Chrono des Nations 2013

20.10.2013 Official Site
France, ITT, 20.87km
UCI 1.1

Race report here

After several months in which there's been a race every weekend (sometimes, two for each weekend) the Chrono Champenois marked the beginning of a five-week period with no Elite Women's races at all, a sign that the end of another cycling season is almost over.

The Chrono des Nations isn't quite the last event of 2013 because the African Championships will take place in November, but it's the last non-championship race until 2014.

History
The Chrono started life as the Chrono des Herbiers in 1982, when it was open to men only (a British rider, Gary Dowdell, won that year; another one called David Akam won a year later - and thanks to two victories by Chris Boardman in 1993 and 1996 and one for David Millar in 2010, Britain is the second most successful nation in race history after the French, who have seven wins). The women's race, which was added in 1987, is especially interesting in that it reflects the long career of Jeannie Longo which, whether one considers her an inspiration or a (probably doping) dinosaur, is remarkable: she won the first edition, then won again in 1992, 1995, 2000, 2009 and 2010 and is still racing to this day. She will turn 55 years old eleven days after this race.

In 2006, organisers joined forces with the organisers of the now-defunct Grand Prix des Nations, which had been in existence since 1932 and was widely regarded as a Classic (the only time trial to be given that honour) and as an unofficial World Championship in the days before the time trial was added to the official UCI Championships - it was at the GP des Nations that Beryl Burton, the most successful British athlete of all time, surprised the men in the race when she achieved a time not too far off that of winner Felice Gimondi in 1968. With the introduction of an official World Time Trial Championship in 1994, the GP began to decline in importance and when the ProTour series was inaugurated in 2005 it was omitted from the UCI calendar. When the two races merged, the Chrono des Herbiers became the Chrono des Nations.

2011/2012 winner Amber Neben

Previous Winners
1987 Jeannie Longo, 1988 Maria Canins, 1989 Maria Canins, 1990 Astrid Schop, 1991 Nathalie Gendron, 1992 Jeannie Longo, 1993 Roselyne Riou-Chalon, 1994 Marion Clignet, 1995 Jeannie Longo, 1996 Chrystèle Richard, 1997 Zulfiya Zabirova, 1998 Zulfiya Zabirova, 1999 Zulfiya Zabirova, 2000 Jeannie Longo, 2001 Edwige Pitel, 2002 Zulfiya Zabirova, 2003 Margaret Hemsley, 2004 Edwige Pitel, 2005 Edwige Pitel, 2006 Priska Doppmann, 2007 Susanne Ljungskog, 2008 Susanne Ljungskog, 2009 Jeannie Longo, 2010 Jeannie Longo, 2011 Amber Neben, 2012 Amber Neben

The Parcours
The name Les Herbiers comes from the lush and abundant plant life in the area, made possible by the rain - the Vendée department averages around 75mm in October, slightly more than London or Paris (which are famously rainy in Autumn). Since the Chrono takes place in late October, rain often affects the race: even if it doesn't rain during the race, slippery conditions can create problems - and there are a number of points along the route that are absolutely ideal places for treacherously slippery wet leaves to accumulate.

View Chrono des Nations 2013 in a larger map

Though much of the parcours is characterised by the long, fast straights that permit riders to crank up their cadences in search of high speeds and fast times, the five turns need to be treated with some caution. The first, leading from the Rue du Onze Novembre 1918 onto the Rue Nationale, can be hazardous due to the large number of trucks that use the route - spilled diesel is almost impossible to see but is highly slippery, especially during and after rain. The second turn, on the D755 leading onto the D79 at Le Croix Barat, has a traffic island placed slightly off-centre just around the apex of the turn; it was presumably put there to slow down traffic and considerably reduces space. The third turn, on the D79 at La Bonneliere, looks tight on the map but has plenty of room for a cyclist to negotiate it at speed; however, the road surface here is poor and there may be patches of loose gravel (it may also have been repaired recently). The fourth turn, on the D23 at St-Paul-en-Pareds, comes at the bottom of a short descent; it may be very slippery in wet conditions and there may be patches of loose gravel - fortunately, there is plenty of space. The fifth and final turn is in Les Herbiers at a roundabout between the Rue d'Ardelay and the Av. de la Gare; it's a very tight turn (almost 180 degrees) and wet leaves tend to collect on the road, forming a skidding hazard. The road in the short tunnel on the D755 may be slippery, but it's straight and shouldn't cause problems.

As revealed by the altitude profile, this is quite a rolling parcours though the gradient becomes challenging at only one point. There is a short descent immediately after the start, then the road climbs from the first turn and gains around 40m in 2km at an average gradient of 2%. This is followed by a fast descent along the D755 to a point just under 5km from the start where the road climbs again, this time gaining 64m in 2km - the average gradient is, therefore, 3.2%, but there's a much steeper section at 5km which surpasses 6% for around 0.15km, the steepest gradient on the parcours. Another descent with sections at -3.8% leads to the second turn, then flatter terrain leads to the third turn which is followed by the steepest downhill section with one short stretch at -7.1% - a chance for some riders to shave a few seconds off their times in the dry, potentially a dangerous road in the wet. From 15km the road climbs again for 2km, becoming no steeper than 3%; the remainder of the route is relatively flat with the exception of a 0.15km section which nears 3% along the Av. de la Gare leading to the finish.

