was once again Valentina Scandolara (MCipollini-Giordana) who took the biggest allocation of points at the summit with Tiffany Cromwell (Orica-AIS) just behind her and ahead of the World Champion. On the descent, Scandolara and eleven others, including a number of strong climbers, joined forces and escaped, which immediately caused the peloton some concern although they didn't immediately react, permitting the group to get 55" up the road - which left Valentina Carretta (MCipollini-Giordana), Megan Guarnier and Roxane Knetemann (both Rabo) to take first, second and third at the intermediate sprint 43.4km in. With the finish now less than 30km, the teams without climbers in the break decided they really needed to take matters in hand and upped the tempo, reducing the gap to 30". Lauren Hall (USA NT) and Valentina Bastianelli (Vaiano-Fondriest) managed to bridge at that point, but even with the new strength they brought the break was spent and, by the time the race arrived at the foot of Mount Beigua, all the riders were together again.

That's when Evelyn Stevens (Specialized-Lululemon) made the move that everybody had been expecting ever since the route was announced, joining forces with Abbott (that both of them are American and it's the 4th of July, it seems, counted for a lot more than the fact that they ride for opposing teams) to put Vos under pressure. It was obvious immediately that the Dutchwoman, remarkably, was not in any fit state to follow them - she tried, but for once her legs simply didn't have the strength; so she fell back. However, very shortly afterwards, so did Stevens; an incredible state of affairs as it left the two popular favourites for General Classification victory apparently out of the game.

Abbott, though, pressed on, and nobody could keep her from slowly but surely adding more and more time to the gap between herself and the rest. Then, in a scene that must surely have deserved to be splashed across the world's television sets far more than the unremarkable bunch sprint at the Tour de France, she crossed the finish line alone and 1'44" ahead of second place Francesca Cauz (Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo).

"I'm going to try to protect this lead with the help of my teammates," Abbott told the press after the stage. "They have been great so far. They've done everything that's been asked of them. I have confidence that they will continue to give everything until the end."

Vos confesses that, when Giorgia Bronzini beat her at the World Championships in 2011, she was not in the most pleasant of moods; this time, perhaps realising that while she had been crushingly defeated, Abbott had scored a victory far greater than a stage - one against a terrible disease that, in her autobiography Op De Troon, Vos reveals she too has experienced. "Today was a serious test and I just was not good enough. I can come up with all kinds of excuses, but the others were simply too strong," she said, explaining that she believes she now has no chance to win this year. "I tried to go, but blew myself up. The pace was just too high; then I slowly saw the light go out. One by one they came past me. After a while Megan Guarnier came to me. She got me in tow to try to minimise the our losses a little, but there was nothing left to save."

Stage 5 Top Ten
1 Mara ABBOTT (USA NT) 2h25'25"
2 Francesca CAUZ (Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo) +01'44"
3 Fabiana LUPERINI (Faren-Let's Go Finland) +01'49"
4 Tatiana GUDERZO (MCipollini-Giordana) +01'51"
5 Shara GILLOW (Orica-AIS) +02'38"
6 Claudia HÄUSLER (Tibco-To The Top) +02'49"
7 Eivgenia VYSOTSKA (S.C. Michela Fanini-ROX) +03'02"
8 Alena AMIALIUSIK (BePink) +03'45"
9 Ashleigh MOOLMAN (Lotto-Belisol) +03'51"
10 Evelyn STEVENS (Specialized-Lululemon) ST
Full stage result and General Classification

Stage 6
A victory such as that enjoyed by Mara Abbott (USA NT) yesterday cannot happen by chance, only through hard work, natural talent and developed ability. To prove this, the 27-year-old American took on the best riders in women's cycling once again; she beat them for a second day in a row.

Valentina Scandolara

Marianne Vos (Rabo) knows she'd need to pull off a trick probably beyond ever her abilities to win this race now, but you don't earn the right to be called "the world's most successful cyclist" without a hefty dose of fighting spirit - accompanied by team mate Lucinda Brand, Shelley Olds (Tibco-To The Top) and Valentina Scandolara (who seems determined to spend as much of the race as possible somewhere near the front; MCipollini-Giordana), the World Champion fled the peloton on the long descent during the initial 20km to Crevoladossola. By the time the road flattened out, the trio had half a minute; it would not be enough, however, to prevent the accelerating peloton sweeping them up over the course of the next 20km.

Soon afterwards, 50km into the stage, a new break of nine riders got away and achieved a 1'12"advantage by the time Sari Saarelainen (MCipollini-Giordana) led Alessandra D'Ettore (Vaiano-Fondriest) and Lauren Kitchen (Wiggle-Honda) through the intermediate sprint at Ornavasso, then increased it by another minute by Villadossola. This stage featured no fewer than three intermediate sprints, an effort by the race organisers to keep things interesting on the flat section leading up to the big climb at the end; Malgorzata Jasinska (MCipollini-Giordana) was first through the second with Saarelainen and Kitchen right behind her, then Saarelainen took the best of the points at the third followed by D'Ettore and Adrie Visser (Boels-Dolmans). By now, the peloton had dramatically slashed their deficit down to a more manageable 1'10".

The road began gaining altitude 20km from the finish line, allowing the pack to finally close the gap on the escapees. A few kilometres later, when the gradient really kicked in, a large group of eighteen climbers that had been assembling at the front made its move, settling into the smooth rhythm that marks out the sort of true grimpeurs that were in with a chance of making it to the 1,400m summit with a decent time. However, in a repeat of yesterday's events, not one single rider - not Vos, Stevens (Specialized-Lululemon) or even Moolman (Lotto-Belisol), who looks as though she was born for no purpose other than to ride bikes quickly up mountains - was able to stay with Abbott when she increased her pace; the American simply left them behind and sailed away solo to another spectacular stage victory.

Following the stage, it was announced that Fabiana Luperini, the most successful Giro Donne winner of all time, was being disqualified as she had competed on a bike weighing less than the minimum set out under UCI rules.

Stage 6 Top Ten
1 Mara ABBOTT (USA NT) 3h16'01"
2 Claudia HÄUSLER (Tibco-To The Top) +24"
3 Francesca CAUZ (Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo) +34"
4 Fabiana LUPERINI (Faren-Let's Go Finland) +41" (disqualified)
5 Tatiana GUDERZO (MCipollini-Giordana) +01'03"
6 Evelyn STEVENS (Specialized-Lululemon) +01'32"
7 Marianne VOS (Rabobank) +01'39"
8 Shara GILLOW (Orica-AIS)+01'46"
9 Ashleigh MOOLMAN (Lotto-Belisol) +01'52"
10 Eivgenia VYSOTSKA (S.C. Michela Fanini-ROX) +01'53"
Full stage result and General Classification

Stage 7

Marianne Vos (pictured at the 2013 La Flèche Wallonne)

With no more mountains in this edition, Stage 7 consisted of eight laps of a flat circuit that was always going to favour the sprinters. The first few laps saw a number of riders try to break and, for a very brief time, it looked as though Lauren Kitchen (Wiggle-Honda), Anastasya Chulkova (RusVelo) and Inga Cilvinaite (Pasta Zara-Cogeas) looked as though they might even manage to do it - but, with the lack of technical sections permitting the peloton to drive forward at enormous speed, it was soon clear that the only way anybody was going to get any distance from the pack was by dropping off the back.

