Womens Cycling
Comments
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First stage won by Kirsten Wild. Dani, Laura, Lizzie and Katie all finished in a smallish group at 10 seconds. Laura Trott is the leader of the young rider's classification.DeadCalm wrote:
Katie Colclough, Lucy Martin and Lizzie Armitstead also riding.Richmond Racer wrote:Energiewacht Tour starts today. Be interesting to see how Trott and King fare in a stage race - and how they do in the TT...
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=123968
Sounds as though it was a bit chaotic.
Laura Trott @LauraTrott31 1h
After stop starting 4 times the race finally finished! Finished in front bunch.. In the young riders jersey
Lizzie Armitstead @L_ArmiTstead 20m
That was a big palaver!0 -
DeadCalm wrote:
First stage won by Kirsten Wild. Dani, Laura, Lizzie and Katie all finished in a smallish group at 10 seconds. Laura Trott is the leader of the young rider's classification.DeadCalm wrote:
Katie Colclough, Lucy Martin and Lizzie Armitstead also riding.Richmond Racer wrote:Energiewacht Tour starts today. Be interesting to see how Trott and King fare in a stage race - and how they do in the TT...
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race.php?id=123968
Sounds as though it was a bit chaotic.
Laura Trott @LauraTrott31 1h
After stop starting 4 times the race finally finished! Finished in front bunch.. In the young riders jersey
Lizzie Armitstead @L_ArmiTstead 20m
That was a big palaver!
Yeah, Andy McGrath tweeted that that the riders had been sent in the wrong direction during the race, sending them into normal traffic FFS
Dani King finished 10th in the front group so did well too0 -
Yes, initially the chasing groups were delayed by a train passing through a level crossing (it happens); they were later directed off course at a roundabout by marshals which caused a neutralization, then police were not informed the restart had happened and hadn't closed the road before the race arrived (the truck & ambulance moment), a swing bridge was left open for boats 10kms from the finish causing another restart and the usual couple of crashes in the very strong winds, though one was a hospital job.
TV highlights: http://www.rtl.nl/xl/#/u/a638a9e1-9212- ... bbc464b5020 -
Carnage, in a windy kind of way. But most of my friends survived to fight another day.Richmond Racer wrote:Energiewacht Tour starts today. Be interesting to see how Trott and King fare in a stage race - and how they do in the TT...0 -
Womens sport just isnt at the same level as mens sport, theres less of an awsome factor hence its the poor relation. FACT
That fact doesnt change because of one interesting race like the olympics, its still the girls however much effort they put into it. FACT
Im sure people will disagree. thats fine it doesnt change the facts.
Some do look good in lycra though 0 -
Le Commentateur wrote:
Carnage, in a windy kind of way. But most of my friends survived to fight another day.Richmond Racer wrote:Energiewacht Tour starts today. Be interesting to see how Trott and King fare in a stage race - and how they do in the TT...
Good to hear LC. Following today's stage with interest...0 -
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Vino'sGhost wrote:Womens sport just isnt at the same level as mens sport, theres less of an awsome factor hence its the poor relation. FACT
Some sports, the womens version is equally as compelling as the mens, some it isn't as it is clearly underdeveloped.
I would suggest tennis is in the first category and cyling the latter.0 -
Vino'sGhost wrote:Womens sport just isnt at the same level as mens sport, theres less of an awsome factor hence its the poor relation. FACT
That fact doesnt change because of one interesting race like the olympics, its still the girls however much effort they put into it. FACT
Im sure people will disagree. thats fine it doesnt change the facts.
You are entirely correct and no one should watch. Ever. It only encourages them.“New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!0 -
TailWindHome wrote:Vino'sGhost wrote:Womens sport just isnt at the same level as mens sport, theres less of an awsome factor hence its the poor relation. FACT
That fact doesnt change because of one interesting race like the olympics, its still the girls however much effort they put into it. FACT
Im sure people will disagree. thats fine it doesnt change the facts.
You are entirely correct and no one should watch. Ever. It only encourages them.
