Women's Cycling News 13-20.10.2013

UCI events this week - LATEST: Jessie Daams, 2013 Flandrienne - Teute retires - Design the World Cup jersey competition - UCI Women's Commission - Vos to undergo further surgery for back pain... but wins her first CX race of the season - Van Paassen to miss start of CX season - Stultiens' sore knee - D'hoore earns BA - VeloJam results - Transfers and Team News - Shorts and Interesting Links: 2016 Olympic parcours?; Van Wanroij to retire at end of 2014 - Tweet of the Week - More news as it happens...

UCI Elite Women's events this week: Chrono des Nations (20.10.2013)

LATEST: Jessie Daams, 2013 Flandrienne

"Flandrienne," and the male equivalent "Flandrien," are not terms to be bandied about in cycling. They refer only to a very select few, and must be earned. Indeed, there are those that say there was only ever one Flandrien, and that was Briek Schotte - perhaps the toughest of an especially tough breed of Belgian riders.

Once a year the Belgian cycling establishment gathers together for the Gala van de Flandrien, a glitzy soiree (which really couldn't be any more different from the sort of race in which the title is earned) where a panel of fourteen experts chooses a pair of riders - one man, one woman - who in their opinion have best personified the characteristics of the Flandrien throughout the cycling season. This year, they chose Jessie Daams of Boels-Dolmans for Flandrienne.

Daams is only 23, but this year she completed every round of the World Cup and finished the Giro Rosa, the last Grand Tour in women's cycling. She finished far from the top in both events, but a rider becomes a Flandrienne through her grit and determination, not according to the number of trophies in her cabinet.

She faced some stiff competition: Liesbet de Vocht and Maaike Polspoel were both nominated too, but Daams was awarded 51 points compared to de Vocht's 49 and Polspoel's 43. "I certainly wasn't expecting to beat Liesbet de Vocht," she said after receiving the honourary title. "I owe it to my consistency. In the future, I'd like to go for a good ranking in a stage race, or perhaps a shoot-out on a classic climb."

Ina-Yoko Teutenberg announces retirement

Ina-Yoko Teutenberg

She's been saying for years that she'd retire at the age of 38 and now the legendary Ina-Yoko Teutenberg has made it official by announcing she will not return to professional cycling - just days before her 39th birthday.

Teutenberg, who turned professional in 2000 and won more than 200 races over her career, originally took up cycling as a child because she hated being left out of anything her two older brothers (ex-professional riders Lars and Sven) did. She was forced to miss most of the 2013 season following a horrific crash that left her with serious concussion, but fans had hoped she might make a come-back in 2014 - with her humour and reputation for speaking her mind, she has long been one of the most popular riders on the circuit.

"This isn't the way I had hoped to say goodbye," said Teutenberg, who joined T-Mobile in 2005 and has remained with the team through its long transformation into Specialized-Lululemon ever since. "I've considered staying in the sport for another year, but I've decided now is the time to stop."

UCI launch Women's World Cup jersey competition
Think the current jerseys in the UCI Women's Road World Cup are a bit dull and could do with an update? Think that <insert name of favoured rider> would look especially good in <insert colour of jersey>? Well, now you can have a go at making that happen, because the UCI have launched a competition giving fans the chance to design new jerseys for the four classifications that will feature in the race series from 2013 - the overall winner, the Points winner, the Mountains winner and the best Young rider. You'll also be in with a chance of winning a trip to a World Cup event.

Les Deesses' virtually-guaranteed-
to-win entry

The competition has met with a mixed reception with some fans and journalists dismissing it as a gimmick, while others are more worried asking fans to design the jerseys rather than pay a graphic designer is indication the UCI's much talked-up plans to give women's cycling the sort of backing it achieves will be done on the cheap. Others are more positive, arguing that it's a clever way to encourage more people to engage in the sport.

You can enter the competition and read the rules on the UCI website. Be warned, though - you'll face some stiff competition from the Deesses Graphic Design Department...


