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Get your week started with the latest news in women’s cycling
Team Valcar Travel & Service has been struggling to secure funds and so the squad’s dream of becoming a WT team has been put on hold. According to management, sponsors in Italy are hard to come by but the squad is determined to continue next season. The team is currently in eighth place in the UCI ranking and has developed a number of good riders such Elisa Balsamo, Vittoria Guazzini and Marta Cavalli.
The inaugural edition of the Tour of Scandinavia is kicking off this week. Find out all you need to know about the race in our preview, right here!
The organisers of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2022 are considering changes for next year’s event. This may include having seven riders per team instead of six. Conversations between the ASO and the teams are ongoing to make changes that are financially viable.
Olympic champion Anna Kiesenhofer will take part in the Challenge by La Vuelta as a guest rider with the Spanish outfit Soltec Team Costa.
France TV reports that 3.3 million viewers followed the conclusion of Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift with a peak audience of 5.1 million.
The new TeamTrak indoor pro racing league is scheduled to kick off early next year in the USA. The competition will start with eight teams, each consisting of four pro men and women, who will race ten events on a steeply banked and portable indoor 150 metre velodrome. The event is privately owned and will sell tickets to spectators to fund the racing. The organisers hope to televise the event as well.
The Dutch team for the European Championships in Munich has been revealed. The squad includes Lorena Wiebes, Ellen van Dijk, Demi Vollering, Charlotte Kool, Floortje Mackaij, Jeanne Korevaar, Anouska Koster and Riejanne Markus.
Currently the most successful cyclist in the women’s peloton with 17 wins this season, Lorena Wiebes, has signed a three-year contract with Team SD Worx. Although she is still contracted to Team DSM, her contract stated that her team would release her if she received a better offer from another squad.
Former Dutch champion Anouska Koster has signed with the Norwegian team Uno-X Pro Cycling, starting next season. The squad was unable to participate in several races this year due to a rider shortage and is aiming to strengthen its team for next year.
Former World and Danish Champion Amalie Diderikson will join Uno – X Pro Cycling Team for the next two seasons.
Italian rider Letizia Paternoster has signed a two-year contract with BikeExchange-Jayco after having been with Trek-Segafredo for the past four years.
Rachele Barbieri, who already had a contract with Liv Racing Xstra until 2023, has signed an extension with the team for 2024.
After 14 years in the pro peloton, former Time Trial World Champion and Olympic gold medallist Lisa Brennauer, who currently rides for CERATIZIT-WNT Pro Cycling, has announced her retirement after the European Championships in Munich this month.
Team DSM has announced a trifecta of new signings for next season, with the young Dutch trio of Daniek Hengeveld, Anna van der Meiden and Nienke Vinke joining the squad until 2024.
To make the growing sport of both men’s and women’s BMX Racing more accessible, the BMX Racing National Championships in Tasmania, Australia, will be the first national championships in the world to include Para BMX.
The Zwift Academy Road program is returning for the seventh year. Five women and five men will be selected to advance to the Zwift Academy Finals. Two contenders from the finals will be crowned champions, with the female winner gaining a professional cycling contract with Canyon//SRAM Racing. The Zwift Academy Road Program will run between 12 September and 9 October.
Results
Commonwealth Games – Birmingham
ITT: Grace Brown (Australia) ahead of Anna Henderson (England) and Georgia Williams (New Zealand)
Road: Georgia Baker (Australia) ahead of Neah Evans (Scotland) and Sarah Roy (Australia)
CIC – Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées
Stage 1A TTT: EF Education-TIBCO-SVB ahead of Human Powered Health and Bepink
Stage 1B: Krista Doebel-Hickok (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) ahead of Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon//SRAM Generation) and Coralle Demay (St Michel-Auber93)
Stage 2: Krista Doebel-Hickok (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) ahead of Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon//SRAM Generation) and Yullia Biriukova (Arkea Pro Cycling Team)
Stage 3: Silvia Zanardi (BePink) ahead of Coralie Demay (St Michel-Auber93) and Morgane Coston (Arkea Pro Cycling Team)
GC: Krista Doebel-Hickok (EF Education – TIBCO-SVB) ahead of Eri Yonanime (Human Powered Health) and Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon//SRAM Generation)
Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden TTT: Trek-Segafredo ahead of Team SD Worx and Team DSM
Postnord Vårgårda WestSweden RR: Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Trek-Segafredo) ahead of Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM) and Valerie Demey (Liv Racing Xstra)
Zwift Blog
We check in with Megan Jastrab of Team DSM, who recounts her experience of racing her first Grand Tour: from helping her teammates, to learning about grupetto life, and taking one day at a time. Have a read here!
Catch up with Neve Bradbury who is now in her second year as a pro rider. Read about her experience and what she has learned in that time in what she describes as her dream job. More here.
Podcast: Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift p/b Liv
During the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, we produced our daily podcast episodes, featuring recaps of the stages, important race moments, tactical analysis, and insights from riders! Ceck out all of our episodes here.
This week in cycling history
Yvonne Reynder
Reynder’s birthday was on 4 August. The now 85-year old Belgian former road and track rider won 13 medals at the World Championships, including seven gold. Alongside Beryl Burton of Great Britain, Reynders was one of the top female riders of the 1960s and the first Belgian winner of a Road World Championship title. Initially retiring in 1967, she came out of retirement at the age of 39 and won the National Road Championships as well as a bronze medal at the Road World Championships. She loved speed from a young age and wanted to become a runner initially but took up discus throwing when coaches convinced her she wasn’t fast enough to emulate her running hero, Fanny Blankers-Koen, the Dutch winner of four sprint gold medals at the 1948 London Olympics. Some time later, she switched to cycling. Renyder had some unique training regimes. When she started cycling, in order to lose the muscle mass that she had built up as a discus thrower, she decided to do a coal delivery run where she took bags of coal and delivered them on her specially made transport bike to customers around Antwerp. After her retirement, she became a pedicure specialist. In honour of this great athlete, a UCI race, the GP Yvonne Reynder has been organised, which this year is held on 15 August.
Elvire de Bruyn
Born on 4 August 1914, Belgian rider Elvire De Bruyn became a National, European and World Champion in road racing in the 1930s, and was one of the biggest stars of women cycling. Having previously worked in a factory and in her parents’ café, she only started taking up cycling two years prior to winning the championships. By 1936, she dropped the name Elvire and started living as a man named Willy. But as he officially was still registered as a woman, de Bruyn repeatedly faced trouble and lost jobs which were not considered acceptable for women at the time. After a professional career in cycling, De Bruyn officially changed gender. In 2019, thirty years after de Bruyn’s death, a Brussels street was named Rue Willy De Bruyn honouring the struggles and achievements of this athlete.
Rides of the Week
Off the MAAP Stage 2
Four stages. Four chances to blast off into a retro-inspired party. Turn up the heat in Stage 2 as you head into the Tropics. More info here!
Womens Zwift Classics – London International
These fun, action packed races provide the perfect level up for your training and a great way to fit racing into your daily schedule. Open to all levels and abilities, Zwift Classics consists of 7-weeks of racing on some of Zwift’s best racing routes across seven iconic worlds. This week we head off to London for the London International on the London 8 route! Find out more here.
From our online shop
Voxwomen T-shirt – £20
Get yours this summer! Wear our new t-shirt to show your support for the sport. Everyone will know you’re an avid follower of women’s cycling when you wear this item to support Voxwomen! Get yours here!
