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Why does the UCI get away with treating women’s cycling so badly?
This week has been frustrating for women’s cycling. There have been three big stories that demonstrate the difficulties the sport is in – but you’d never know that, from looking at the cycling media
Last Sunday was the Tour of ChongMing Island World Cup, where the result was decided not by great racing, but by a human error, when the last corner wasn’t marked, taking the peloton off course in the last kilometres and allowing an opportunistic attacker, Tetyana Riabchenko, to win solo. Reports differ as to exactly what happened (here’s the ORICA-AIS report) everyone describes it as an unfortunate mistake by an otherwise excellent race organiser, and of course the peloton may not have caught Riabchenko – but it’s incredibly frustrating that one of the rounds of the World Cup, one of the most prestigious competitions of the year, ends this way.
Podcast 2013 Episode 14 – Jealous!
What a week! It’s the 1 year anniversary since we started saying dumb stuff on the internet! We talk social media jersey, Tour of California, harrassment, racing and all sorts of stuff. Not to be missed!
Well sort of. As it turned out, Sarah and I recorded this week’s podcast literally about an hour before the news about the Tour of Languedoc. Anyway, that’s all turned to 147 different shades of shit, so make sure to check out Sarah’s post to try and help us work out what the fuck’s going on over there. It’s a longer episode this week but that’s only because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. Pour yourselves a strong whisky (or whiskey!) and settle in. (1:15:32 MIN / 72.16 MB)
You can stream the best 1 year old women’s cycling podcast here.
You can also load it up via your Tunes of the i over here.
Happy podcast birthday! We’re one year old today!
Things we talked about this week
The Tour of ChongMing Island World Cup
On the cancellation of the 2013 Tour of Languedoc Roussillon
Today was meant to be the start of the 6-stage Tour of Languedoc-Roussillon. This should be a UCI 2.2 race, and was billed at the beginning of the return of the Tour de l’Aude, which when it as cancelled in 2011, was one of only three women’s races allowed over a week by the UCI.
The race has a dodgy history. Last year it was cancelled just two weeks before it was due to start, but the organisers have been telling everyone it was due to go ahead this year…. until yesterday, when riders had arrived, or were in the air/on the road, when they were told it was cancelled. Then they were told to stick around because it *might* go ahead, or might be a shortened race…. it’s completely ridiculous. Yes, of course it’s hard to organise races, but it shows no respect at all to the riders and teams not to give them some warning, before they book travel, let alone before they arrive.
This is very important because the women’s teams don’t have enough cash to be wasting money on getting to the bottom of France, only to have to pay to go home again. And it’s key preparation for the only Grand Tour left, the Giro Rosa, and there aren’t other races to swap to. But it’s also important because of what it says about women’s cycling – and how the UCI and cycling media sees it. If you looked on the UCI’s website, or on Cyclingnews, Velonation or Velonews right now, you’d find nothing about this – it’s not news. This is crazy! There are so many questions raised – like, what are the UCI going to do about the women’s calendar? Why do they give UCI rankings to races like this and the Exergy Tour, that are cancelled after the season starts, when there have been very clear signs that the organisations are in trouble? And yes, why will the news outlets go crazy about Wiggins talking about “riding like a girl” but won’t even mention that women are being prevented from riding?
Help a pro cyclist with a little experiment!
We love Gracie Elvin on this site – her blogs and videos about life on the road with ORICA-AIS have made us happy all year. And of course Dan and I both want more women’s cycling on tv – so we want to spread the word about Elvin’s little social media experiment.
A little experiment: RT, Favourite or Like if you want to see more Women’s Cycling on your TV or computer screens…
— Gracie Elvin (@gracieelvin) May 10, 2013
If you want to help too, click through to her twitter and either RT or like, or both – it’s an interesting, simple little thing to do – and I’ll be interested to see what the results are…
How to follow the 2013 ChongMing Island World Cup
On Saturday Sunday 12th May, it’s the fifth round of the UCI Road World Cup, the Tour of ChongMing Islandin China. This is a race on the long, wide, flat roads of ChongMing Island in the Yangtze river, connected to Shanghai by the beautiful bridge and tunnel, and the race uses both.
It’s very definitely a race for the sprinters. The “mountains” point comes when they ride up the ramp onto the bridge, and the roads have meant while riders have dropped off the back, and there can be echelon-ing, it ends up in a bunch sprint. It is usually very rainy, though, and the wind can make it a very tough race indeed – certainly no easy ride, this one!