The intermediate sprint at 103.3km went to Tatiana Guderzo (MCipollini-Giordana), bringing the second-placed overall rider some bonus seconds that, though welcome, are unlikely to make much difference to the eventual outcome. Claudia Hausler (Tibco-To The Top) and Valentina Scandolara (MCipollini-Giordana) were second and third.

Marianne Vos' defeat on the climbs of Stages 5 and 6 came as a big surprise, one that effectively took her out of contention for General Classification victory; her power in the sprint to the finish line, meanwhile, was no surprise at all and nobody from among the 25 riders that went with her, including old rival Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle-Honda), was able to get past her. She picked up bonus sections as a result, but even so ended the stage 4'50" down in the GC. Race leader Mara Abbott (USA NT) finished in the third group, well down in 52nd place at +9" - but with an overall advantage standing at 2'28" after the stage, it'd probably take more of an effort to lose that lead than retain it in tomorrow's individual time trial.

Stage 7 Top Ten
1 Marianne VOS (Rabobank) 2h52'07"
2 Giorgia BRONZINI (Wiggle-Honda) ST
3 Shelley OLDS (Tibco-To The Top) ST
4 Kirsten WILD (Netherlands NT) ST
5 Barbara GUARISCHI (Vaiano-Fondriest) ST
6 Marta TAGLIAFERRO (MCipollini-Giordana) ST
7 Oxana KOZONCHUK (RusVelo) ST
8 Alena AMIALIUSIK (BePink) ST
9 Giada BORGATO (Pasta Zara-Cogeas) ST
10 Melissa HOSKINS (Orica-AIS) ST
Full stage result and General Classification

Stage 8 (ITT)
Dutch national time trial champion Ellen van Dijk (Specialized-Lululemon) was always the favourite to win the race against the clock in the final stage of this year's Giro Rosa, but going into the stage with a deficit of 21'16" to race leader Mara Abbott (USA NT) there was no chance she'd be able to steal overall victory. However, with several other good time trial riders - including Italian TT champion Tatiana Guderzo (MCipollini-Giordana) in second place at 2'28" - Abbott's eventual win was far from carved in stone.

Lululemon team mate Tayler Wiles was the thirtieth rider to go from the 128 left in the race and set the first benchmark time at 22'22", which made her the rider to beat for more than an hour and was sufficient to give her sixth place for the stage. French TT champion Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Rabo) was first to beat her time, taking 12" from it, but when van Dijk went shortly afterwards and completed almost a minute faster it was clear that the remaining riders were going to be fighting for second and third place.

Abbott started the day with an advantage of 2'28" and, going up against the time trial specialists, had no choice but to see a big chunk taken away from her overall time today - she finished 38th fastest, 2'13" slower than van Dijk. Her stunning performances in the mountains earlier in the race, though, were enough; by the end of the day she still led by 1'33". The last time she won this race was three years and an eating disorder away - nobody can say that her victory is not an inspiration.

Marianne Vos (Rabo), who many expected to win a third consecutive General Classification victory, took the Points competition for her three stage wins. Abbott's two mountain stages, which she won solo, netted her the Mountains jersey alongside the General Classification while Francesca Cauz (Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo), one of this year's revelations with her incredibly climbing skills, is the best rider in the Youth category.

Stage 8 Top Ten
1 Eleonora VAN DIJK (Specialized-Lululemon) 21'12"
2 Evelyn STEVENS (Specialized-Lululemon) +35"
3 Shara GILLOW (Orica-AIS) +52"
4 Pauline FERRAND PREVOT (Rabobank) +57"
5 Linda Melanie VILLUMSEN (Wiggle-Honda) +01'02"
6 Tayler WILES (Specialized-Lululemon) +01'10"
7 Loes GUNNEWIJK (Orica-AIS) +01'11"
8 Anna VAN DER BREGGEN (Netherlands NT) +01'13"
9 Alexandra BURCHENKOVA (RusVelo) +01'15"
10 Carmen SMALL (Specialized-Lululemon) +01'17"
Full stage result

General Classification Top Ten
1 Mara ABBOTT (USA NT) 20h30'15"
2 Tatiana GUDERZO (MCipollini-Giordana) +01'33"
3 Claudia HÄUSLER (Tibco-To The Top) +02'18"
4 Shara GILLOW (Orica-AIS) +03'29"
5 Evelyn STEVENS (Specialized-Lululemon) +03'39"
6 Marianne VOS (Rabo) +04'08"
7 Francesca CAUZ (Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo) +04'25"
8 Ashleigh MOOLMAN (Lotto-Belisol) +05'23"
9 Eivgenia VYSOTSKA (S.C. Michela Fanini-ROX) +06'48"
10 Alena AMIALIUSIK (BePink) +07'25"
Full General Classification

Tour de Feminin - O cenu Ceského Švýcarska (Tour Krasna Lipa)
Race preview here
Amy Cure leads by 1'21" after four stages; Emma Pooley second and Esther Fennel third at +2'28". With several tough climbs in the final Stage 5, British star Pooley may yet take first place.

Stage 1 Top Ten
1 Paulina BRZEZNA  3h04'36"
2 Katarzyna NIEWIADOMA  +09"
3 Lisanne SOEMANTA ST
4 Mascha PIJNENBORG  +16"
5 Amy CURE ST
6 Taryn HEATHER ST
7 Andrea GRAUS  ST
8 Rebecca WISIAK ST
9 Svetlana STOLBOVA ST
10 Tetyana RIABCHENKO  ST
Full stage result and General Classification

Stage 2
1 Amy CURE  2h48'22"
2 Mascha PIJNENBORG ST
3 Janine VAN DER MEER  ST 
4 Pavlina SULCOVA  ST
5 Desiree EHRLER  ST
6 Bianca VAN DEN HOEK ST
7 Svetlana STOLBOVA  ST
8 Katarzyna NIEWIADOM  ST
9 Daniela GASS  ST
10 Jermaine POST  ST 
Full stage result and General Classification

Stage 3 (ITT)
1 Emma POOLEY 26'47"
2 Martina RITTER +02"
3 Esther FENNEL +04"
4 Amy CURE +21"
5 Taryn HEATHER ST
6 KSENIYA DOBRYNINA +25"
7 Rebecca WISIAK +30"
8 Lucy COLDWELL +40"
9 Reta TROTMAN +42"
10 Natalia BOYARSKAYA +47"
Full stage result and General Classification

