Aunque el titular pudiera parecer sobre alguna trama de políticos y posgrados en la URJC, no lo es. Hablamos de ciclismo y lo hacemos, en concreto, de juveniles. Sí, de ciclismo, a secas, porque no hace falta añadir la coletilla «femenino» siempre que hablamos de él. Y aunque el ciclismo femenino tiene sus particularidades y deben cuidarse, eso también implica pensar de la misma manera de la que se pensaría con los hombres. El lunes vivimos uno de los momentos más esperados de la temporada, probablemente una de las carreras que más me gustan a mí mismo y una de…
Autor: Marcos Marín Martín
El domingo asistí con estupor, una vez más, a un fenómeno que parece haberse puesto de moda este año en el ciclismo femenino: los podios separados para élites y sub-23. La carrera de Sopela cerraba el Torneo Euskaldun y lo cerraba sin arreglar algo que, personalmente, veo como un problema a solucionar. Vamos a ir al caso concreto de esta carrera, aunque como digo es algo que ha pasado varias veces esta temporada pese a lo explícito que es el reglamento de la Federación Vasca de Ciclismo (ETxF). La prueba «de las mayores» la disputaban conjuntamente en su integridad las…
One more year, Sweden will host two UCI Women’s World Tour races. It will be Vårgårda again where the world’s top cyclists will compete in order to get points for the WWT general classification, which is currently led by Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans), 59 points ahead of UCI Ranking leader Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-Scott). As usual, in Vårgårda we will watch (not really watch, there’s no live TV) the only team time trial in the UCI Women’s World Tour calendar, which will be analyzed as the most reliable reference before the World Championships TTT. What happened last year? Boels-Dolmans…
Will every national team want a sprint? That was the question before European Championships U23 Road Race, in which the flat course made everybody think the final would be the same as in the junior race: a bunch sprint. But not everybody wanted that. In fact, there were two national teams more active than anyone during the whole race: Russia and Denmark. And it was precisely a Danish rider who finally got the gold medal, after attacking with 25 kilometers to go. It was Pernille Mathiesen. Yeah, the same one that won two days ago the time trial gold. And…
Everything made us think before the race that a sprint would decide the name of the new European junior champion. And in a massive sprint, Lorena Wiebes was the top favorite. Winner of the Healthy Ageing Tour (plus two stages), Trofeo da Moreno and a stage in Borsele, the Dutch rider knew what to expect in a race like this. And she didn’t dissapoint, as in the sprint she beat Denmark’s Emma Norsgaard and Italy’s Letizia Paternoster, the only riders who theoretically could have beaten her. In spite of what we could think in a flat course like this, the…
Tomorrow at 12 PM, U23 women will compete again in a separated European Championship race, after the mixing with the elite riders we saw last year in Brittany. U23 women will already know how the junior race was, so maybe some of the tactics could change. Or not. Or maybe it’s the weather what changes. Who knows? Theoretically, the chances of heavy rain during the race are… well, 100%, according to weather.com. So the roads will get wet and dangerous, something that can change the progression of the race, as there will be some riders and nations interested in avoiding…
10 months ago Elisa Balsamo became the new junior world champion after sprinting to the gold in Doha. 10 months later, the European Championships in Herning (Denmark) repeat that flat course formula, so everything points to a new massive sprint in which the wearer of the Euro jersey will be decided. What can we expect from this race? Well, as usual, it’s an unpredictable competition for several reasons. For example: it’s the first road race of the Championships and the course could have some traps which remain unknown. And not all the riders are experienced in international competitions, despite the…
Dutch rider Ellen van Dijk became this morning, for the second year in a row, European time trial champion. The cyclist from Harmelen, who was the top favorite for the win according to (almost) every expert in women’s cycling, stopped the clock in 40 minutes and 33 seconds, almost a minute better than Belgium’s Ann-Sophie Duyck, who got the silver medal, and more than a minute better than her compatriot Anna van der Breggen, bronze. The race was not an easy one due to the weather. One of the first riders to start the competition, Sweden’s Emilia Fahlin, suffered a…
After this morning’s bronze medal for Emma Norsgaard Jørgensen in the junior time trial, the Denmark national team wanted to keep their winning streak… and they did it. Racing at home, Pernille Mathiesen and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig got the gold and silver medals in the U23 time trial at the European Road Championships, held in Herning. Mathiesen, who shone in the international field for the first time in 2014, getting the silver medal at the Ponferrada junior ITT World Championship, stopped the clock with a time of 41:28, placing herself in the hot seat very early… and what she didn’t…