UCI Women's Commission confirmed
It's been rumoured for a long time, now Brian Cookson - who became president of the UCI after defeating Pat McQuaid in an election last month - has confirmed that cycling's governing body is to gain a women's cycling commission charged with looking at ways the sport can be developed.

McQuaid and his predecessor Hein Verbruggen were frequently accused by riders and fans of not doing enough for women's cycling and, more damningly, not caring, and would often brush the subject aside when it was raised by journalists or by riders, as at the 2011 World Championships. There are some who claim that Cookson doesn't care as much as he has claimed, but the establishment of a commission devoted to the sport is a big step into the future - and, hopefully, a sign of more positive steps to come.

Vos, photographed here at the Fleche
Wallonne, has been suffering serious
back pain for most of the season. Being
Vos, she's still managed 38 wins so far
in 2013

Vos to undergo further surgery for back pain
Excellent results - including the World Championship - following a break from racing earlier this year seemed to suggest Marianne Vos' back problems were over, but the Dutch star has revealed that she'll go under the knife for a small operation that will hopefully rid her once and for all of the pain she's been feeling all season.

Vos underwent medical treatment and took a week out in August, but doctors were unable to find the underlying cause of her pain. Speaking to De Telegraaf, the 26-year-old explained that it might be down to a cyst. "Maybe that's the culprit," she said. "It could well be that the cyst is pressing against a nerve and causing the pain in my lower back.

"I know it's not right, especially during a 'cross race. That's an outright attack on your body. The last laps were not pleasant, oh no," she added, referring to the race she won in front of a home crowd at Den Bosch last weekend (see below).

Via the Rabobank team website, Vos clarified that the matter - and the operation to rectify it - is very minor: "The cyst isn't in my back, but in the abdominal cavity. It could be that it is the cause of my back pain , but the chance of this is small according to the doctors. My back is much better now than during the road season, though it's still a little sensitive. It's a simple procedure, but worthwhile. The doctors said it wasn't urgent, so the operation could take place during a less-busy period, in the break I already had planned after Woerden, so all is well. It doesn't damage by preparation for the second part of the cyclo cross season and I can quickly return to my training regime after the surgery."

She'll undergo surgery at the end of this month and plans to return to racing shortly afterwards.

...but wins her first CX race of the season
...and she did it in front of a home crowd at Den Bosch, the city in the Netherlands where she was born in 1987. Rabobank-Liv/Giant road race team mate Sabrina Stultiens was second, seven-time British National CX Champion Helen Wyman was third, current British National CX Champion Nikki Harris was fourth and rising Dutch star Sophie de Boer was fifth.

Van Paassen to miss start of CX season, may require surgery

Sanne van Paassen

Sanne van Paassen hasn't been quite as fortunate as her Rabobank team mate Marianne Vos and looks unlikely to be able to compete during the first months of the cyclo cross season due to pain in her knees.

"I'm having problems with both legs when I cycle, but the left leg is especially painful when I ride hard," van Paassen, who will turn 25 years of age on the 27th of October, explained to Cyclingonline.nl. "Last weekend, on a ride, I realised that I really cannot compete at the moment."

"Actually, the doctors have found two probable causes," says the Dutch rider, who was second at Gent-Wevelgem in March. "I have a kink in the femoral artery and cysts in both my knees. Unfortunately, they're not agreed as to which of the two problems is the main cause of the pain. If surgery is necessary I won't hesitate to go under the knife, but I'll want to know for certain the surgery will relieve my symptoms. It'll be very tempting to get back on the bike as soon as I've had surgery, but it's important than I think in the long term and don't take unnecessary risks."