Stage 4
1 Amy CURE 2h35'54"
2 Emma POOLEY ST
3 Karolina GARCZYNSKA +02'13"
4 Daniela GASS ST
5 Riejanne MARKUS ST
6 Natalia MIELNIK ST
7 Maryna IVANIUK ST
8 Coryn RIVERA ST
9 Ausrine TREBAITE +02'15"
10 Jacqueline HAHN ST
Full stage result and General Classification

Stage 5
1 Emma POOLEY 2h15'29"
2 Lisanne SOEMANTA +12"
3 Karolina GARCZYNSKA ST
4 Lelizaveta OSHURKOVA ST
5 Amy CURE ST
6 Paulina BRZEZNA ST
7 Svetlana STOLBOVA ST
8 Katarzyna NIEWIADOMA ST
9 Martina RITTER ST
10 Natalia BOYARSKAYA ST
Full stage result

Final General Classification
1 Amy CURE 11h11'29"
2 Emma POOLEY +01'00"
3 Martina RITTER +02'47"
4 Esther FENNEL +02'57"
5 Paulina BRZEZNA +03'10"
6 Taryn HEATHER +03'14"
7 Katarzyna NIEWIADOMA +03'18"
8 Svetlana STOLBOVA +03'25"
9 Rebecca WISIAK ST
10 Natalia BOYARSKAYA +03'44"
Full General Classification

Points: 1. Amy Cure 86pts; 2. Emma Pooley 47pts; 3. Lisanne Soemanta 42pts. Mountains: 1. Pauline Brzezna 34pts; 2. Lisanne Soemanta 30pts; 3. Emma Pooley 24pts. Youth: 1. Amy Cure 11h11'29"; 2. Katarzyna Niewiadoma +03'18"; 3. Lelizaveta Oshurkova +04'18".




Elinor Barker wins Otley
More information when available; in the meantime you can send your messages of congratulations to the Wiggle-Honda rider via her Twitter account. Photos by VeloUK.

Forster crashes at Elveden

Michelle Forster

Michelle Forster (London Phoenix CC) was fortunate to escape serious injury in a crash at Elveden. Since she's such an articulate Tweeter - and very much worth following - here's her own description:

Michelle Forster ‏@forstertweet 
I added entertainment with a spectacular crash near the finish.hands shaking, couldn't get chain back on in time to stop 1 rider catching up

Michelle Forster ‏@forstertweet
But did get back on and finished 7th. Pleased with how we raced today :)

Michelle Forster ‏@forstertweet
@LyD_ers on way to hospital now to get head checked. Helmet totalled. Head hit the ground on the 3rd bounce. Fingers crossed!

Michelle Forster ‏@forstertweet
Just out of hospital now. Nothing broken, a little concussion, overnight observation, I look like a steak. thanks for the well wishes all!

Michelle Forster ‏@forstertweet
@LyD_ers yes :-) . when I woke up in hospital this morning my thoughts were on how much I enjoyed the race yesterday, so I can't be too bad

Interesting Links
United Kingdom
Why does cycling have podium girls? (BBC)
Women’s National Road Series wide open ahead of Curlew Cup (British Cycling)
Otley Preview (British Cycling)
Liz Dimmock trains like a pro to break world cycling record (and she wants women to join her) (BikeRadar)
Rapha, dhb and Altura: Womens' cycling kit reviewed (The Guardian)
Worldwide
Douglas County's first ladies-only cycling event coming (OurLoneTreeNews, Colorado)
Brianna Walle, Portland neo-pro cyclist, to race Giro Rosa in Italy (Oregon Live)
Canberra's Chloe Hosking is concerned about the state of cycling (Canberra Times)
Rachel Neylen: remember the name (BackPageLead)

Photo of the Week

Isla Rush riding for WindyMilla at Curborough (photo by North Norfolk 100)

Abbott wins Giro Rosa
Stages 1-7

Mara Abbott, pictured here in 2011, wins the Giro Rosa

Dutch national time trial champion Ellen van Dijk (Specialized-Lululemon) was always the favourite to win the race against the clock in the final stage of this year's Giro Rosa, but going into the stage with a deficit of 21'16" to race leader Mara Abbott (USA NT) there was no chance she'd be able to steal overall victory. However, with several other good time trial riders - including Italian TT champion Tatiana Guderzo (MCipollini-Giordana) in second place at 2'28" - Abbott's eventual win was far from carved in stone.

Lululemon team mate Tayler Wiles was the thirtieth rider to go from the 128 left in the race and set the first benchmark time at 22'22", which made her the rider to beat for more than an hour and was sufficient to give her sixth place for the stage. French TT champion Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Rabo) was first to beat her time, taking 12" from it, but when van Dijk went shortly afterwards and completed almost a minute faster it was clear that the remaining riders were going to be fighting for second and third place.

Abbott started the day with an advantage of 2'28" and, going up against the time trial specialists, had no choice but to see a big chunk taken away from her overall time today - she finished 38th fastest, 2'13" slower than van Dijk. Her stunning performances in the mountains earlier in the race, though, were enough; by the end of the day she still led by 1'33". The last time she won this race was three years and an eating disorder away - nobody can say that her victory is not an inspiration.

Marianne Vos (Rabo), who many expected to win a third consecutive General Classification victory, took the Points competition for her three stage wins. Abbott's two mountain stages, which she won solo, netted her the Mountains jersey alongside the General Classification while Francesca Cauz (Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo), one of this year's revelations with her incredibly climbing skills, is the best rider in the Youth category.

Stage 8 Top Ten
1 Eleonora VAN DIJK (Specialized-Lululemon) 21'12"
2 Evelyn STEVENS (Specialized-Lululemon) +35"
3 Shara GILLOW (Orica-AIS) +52"
4 Pauline FERRAND PREVOT (Rabobank) +57"
5 Linda Melanie VILLUMSEN (Wiggle-Honda) +01'02"
6 Tayler WILES (Specialized-Lululemon) +01'10"
7 Loes GUNNEWIJK (Orica-AIS) +01'11"
8 Anna VAN DER BREGGEN (Netherlands NT) +01'13"
9 Alexandra BURCHENKOVA (RusVelo) +01'15"
10 Carmen SMALL (Specialized-Lululemon) +01'17"
Full stage result

General Classification Top Ten
1 Mara ABBOTT (USA NT) 20h30'15"
2 Tatiana GUDERZO (MCipollini-Giordana) +01'33"
3 Claudia HÄUSLER (Tibco-To The Top) +02'18"
4 Shara GILLOW (Orica-AIS) +03'29"
5 Evelyn STEVENS (Specialized-Lululemon) +03'39"
6 Marianne VOS (Rabo) +04'08"
7 Francesca CAUZ (Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo) +04'25"
8 Ashleigh MOOLMAN (Lotto-Belisol) +05'23"
9 Eivgenia VYSOTSKA (S.C. Michela Fanini-ROX) +06'48"
10 Alena AMIALIUSIK (BePink) +07'25"
Full General Classification

Points: 1. Marianne Vos (Rabo) 74pts; 2. Claudia Hausler (Tibco-To The Top) 35 pts; 3. Evelyn Stevens (Specialized-Lululemon) 35pts. Mountains: 1. Mara Abbott (USA NT) 30pts; 2. Tiffany Cromwell (Orica-AIS) 23pts; 3. Valentina Scandolara (MCipollini Giordana) 22pts. Youth: 1. Francesca Caus (Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo) 20h34'40"; 2. Rossella Ratto (Hitec Products-UCK) +03'34"; 3. Georgia Williams (BePink) +06'46".

