La Course (Spoiler)

knedlicky

RABO LIV WOMEN CYCLING TEAM
1 VOS Marianne (Ned)
2 BRAND Lucinda (Ned)
3 FERRAND PREVOT Pauline (Fra)
4 SLAPPENDEL Iris (Ned)
5 VAN DER BREGGEN Anna (Ned)
6 VAN VLEUTEN Annemiek (Ned)

ALE CIPOLLINI
11 BERLATO Elena (Ita)
12 GUARISCHI Barbara (Ita)
13 GUDERZO Tatiana (Ita)
14 JASINSKA Malgorzta (Pol)
15 OLDS - EVANS Shelley (USA)
16 TAGLIAFERRO Marta (Ita)

ASTANA BEPINK WOMENS TEAM
21 AMIALIUSIK Alena (Blr)
22 FRAPPORTI Simona (Ita)
23 STRICKER Anna Zita Maria (Ita)
24 UMUTZHANOVA Makhabbat (Kaz)
25 VALSECCHI Silvia (Ita)
26 ZORZI Susanna (Ita)

NATIONALMANNSCHAFT AUSTRALIEN
31 CROOKS Jenelle (Aus)
32 LOBIGS Louisa (Aus)
33 MUNDY Jessica (Aus)
34 NEYLAN Rachel (Aus)
35 WILLIAMS Lizzie (Aus)
36 -

BIGLA CYCLING TEAM
41 EHRLER Desiree (SUI)
42 GEBHARDT Elke (GER)
43 HAHN Jacqueline (AUT)
44 HEATHER Taryn (Aus)
45 KOEDOODER Vera (Ned)
46 LEPISTÖ Lotta (Fin)

BIZKAIA - DURANGO
51 ESKAMENDI GIL Dorleta (Esp)
52 FERNANDES SILVA Clemilda (Bra)
53 FERNANDES SILVA Marcia (Bra)
54 ILIYNIKH Yulia (Rus)
55 OLABERRIA DORRONSORO Leire (Esp)
56 SAN SEBASTIAN LASA Irene (Esp)

BOELS DOLMANS CYCLING TEAM
61 ARMITSTEAD Elisabeth (GBr)
62 KASPER Romy (GER)
63 KESSLER Nina (Ned)
64 MAJERUS Christine (Lux)
65 PAWLOWSKA Katarzyna (Pol)
66 VAN DIJK Ellen (Ned)

ESTADO DE MEXICO FAREN
71 BORGATO Giada (Ita)
72 CASAS BONILLA Ana Teresia (Mex)
73 CECCHINI Elena (Ita)
74 CONFALONIERI Maria Giulia (Ita)
75 RODRIGUEZ GUTIERREZ Carolina (Mex)
76 TREVISI Anna (Ita)

NATIONALMANNSCHAFT FRANKREICH
81 BIANNIC Aude (Fra)
82 CREUX Sophie (Fra)
83 DUVAL Eugénie (Fra)
84 LESUEUR Mélodie (Fra)
85 RIBEROT Fanny (Fra)
86 SICOT Marion (Fra)

HITEC PRODUCTS UCK
91 CORDON Audrey (Fra)
92 HOSKING Chloe (Aus)
93 JOHNSEN Ceclie Gotaas (Nor)
94 HATTELAND Tone (Nor)
95 LONGO BORGHINI Elisa (Ita)
96 MOBERG Emilie (Nor)

LOTTO BELISOL LADIES
101 D'HOORE Jolien (Bel)
102 DE VOCHT Liesbeth (Bel)
103 DECROIX Lieselot (Bel)
104 HOFFMANN Chantal (Lux)
105 POOLEY Emma (GBr)
106 VEKEMANS Anisha (Bel)

OPTUM P/B KELLY BENEFIT STRATEGIES
111 TUCKER HALL Lauren (USA)
112 HOLCOMB Janel (USA)
113 KIRCHMANN Leah (Can)
114 RAMSDEN Denise (Can)
115 WALLE Brianna (USA)
116 WILCOXSON Jade (USA)

ORICA - AIS
121 ELVIN Gracie (Aus)
122 JOHANSSON Emma (Swe)
123 MACLEAN Jessie (Aus)
124 SCANDOLARA Valentina (Ita)
125 SPRATT Amanda (Aus)
126 TAYLOR Carlee (Aus)

