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Women’s Cycling Weekly, Issue 12

A quick editor’s note:

Each week, Amy Jones pulls the best women’s cycling content from around the Internet (and sometimes beyond) into an entertaining, easily digested newsletter. In the 12 weeks since its launch, it’s become a staple of my Friday afternoons. I have a suspicion it will soon be a staple of yours.

Some sort of newsletter like this is an idea we’ve thrown around for a while, but never fully dove into. That turns out to have been a fortuitous decision, because what Amy puts together every week is already a superb example of the genre. Rather than reinvent the wheel, we’re proud to partner up with Amy to bring Women’s Cycling Weekly to the CyclingTips audience.

Why do I love WCW? Precisely because it pulls content from all over, not just from us. We’re proud of our women’s cycling coverage here at CT, but with so much good stuff coming from outlets like Rouleur (check out their latest issue), VeloNews, CyclingNews, and more, limiting a newsletter to just our own content doesn’t do the sport justice. So though we’re promoting it, Amy retains complete editorial control over WCW. It’s important that it retains the feel and voice she’s already built.

The best way to support Women’s Cycling Weekly is to sign up with your email at the bottom of this page so it shows up in your inbox every Friday.

I hope you enjoy.

Caley Fretz
Editor-in-chief

Hello! Welcome to Women’s Cycling Weekly issue twelve ‍♀️

We’re inching ever-closer to the start of the road season with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad just two weeks away now. Meanwhile, as ever, there’s been a lot going on in the world of women’s cycling this week; with a certain magazine issue causing a stir, a potential record-breaking ride, and (sadly) more race rearranging. 

Now, without further ado, here’s this week in women’s cycling. 

News 

Race updates:

(Sorry to start off on a bummer)

  • The 105th edition of Australia’s oldest race, the Melbourne to Warrnambool Cycling Classic, has been postponed just one day before the event was due to go ahead after the regional government in Victoria were forced to put the area into lockdown following an outbreak of Covid-19 cases. 
  • After the cancellation of the 2020 event, The Joe Martin Stage Race— usually held in April — will now take place this year from August 26-29 . 
  • Organisers of the Dubai Women’s Tour have said that the event will not take place in 2021, but will return for 2022. 
  • This week, the UCI announced 14 of the 16 rounds of the 2021-22 UCI World Cup. The first three rounds will be held in the US and six of the 16 rounds will take place in Belgium and France and the Netherlands holding two each. 
  • The Junior track cycling world championships (due to take place in Cairo) will now take place between 1-5 September after being postponed from 5-9 April.

Elsewhere:

  • Joss Lowden of Drops-Le Col is reported to have unofficially broken the women’s hour record in a training simulation after covering 48.160 km. The record is not official, however, and Vittoria Bussi’s 48.007 km record still stands – for now. 
  • The women’s-only issue of Rouleur magazine — guest-edited by broadcaster Orla Chennaoui — has proven to be the magazine’s best-selling issue and has sold out of copies twice since publication. Who said there was no interest in women’s sport?
  • The women’s cycling union, The Cyclist’s Alliance, have been announcing the members of their Rider Council. So far, Marianne Vos, Leah Kirchmann, Ellen van Dijk, Amanda Spratt, Christine Majerus, Marcella Mafuz Toldi, Agua Marina Espinola Salinas, Ariane Lüthi, Audrey Cordon-Ragot, and Haley Smith have been named. 
  • In other union-related news, the UCI has officially recognised and thus contributed financially to the women’s team union, UNIO, and the women’s arm of the CPA (Cyclistes Professionnels Associés). 
  • SweetSpot — the organisers of the Women’s Tour and the Tour of Britain as well as the Tour Series criteiums — have announced that they will be partnering with USA CRITS in an exchange scheme that will see the winners of both the men’s and women’s Tour Series travel to Winston Salem Cycling International Crit Challenge in the US. SweetSpot will then invite D1 USA CRITS teams to travel to the UK in 2022 to race the Tour Series in May of that year. 
  • Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Strade Bianche, and Gent Wevelgem announced which teams will be at their races. 
  • Cycling UK is “looking to follow the journeys of five female cyclists – over six months – who are new, or fairly new to cycling and have a specific goal they want to achieve in 2021.” If that applies to you, or someone you know, then you can find out more via their website.

Results

  • Sarah Roy took the Australian national championships title in a solo victory. Roy’s BikeExchange team mate Grace Brown beat Lauretta Hanson of Trek-Segafredo in the sprint for second. The first U23 rider was Emily Watts of KOM-Knights Racing.
  • Georgia Williams of team BikeExchange took the New Zealand national time trial title today, beating Jaime Nielsen by 22 seconds with Bronwyn Macgregor of Lviv Cycling Team women in third. Henrietta Christie took the U23 title. 
  • Denise Betsema won the Telenet Superprestige Middelkerke with Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado in second and newly-crowned world champion Lucinda Brand in third. 
  • Brand also won the overall Superpresitge title after winning five rounds to gain 114 points, Alvarado was second with 112 points and Betsema in third with 101 points. 
  • At a snow-covered X²0 Badkamers Trofee Krawatencross on Sunday Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado pipped Lucinda Brand in a spring to the line while Denise Betsema settled for third. 
  • Vera Looser won both the Namibian national time trial and road race championships. Her margin in the TT was 2:11 ahead of Risa Dreyer with Courtney Liebenberg in second. In the road race Looser won solo by 16 seconds ahead of Gabriela Raith in second with Dreyer a further 4 seconds down in third. 

Upcoming Races 

  • The New Zealand national championships road races will take place on Sunday —14th February — with both elite and U23 titles to be contested. Grace Brown is the clear favourite with defending champion Niamh Fisher-Black in Europe with her SD Worx team and Mikayla Harvey also in Europe with Canyon//SRAM. Ella Harris of Canyon//SRAM is in New Zealand but her form is unknown as she is returning from injury. 
  • On the penultimate weekend of cyclocross racing for this season we have Ethias Cross – Eeklo on Saturday 13th and X2O Trofee Brussels – Brussels Universities Cyclocross on Sunday 14th. 

Book Club

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, two of my favourite things are bikes and dogs, and while I haven’t yet gotten around to taking up Bikejoring I found another way to combine the two: this book. Me, My Bike and a Street Dog Called Lucy is more than just a cycling memoir featuring a dog, however. It’s a story of overcoming trauma, a tale of perseverance, and a lesson in how your path can end up being diverted when you least expect it.

Read ️

Watch

I could have watched hours of this discussion between Orla Chennaoui, Fran Millar, Monica Santini and Lizzie Deignan on being a woman in the male-dominated industry of cycling. 

Listen 

The Cycling Podcast Feminin is back with the first episode of 2021. This month’s edition includes a report from the Jumbo Visma women’s team training camp in Spain, an interview with Ella Harris of Canyon//SRAM, and a feature on Nancy van der Burg (you’ll have to listen to find out who that is). Listen wherever you get your podcasts. 

Feel Good Friday

The woman who lost her job after she was photographed on her bike giving the middle finger to the half-man-half-Wotsit as his motorcade drove past is thriving. The backlash from the incident motivated her to get into politics herself and she has since become an elected official (of which part of her role has involved helping to build cycle lanes in her region.) I’m writing the screenplay now. 

That’s All

Thanks so much for reading WCW and supporting women’s cycling! I hope you enjoyed this week’s issue and learned something new. 

If you like what WCW is doing and you would like to support it then you can do so via Ko-Fi.

Until next week,

Amy x

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