Cure wins Tour de Feminin - O cenu Ceského Švýcarska (Tour Krasna Lipa)

Amy Cure in Glasgow, 2013

Stage results here

Final General Classification
1 Amy CURE 11h11'29"
2 Emma POOLEY +01'00"
3 Martina RITTER +02'47"
4 Esther FENNEL +02'57"
5 Paulina BRZEZNA +03'10"
6 Taryn HEATHER +03'14"
7 Katarzyna NIEWIADOMA +03'18"
8 Svetlana STOLBOVA +03'25"
9 Rebecca WISIAK ST
10 Natalia BOYARSKAYA +03'44"
Full General Classification

Points: 1. Amy Cure 86pts; 2. Emma Pooley 47pts; 3. Lisanne Soemanta 42pts. Mountains: 1. Pauline Brzezna 34pts; 2. Lisanne Soemanta 30pts; 3. Emma Pooley 24pts. Youth: 1. Amy Cure 11h11'29"; 2. Katarzyna Niewiadoma +03'18"; 3. Lelizaveta Oshurkova +04'18".

Tour de Bretagne
Race preview here. Gwena is at the race and is uploading photos here.

Stage 1 (Pledran-Yffiniac)

Oxana Kozochuk at the Thuringen-Rundfahrt 2012

RusVelo's Oxana Kozonchuk wins first stage in nine-rider sprint.

Stage 1 Result
1 Oxana KOZONCHUK (RusVelo) 3h21'58"
2 Svetlana STOLBOVA (Russian NT) ST
3 Alessandra D'ETTORRE (Vaiano-Fondriest) ST
4 Audrey CORDON (Vienne Futuroscope) ST
5 Sofie DE VUYST (Sengers) ST
6 Céline VAN SEVEREN (Lotto-Belisol) ST
7 Elena KUCHINSKAYA (RusVelo) ST
8 Natalia BOYARSKAYA (Russian NT) ST
9 Thalita DE JONG (Dura Vermeer) ST
10 Claire THOMAS (GSD Gestion-Kallisto) +05"
Full result and General Classification

Stage 2 (ITT, Mohon-Mohon)

Vera Koedooder ‏@Vera_Koedooder
Yesss! TimeTrial victory! Were really painful 12,5km on the hilly, windy, hard course! But very happy I made it! #Stage2 #TourdeBretagne

Stage 2 Result
1 Vera KOEDOODER (Sengers) 00:17:04
2 Katarzyna PAWLOWSKA(GSD Gestion-Kallisto) +02"
3 Aude BIANNIC (Equipe DN Bretagne) +03"
4 Audrey CORDON (Vienne Futuroscope) +10"
5 Elena UTROBINA (Lointek) +15"
6 Ruth CORSET (Sengers) +16"
7 Thalita DE JONG (Dura Vermeer) +17"
8 Karol-Ann CANUEL (Vienne Futuroscope) ST
9 Natalie VAN GOGH (Dura Vermeer) +22"
10 Natalia BOYARSKAYA (Russia NT) +27"
Full stage result and General Classification (when available)

Stage 3 (Pipriac-La Chapelle Bouexic)

Kataztyna Pawlowska (GSD Gestion-Kallisto) wins the intermediate sprints, the GPM climbs and the stage!

Stage 3 Result
1 Katarzyna PAWLOWSKA (GSD Gestion-Kallisto) 
2 Oxana KOZONCHUK (RusVelo)
3 Roxane FOURNIER (BigMat-Auber'93)
4 Barbara GUARISCHI (Vaiano-Fondriest)
Full stage result, time splits and General Classification (when available)

Riders petition UCI for a new Women's Tour de France
There was, of course, a Tour de France Feminin that ran from 1984 to 2009 (which is why women's cycling fans will argue that Bradley Wiggins was not the first British rider to win the Tour de France, Nicole Cooke - who won in 2006, and again in 2007 - was); but, after many years in which the race suffered because of a lack of funds (through no fault of the organisers, who fought hard for everything they could get), it vanished. Being forced to change its name to the Grand Boucle when Tour owners the ASO threatened legal action over the use of their trademarked "Tour de France" name didn't help.

Since then, it's been shown that if a women's race is run in conjunction with a men's race, both sports benefit: the men's race gets even more spectators (there are far more people who'll make the extra effort to get to a women's race than TV stations and magazines realise), whereas the women's race gets a ready-made infrastructure (and hence saves money) and, since the TV crews are already there and might as well point the cameras at something while waiting for the men to start, even gets some much-needed coverage, which is pretty much precisely what women's cycling needs if more people are to realise it's every bit as worthwhile as men's cycling and not just the poor cousin (or sister, perhaps).

Three riders - Kathryn Bertine, Emma Pooley (who won the last women's Tour in 2009) and Marianne Vos - and Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington have started a petition to the ASO, asking them to organise a women's Tour to be run on the same parcours and days as the men's Tour; there can be very few cycling fans who would not agree that this would be worthwhile. They ask that the race be inaugurated by next year,

The ASO have given indication that they are in principle favourable to a women's race - they already own  La Flèche Wallonne Féminine and, in tennis, the Women's Open de France, and were keen to involve women in the Paris-Dakar some decades ago. Several of the Classics do it (though not yet Paris-Roubaix, despite many riders saying they'd love to ride a women's Hell of the North) and it's worked out very well for them; a new Tour de France Feminin could very well be the big push that women's cycling needs in order to get the recognition it's deserved for so long.

The petition's target is 10,000 names. At the time of writing, it has 8,576. Add yours here.

UCI hopeful Cookson details plans for women's cycling
Brian Cookson, the current president of British Cycling and one of only two candidates standing in the forthcoming UCI presidential election, has given an outline of what he plans to do in order to develop women's cycling if his bid to replace current president Pat McQuaid is successful - replicate the methods used by British Cycling.