NATIONALMANNSCHAFT NIEDERLANDE
131 COPPENS Kirsten (Ned)
132 KOSTER Anouska Helena (Ned)
133 KUIJPERS Evy (Ned)
134 LENTING Charlotte (Ned)
135 VAN BAARLE Ashlynn (Ned)
136 VAN DER MEER Janine (Ned)

POITOU-CHARENTES.FUTUROSCOPE.86
141 BRAVARD Charlotte (Fra)
142 DUTRIAUX Fiona (Fra)
143 FOURNIER Roxane (Fra)
144 JEULAND Pascale (Fra)
145 RIVAT Amelie (Fra)
146 ROY Sarah (Aus)

RUSVELO
151 BLINDYUK Yulia (Rus)
152 BURCHENKOVA Alexandra (Rus)
153 CHULKOVA Anastasiya (Rus)
154 KOZONCHUK Oxana (Rus)
155 KUCHINSKAYA Elena (Rus)
156 SAVITSKAYA Maria (Rus)

SPECIALIZED - LULULEMON
161 BLAAK Chantal (Ned)
162 BRENNAUER Lisa (GER)
163 DELZENNE Elise (Fra)
164 SMALL-McNELLIS Carmen (USA)
165 WILES Tayler (USA)
166 WORRACK Trixi (GER)

TEAM GIANT-SHIMANO
171 KNOL Willeke (Ned)
172 MUSTONEN Sara (Swe)
173 PIETERS Amy (Ned)
174 POLSPOEL Maaike (Bel)
175 SOEK Julia (Ned)
176 WILD Kirsten (Ned)

UNITEDHEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL CYCLING TEAM
181 BARNES Hannah (GBr)
182 HIGGINS Cari (USA)
183 LAWS Sharon (GBr)
184 RIVERA Coryn (USA)
185 TAMAYO Lauren (USA)
186 WILBORNE Scotti (USA)

WIGGLE HONDA
191 BARTELLONI Beatrice (Ita)
192 BECKER Charlotte (GER)
193 BERTINE Kathryn (SKN)
194 BRONZINI Giorgia (Ita)
195 COLLINS Emily (NZl)
196 FAHLIN Emilia (Swe)


13 laps totalling 89 km.

The top 11 in the World Cup rankings all taking part (no.12, Evelyn Stevens isn’t).

As likely a sprint finish, although she does sometimes win sprints, Marianne Vos (Rabo-Liv) not really a top favourite. Instead Kirsten Wild (Giant-Shimano) and Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle-Honda) are probably best bets?

As well as Vos, outside chances also for Shelley Olds (Team Alé Cipollini), Jolien D’Hoore (Lotto Belisol) Hannah Barnes (UnitedHealthcare), Elizabeth Armitstead (Boels-Dolmans) and Chloe Hosking (Hitec Products).

Other GB riders present are Emma Pooley and Sharon Laws.

Will be interesting to see how Kathryn Bertine fares, since, as an initiator for this race (with Pooley, Vos, and Chrissie Wellington) she has been given membership of Wiggle-Honda just for this race.
Wonder why Wellington didn’t be offered or find herself similar, at least to do the start and first lap.

Not only is the race jury all women but even the gendarmes posted around the route are all female!

Lanterne_Rogue

One GB rider you didn't mention is Hannah Barnes, although she doesn't seem to have been as prolific this season. I'd still expect her to feature in a sprint though (although unlikely to win it).

knedlicky

underlayunderlay wrote:

One GB rider you didn't mention is Hannah Barnes, although she doesn't seem to have been as prolific this season. I'd still expect her to feature in a sprint though (although unlikely to win it).

:?

knedlicky wrote:

As well as Vos, outside chances also for Shelley Olds (Team Alé Cipollini), Jolien D’Hoore (Lotto Belisol) Hannah Barnes (UnitedHealthcare), Elizabeth Armitstead (Boels-Dolmans) and Chloe Hosking (Hitec Products).

After 4 laps, a break formed included Armitstead and (ddraver's and frenchfighter's pin-up girl) Ferrand-Prevot.

knedlicky

Ellen van Dyck now alone ahead – no doubt aiming to collect the points at the end of each circuit. The other 8 of the break became strung out after her attack, then over half a lap were gradually absorbed by the peloton, the last being Ferrand-Prevot.

type:epyt

Unfortunately the woman commentator already gave me a reason not to bother ... 'money, money, money, money'.

FGS, the women have been given an opportunity to show the public and sponsors what tney have to offer and this nitwit is more interested in money and 'parity'. Get your product better and then come back with your demands.

img_87

Crazy rain shower has interrupted my Sky signal

knedlicky

Van Dyck caught, or eased off, not long after the rest of the break was caught.