Do you remember last year’s European Championships? In the women’s junior individual time trial, Lisa Morzenti (Italy) got the gold medal ahead of Alessa Vigilia, also Italian, who made it to the second place. One year later, none of them has been racing the Euro junior ITT, but that didn’t affect Italy’s chances of succeeding… For the second year in a row, two Italian riders have been unbeateable, as Elena Pirrone became European time trial champion ahead of her teammate and friend Letizia Paternoster, winner of five track Euro champs two weeks ago. Who got the bronze medal? Local idol…
After the inclusion of elite riders in the 2016 European Championships, U23 riders lost their only time of the year racing alone. It seems like UEC, the governing body of European cycling, has realized that was senseless, and U23 riders will have a separeted race this year. So who knows what can happen? Herning, Denmark, will also hold the U23 women’s time trial. And it will be over the same course where elite women will race the following day, so of course we all will think “What would have happened if [insert name] had raced with the elite riders?”. What…
Every and every year we can see junior women’s cycling grow… but sadly girls are still far, far away from having as many international races as boys. 2017 women’s junior Nations Cup has only been composed of four competitions (two stage races and two one day races), but apart from that no other 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 or 2.2 race has taken place — the only 1.1 competition will be Chrono des Nations, in October. And it’s precisely a time trial what will be the first race in the European Road Championships, held this week in Herning, Denmark. Junior women will…
Más o menos por estas fechas, hace cuatro años, empecé a seguir en serio el ciclismo femenino nacional. Por entonces, era una odisea enterarse de los resultados de las carreras antes de que hubieran pasado unas cuatro horas de su conclusión, porque ni organizadores, ni federaciones, ni por supuesto individuales, informaban con prontitud de los acontecimientos. Y ahí hemos vuelto. Durante las dos pasadas temporadas, sentí que el ciclismo femenino estatal vivía una especie de apogeo en lo referente a la información. Muchas personas, bastantes medios, e incluso las propias organizaciones de las carreras tenían informado o informada de lo…
It’s been a while since the last edition of a women’s Amstel Gold Race was held. In 2001, Debby Mansveld was the first rider to win the first of the Ardennes classics (okay, we know that actually the Ardennes do not include any part of the Netherlands). One year later, the amazing Leontien van Moorsel beat her fellow countrywoman Mirjam Melchers, who had also been second in 2001. Only one more year women’s cycling was able to enjoy one of the most exciting races in the calendar. In 2003, Nicole Cooke was the last rider to win Amstel Gold Race……
Tafalla fue para mí la tercera carrera de la temporada, después de la Copa de España de pista de Galapagar y de la carrera nacional de Buitrago del Lozoya. Pero moralmente era mi primer día de ciclismo auténtico desde julio. Volver a ver las caras de siempre, las de todas las carreras —y las caras nuevas de las neocadetes y sus familias—… era algo que necesitaba. Tras unos cuantos chistes sobre patos compartidos con Paula Suárez y sus padres [Si un pato es bipolar, ¿es anfipático?], llegué a Tafalla a eso de las 9, hora y media antes de la…
Hablar de ciclismo femenino en Italia es hablar de grandes corredoras, grandes resultados y, sobre todo, maillots arcoíris. De hecho, si echamos un vistazo a la lista de ganadoras de cualquier Campeonato del Mundo o de Europa, encontraremos una tricolore en algún lado. Esto no solo pasa con las corredoras élites: si algo caracteriza a las corredoras italianas es su capacidad para ganar desde el primer momento en el que compiten. Y, por supuesto, esto también ha pasado este año. La primera vez que escuchamos el nombre de Letizia Paternoster (Revò, Trentino-Alto Adige, 22 de julio de 1999) fue probablemente…
Talking about women’s cycling in Italy is talking about great riders, great results and, above all, rainbow jerseys. In fact, if we take a look at the list of winners of any World, or European Championship, we will find a tricolore somewhere. This doesn’t only happen with the elite riders – if something characterizes Italian riders is their ability to win from the very first moment they start to race. And, of course, this has also happened this year. First time we all listened to the name of Letizia Paternoster (Revò, Trentino-South Tyrol, July 22, 1999) was probably last year,…
Yesterday morning, during the 2017 Tour de France route’s presentation, some other things were announced – some other things which not everyone listened to, but we did. For the fourth year in-a-row, ASO will organize a women’s UCI race, but it seems they have listened to the critical voices telling them that La Course by Le Tour wasn’t a good race for the development of women’s cycling – at least not in the way it’s been held in the past three seasons. I can imagine how the meeting with all the ASO thinking heads was like: –Hey, every one is telling…