The national federation has certainly turned out a respectable selection of world-class female riders over the last few years, though most of them and their fans will agree that it could be doing more to develop the sport and support riders (and many will remember BC's highly unpopular attempt to get the Women's Criterium at the Smithfield Nocturne cancelled last year). However, Cookson's wish to do something for women's cycling, and his appreciation of the sport, appears to be genuine - which alone makes him a far more promising prospect than McQuaid.

Cookson's comments on women's cycling, made at the Otley Cycling Races, can be read on Road.cc.

Cycling Victoria's Club Toolkit: A Guide to Attracting and Retaining Women and Girls
Are you involved with a club that seeks to attract more female members - and then, once they've joined up, provide them with what they want so that they'll stick around?

Cycling Victoria has produced a guide to help. The authors say that it will enable clubs to:
1. Better understand why they should try to attract and retain female members
2. Provide tips and tools to help attract more women to their Club
3. Provide examples and templates of successful initiatives from Clubs across Victoria.

It's obviously been prepared with Australian clubs in mind, but will no doubt have much of interest for clubs from around the world - and it's a free download, so you may as well take a look.

Interesting Links
United Kingdom
"Men's cycling gets all the glamour," says Pendleton (Daily Telegraph)
Pendleton pleased with Cycletta progress (Give Me Sport)
"We now want to use the high profile to build women’s racing and show that this is a great sport for women to get involved with," say Otley organisers (Yorkshire Evening Post) 
Worldwide
NZ club awarded trophy for women's tour (Piako Post, New Zealand)
Fran Millar "I'll never stop winning the Tour de France - but the cycling world should do more for women" (Management Today)
Niluka Shyamali and Sriyalatha Wickramasinghe win gold and silver at National Sports Festival (The Island, Sri Lanka)
Kaitlin Antonneau's Felt ZW1 (Bike Radar)
Cyclist Lesley takes on the world (Wairarapu Times-Age, New Zealand)

15-21.07.2013 Official Site
Germany, 7-stage Road Race, 637km
UCI 2.1

There have been many great cyclists from Germany - Judith Arndt, Rolf Aldag, Charlotte Becker, Rudi Altig, Claudia Hausler, Jens Voigt, John Degenkolb, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, Marcel Kittel and Trixi Worrak, along with many others, spring to mind, and it was a German band that provided cycling with its greatest anthem (Kraftwerk's Tour de France, of course). But, it's probably fair to say that the Germans never "got" road cycling in the same way that the French, the Spanish, the Italians, the Belgians and the Dutch and, later, the British did (though they do seem very keen on track cycling). Yet, Germany is the home of one of the greatest women's races of them all, the Women's Tour of Thuringia (to give it its English name in full; most fans refer to it simply as "the Rundfahrt" or "Thüringen"), an event that by the standards of women's cycling has serious pedigree, having existed since 1986 and having taken place almost every year since.

The first edition went to Hanna Chmelrova of Czechoslovakia, the second to East Germany's Petra Rossner, the third to the Finnish Tea Vikstedt Nymann and the fourth to Vanessa van Dijk of the Netherlands. With Germany undergoing reunification following the fall of the Berlin Wall, the race was not held in 1990 or 1991, but it returned in 1992 when it went to another Czech, Alena Barillova. Lenka Illavska of Slovakia won in 1993, followed by the first American winner Alison Dunlop in 1994 and the last, Laura Charameda, in 1995. In 1996 it was won by a rider whose name is still familiar to new fans today, the near-legendary Ina-Yoko Teutenberg, then Alessandra Cappellotto was the first Italian winner a year later followed by the first Lithuanian, Edita Pučinskaitė (who seemed to win just about everything in the late 1990s) a year after that. Hanka Kupfernagel, who is still racing today, won the longest ever edition (664km) in 1999, then the Ukrainian Valentyna Karpenko became the first from her country to win with her 2000 victory. Mirjam Melchers, better known as a one-day-race specialist, took the honours in 2001; Zoulfia Zabirova became the first Russian winner in 2002 and then in 2004, after Valentyna Karpenko took another win for Russia in 2003, Zabirova won again and became the first rider to have won two editions. German Theresa Senff won in 2005, the year that Amy Gillett was killed by a car during a training ride on the parcours - since 2006, a special Amy Gillett award, similar to the Tour de France's Combativity prize, has been awarded in her honour. Nicole Cooke of Wales was the first (and to date the only) British winner a year later; Judith Arndt, another German (and, for a while, partner of 1987 winner Petra Rossner), was the first rider to win two consecutive editions with her 2007 and 2008 victories; Linda Villumsen, who then raced for Denmark, won in 2009 - and soon after, became the holder of a New Zealand licence; the country for which still races.  Russian Olga Zabalinskaya won in 2010 and Emma Johansson was the first Swede to win in 2011, then Judith Arndt won a record third time in 2012.

Parcours
Stage 1 - Rund um Schleusingen, 15.07.2013, 64km

View Thuringen Rundfahrt for Women 2013 Stage 1 in a larger map

Stage 2 - Rund um Hermsdorf, 16.07.2013, 119km

View Thuringen Rundfahrt for Women 2013 St2 in a larger map

Stage 3 - Rund um Schleiz, 17.07.2013, 117km

View Thuringen Rundfahrt for Women 2013 St3 in a larger map

Stage 4 - Einzelzeitfahren um Gera, 18.07.2013, 21km

View Thuringen Rundfahrt for Women 2013 St4 (TT) in a larger map


With the major part of the stage taking the form of a long, straight run up and down the wide L1079 road, this is a parcours very suited to the time trial specialists: once out of town, they can get into their aerodynamic positions and keep on turning a big gear all the way - unless the weather turns out to be horrendous, we'll see some blisteringly fast times. However, it's not all plain sailing - the first and last sections in Gera feature some very sharp turns on urban streets that are frequently made hazardous by oil patches, litter blowing in the wind and so on.

Stage 5 - Rund um Altenburg, 19.07.2013, 100km

View Thuringen Rundfahrt 2013 St 5 in a larger map

Stage 6 - Rund um Schmolln, 20.07.2013, 102km

View Untitled in a larger map


This will be the stage that many riders fear most due to the Wall of Meerane: though only around 400m in length, the Wall is one of the steepest climbs in professional cycling and reaches a gradient of 23% at one point.

Stage 7 - Rund um Zeulenroda-Triebes, 21.07.2013, 110km

View Thuringen Rundfahrt for Women 2013 St7 in a larger map 


Starters
Women Cycling Fever has a provisional start list and regularly update it to keep abreast of changes.

Confirmed teams
Rabobank-Liv/Giant
Specialized-Lululemon
Orica-AIS
Hitec Products-UCK
Boels-Dolmans
Sengers
Mcipollini-Giordana
BePink
Bigla
CyclelivePlus-Zannata
Wiggle-Honda
Koga Ladies-Central Rhede-Fachklinik Dr. Herzog
Maxx-Solar
Slovenian National Team
Australian National Team
German National Team

How to follow the race
Unusually for a women's race, the Rundfahrt offers a live ticker making it easy for fans to keep up-to-date. Hitec-UCK's manager Karl Lima is, as ever, well worth a follow on Twitter for his regular updates on the action, so too is Boels-Dolmans' mechanic Richie Steege.