The website is mostly in Chinese, and google translate hates that, but there’s some information on the parcours in English in this report of the press conference (google translated into English) – but if you want some more on the race, Melissa Hoskins has a race preview on the ORICA-AIS website of the World Cup and and the Tour of ChongMing Island stage race, which ran 8th-12th May. Because the Island isn’t a large one, the stage race runs on a lot of the same roads. Here’s the video we’ve had of that so far, and much more info below the jump:
It Takes Two – A Dreamy Secret
Yet another romance title generator edition of your favourite love/dating/romance/racing column! You may remember us from previous editions of excellent advice on how to solve all your romantic woes (or make them irreparably worse) like What’s the Difference? or last week’s especially sweet, tangy episode, The Right Dessert.
It’s once again time for you to solicit the advice of the singlest cycling people you (don’t really) know! The jalapeno-fuelled Heather Nielson and I are once again ready to tell you how it is and how it could be, maybe even how it should be when it comes to getting ahead in racing/love.
Drop your questions or problems in the comments below and we’ll get to work on figuring out whether it really is you or Chris Froome leading Sky for the Tour…
It takes two – The Right Dessert
We’re back again and ready to dish out the sweetest love/relationship/racing advice you’ve ever heard! (Or possibly not – I’m not a professional at this stuff). Anyway, the oracular Heather Nielson and I are here to answer your questions in simple language that we can all understand. As ever, if you need advice in how to perfect your experience of love then leave us a comment below.
Anyway let’s get on with it. Here’s the latest relationship-saving advice to help you win at love.
Jimbo asks:
I have been married for over 10 years to a smart and beautiful woman who i adore. She is loving and patient, she is a wonderful mother to our children, and I love her deeply. We are very happy. Here is my question: Recently I bought a new cross frame. What brand of wheels should I run on it, and should I go tubeless? If so which brand do you recommend. Also, handlebar tape color?
Videos of last week’s racing (and other things)
Thanks to everyone who gives us links – especially Bassface!
If you want to read about last week’s racing, check out my report on Total Women’s Cycling
Last week’s racing:
Festival Luxembourgeois du Cyclisme Féminine Elsy Jacobs
Prologue video:
Post-prologue video interviews (in English) with Annemiek van Vleuten, with Nettie Edmondson and with Christine Majerus
Podcast 2013 Episode 11 – Digressions
This week Sarah and I digress. A lot. It’s like this game I used to play when I was at university and someone would be trying to tell a joke and I would interrupt them to ask really specific and deliberately pointless questions. Like, they’d say “A priest, a rabbi and a cowboy walked into a bar…” and I’d say things like “An orthodox rabbi?” and “What sort of priest? Catholic or Episcopalian?” or “Did the cowboy have pearl-handled pistols?” This week’s episode is exactly like that.
We also talk about a bunch of races including Omloop van Borsele, Dwars door de Westhoek, Sea Otter, Gracia Orlova, Elsy Jacobs and more. There are some excellent blogs from Ashleigh Moolman and Marijn de Vries. But even if none of that stuff grabs your attention, you should at least listen to hear Sarah try to explain what she knows about bikes. It’s fucking hilarious. (1:13:46 MIN / 70.83 MB)
You can stream all your happy, sweary, cycley goodness by clicking here (or right-click, save-as to download).
Or you can iTune it for free over here.
Things we talked about this week
Last week’s racing – read Sarah’s report about it all on Total Women’s Cycling.
Shirt week again!
Every now and then, it’s shirt week around here – and as always I get no benefit from promoting these products, I just covet like them!
First, have you ever wanted to buy Specialized-lululemon team kit? Well now women can, on their team store!
You can buy team short- and long-sleeved jerseys, bib shorts and wind vest and jacket – and apparently they’ll have casual clothing to follow! It’s free worldwide shipping, and to celebrate the launch of the shop, they have a discount code:
To celebrate the opening of the store we are offering an introductory discount of 5%. Enter the coupon code “intro2013″ to receive this discount until May 4. An additional 5% of every purchase goes to our partners Right To Play or CycleKids. You can choose which one.
Apparently they have some teething problems right now (I assume it’s too popular!) so if you have any issues, check back with them later. And apparently they’ll have t-shirts and things like that (and maybe things for men) at a later date – but what a great way to show our support for the team!
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From team kit to a company that supports women’s cycling…. I’m hesitant to mention this here, because I’m not sure Dan needs more merino temptation, but Vulpine.cc have launched their new range – including their full women’s range of merino loveliness. I’ve got their blue buttoned jersey and I love it (I wore it to the Flèche Wallonne, because those back pockets were perfect for my dictaphone, camera and camera film) – and I love the ways they support cycling, including the Matrix Fitness Racing Academy team (and their team launch!) – and I’ve already mentioned them as a cycling company that markets to women really well (they talk to me! To us!). So they now have an Alpine jersey, a t-shirt, a v-neck t-shirt, all in lovely merino, and some discount bundles on their women’s page. And you can see their new men’s stuff (if you’re not Dan) and their full shop here. They’re very friendly, and there’s free worldwide shipping!