Stultiens suffers sore knee

Stultiens at the Tour of Thuringia, 2012

Meanwhile, a third Rabo team mate has been experiencing medical problems this week - 20-year-old Sabrina Stultiens, Junior National Cyclo Cross Champion in 2011 and third place in the Elite National Cyclo Cross Championship earlier this year, is also suffering pain in her knee and as a result cannot take part in the first round of the World Cup due to go ahead at Valkenburg this weekend.

Sabrina Stultiens ‏@STULTIENS_S
Stiekem gehoopt op 'n wonder tijdens m'n testritje voor morgen. nog te veel last aan m'n knie waardoor ik morgen niet start in WB Valkenburg

("I was secretly hoping for a miracle for tomorrow when I went on my training ride but it was just too hard on my knee, so tomorrow I won't start in Valkenburg")

"I want to ride - it's my home province, "Stultiens says. "However, I can't risk long-term injury. There are other important races this winter - the European Championships in January, and the other championships."


Jolien D'hoore earns bachelor's degree

Jolien D'hoore

Somehow finding time to study this year despite her busy racing schedule, sprint specialist Jolien D'hoore has just won a bachelor's degree in physiotherapy and rehabilitation techniques.

D'hoore, who was born in Merelbeke, East Flanders in 1990, rides for the Lotto-Belisol team. "Now I can turn my full attention to cycling," she says - with some excellent results in 2013, she'll be certain to impress come the new season.

Chapeau Jolien!

VeloJam Results
Elite Omnium
1 Sarah Connell (Briston Cycles) 23
2 Anna Railton (ASL360) 23
3 Hannah Barnes (MG-Maxifuel) 20
4 Lucy Harper (Welwyn Cycles) 10
5 Jayne Paine (Wildsen Cycles) 10
6 Anna-Marie Hughes (Prestige VC) 6

B-Category Omnium
1 Alexis Barnes (Cardiff Ajax) 24
2 Amy Good (VCL) 18
3 Emma Towers (Twickenham CC) 17
4 Christine Robson 14
5 Hannah Cannell 10
6 Zoe Lewis (VCL) 7

Go Race Omnium
1 Sarah Walsh 23
2 Tanya Griffiths 16
3 Gemma Marshall 10
4 Charlotte Roberge 8
5 Katie Atherton 6
6 Fiona Leonard 6

Sarah Connell won the Combativity prize (a pair of Hope OpenPro wheels)

More - VeloJam Huge Success (Track Cycling News)


Transfers and Team News
Transfers at-a-glance
As is usual at this time of year, staff at the Rumour Mill have been working overtime - but, at long last, we know where Marijn de Vries is going. Marijn, an enormously popular rider due at least in part to her willingness to chat with fans on Twitter has expected to leave Lotto-Belisol for several weeks now, but there've been no reliable hints as to where she might go. Confirmation was received on the 18th of October that she'll ride for Argos-Shimano, which is also taking on Julia Soek (previously Sengers) and Sara Mustonen (previously Faren-Kuota). Meanwhile, it seems that the team will retain Willeke Knol for another season, rather than releasing her as was previously reported.

Aude Biannic, who just missed out on a bronze medal at the European Under-23 Individual Time Trial and won the controversial Stage 4 of the Giro Toscana (against a much-reduced field; most of the riders having abandoned en masse in protest at the dangerous conditions to which they'd be exposed during the previous stages), has signed to the Spanish Lointek team, which is losing Anna Potokina to Servetto-Zhiraf - Servetto-Zhiraf, the new name for Servetto-Footon, is also taking Svetlana Bubnenkova (who won the Chrono Champenois in 1993!) and Nataliya Boyarskaya (who won the GP of Maykop and Tour of Adygeya in 2013).

