Voxnews

Get your week started with the latest news in women’s cycling:

• Eugénie Duval and Clara Copponi have re-signed for two more seasons with FDJ – Nouvelle Aquitaine-Futuroscope.
• Cycling Vlanderen has announced that COVID-19 restrictions will continue to stay in place and therefore only the Elite competitions such as Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne will go ahead at this stage.
• Movistar Team will be hosting a talent camp on Zwift, with successful competitors joining its E-Sport cycling team. Held over five weeks, the Challenge will commence on 3 February with two qualifying races, catered to different time zones. The winning five women and five men will receive a Canyon road bike, Movistar team kit and equipment, access to team coaches, nutritionists and training camps, and a one-year contract in the Spanish team’s E-Sport squad.
• After the suspension of the 2020 USA Crit Series, racing is back on the calendar for 2021 with 10 women’s teams participating. The organisers are aiming to invest into women’s cycling hoping to assist in finding, forming and funding women teams. The Winton-Salem Cycling Classic International Crit challenge, held the day after the final of the Crit series in September, hopes to be able to once again invite international teams to race against domestic elites.
• DROPS-Le Col s/b Tempur has announced a new multi-year partnership with Mavic. This will be the first time that the French brand enters women cycling. The British squad will be supported by Mavic at selected races and team camps, and will have access to the company’s service course facility.
• The organisers of The Ronde van Drenthe have asked the UCI to move the spring race to October, hoping that by that time they might be able to run a safe 2021 edition of the Dutch WT event.
• Boels Rental and Dolmans Landscaping Group, both long-term title sponsors of the Dutch team now known as Team SD Worx, will continue their support of the team, with their logos featuring on the squad’s 2021 jerseys. Team owner Erwin Janssen will also remain on board with SD Worx.
• Setmana Ciclista Valenciana, scheduled for 18-21 February, has been postponed. The organisers of the event have asked the UCI for a re-scheduled date in May.
• The third edition of the Vuelta CV Feminas will not be taking place on the originally-planned date of 7 February.
• The inaugural edition of the Itzulia Basque Country Women, originally scheduled for 14-16 May, has been listed as “postponed” on the UCI’s calendar. No new dates have yet been proposed.
• RideLondon Festival of Cycling, an event run for amateur and professional riders, will no longer be occurring in May. Since its inception in 2013, the festival has motivated more people to get on their bikes and has also raised significant funds for charity.
• TalentNED, which currently runs a mountain bike team, is planning to establish a cycling team for junior Dutch women in 2022. The aim of the team, led by former pro rider Roxanne Knetemann, and coach Stefan van Klink, is to prepare young riders for future placement in top women’s cycling squads. TalentNED is also planning to establish an U23 team in the future.
• The Tour Series 2021 has been postponed until August this year, in the hopes that by that time, races will be able to safely go ahead.
• The British former Boels Dolmans rider and current Academy Coach for the GB Cycling Team, Emma Trott, has been selected for the UK Sport’s new female coach leadership program, together with 27 coaches from 15 different sports. The program aims to more than double the representation of female coaches in the Olympics and Paralympics by the 2024 Paris Games.
• Trek Segafredo has increased the base salary for their female riders to equal that of their male riders. The change came into effect this month, thereby moving quicker than currently required by regulations towards greater wage equality.
• Over the weekend, British Cycling hosted a race simulation event for 90 riders who are part of the Olympic Games podium program or talent pathways at the Manchester Velodrome.
• One of the most successful US pro riders, Bunki Bankaitis-Davis, sadly passed away this week. Born to Lithuanian parents, she started as a volleyball player and then switched to cycling, winning a gold metal in the TTT at the 1992 World Championships. After graduating with a PhD in organic chemistry, worked at Amgen in Colorado, and later on started her own company which provided molecular blood testing.

Results

Cyclo-cross World championships in Ostend, Belgium

• The Dutch riders dominated the Elite podium, with Lucinda Brand taking the title ahead of Annemarie Worst and Denise Betsema.
• In the U23 category, Dutch rider Fem van Empel took the title, ahead of fellow Dutch rider Aniek van Alphen, and Hungarian Kata Blanka Vas.

Zwift Blog

• The 2021 Zwift Academy winner, Australian Neve Bradbury, has penned her first blog for us, in which she describes how she went about her preparation for the Zwift challenge and what it means to have secured a contract with Canyon//SRAM.

Keep updated on social media!

• Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep updated on our latest events and announcements, such as Instagram takeovers by pro-riders during the week, and much more!

This week in cycling history…

•  Inga Thompson turned 56 on 27 January. The US rider represented her country in three Olympic Games and was second at the World Championships in 1987,1990 and 1991. She twice placed third in the women’s Tour der France and was national road champion on four occasions, while taking the win twice in the national ITT championships and three times in the TTT championships. After her retirement from the sport in 1991, she decided to move to a farm in Oregon, USA with her family. Never far away from cycling, though, she continued to volunteer at local cycling races, was engaged in coaching, and founded the Inga Thompson Foundation, which supports competitive female riders with financial assistance and mentorship.
• On 29 January 2006, Marianne Vos won her first cyclo-cross world title in Zeddam, the Netherlands. The Dutch rider was 18 years old at the time. Initially, Vos had picked up cyclo-cross as a winter training activity while focusing on road cycling, however, after her initial win 17 years ago, she remained competitive in that discipline. In 2006, her successful winter season was followed by taking the road championship title later that year, followed by two more road titles, an Olympic title and numerous race wins, making her one of the most successful riders of all time.

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