Gives us ideas above our station, its all wrong0 -
Those are not facts, they're simply assertions.0
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Le Commentateur wrote:TV highlights: http://www.rtl.nl/xl/#/u/a638a9e1-9212- ... bbc464b502
The truck moment is scary! About 7 mins in on this video. My first reaction was 'that was really dangerous', my second reaction was 'course organisers messing up is the last thing ladies cycling needs right now'
Great to see Trott up there. Its funny to think of her as a 'young rider' as we've all become accustom to her beating all comers on the track for years now!
I hope Lucy Garner is having a good first year with Argos-Shimano. Seems like a good outfit for her to learn and mature under.0 -
Stage 2: Wild wins again. Armitstead gets the day's combativity prize. Trott misses the break and loses the young rider's jersey.
Armitstead had attacked from the leading group four times in the final kilometers but was repeatdly brought back. She later suggested that some Dutch riders were riding as a kind of meta-team to enable Wild to win.
Stage 2 highlights: http://www.rtl.nl/xl/#/u/7a2dcb9e-79d1- ... 400ff12dc/0 -
PuttyKnees wrote:Those are not facts, they're simply assertions.
No, they're facts. He said they were, so they must be. FACT.Warning No formatter is installed for the format0 -
Well, my friend's out of the race now. She just couldn't get to grips with the ferocious crosswinds. On the other hand, she's been chatting with a certain photographer who's there for the week and apparently he's now arranged for her to go on a bike ride tomorrow with his world champion sister. Annoying...0
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morstar wrote:Vino'sGhost wrote:.......That fact doesnt change because of one interesting race like the olympics, its still the girls however much effort they put into it. FACT
Im sure people will disagree. thats fine it doesnt change the facts.
Some sports, the womens version is equally as compelling as the mens, some it isn't as it is clearly underdeveloped.
I would suggest tennis is in the first category and cyling the latter.
Vino is entirely right, "it is still the girls however much effort they put into it". That is a FACT and he has a point of view, that whatever evidence as to their competence or entertainment value, is put in front of him, he is not changing his mind, men's racing is always better. Wiki - "Bigotry is the state of mind of a bigot: someone who, as a result of their prejudices, treats other people with hatred, contempt, and intolerance on the basis of a person's race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, language, socioeconomic status, or other status."
OPINION, the 2011 WRR champs were howlers for both the men and women, At the last 3 Olympic games road races, the women's events were clearly better sporting spectacles than the men's versions. At Sydney the men's was better. Just because you have recently "found" cycling does not make you an expert. And the best ever race I have watched was the 2008 women's World Champs.
As to "under-developed", again, those newly finding women's racing may think this, because there now is certainly room to develop it. However that is the wrong description. If we go back just over 10 years both the Women's Tour and Women's Giro were 2 weeks/ 17 days long. Races like the women's Amstel gold and Women's Milan San Remo have been lost along with a complete swathe of professionally put on events. What has appeared in place of these is exactly what you are witnessing. Events that are a disgrace. There was no final stage of the Giro last year for similar reasons but the records do not show that.
Women's racing is not "under-developed", it has been strangled back from "developed" to a state of comedy by men holding positions of power, who feel just as threatened as poor Vino does - don't confuse us with the FACTS, girls should not race. People like Cookson coming out and saying the sport needs to "develop" before we can contemplate a guaranteed minimum wage, simply don't understand FACTS. The trajectory is "down" not "up". and that guy should know, he has been sat on the Board of the UCI throughout the period of decline. He sat there doing sweet F* ignoring the many calls for a minimum wage when the sport was more "developed".
The Women's Tour was chased and harassed through the courts. It's access to publicity was curtailed and as a consequence its budget became a shoestring. Then, when whacky things started to happen on race day, exactly like in the Energiewacht Tour, the UCI stepped in and curtailed the route and event. Men acting in the interests of men with a mindset so eloquently witnessed at the keyboard by Vino.0 -
He's been in the job too long. Any initiative from BC to women's cycling is coming from further down the hierarchy, particularly from the organizers and coaches at grassroots level who in the past year have been putting a huge effort into getting women trained and racing regularly.