Tour de Bretagne
Race preview here. French women's cycling expert Gwena, who was at the race, has an excellent selection of photos here.

Stage 1 (Pledran-Yffiniac)
RusVelo's Oxana Kozonchuk wins first stage in nine-rider sprint.

Oxana Kozochuk at the Thuringen-Rundfahrt 2012

Stage 1 Result
1 Oxana KOZONCHUK (RusVelo) 3h21'58"
2 Svetlana STOLBOVA (Russian NT) ST
3 Alessandra D'ETTORRE (Vaiano-Fondriest) ST
4 Audrey CORDON (Vienne Futuroscope) ST
5 Sofie DE VUYST (Sengers) ST
6 Céline VAN SEVEREN (Lotto-Belisol) ST
7 Elena KUCHINSKAYA (RusVelo) ST
8 Natalia BOYARSKAYA (Russian NT) ST
9 Thalita DE JONG (Dura Vermeer) ST
10 Claire THOMAS (GSD Gestion-Kallisto) +05"
Full result and General Classification

Stage 2 (ITT, Mohon-Mohon)

Vera Koedooder ‏@Vera_Koedooder
Yesss! TimeTrial victory! Were really painful 12,5km on the hilly, windy, hard course! But very happy I made it! #Stage2 #TourdeBretagne

Stage 2 Result
1 Vera KOEDOODER (Sengers) 00:17:04
2 Katarzyna PAWLOWSKA(GSD Gestion-Kallisto) +02"
3 Aude BIANNIC (Equipe DN Bretagne) +03"
4 Audrey CORDON (Vienne Futuroscope) +10"
5 Elena UTROBINA (Lointek) +15"
6 Ruth CORSET (Sengers) +16"
7 Thalita DE JONG (Dura Vermeer) +17"
8 Karol-Ann CANUEL (Vienne Futuroscope) ST
9 Natalie VAN GOGH (Dura Vermeer) +22"
10 Natalia BOYARSKAYA (Russia NT) +27"
Full stage result and General Classification (when available)

Stage 3 (Pipriac-La Chapelle Bouexic)
Kataztyna Pawlowska (GSD Gestion-Kallisto) wins the intermediate sprints, the GPM climbs and the stage!

Stage 3 Result
1 Katarzyna PAWLOWSKA (GSD Gestion-Kallisto) 3h25'51"
2 Oxana KOZONCHUK (RusVelo) ST
3 Roxane FOURNIER (BigMat-Auber'93) ST
4 Barbara GUARISCHI (Vaiano-Fondriest) ST
5 Sofie DE VUYST (Sengers) ST
6 Céline VAN SEVEREN (Lotto-Belisol) ST
7 Elena KUCHINSKAYA (RusVelo) ST
8 Vera KOEDOODER (Sengers) ST
9 Thalita DE JONG (Dura Vermeer) ST
10 Julie Leth (Hitec Products-UCK) ST
Full stage result and General Classification

Stage 4 (Crozon-Poullan Sur Mer)
Fournier takes the stage; Cordon takes control.

Stage 4 Result
1 Roxane FOURNIER (BigMat-Auber'93) 3h09'19"
2 Katarzyna PAWLOWSKA (GSD Gestion-Kallisto) ST
3 Oxana KOZONCHUK (RusVelo) ST
4 Alexis RYAN (USA NT) ST
5 Barbara GUARISCHI (Vaiano-Fondriest) ST
6 Anna TREVISI (Vaiano-Fondriest) ST
7 Svetlana STOLBOVA (Russia NT) ST
8 Fanny RIBEROT (Lointek) ST
9 Alessandra D'ETTORRE (Vaiano-Fondriest) ST
10 Kaitlin ANTONNEAU (USA NT) ST
Full stage result and General Classification

GC winner Audrey Cordon

Final General Classification
1 Audrey CORDON (Vienne Futuroscope) 10h14'14"
2 Thalita DE JONG (Dura Vermeer) +15"
3 Svetlana STOLBOVA (Russia NT) +22"
4 Oxana KOZONCHUK (RusVelo) +23"
5 Elena KUCHINSKAYA (RusVelo) +24"
6 Natalia BOYARSKAYA (Russia NT) +25"
7 Katarzyna PAWLOWSKA (GSD Gestion-Kallisto) +52"
8 Sofie DE VUYST (Sengers) +54"
9 Joanne HOGAN (Sengers) +01'05"
10 Vera KOEDOODER (Sengers) +01'09"
Full General Classification

A special mention goes to Maëliz Olivier of Equipe DN Bretagne - at only 17 years of age she was the youngest rider in the race and finished 93rd, 57'02" behind the winner.

Points: 1 Oxana KOZONCHUK (RusVelo) 61pts; 2 Katarzyna PAWLOWSKA (GSD Gestion-Kallisto) 58pts; 3 Roxane FOURNIER (BigMat-Auber'93) 45pts. Mountains: 1 Katarzyna PAWLOWSKA  (GSD Gestion-Kallisto) 46pts; 2 Alessandra D'ETTORRE (Vaiano-Fondriest) 24pts; 3 Joane Hogan (Sengers) 18pts. Youth: 1 Thalita DE JONG (Dura Vermeer) 10h14'29"; 2 Aude Biannic (Equipe DN Bretagne) +57"; 3 Celine VAN SEVEREN (Lotto-Belisol) +01'05". Best Breton and French rider: Audrey Cordon, born at Pontivy.

Hitec manager and rider survive car crash

"A car torpedoed into my side, where Siri was sitting. Consider[ing] getting religious..." says Lima!

Karl Lima, owner and manager of the Hitec Products-UCK team, and his rider Siri Minge were exceptionally fortunate in escaping a car crash that wrecked the vehicle in which they were traveling, leaving it lying on its side, along with the bikes being carried on the roof rack. The accident took place in Belgium en route to the Tour de Bretagne and was caused when another car drove into the side of their vehicle.

Lima, who is also Technical Manager of Hitec Products (manufacturer of hi-tech equipment for the gas and oil industries), confirmed that both he and Minge were unharmed following the crash, adding that it's fortunate the team has "more cars and bikes" - which says a great deal about the level of backing Hitec Products is willing to give to women's cycling: for many teams, the loss of a car and bikes would spell financial disaster.

Siri Minge ‏@siriminge Felt pretty sore during todays stage in Bretagne after yesterdays carcrash, think we had an angel watching over us! pic.twitter.com/VCxcBUK9GV

Women's TdF petition smashes target
Last week, I reported on the petition started by Kathryn Bertine, Emma Pooley, Marianne Vos and Chrissie Wellington in an attempt to persuade Tour de France owners/organisers the Amaury Sport Organisation to introduce a new women's version of the race - ideally, as early as next year. They aimed to collect 10,000 signatures.

