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Get your week started with the latest news in women’s cycling
The Simac Ladies Tour was Annemiek van Vleuten’s last race in the peloton. The 40-year-old Dutch rider, who started racing in 2007, leaves the sport with an incredible palmarès, including two road and ITT World Championships titles, plus a series of other victories, much too numerous to list here. During her career, she rode for teams including Rabobank, Mitchelton-Scott and the last three years for Movistar Team. She will certainly be missed in the peloton and we wish her all the best in her future endeavours!
Former Czech national road champion Tereza Neumanova, currently with Liv Racing TeqFind, will join UAE Team ADQ next season. She will bring her experience, particularly in the sprints, to her new team.
Léa Curinier will be joining FDJ-SUEZ for the next two years. She has been riding previously for Cofidis and Team dsm-firmenich and is a strong time trialist and enjoys the high mountains.
Anne van Rooijen’s first race in a year for Parkhotel Valkenburg was GPBeerdens. She has been suffering with severe concussion over that time, and was finally able to race under special instructions and restrictions from her team doctor and coach.
French rider Margot Marasco will make the jump to the U23 squad of AG Insurance Soudal – Quickstep next year. Besides road racing, she is also active in cyclocross.
Danish rider Solbjork Minke Anderson has signed for the next two years with Uno-X Pro Cycling Team.
New Zealand champion Georgia Williams, who currently rides for EF Education-TIBCO-SVB, has announced her retirement from the sport. She started her pro career with BePink in 2013 and spent many years riding for the Australian team that is now called Jayco AlUla, before joining the U.S. Squad for this season.
Kathrin Schweinberger of CERATIZIT-WNT Pro Cycling crashed on stage 1 of the Simac Ladies Tour, with an x-ray confirming that she broke her collarbone. We wish Kathrin a speedy recovery!
Some riders have expressed concerns about the lack of safety measures at the Tour de l’Ardeche, with potholes in the finale, having to overtake race vehicles on narrow roads at a fast sprint finish as well as having to ride in the middle of traffic as organisers opened the road after a crash.
Results
Simac Ladies Tour
Prologue: Charlotte Kool (Team dsm-fimenich) ahead of Riejanne Markus (Jumbo-Visma) and Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx)
Stage 1: Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) ahead of Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx) and Charlotte Kool (Team dsm-firmenich)
Stage 2: Lotte Kopecky ahead of Riejanne Markus and Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon//SRAM Racing)
Stage 3: Charlotte Kool ahead of Lorena Wiebes and Elisa Balsamo
Stage 4: Lotte Kopecky ahead of Lorena Wiebes and Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing)
Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l’Ardèche
Stage 1: Daria Pikulik (Human Powered health) ahead of Michaela Drummond (Farto-BTC) and Silvia Zanardi (BePink-GOLD)
Stage 2: Michaela Drummond (Farto-BTC Women’s Cycling Team) ahead of Lucia Perez Ruiz (Eneicat – CMTeam – Seguros Deportivos) and Sarah van Dam (DNA Pro Cycling)
Stage 3: Daria Pikulik ahead of Sarah van Dam and Silvia Zanardi
Stage 4: Silvia Zanardi ahead of Anatasiya Kolesava and Isabel Martin (Eneicat-CMTeam-Seguros Deportivos
Les Portes du Soleil XCC: Puck Pieterse (NED) ahead of Evie Richards (GBR) and Alessandra Keller (SUI)
Race Preview p/b MAAP
The Tour de Romandie is the final women’s WorldTour race on European soil of the 2023 season, and it promises three days of aggressive, unpredictable racing. Read our race preview here.
Zwift Blog
In her latest exclusive blog, Abi Smith of EF – TIBCO-SVB talks all about racing in the heat and provide some tips to ride in hot weather. Check it out here!
This week in cycling history
Mandy Jones
On 5 September 1982, a five-rider strong team lined up for Britain at the World Road Race Championship in Goodwood in the UK. When the race split, young British rider Mandy Jones had to fend for herself against the star riders from traditional cycling nations such as Belgium, France, and Italy. Jones was a strong time triallist and her talent and experience in this discipline paid off significantly. After putting in a successful attack on the final lap, she was able to hold off her breakaway companions by 10 seconds and win gold. At just 20 years of age, Jones’s talent promised a long and successful career but her motivation declined with a persistent calf injury preventing her from ever regaining her winning form. Jones, now 61 years old, hasn’t totally left cycling, however, having opened a bike shop in Oldham, and she also organises the Etape du Dales sportive each May in Yorkshire.
Kathy Watt
Watt, an Australian former pro rider, celebrated her 59th birthday. In 1992 she won the gold medal in the road race and the silver in the pursuits at the Barcelona Olympics. She started her athletic career as a runner but an injury forced her to abandon the sport and she moved to cycling which became her passion. In 1990 she won the first-ever Commonwealth Games women’s road race gold medal. She is a testament to overcoming the difficulties women riders faced. At the Barcelona Olympics the Australian women’s team had no access to mechanics and Watt relied on a Spanish local bike shop for spare parts, fixing any mechanical problems herself. She came out of retirement to win the 2006 Commonwealth Games time trial silver medal along with five national titles against the clock before the now 58-year-old retired for the final time. Nowadays she is still involved in sports but in the capacity of a photographer, capturing images of events around the world.
Zwift Rides of the week
Voxwomen Zwift Rides
Join, ride, share, and be inspired! Join others and celebrate women’s cycling through a women’s cycling fan club on Zwift. Be part of the journey and complete rides that cater to our busy lives, and find motivation and enjoyment through riding!
The rides are open to everyone and there are two rides every other Thursday. The next one is on 21 September. The times of the ride are 7am and 7pm GMT (8am and 8pm CET) and are 40min in duration with special guests leading the rides! The pace will be set to open, but “rubberbanding” will be turned on which keeps everyone together regardless of how hard they are pedaling – so it is a no-drop ride as long as you keep pedaling. On the ride days, one ride will be a standard group ride, while the second ride will be Zwift’s Aerobic Conditioning Workout. Find inspiration from each other and have fun challenging yourself! We hope you join us in the virtual world of cycling!
Take advantage of the club chat and be a part of the women’s cycling community also – there will be some giveaways from time to time, so be on the lookout!
From our Online Store
Women’s hoodie
This organic hoodie features the Voxwomen Club logo with the words “Join, ride, share and be inspired.” Show your support for women’s cycling and support Voxwomen, with this stylish cotton hoodie. Buy yours here!
Men’s hoodie
This certified organic cotton pullover hoodie features the Voxwomen Club logo! Show your support for women’s cycling and support Voxwomen at the same time, with this stylish hoodie. Get yours here!