Rytger, the Danish-based team that is moving up to the Elite ranks for the first time in 2014, has signed Malin Nystrand; it appears that Rytger will not now be taking on Amalie Winther Olsen or Christina Siggaard, who were reported to be joining the team last week. Siggaard, previously with Restore Cycling, is going to Firefighters Upsala CK, a US/Swedish team that raises funds for and awareness of firefighters suffering chronic and terminal illnesses; it is not known what's happening with Winther Olsen

Jessica Allen, previously with Vienne Futuroscope, is going to the team of the National Cycling Centre Hamilton, an organisation set up to find and develop promising Canadian riders. Vienne Futuroscope is taking on the Australian Sarah Roy (previously Futurumshop), 21-year-old Charlotte Bravard, 20-year-olds Lucie Pader (previously Bourgogne-ProDialogue) and Gabrielle Pilote-Fortin (previously Kenda-RACC) and current Australian Criterium Champion the devastatingly fast sprinter Kimberly Wells (previously Fearless Femme-Pure Energy). Manon Souyris, Oriane Chaumet, Sandrine Bideau, Pascale Jeuland, Amelie Rivat and Fiona Dutriaux remain with the team, while Emmanuel Merlot is retiring. It's not yet known what is happening with Karol-Ann Canuel and Jennifer Letue.

Jolien D'hoore and Celine van Severen are confirmed as staying at Lotto, while the team is taking on Luxembourgian Chantal Hoffmann (previously WC De Sprinters Malderen), Isabelle Soderberg (previously Cramo-Go:Green), Lieselot Decroix (previously CycleLive Plus-Zannata) and 17-year-olds Sara Verhaest and current Walloon Junior Road Race and ITT Champion and Molly Meyvisch (owner of what may be the cutest name in cycling, Molly is the daughter of Herve, whom some people might remember as a domestique on Carrera Jeans back in the early 1990s).

Dalia Muccioli will stay at BePink. Valentina Scandolara - who, remarkably, is still only 23 despite seeming to have appeared in the top ten of every race for ages - is leaving MCipollini-Giordana to go to Orica-AIS, an interesting development and one that is likely to suit her very well. Orica are also taking on Carlee Taylor from Lotto-Belisol, and Grace Sulzberger who won a silver medal for the ITT at the Australian Nationals this year, and will keep Amanda Spratt, Jessie Maclean, Emma Johansson, Melissa Hoskins, Shara Gillow, Gracie Elvin and Annette Edmondson. Gu Sung Eun and Tiffany Cromwell (Orica in 2013) have not provided confirmation of where they'll be in 2014.

Katarzyna Niewiadoma is staying at Rabobank-Liv/Giant, which will take on Anna Knauer who, despite being only 18, has ten National titles, one European title and a World title to her name. Christelle Ferrier-Bruneau, previously with Faren-Kuota, is retiring; Faren-Kuota is taking on the Mexican rider Erika Varela who made headlines earlier this year when photographs emerged which apparently showed her being physically attacked by a coach

Brunello Fanini's Giro Toscana isn't on the 2014 calendar following the riders' protest at unsafe conditions this year, but he has no plans to close down his S.C. Michela Fanini-ROX team - Simona Crotti, Beatrice Bafile and Michela Balducci and joining for 2014. Meanwhile, the team loses Lisa Gamba who is retiring from professional cycling at just 19 years of age; while Edwige Pitel, Carlotta Brui, Lara Vieceli, Yevgenia Vysotska, Mireia Epelde and Azzurra D'Intino all remain onboard, as does Liisi Rist.

Several other riders will be retiring. They are:
Sara Grifi and Sylwia Kapusta (both MCipollini-Giordana), Alessandra d'Ettorre (Vaiano-Fondriest), Noemi Cantele (BePink), Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Specialized-Lululemon; see above), Francesca Stefani (Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo) and Kim Schoonbaert (Lotto-Belisol) - Schoonbaert explains her decision to do so here.

Epic Cycles-Scott Contessa, the new British team announced in August, has signed Molly Weaver and Elle Hopkins, who were previously with Breast Cancer Care, and Hannah Walker from the Matrix Racing Academy. The team also includes Karla Boddy and Melissa Brand (both previously MG-Maxifuel); Anna Christian, Alex Greenfield and Emily Kay (all previously Scott Contessa-Epic), Laura Massey and Alexie Shaw.