Every now and again since then, there’s been an attack, sometimes a small group even forms, but then each is quickly caught again.

The speed must be quite high, the field is so spread out.

Lanterne_Rogue

Disappointing crowd turn out - those of us who argue that the UK has the opportunity to nab the definitive women's race have a little more ammunition as a result of this. I'll wager the women's road race in the Commies has a larger turn out.

rick_chasey

underlayunderlay wrote:

Disappointing crowd turn out - those of us who argue that the UK has the opportunity to nab the definitive women's race have a little more ammunition as a result of this. I'll wager the women's road race in the Commies has a larger turn out.

This is something I have noticed, and I think what Brits don't realise.

Little anecdote - I was watching the Tour of Flanders in Oudenaarde.

Saw the women set off, gave them a cheer. Stayed in the same spot - the organisers took the start line parafinalia down - was a bar in the same spot showing the men's race.

With around 80km to to in the men's race the women started coming through the square having just finished their race, in drips and drabs. No one even looked away from the screen, and some were so distracted they were actually in the riders' way. And this is THE cycling nation. They couldn't identify any of them, and even if they did they didn't care.

---

UK is different in that its initial experience with cycling was Olympics which is fairly gender equal(ish) so already has some female household names. That's unusual though.

thomthom

Vos takes it.

I have got to say that Kirsten Wild looks a bit.. ehm, big..

sportvan

Very predictable, the problem with womens racing at present is one rider is winning most of the time therefore making it all very boring to watch. Imagine watching the mens race and the same rider winning everytime.

img_87

ThomThom wrote:

Vos takes it.

I have got to say that Kirsten Wild looks a bit.. ehm, big..

i just said that to the missus... and it didn't all seem to be the sort of bulk that helps produce power.

type:epyt

Women's cycling needs 'national-ish) teams with a national sponsor (hello Sky) so that the public/press have a reason to get behind their team. People care about women's cycling during the olympics so why not start with that model and take it from there.

I don't like nationalism in sport as it brings out the worst in the 'supporters' (you only have to look at the bickering in the Wiggins threads) but the press and public seem to like it so why not. The current model isn't working.

davidof

Watched the race, pretty unexciting stuff but the men's Champs is not that exciting either. They should have had a different parcours taking in a climb of Montmartre, it would not have been that hard to organise and would have made for a much more interesting race and been to Vos' disadvantage as she doesn't like steep climbs. This seems to be Christian Prudhomme's attempt to prove no-one wants to watch women's racing.

BTW when the French football team returned to France after the world cup about 50 people turned up to greet them, not exactly a great turnout either.

knedlicky

underlayunderlay wrote:

Disappointing crowd turn out

Perhaps because, if you want to watch the men, you end up being there hours if you first watch the women.
Maybe the media coverage will be regarded positively.

Rick Chasey wrote:

UK is different in that its initial experience with cycling was Olympics which is fairly gender equal(ish) so already has some female household names.

Not many though – how many names would they recognise in today’s field, I’d say only 3-4.

type:epyt wrote:

Women's cycling needs 'national-ish) teams with a national sponsor (hello Sky) so that the public/press have a reason to get behind their team.

There were national teams taking part from the Netherlands, France and Australia, while Rusvelo is effectively the Russia national team, so maybe it was a missed opportunity for a GB team.

davidof wrote:

Watched the race, pretty unexciting stuff but the men's Champs is not that exciting either. They should have had a different parcours taking in a climb of Montmartre, it would not have been that hard to organise and would have made for a much more interesting race

I agree but for logistical reasons they are hardly likely to have a different (hillier) course so long as La Course takes place the same day as the arrival of the men.

Overall, not sure I was that thrilled with the race, and not just because MV won yet again.

The accuracy of the French TV coverage didn’t help the cause – in their initial listing of how it finished they had the wrong name for 4th (it was Brennauer, not Guarischi), and they had the average speed for the whole race as 68 km/h!

95 finishers of 119 starters, Berthine was one of the non-finishers.
Two of the last 3 home were Armitstead and Ferrand-Prevot. Armiststead went down with Ferrand-Prevot in the last km.
It looked like Ferrand-Prevot caught the foot of the barrier, Abu-style. But apparently not so injured that afterwards she couldn’t afford a smile.



I don’t know about Armitstead’s injuries, if any.

Hannah Barnes was in the front group of about 20 from which the winning sprint came, Laws 10 secs back, Pooley at 1-16, Armitstead at 3-11.