Perhaps for some men, sport is a refuge from the under-achievements and disappointments of the rest of their lives – including their relationships with women – and it's the only place they feel they can relax in and be themselves and have control over.0 -
Le Commentateur wrote:He's been in the job too long. Any initiative from BC to women's cycling is coming from further down the hierarchy, particularly from the organizers and coaches at grassroots level who in the past year have been putting a huge effort into getting women trained and racing regularly.
Perhaps for some men, sport is a refuge from the under-achievements and disappointments of the rest of their lives – including their relationships with women – and it's the only place they feel they can relax in and be themselves and have control over.
On forums across interests and activities, there is a mass production of complete bilge. That 2nd para was one of the most perceptive comments I have ever read - anywhere. Thank you.
Regarding the first para - exactly right. What irritates me right now about Cookson are 3 aspects of his performance.
1) Allowing his obvious personal prejudices to intrude into how he has conducted his role at both UCI and BC level, that have allowed women's cycling internationally to dissolve and at the same time nationally ignoring what was a golden time on the road, which so contrasts with support and effort put into the men's scene.
2) That he has sat at the UCI Board when the first stories came out about Lance's donations to the UCI, in 2004, and he was silent, unlike he is now, about the obvious corruption in the sport. Right there and then he could have stopped the books being signed off and insisted on the receipts of equipment v. donations being made public and exposed the whole thing at UCI Board level, if he had lived up to his responsibilities.
3) That he has his hand up to collect glory for a program that is not his and is principally the response to the vast amounts of public money that have been shifted across to British Cycling. (Just look at the graph of Lottery money in from 1996 on.) The public are the main source of the success followed by the individual riders and their coaching staff.
Setting all of those against his current position, as he lines himself up as the "white" replacement to McQuaid, is what is so distasteful. And, probably that is why I write (which I very rarely do on any of my interests). BC ignored women's road cycling. They deliberately dived into the men's side when the women's side was there to build on. "Year zero" started on the track in 2004 and then on the road in 2009. Now they are going to complete the set by "making" a successful women's road program. The abject failure to build on Cooke's successes of the early part of the last decade and then those of Cooke and Pooley towards the end is truly outstanding. All this "new" history of "supporting the developing women's road scene" is a most convenient myth to cover what all evidence shows as very disturbing.0 -
Well said. Any parent with a daughter keen on cycling would despair at what has passed as 'development' for women's cycling at any sort of high level for donkeys years.'fool'0
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confused@BR wrote:Well said. Any parent with a daughter keen on cycling would despair at what has passed as 'development' for women's cycling at any sort of high level for donkeys years.
The state of men's cycling is hardly something to aspire to.
Think that's partly why women's cycling is getting a bit more attention at the moment.
It still feels like innocent cycling. To me anyway. Still has an amateur feel to it, which has its attractions.0 -
Talking of Pooley, what's she up to this year? I see she's got a team for this year, but also read that she was taking a break from racing.
She was local to me last month at the GP Chambery
http://www.directvelo.com/actualite/247 ... ement.html
Supporting the winning rider. Note Jeannie Longo (56 years old) in 20th place. She's under the spotlight of the French sporting authorities again.
Anyone know about the Smith sisters with Team Féminin Languedoc Roussillon?BASI Nordic Ski Instructor
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davidof wrote:Talking of Pooley, what's she up to this year? I see she's got a team for this year, but also read that she was taking a break from racing.
She was local to me last month at the GP Chambery
http://www.directvelo.com/actualite/247 ... ement.html
Supporting the winning rider. Note Jeannie Longo (56 years old) in 20th place. She's under the spotlight of the French sporting authorities again.
Anyone know about the Smith sisters with Team Féminin Languedoc Roussillon?
Longo, just sod off and retire, woman. Do everyone a favour.0 -
Jo(anna) Smith used to ride for Border City Wheelers up in Carlisle, did/won some UK races (including against Laura Trott).davidof wrote:Anyone know about the Smith sisters with Team Féminin Languedoc Roussillon?