Shorts and Interesting Links
Is this the 2016 Olympic parcours?

A map, apparently showing the route of the Road Race and Time Trial at the 2016 Olympics, has appeared online with two-and-a-half years still to go until the Games. You can see the .pdf here.

There is at present no evidence in favour or against it being genuine, nor if it's a finalised route or one of several under consideration if it is real, but the map is accurate (if simplified) with the route plotted on roads that do exist just south of Rio, in between Catete and Copacabana. The altitude profile looks a little strange, but the Corcovado area (a national park) does reach 400m above sea level, as shown on the profile 10km from the start; however, the road only reaches approximately 250m. If genuine it'd be a serious climb, gaining 400m in 4km at an average gradient of 10%, but a profile created for the same route by Velofocus looks sufficiently similar to suggest that the route uses roads that already exist and the creator of the map has used an incorrect altitude scale. Two smaller climbs between the first and the 20km point look to be even steeper.

Van Wanroij to retire at end of 2014

Van Wanroij is looking to the future

Marieke van Wanroij, who announced recently that she's signed up for another season with her Boels-Dolmans team, says she plans to retire from cycling at the end of 2014 - when she'll be 35 years old.

"I would like to win a race this season," van Wanroij says, but explains that doing so isn't the main aim of her final year: she will concentrate on acting as mentor to the team's two new youthful signings Demi de Jong and Nicky Ziljaard. "When our directeur sportif Danny Stam called me to ask if I'd like to take on a guiding role for them, I was immediately enthusiastic. It's good to know that my efforts to motivate the team are appreciated. I've been thinking of taking up coaching in the future and this is a good intermediate step, a season to work out if that's really what I want to do."

Full team statement here.

Interesting Links
Photo: Nikki Harris remembers Amy Dombroski (Kramon)
Compton solos to victory in Colorado Cross Classic (Cycling Weekly)
Joanna Rowsell wants Great Britain to continue Team Pursuit domination (British Cycling)
Laura Trott, Dani King and Joanna Rowsell would love to see Women's Tour de France (The Daily Telegraph)
Specialized debuts women's recreational triathlon bike (Bicycle Retailer)
Laura Trott: life as a road rider is hard for my sister Emma (Daily Telegraph)
Le SENS de l'HUMOUR et le BON SENS de Marianne VOS! (Gwena)
British Cycling plan for one million more women riders on track (BBC)

Tweet of the Week

Marijn de Vries ‏@marijnfietstO jongens, als jullie toch zouden weten waar ik nu zit dan zouden sommigen van jullie best met me willen ruilen. 

("Oh guys, if you knew where I am right now, some of you would want to swap with me." - Intriguing stuff!)

Women's Cycling News 22-29.09.2013

UCI events this week - World Championships: GBR Worlds squad unveiled, Results and News, Junior Results, World Champs on the BBC - Katie Colclough retires - Still no UCI statement on Giro Toscana - VeloJam is back - Shorts and Interesting Links: Armitstead targets Tour of Britain, Cookson wins UCI election - more to come...

UCI  Women's races this week: World Road Racing Championships - Elite Team Time Trial (22.09), Junior Individual Time Trial (23.09), Elite Individual Time Trial (24.09), Junior Road Race (27.09), Elite Road Race (28.09).

World Championships
The World Championships is the only time during a non-Olympic year that women's races get anything like the mainstream media coverage they deserve, so Les Deesses won't be featuring the race guides, maps, start lists and race reports that I write for all the Elite events (not least of all because single-handedly writing guides for the 56 races in that category that took place in 2013 has been hard work, and it's nice to sit back and enjoy a race without thinking what you're going to write about it) - you can get all that from the excellent official website or, for a change, from most of the cycling magazine websites. I'll still write some brief reviews of the action and post results, however, simply because I bloody love this sport, as well as compiling a list of links to anything especially interesting. :-)

GBR World team unveiled

Armitstead will lead the GBR team

Lucy Garner was revealed to have a provisional place on Great Britain's World Championships team recently and nobody who knows anything about her career will be surprised to see she's made it onto the official, final roster - Garner was, after all, Junior World Champion twice and is hotly tipped to be the next big thing in British women's cycling. Experienced riders Lizzie Armitstead, Katie Colclough and Nikki Harris will join her.