That target was rapidly reached, so they've increased it to 15,000 - and at the time of writing, it needs just 950 more to hit its new target. If you haven't added your name so far, you can do so here. Please encourage others to add theirs too!

You can follow the petition's progress via Twitter.

18-21.07.2013 Official Site
France, 4-stage Road Race, 387.7km
UCI 2.2

2005 winner Edwige Pitel is racing again this year, for S.C. Michela Fanini-ROX. Can she win again, thus matching Grete Treier and Marianne Vos?

Inaugurated in 1995 but known by a variety of names since then, the Tour Féminin en Limousin has quickly risen to become one of the most prestigious events on the Elite Women's calendar; not least of all for its varied selections of routes and for the impressive list of past winners. An earlier race, held in 2002, was known by the same name and was won by Marina Jaunatre who would go on to achieve three consecutive victories at the Tour de Bretagne from 2005 to 2007.

2005 Edwige Pitel
2006 Marianne Vos
2007 Svetlana Boubnenkova
2008 Natalya Boyarskaya
2009 Grace Verbeke
2010 Grete Treier
2011 Grete Treier
2012 Marianne Vos

With such a range of terrain, Limousin is a race that tends not to favour specialists and can be decided on intermediate sprints, which offer bonus seconds in addition to points. In accordance with UCI rules, awarded bonuses will be 3" for 1st place, 2" for 2nd place and 1" for third place.

A big chapeau to Claude Lecourt, president of l’Association des Amis du Cyclisme Féminin and of the organising committee of the Tour. In his presidential message, M. Lecourt notes that while there are many great champions at the race this year, they are not as numerous as in years gone by. Though he acknowledges that this in part due to the Tour clashing with the Under-23 European Championships, he also highlights the "dommage" (unfortunate, shameful) fact that female cyclists of the "haut niveau" (highest level) frequently have to work for a living due to not receiving a guaranteed minimum wage as do their male counterparts.

Stage 1 (18.07.2013 Bussière-Dunoise, 120.9km)
Interactive Map

While devoid of big climbs, no fewer than ten small ascents of approximately 100m apiece will have a severe cumulative effect, revealing early on in the race which riders are in a position to earn good places in the final General Classification. After arriving at the finish line 73km from the start, riders will complete six laps of an 8km local circuit.

GPM points are on offer at Jallibout (22.8km), St Léger le Guéretois (32.2km), Le Villard (59.4km) and Les Couperies Hautes (69km). All four climbs are rated at 1st Category. The three Intermediate Sprints are located at the 1st (73km), 2nd (81km) and 3rd (89km) passes of the finish line.

Stage 2 (19.07.2013 Sous-Parsat, 20.7km ITT)
Interactive Map

There's not enough climbing to give the time trial specialists any problems, but 240m of altitude gain will put the sprinters at a disadvantage to the rest. May become a battle between the specialists and the rouleurs.

Stage 3 (20.07.2013 Saint-Brice-sur-Vienne - Saint-Junien, 123.4km)
Interactive Map

As was the case with Stage 1, there are no big climbs but numerous small ones combine to take their toll. None are steep enough to favour out-and-out climbers, so this looks to be a parcours for the rouleurs - though the final climb to the finish line is sufficiently steep to throw the best-laid plans into flux. The race ends with a series of local laps, eventually finishing at St Junien.

GPM points are on offer at Saillat sur Vienne (26.6km; Cat. 1), the Cote des Trois Bornes (45.6km; Cat. 2) and the Cote de la Croix de Lavergne (63km; Cat. 2). The three Intermediate Sprints are at St Junien (39.1km) and at the 1st and 2nd passes of St Brice sur Vienne (83.5 and 106.3km).

Stage 4 (21.07.2013 Saint-Denis-de-Jouhet, 122.7km)
Interactive Map

Unless anyone has already gained an insurmountable lead, the race may very well remain undecided until today. The biggest climb in the race and repeated smaller ascents will trouble the sprinters and are just enough to allow the climbing specialists some opportunities, but a level run-in to the line gives the sprinters their own chance to take back time. Having arrived at the finish line 56.7km from the start, the riders will complete five laps of a 14km local circuit.

GPM points are on offer at the Cotes de la Folie (20.4km; Cat. 2), du Mont (35.6km; Cat. 1) and de Laleuf (52.5km; Cat. 2). The three Intermediate Sprints are located at St Denis de Jouhet and will be contested on the 1st (56.7km), 2nd (70.7km) and 3rd (84.9km) passes.

Starters
Provisional and subject to change; Women Cycling Fever maintains regularly-updated lists.

S.C. Michela Fanini-ROX
1. Edwige PITEL 
2. Gloria BOLDRINI 
3. Yevgenia VYSOTSKA 
4. Mireia ELPELDE 
5. Lisa GAMBA 
6. Maneephan JUTATIP 
Reserves
Litsi RIST (EST)
Lara VIECELI (ITA)

GSD Gestion-KALLISTO
7. Katarzyna PAWLOWSKA
8. Claire THOMAS 
9. Lina-Kristin SCHINK 
10. Stephanie ROORDA  
11. Alizea BRIEN 
12. Anne-Marie MORIN 
Reserves
Charlene DELEV 
Catherine COUTURE

Vienne Futuroscope 
13. Karol-Ann CANUEL 
14. Audrey CORDON 
15. Jessica ALLEN 
16. Sandrine BIDEAU 
17. Pascale JEULAND 
18. Emmanuelle MERLOT 
Reserves
Oriane CHAUMET 
Amélie RIVAT 
Manon SOUYRIS 

Parkhotel Valkenburg 
19. Sophie DE BOER 
20. Bianca VAN DER HOEK 
21. Riejanne MARKUS 
22. Jermaine POST 
23. Lisanne SOEMANTA 
24. Ashleigh NEAVE 
Reserves
Hannah WELTER 
Annelies VISSER 
Inge KLEP 

Lointek
25. Belen LOPEZ 
26. Edith GUILLEN 
27. Emma CRUM 
28. Lucia GONZALES 
29. Alexia MUFFAT 
30. Eider MERINO 
Reserves
Mathilde FAVRE 
Julia ILIYNIKH 
Elena UTROBINA

Lotto Belisol
31. Marijn DE VRIES 
32. Jolien D’HOORE  
33. Sharon LAWS 
34. Ashleigh MOOLMAN 
35. Carlee TAYLOR
36. Mical ELLA 
Reserves
Ann Sophie DUYCK 
Marion ROUSSE 
Kym SCOONBAERT 