Tagliaferro (Team Ale Cipollini) took the points competition. I remember seeing her go it alone at about three-quarters the way through, but maybe she also collected points as part of an earlier break.
Hope Cipollini turned up to congratulate her. If so, it could well have been the first time he’s been in Paris on the last Tour day!

Vos afterwards: “Biggest podium you can think of. A victory with a golden edge”. Maybe she was just being nice to the organisers.

RichN95.

type:epyt wrote:

People care about women's cycling during the olympics

They care about rowing, judo, dressage and beach volleyball too. It's the Olympics they are interested in, not the component sports.

mm1

Looked seriously fast, but I doubt that any casual viewer would have noticed. Awful coverage, where were the close-ups?!Phigget has just described it as a great step forward for Women's cycling, difficult to see how when there was a women's tour 30 years ago. I expect that the women's commonwealth road race will be more exciting and that it will be covered better by the BBC.

above_the_cows

Where did you all watch this?

Perhaps Europsort could have put this on rather than the parade of photo opportunities and champagne swigging that's been on for the last hour and half.

Still it was a shoot parcours. Crits are boring on the telly even when you have the Arc de Triomphe as a back drop. All in all, it was nothing more than ASO wanting to be 'seen' to be doing something while not actually really doing anything. Sadly the most exposure women's cycling has got this Tour is Marion Rousse looking pretty in a red dress and that says all you need to know about the state of women's cycling.

RichN95.

Above The Cows wrote:

Where did you all watch this?

It was on ITV4.

above_the_cows

RichN95 wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

Where did you all watch this?

It was on ITV4.

Ah well fair play to ITV4 for covering it. Shame Eurosport chose not to.

mm1

Crits aren't boring on tv, but need to be presented properly. Wide open spaces (like the Champs) and poor close camera work make it difficult to capture the speed and effort. If it is possible to make the commonwealth marathon look exciting, it has to be possible to make a closed circuit bike race look more interesting than it did.

poppit

It was covered live by British Eurosport as well

type:epyt

Above The Cows wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

Where did you all watch this?

It was on ITV4.

Ah well fair play to ITV4 for covering it. Shame Eurosport chose not to.

Eh?

It was on British Eurosport before Greg & Stefano.

above_the_cows

type:epyt wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

Where did you all watch this?

It was on ITV4.

Ah well fair play to ITV4 for covering it. Shame Eurosport chose not to.

Eh?

It was on British Eurosport before Greg & Stefano.

Good for British Eurosport.

davidof

Above The Cows wrote:

the most exposure women's cycling has got this Tour is Marion Rousse looking pretty in a red dress and that says all you need to know about the state of women's cycling.

howzabout Marion Rousse looking pretty in a summer dress?

above_the_cows

She's very pretty and that is a nice dress if you like that sort of thing but why wasn't she riding? She is a professional cyclist. Sadly she seems to be more famous for looking pretty and who she sleeps with.

Lanterne_Rogue

Above The Cows wrote:

Still it was a shoot parcours. Crits are boring on the telly even when you have the Arc de Triomphe as a back drop. .

The big problem with the parcours was the two whacking great straights - my feeling is that crits seem to work better when they offer opportunities for the break to get away, and also something that offers a small group an advantage over the whole field. In practice that's either a steep rise or a section of tighter, twistier, technical cycling. This was too wide, too open, and too easy to judge the chase.

In short - opportunity missed.

type:epyt

Above The Cows wrote:

type:epyt wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

Where did you all watch this?

It was on ITV4.

Ah well fair play to ITV4 for covering it. Shame Eurosport chose not to.

Eh?

It was on British Eurosport before Greg & Stefano.

Good for British Eurosport.

Don't grump at me just because I'm stuck in the UK. :P

phreak

sportvan wrote:

Very predictable, the problem with womens racing at present is one rider is winning most of the time therefore making it all very boring to watch. Imagine watching the mens race and the same rider winning everytime.

That and the routes are normally deathly dull and very short. It's sad when amateur granfondos offer women tougher routes than pro races.

DeVlaeminck

Was afraid I'd look like a right grumpy bastard commenting on that race but I'm glad to see everyone else thought it was boring too. No doubt done with good intentions and this might work as the final day of a one week stage race but not as a race in itself.

rick_chasey

davidof wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

the most exposure women's cycling has got this Tour is Marion Rousse looking pretty in a red dress and that says all you need to know about the state of women's cycling.

howzabout Marion Rousse looking pretty in a summer dress?

Maybe that will cheer you up ATC.