Emma Pooley was named on the long list as a prospective member of the road race team in addition to being the sole choice for the Individual Time Trial; since she has declined her place at the Worlds in order to concentrate on working towards her PhD it isn't clear who'll replace in the TT. Anna Christian and Bethany Hayward will contest the Junior Road Race.

Team Time Trial
Specialized-Lululemon have dominated the team time trials in every race they've entered this year, so the outcome of the TTT at the World Championships was surely the safest bet in any sporting event this year - I have no idea what sort of odds the bookies were offering, but if you put money on them you won't be getting much of a profit.

In fact, Lululemon are so good against the clock that nobody will be much surprised by their winning margin, either: they got round the course in 51'10.69", 1'11.09" faster than second place Rabobank and 1'33.83" over Orica-AIS, the only teams that have been able to get anywhere near them all season.

"The other teams would only have had a chance at winning gold if Specialized made a mistake," an admiring Marianne Vos told the Dutch NOS website.

TTT Result
1 Specialized-Lululemon 51'10.69"
2 Rabobank-Liv/Giant +01'11.09"
3 Orica-AIS +01'33.83"
4 RusVelo +02'02.31"
5 MCipollini-Giordana +02'18.83"
6 Wiggle-Honda +02'33.00"
7 Argos-Shimano +02'50.51"
8 Optum P/B Kelly Benefit Strategies +3:03.44
9 Sengers +03'05.80"
10 Boels-Dolmans +03'33.70"
11 BePink +03'48.49"
12 S.C. Michela Fanini-ROX +04'34.18"
13 Hitec Products-UCK +04'38.50"
14 Lotto-Belisol +04'46.14"
15 Faren-Kuota +05'27.38"
16 Vaino Fondriest +05'30.87"
Riders, details

Individual Time Trial
Ellen van Dijk has won almost every individual time trial in which she's competed this year, but after several years in which performance levels in women's cycling has been steadily increasing it was impossible to say any one rider had the best chance of winning in this race - there's just too much talent around these days, and the best in the world are in Tuscany.

Van Dijk in Lululemon kit with the gold
medal she won in the team time trial
earlier this week

It was soon clear that van Dijk was going to get a place on the podium when, as one of the last riders to go, she set a blistering pace; when she completed the course in 27'48.18", most fans decided then and there that she'd won - as indeed proved to be the case, with Linda Villumsen of New Zealand taking more than 24" longer to get around the 21.8km parcours. American Carmen Small was third at +28.74".

The finishing order is especially interesting for the two relatively unknown names that placed highly: Annika Langvad, who was sixth, and Hanna Solovey in eighth. 29-year-old Langvad started her cycling career on fat tyres and came third in the 2008 Danish National Mountain Bike Cross Country Championships, then made a name for herself on the road when she won the National Road Race and Time Trial Championships in 2010. In 2011 she held onto the ITT title, but then gave it up in 2012 when she concentrated on MTB (and won the National Cross Country Championship and the World MTB Marathon Championship); in June this year she once again became National ITT Champion. Hanna (or Ganna, as it's also spelled) Solovey's is a name that people may remember - she's just returned to cycling after a ban (ended 1st July), having been caught out in a test for the steroid Drostanolone. Solovey used the drug when she was just 19 and  is, remarkably, still only 21 years old - making her eighth place result against the top time trial riders in the world even more impressive, if she can be assumed to be clean now (it should be added that Solovey would not be the first young rider to be pressured into doping by a crooked trainer, which is a convincing counter to the argument that all athletes found to have doped should be banned for life without question). Junior World ITT Champion in 2009 and 2010, Solovey went on to become National ITT Champion at Elite level in 2012 and is European Under-23 ITT Champion and National Omnium Champion this year, when she also finished third in the European U-23 Road Race Championships. Given a season or so of good results, in her races and in the dope-tester's trailer, and it's a safe bet that we'll be seeing Solovey take up a contract with one of the top professional teams very soon.

