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Get your week started with the latest news in women’s cycling
Itzulia Women has revealed the teams that will be participating at this year’s edition, which runs from 12-14 May. Eight WorldTour teams and 14 Continental teams will participate in the Spanish race.
La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour, which will be held from 1 to 7 May, has announced that Zaaf Cycling will not be attending, as they have declined the invitation, and no other team has been invited in their place.
In news regarding Zaaf Cycling Team, New Zealand rider Michaela Drummond has signed with Spanish squad Farto – BTC, Heidi Franz has also found a new team in the U.S. based squad DNA Pro Cycling, while Ebtsam Zayed Ahmed also has announced that she has left the squad. The number of riders left in the team dropped to seven, and with eight riders required as a minimum for a continental team, the squad has been removed last week from the UCI’s list of registered teams on its website.
The Australian Team Jayco-Alula has welcomed new Saudi talent Moroj Adil for a unique training experience to Europe as part of the squad’s partnership with the Saudi region of AlUla. Read our interview with her here.
The Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour has submitted its application to join the Women’s WorldTour from 2024. The organisers have indicated that they only wish to hold the race in the future if they have some of the world’s best riders at the start and this cannot be guaranteed without WorldTour status. The 2024 race will be held over 6 days, just like this year’s race. A decision on its’s WorldTour status will be made around the time of the World Championships in Glasgow in early-mid August 2023.
While the men’s peloton must traditionally wait until August to do battle across the rugged terrain of Spain, the women’s version of the race has shifted forwards on the calendar this season and becomes the first of the three Grand Tours in the 2023 Women’s WorldTour. Read our preview of La Vuelta Femenina here.
The course for the Dutch National Road Championships has been finalised. The elite women’s race will take on a 151.3km long course around Sittard-Geleen on 24 June.
The Women’s Cycling Coordinator at Cycling Vlaanderen has suggested that Lotte Kopecky’s rise in professional cycling and success over the last three seasons has had a notable impact on the rise of junior women, U17s (15-16 years olds) and U19s (17-18 years olds) registering for a licence via the Cycling Vlaanderen Federation. The number of female riders under 18 years has increased nearly four times during the last three seasons.
Ineos Grenadiers are said to be looking into forming a women’s team within the next two years. Pauline Ferrand-Prevot is already racing for the British team off-road and has indicated that after next year’s Olympics, she would like to return to road racing, perhaps hoping to be part of this new team.
The 2023 UCI World Championships in Scotland has teamed up with Love To Ride for the “23 million mile challenge” and encourages everyone to get on their bikes and help complete 23 million miles. Any rider who contributes towards the total will automatically be eligible to win prizes from the 2023 Championships.
In a further effort to get more people on bikes, Mallorca 312 OK Mobility recently staged an event that attracted over 8000 riders to join in riding their bikes. Among the participants were 1000 female riders taking part in this one-day event. The organisers hope to recruit even more female riders next year.
Results
CERATIZIT Festival Elsy Jacobs:
Stage 1: Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ) ahead of Ally Wollaston (AG Insurance-Soudal Quick-Step) and Eleanora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ)
Stage 2: Ally Wollaston ahead of Marta Bastianelli and Anouska Koster (UNO-X Pro Cycling Team)
GC: Ally Wollaston ahead of Marta Bastianelli and Anouska Koster
Traka – Gravel Earth Series: Carolin Schiff (GER) ahead of Svenja Betz (GER) and Luise Valentin (DEN)
New Podcast: “Just 3 Questions”
Want to submit your own question to be answered by our experts? Send a voice note to us at info@voxwomen.com!
In our second episode, three questions asked by you are answered by experts David from Supersapiens & Chris from Precision Fuel & Hydration. Topics include:
– Fuelling strategies for early morning training
– How to fuel for training vs. racing
– If there’s an upper limit for fuelling during exercise?
Listen on Spotify here!
Listen on Apple Podcasts here!
Listen on Amazon here!
Zwift Blog
Want to know how a professional rider spends her day? The busy pro from Team DSM, Megan Jastrab, tells you all about a typical day in her blog here!
Vox Performance Project
Maria shares her experience of travelling to her hometown of Bogotá in Colombia, and writes about the effects of staying at 2600m elevation on fuelling, training and glucose levels.
This week in cycling history
Paola Scotti
Born on 25 April 1944 in Piacenza, the Italian rode her bike every day to school, but she had a secret dream of becoming a racer. One day, she was stopped by a local who asked her to join a women’s cycling team that he had registered with the Italian Cycling Federation. Competitive sport was not an acceptable endavour for young women in those days, but eventually Scotti managed to obtain the approval of her family to join the team, and in 1952 she became the first Italian female road champion. She continued to race but unfortunately due to ill health, her career was cut short and she was forced to retire. But the sporting passion in her never went away and so, years later, the former champion became a competition judge, also joining the Italian Timekeepers Federation. In 1990, at only 46 years of age, she passed away all too soon. In her honour, the Italian Cycling Federation named a race in her home region of Emilia-Romagna after her, the Trofeo Paola Scotti.
GP Elsy Jacobs
The inaugural edition of this year’s Festival Elsy Jacobs, which ran from 29 to 30 April, was first held on 26 April 2008 to mark the 50th anniversary of the highly successful Luxembourgian rider Elsy Jacob’s world title and hour record. From then on, the race became an annual celebration around her hometown of Garnish. Between 2008 and 2011 the event was run as a single day race, but from 2012 onwrds it became a stage race.
Performance Corner
52 ways to be a better athlete
We got the Rolodex out – shout out to anyone born in the 50s or 60s – and asked our network of elite athletes and experts for their top performance tips to bring you ‘52 ways to make you a better athlete.’ One for every week of the year.
Questions? Email hello@pfandh.com. Click here to get 15% off fuel and electrolytes – proud partners of Lotto Dstny and Team DSM.
Zwift Rides of the week
The Voxwomen Club
Get ready for the next ride on 9th May! Celebrate women’s cycling through our new club on Zwift! Here, you can be part of the journey and complete rides that cater to the busy lives we live and find motivation and enjoyment through riding. The rides will be held every other Tuesday at 7am/11am/1pm PST (3pm/7pm/9pm GMT). Rides are approximately 40 minutes and feature special guests to lead the events.
It’s also open pace and no drop, thanks to the Zwift bubble feature, which keeps everyone together so you can ride at your own pace without being dropped from the group. The first ride is this Tuesday, so be sure to join us here!
