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A (VERY) SHORT GUIDE TO WOMEN'S CYCLING


Women cycling has grown in popularity exponentially in the last few years. There is still a long long way to go to reach equality in terms of wages, recognition and exposure in comparison to the men's: wages are way too low, with some riders getting pittance, others paying for equipment, only the very top getting a reasonable (but risible in comparison to the men's) pay packet; most organisers set a huge disparity in terms of podium money between men and women; all the races are kept shorter than the men's for absolutely no reason; even ASO (Tour de France) supremo Prudhomme has stated that a Women Tour is "impossible" to organise; misogyny is still rife and too few men's top teams sponsor a women's team counterpart.
The more we follow and the more we support, especially in social media and by tuning in when the rare race is televised, the quicker we can close the gap.

My favourite races last year were La Course by Le Tour de France and the World Championship. The former saw one of the best chase of all time between Van der Breggen and Van Vleuten. Van der Breggen went hard on the last climb, built a substantial gap and with the finish line on sight (almost) it was a given she had won... only to be pipped by an incredibly stubborn Van Vleuten who came from behind as if possessed and passed her with only a few metres to spare. It was edge of the seat stuff. Immense joy for the winner, colossal heartbreak for Anna. But Van der Breggen had her revenge at the Worlds when, with another of her trademark attacks, she soloed all the way to the finish line and collected the rainbow jersey, thus crowning an amazing year full of victories.


These two races in particular showed to the world the depth and strength in women racing. They also gave me and people like me the motivation to know more about the riders and their teams. Being fairly new to women racing, I started to delve into the various facets and there is plenty of information out there.
Like in any sport, the more you follow, the more you can enjoy it as things become familiar.

The list of riders is long, but like for the men's, some tend to stand out through the years for their role in collecting the spoils more often than others. These are just a few names in order to get started and familiarise with them. They are multiple winners of classics and stage races:
Annemiek VAN VLEUTEN
Anna VAN DER BREGGEN (current World Champion)
Marianne VOS
Coryn RIVERA
Marta BASTIANELLI (current European Champion)
Ellen VAN DIJCK
Katarzyna NIEWIADOMA
Jolien D'HOORE
Lucinda BRAND
Arlenis SIERRA
Kirsten WILD
Chantal BLAAK
Elisa LONGO BORGHINI
Katie HALL
Lotta LEPISTÖ
Chloe HOSKING
Elena CECCHINI
Tatiana GUDERZO
Lizzie DEIGNAN
Trixi WORRACK
Pauline FERRAND-PRÉVOT

And some of the 45 teams registered with the UCI top tier:
Boels Dolmans
CCC - Liv
Team Sunweb
Team Virtu
Trek-Segafredo
Canyon SRAM Racing
FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope
Astana
WNT-Rotor
Movistar
Bigla
Alé Cipollini
Bepink
Lotto Soudal

The list of races keeps on growing. The Women World Tour comprises of:
09.03 Strade Bianche
17.03 Ronde Van Drenthe
24.03 Trofeo Alfredo Binda - Comune di Cittiglio
28.03 Driedaagse Brugge - De Panne
31.03 Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Field
07.04 Ronde van Vlaanderen
21.04 Amstel Gold Race Ladies
24.04 La Flèche Wallonne Féminine
28.04 Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes
09.05 Tour of Chongming Island
16.05 Amgen Tour of California Women's Race Empowered with SRAM
22.05 Emakumeen XXXI.Bira
10.06 OVO Energy Women's Tour
05.07 Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile
23.07 La Course by Le Tour de France
03.08 Prudential RideLondon Classique
16.08 Postnord Vårgårda West Sweden TTT
18.08 Postnord Vårgårda West Sweden RR
22.08 Ladies Tour of Norway
31.08 GP de Plouay - Lorient Agglomération Trophee
03.09 Boels Ladies Tour
14.09 WNT Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta
22.10 Tour of Guangxi

For more info:
UCI Women World Tour
totalwomenscycling
cyclingnews
women.cyclingfever.com
voxwomen
procyclingstats women rankings
procyclingstats women teams
EllaCyclingTips

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