Ellen van Dijk ‏@ellenvdijk WORLDCHAMPION!! I am the happiest girl on the planet :))))))))))))) 

Ellen van Dijk ‏@ellenvdijk What a feeling to wake up with! I think I honestly understand what this guy feels now :)

Top Ten
1 Ellen VAN DIJK (Netherlands) 27'48.18"
2 Linda VILLUMSEN (New Zealand) +24.10"
3 Carmen SMALL (USA) +28.74"
4 Evelyn STEVENS (USA) +28.78"
5 Trixi WORRACK (Germany) +31.66"
6 Annika LANGVAD (Denmark) +39.51"
7 Olga ZABELINSKAYA (Russia) +40.30"
8 Hanna SOLOVEY (Ukraine) +42.48"
9 Tatiana ANTOSHINA (Russia) +42.57"
10 Emma JOHANSSON (Sweden) +52.98"
Full result

Junior Worlds Results
ITT
Severine Eraud, last rider to go, was 13.5" behind Alexandria Nicholls who had been first to go amd this held the best time right up until Eraud's ride. However, the 18-year-old, who is currently French and European Junior ITT Champion, put in a blazing performace over the final part of the parcours and took 2.69" out of the Australian.

Individual Time Trial
1 Severine ERAUD (France) 22'42.63"
2 Alexandria NICHOLLS (Australia) +02.69"
3 Alexandra MANLY (Australia) +08.17"
4 Zavinta TITENYTE (Lithuania) +11.49"
5 Anastasiia IAKOVENKO (Russia) +13.05"
6 Demi DE JONG (Netherlands) +14.11"
7 Kelly CATLIN (USA) +20.72"
8 Floortje MACKAIJ (Netherlands) +21.04"
9 Kinley GIBSON (Canada) +22.81"
10 Luisa KATTINGER (Germany) +23.47"
Full result

World Champs on the BBC
Remember when you last got to see a women's bike race in glorious BBC technovision? Probably, as it would have been the last World Championships a year ago; unless they've been showing all the races that have taken place since then during the early hours of the morning when I'm asleep.

Anyway, the good news is that you can see this year's races too. Chris Boardman and Simon Brotherton (who has taken over now that Hugh Porter's retired) are in charge of presenting duties and will doubtless anger and/or amuse us at various times by displaying their lack of knowledge of women's cycling, but hey - at least the race is on telly.*

The BBC's full schedule is as follows:
BBC Red Button September 22, 2013 13:30-16:40 Live Women & Men Elite TTT
BBC Red Button  September 24, 2013 13:30-15:50 Live Women Elite ITT
BBC Red Button September 25, 2013 12:15-13:40 Live Men Elite ITT
BBC2 September 25, 2013 13:40-16:10 Live Men Elite ITT + highlight Women ITT and Men TTT
BBC1 September 28, 2013 15:30-16:30 Live Women Elite Road Race
BBC2 September 28, 2013 16:30-17:15 Live Women Elite Road Race
BBC Red Button September 29, 2013 12:30-14:15 Live Men Elite Road Race
BBC2 September 29, 2013 14:15-16:15 Live Men Elite Road Race
Online
BBC Sport September 28, 2013 13:00-17:00 Live Women Elite Road Race

BBC Sport September 29, 2013 09:00-16:15 Live Men Elite Road Race
Full international listing

*Seriously though, Beeb, there are loads of women with a detailed knowledge of the sport (including some retired riders) who'd do a far better job than Boardman and Brotherton.