She has a blog (where, interestingly, she sometimes writes in English but other times in French or Spanish):
http://www.josmithcycling.blogspot.de/
Her latest entry there is about the race you mention.0 -
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Richmond Racer wrote:davidof wrote:Talking of Pooley, what's she up to this year? I see she's got a team for this year, but also read that she was taking a break from racing.
She was local to me last month at the GP Chambery
http://www.directvelo.com/actualite/247 ... ement.html
Supporting the winning rider. Note Jeannie Longo (56 years old) in 20th place. She's under the spotlight of the French sporting authorities again.
Anyone know about the Smith sisters with Team Féminin Languedoc Roussillon?
Longo, just sod off and retire, woman. Do everyone a favour.
Thing is, even if she is still doped the fact that at 56 she can still compete is a bad reflection on the quality of women's racing.
On the plus side, more positive news for the prospects of the future of British women's cycling http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/wales/article/20130407-welsh-cycling-news-Amy-Hill-wins-the-Junior-Women-s-Energiewacht-Tour-2013-for-Wales-Cycling-Team-00 -
I'm all for looking for the green shoots - The Women's Team Series race on Sunday in Surrey has a full field with over 20 reserves
https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/event ... eam-Series)
Who knows - they may even have to consider splitting categories soon...
Personally, I think it's a delayed Beryl Burton Affect...0 -
little ring needed wrote:morstar wrote:Vino'sGhost wrote:.......That fact doesnt change because of one interesting race like the olympics, its still the girls however much effort they put into it. FACT
Im sure people will disagree. thats fine it doesnt change the facts.
Some sports, the womens version is equally as compelling as the mens, some it isn't as it is clearly underdeveloped.
I would suggest tennis is in the first category and cyling the latter.
Just because you have recently "found" cycling does not make you an expert.
Where do you get that from??
I'm 42 and being riding road bikes in a sport sense since I was 15 or 16. No great palmares or achievements but I think I started my hard miles long before any recent trend developed.
Let me qualify my statement with one phrase, 'Strength in Depth'. Womens cycling lacks it, UNFORTUNATELY!
I'm not peddling a sexist agenda, it's simply my opinion and I believe the facts support it. There are some amazing female athletes in all sports which includes cycling. However, if there are only a very small elite who throw up real competition, the sport is under-developed.0 -
morstar wrote:
Where do you get that from??
I'm 42 and being riding road bikes in a sport sense since I was 15 or 16. No great palmares or achievements but I think I started my hard miles long before any recent trend developed.
Let me qualify my statement with one phrase, 'Strength in Depth'. Womens cycling lacks it, UNFORTUNATELY!
I'm not peddling a sexist agenda, it's simply my opinion and I believe the facts support it. There are some amazing female athletes in all sports which includes cycling. However, if there are only a very small elite who throw up real competition, the sport is under-developed.
Your reply is written as if you have been totally unable to read my post. Please try reading it again.
Yes there is lack of strength in depth. Is this due to under-development - no. The product was far more developed in the past. Two off 2 week, 17 day tours, a World Cup that visited more locations in the World than the men's. Coming up - the Amstel Gold - there used to be a female one of those. Supporting all those races was a far bigger full time peloton. In the UK there was no publicity for it and very few knew of its existence. The condition to move from that to where women's cycling now, is not that of being under-developed it is about a collapse in the support for the sport internationally.
You don't say that the Inca civilisation is under-developed, unless you dismiss all they achieved in the past - which comparatively is the uninformed stance you seem to be expressing in respect of women's cycling.
Here in the UK, where we are just entering the regime's year zero for Women's road racing. The sport will be sold to all of those who knew absolutely nothing about the history of women's road cycling, as "under-developed". However to anyone who knows anything about it, that is not the case. The few of us that watched as the women's calendar was systematically dismantled and the peloton reduced as a consequence, with the passive connivance of the UCI are appalled. To us, that statement has the look of a convenient way of disguising years of some very uncreditworthy behaviour.0 -
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More info on what Pooley is doing this year, from the horses mouth, so to speak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEjIiMdr ... 8u658x7h-g
Emma and the team's programme for 2013
http://www.girls-cycling-team.ch/?id=4BASI Nordic Ski Instructor
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