Servetto Footon
37. Marina LARI 
38. Corinna DEFILE 
39. Veronica CORNOLTI 
40. Simona BORTOLLOTI 
41. Isabella FERRARI 
42. Annalisa CUCINOTTA 
Reserves
Georgia NANNI 

USA NT
43. Kaitlin ANTONNEAU 
44. Amber PIERCE
45. Heather FISCHER 
46. Alexis RYAN 
47. Beth NEWELL 
48. Scotti WILBORNE 
Reserves
Jamie BOOKWALTER 
Brianna WALLE 
Jacquelyn CROWELL 

Russia NT
49. Tatiana ANTOSHINA 
50. Svetlana STOLBOVA 
51. Marina LIKHANOVA 
52. Natalia BOYARSKAYA 
53. Anna POTOKINA
54. Irina MOLICHEVA 
Reserves
Elena UTROBINA 
Tatiana CHAMOVA 
Yulia MARTISOVA 

Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo
55. Elena BERLATO 
56. Irene BITTO 
57. Silvia CECCHINI 
58. Jennifer FIORI 
59. Chiara PIEROBON 
60. Elena VALENTINI 
Reserves
Asja PALADIN 
Francesca STEFANI 

DID Electrical 
61. Amy BRICE 
62. Siobhan McNAMARA 
63. Michelle GEOGHEGA 
64. Julie ERSKINE 
65. Melanie SPATH 
66. Mary COSTELLOE 

Faren-Let’s Go Finland
67. Martha BASTIANELLI 
68. Christel FERRIER BRUNEAU 
69. Giuzeppina GRASSI 
70. Fabiana LUPERINI 
71. Sara MOUSTONEN 
72. Ashlynn VAN BAARLE 
Reserves
Jutta NIEMINEN 
Patricia SCHWAGER 
Carolina RODRIGUEZ GUTTIERREZ

RusVelo
73. Elena KUCHINSKAYA 
74. Alexandra BURCHENKOVA 
75. Evgenia RAMANIUTA 
76. Oxzana KOZONCHUK 
77. Aizhan ZHAPAROVA 
78. Anastasiya CHULKOVA 
Reserves
Yulia LINDUK 
Elena BOCHARNIKOVA 
Maria MISHINA 

Stevens La Crossteam/Racing Students 
79. Liv-Susanne BACHMANN 
80. Stephanie BORCHERS 
81. Steffi MEIZER 
82. Heike NOEVER 
83. Jutta STIENEN 
84. Benita WESSELHOEFT 
Reserves
Andrea BÜCHEL
Esther SCHMIDMEISTER
Ellen HEINY

Breast Cancer Care
85. Jane BARR 
86. Amy BRADLEY 
87. Lucy COLDWELL 
88. Clara HORNE 
89. Laura MURRAY 
90. Coryn RIVERA 
Reserves
Ella HOPKINS
Gabriella SHAW

Anne EWING

How to follow the race
For regular updates direct from the Hitec Products-UCK team car, follow the legendary Karl Lima on Twitter - Karl keeps fans so well-informed, not only on his own team but on all the race action, that it's possible to get a good idea of what's going on via his Twitter account alone. Amber Pierce (USA NT) and Marijn De Vries (Lotto-Belisol) are two of the friendliest and most articulate riders in cycling; while they might not find the time to Tweet often during the race (though Pierce did at the Giro Rosa in 2012!), they're both worth a follow and usually have plenty of insights once the race is over.

28.07.2013 Official Site
Germany, 1-day Road Race
UCI 1.1

Held since 2001 (the men's race began three years earlier), the Sparkassen Giro is a fast and thrilling one-day race held on a tight urban circuit in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany. Last year, due to the Olympics taking place at the same time, the race was stripped of its UCI status; nevertheless, it went ahead with the usual Giro as well as inline-skating races, live bands and DJs (including the rather worrying-to-English-ears Schlager Hit-Mix-Party), circus sideshows and, to finish off, a huge firework display. This year, with UCI 1.1 status returned, the event has grown even bigger and now includes a running race and "the biggest Derny race in the world."

2012 winner Mieke Kröger, pictured here at the 2012 Thuringen Rundfahrt

If you want to see some professional women's racing this season but can't persuade your family to share your passion for the sport, Sparkassen is the event for you - it's an enormous urban festival with a bike race at its heart.

Previous Winners
2001 Sharon van Essen
2002 Bertine Spijkerman
2003 Svetlana Bubnenkova
2004 Deirdre Demet-Barry
2005 Angela Hennig
2006 Oenone Wood
2007 Hanka Kupfernagel
2008 Suzanne de Goede
2009 Rochelle Gilmore
2010 Ellen van Dijk
2011 Adrie Visser
2012 Mieke Kröger

Parcours

View Sparkassen Giro 2013 in a larger map

Short circuit: 1.53km
Long circuit: 12.8km

The short, tight city centre circuit suits those riders who feel comfortable in the elbow-to-elbow battles that take place in urban criterium races and, with those sharp corners, is a challenging test of bike-handling skills when taken at speed. The long circuit is an entirely different affair, well-suited to those time trial specialists who can hunker down into an aerodynamic tuck and keep turning a big gear, swallowing up the miles at high speed.

It's an unusual combination with few riders possessing the skills needed to excel on both types of parcours - which is why the Giro has tended to throw up unexpected winners throughout its history.

2012 podium

03.08.2013 Official Site
Belgium, 1-day Road Race, 121.9km
UCI 1.2

2012 winner Adrie Visser, pictured at the 2012 Thuringen Rundfahrt

There have been some excellent races in some exotic places over the last few months, and every one of them has been highly enjoyable. However, as far as many people are concerned, if you want to see some proper, tough-as-nails, battle-for-supremacy cycling, you've got to see a Belgian one-day race - and we haven't had one of those for two-and-a-half months now.

So it's about time for the Erondegemse Pijl, then.

If you're not familiar with the Pijl, it's a simple formula. You just take one short course of 9km, one long course of 38.5km and a short circuit of 9.3km, sending the riders round the latter eight times. Then, garnish with four intermediate sprints, season with four categorised climbs of the short-but-knee-crackingly-steep the Belgians favour and, for an authentic flavour experience, baste for as long as it takes the riders to complete the parcours with the warmth-sapping rain that we tend to say Flanders "enjoys" during the Spring Classics but actually gets all year round. The organisers haven't deliberately added any cobbles, though there are a few along the road verges in case anyone overcooks the bends, but there are plenty of rough sections where the modern asphalt has sunk and now follows the shapes of the ancient pavé below.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Previous Winners
The men's version of the race is now in its 19th edition; it wasn't joined by the women's race until 2011 when Chantal Blaak won, followed by Adrie Visser in 2012.

Parcours


View Erondegemse Pijl 2013 in a larger map

Neutral Zone - yellow
Short Course - blue
Long Course - red
Circuit - purple

Altimetry

Short Course

Long Course

Circuit

Starters