Katie Colclough retires

She's only 23, at least four years from the age at which most cyclists start to reach the peak of their athletic ability, but Katie Colclough has decided it's time to move on.

Interviewed by the BBC at the World Championships, Colclough revealed that one factor in her decision to retire is the impossibility of making a good living from the sport. The Elite Women, unlike their male counterparts in the ProTour series, do not receive a minimum wage; with the teams operating on small budgets, many of the riders work full-time as well as racing simply in order to be able to make ends meet.

"It is time to try something new and different. I'm not sure what I'll do," Lincolnshire-born Colclough told the magazine - having been racing since she was a schoolgirl, she's already been in the sport for more years than the vast majority of professional careers last.

Still no UCI Giro Toscana statement
Considering that the World Championships are the UCI's premier, showcase event and that Stage 4 - the one that most of the riders refused to race, because of safety concerns - of the Giro Toscana took place on a very similar route, it seems peculiar that the UCI didn't feel it was important to publish as soon as it possibly could a press statement ensuring that riders' safety would be guaranteed.

The Giro has a history of mishaps, and this year's edition was not the first to be hit by a riders' protest. Insufficient official vehicles and police escorts were provided, meaning that only the riders in the lead group rode on closed roads - any riders further back were racing on open roads, among traffic; riders therefore felt that a stage ending in Florence, one of the region's busiest cities, was simply too dangerous and around 60 of them (including the race leader, all of her rivals and most of the top teams) refused to have any more to do with it.

Were a similar thing to happen at the Worlds, which will attract international audiences far bigger than those that followed the Giro Toscana, it would be an enormous embarrassment to the UCI, the reputation of which has suffered serious damage over the last couple of years due to the revelations concerning Lance Armstrong.

Women's VeloJam is back

Last year's women's track cycling event VeloJam, at the historic Herne Hill velodrome, proved an enormous success. So, it's back on this year - and with all the riders who went away telling everyone what a fantastic event it had been in 2012, it's sure to be bigger and better this year.

"The concept is based on the belief that something needs to be done to tap into all the women out there who want to be taken seriously and race track," says the official Herne Hill website. AnaNichoola and Team Mule Bar Girl-Sigma Sport are backing the event.

The event, which takes place under floodlights in the evening of the 5th of October, features categorised races with riders at all levels from Elite to first-time novices getting plenty of track time. Entry is a mere £15 (£20 on the day), a small price to pay for the pleasure of riding in front of a supportive crowd (entry is free for spectators, which makes it all feel more like a party than a race meet) at the 122-year-old velodrome that hosted the track cycling events of the 1948 Olympics.

Oh, and there's £1000 of prizes, too.

Online entry here.

Shorts and Interesting Links
Armitstead aims at Tour of Britain
"If there is a women’s Tour of Britain next season I would base half my year around trying to win it," Lizzie Armitstead told Mancunian Matters, reasoning that victory in the race - which looks certain to go ahead early in 2014 - would bring attention to women's cycling in Britain much as Bradley Wiggins' 2012 Tour de France win saw the popularity of professional cycling soar.

Cookson wins UCI election
Brian Cookson, who has expressed a desire to encourage the development of professional women's cycling during his election campaign, has won in his bid to become the new president of the UCI. More from the Daily Telegraph.

Interesting Links
"At the moment it is a third of one person’s job at the UCI to develop all aspects of women’s cycling all around the world" Brian Cookson interview, VeloNation
Team Time Trialling in Toscana (Podium Cafe)
Lucy Garner's dream debut (Cycling Weekly)
No regrets from Cromwell after Toscana dispute (Cycling News)
Cyclist Claire gets Ulster call-up (Ballymena Times)
Orica-AIS confident of proving skeptics wrong to win gold (Brisbane Times)

More to come...