Starters
1 (38) Bravard Charlotte Vélophile naintréenne Poitou-Charentes
2 (37) Artaud Audrey CSM Epinay-sur-Seine Ile-de-France
3 (36) Genee Laudine VC St-Malo Bretagne
4 (35) Fenart Ophélie CSM Villeneuve-la-Garenne Ile-de-France
5 (34) Sero Coralie Comité du Morbihan Bretagne
6 (33) Rochedy Emilie VS Romans-Péage Rhône-Alpes
7 (32) Vekemans Anisha Topsport-Vlaanderen Belgique
8 (31) Strappazzon Marine VC St-Julien Rhône-Alpes
9 (30) Longo Borghini Elisa Hitec Italie
10 (29) Favre Mathilde Lointek France
11 (28) Solovey Hanna équipe d'Ukraine Ukraine
12 (27) Rival Lucile US Pontchâteau Pays de la Loire
13 (26) Burgess Jay Ecosse Grande-Bretagne
14 (25) Leleu Fanny ASPTT Amiens Picardie
15 (24) Caetano Isabel CSM Epinay-sur-Seine Portugal
16 (23) Duval Joanne US Guérande Pays de la Loire
17 (22) Islas-Garcia Roxana Bourgogne Pro Dialog Mexique
18 (21) Parot Danièle Indre Vélo Passion Centre
19 (20) Drysdale Larissa Cycle Sport Groningue Pays-Bas
20 (19) Gambier Kelly CSM Villeneuve-la-Garenne Ile-de-France
21 (18) Simmonds Hayley GBCycles.co.uk Grande-Bretagne
22 (17) Rival Elodie US Pontchâteau Pays de la Loire
23 (16) Turvey Anna Ecosse Grande-Bretagne
24 (15) De Saint Jean Magdalena VC La Pomme-Marseille Provence
25 (14) Shaw Julia Grande-Bretagne
26 (13) Stienen Jutta équipe de Suisse Suisse
27 (12) Van Houweling Molly Metromint Cycling Team Etats-Unis
28 (11) O'Donnell Bridie Total Rush Hyster Australie
29 (10) Valsecchi Silvia BePink Italie
30 (9) Brulee Latoya CyclelivePlus-Zannata Belgique
31 (8) Lesueur Mélodie CM Aubervilliers Ile-de-France
32 (7) De Vocht Liesbeth Rabobank Liv/Giant Belgique
33 (6) Pitel Edwige SC Michela Fanini France
34 (5) Schwager Patricia équipe de Suisse Suisse
35 (4) Longo Jeannie ASPSA Rhône-Alpes
36 (3) Tetrick Alison Exergy Twenty 16 Etats-Unis
37 (2) Zabelinskaia Olga RusVelo Russie
38 (1) Neben Amber équipe des Etats-Unis Etats-Unis

Getting There
As already discussed, Vendée typically experiences rainy weather during October and, by the time the race takes place, temperatures will have fallen (and may even drop below freezing at night). However, Les Herbiers can be reached easily by road and, as a result, going to see the race could be an ideal short holiday for hardier cyclists looking for one last adventure on the bike before the weather turns too cold - in addition to the women's race, there are races for Elite Men, Male and Female Espoirs, Male and Female Juniors and for Cadets (mixed) taking place between the 15th and 21st, a cyclosportive and other sports in addition to various events going on around town including music (the jazz band is promising; the rest - including Veronique Cadanse and her accordion - might not be that tempting to foreign visitors), a Mexican evening (and why not?), a bike fair and, because this is France, more local food and drink than you could ever hope to consume and still ride home.

The most practical route to make the journey by bicycle would be to start at St-Malo in Brittany, to which ferries sail from Portsmouth. St-Malo to Les Herbiers is approximately 260km avoiding motorways, a distance that a very fit cyclist could cover in a day and most serious cyclists could easily manage in two days. The route suggested by Google is here. The journey by car is roughly the same distance and would take around three hours in light traffic; the route suggested by Google is here. Les Herbiers is not connected to the train network; however, Cholet is and lies just 25km away, making it possible to get most of the way there before cycling the remainder. Do check before buying tickets, though, as traveling on SNCF trains with a bike is not as simple a process as might be expected. Nantes Atlantique international airport is 70km away, a distance that can be covered easily by bicycle in an afternoon; the route suggested by Google is here.

Following the Race
The Chrono has its own radio station which is broadcast over the Internet as well as locally on 89.7fm. The official Twitter account is @ChronoNations; hashtags #LeChrono2013 and #chronodesnations return various results - use them to share any news you come across, too.

Are you going to the race? Could you provide reasonably regular and accurate coverage via Twitter? Let me know and I'll list you as a way to follow the race here!

Sparkassen Giro Bochum 2013

28.07.2013 Official Site
Germany, 1-day Road Race
UCI 1.1

Held since 2001 (the men's race began three years earlier), the Sparkassen Giro is a fast and thrilling one-day race held on a tight urban circuit in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany. Last year, due to the Olympics taking place at the same time, the race was stripped of its UCI status; nevertheless, it went ahead with the usual Giro as well as inline-skating races, live bands and DJs (including the rather worrying-to-English-ears Schlager Hit-Mix-Party), circus sideshows and, to finish off, a huge firework display. This year, with UCI 1.1 status returned, the event has grown even bigger and now includes a running race and "the biggest Derny race in the world."

2012 winner Mieke Kröger, pictured here
at the 2012 Thuringen Rundfahrt

If you want to see some professional women's racing this season but can't persuade your family to share your passion for the sport, Sparkassen is the event for you - it's an enormous urban festival with a bike race at its heart.

Want live updates? Boels-Dolmans mechanic Richie Steege and Hitec-UCK manager Karl Lima are Tweeting directly from the race.

Previous Winners
2001 Sharon van Essen
2002 Bertine Spijkerman
2003 Svetlana Bubnenkova
2004 Deirdre Demet-Barry
2005 Angela Hennig
2006 Oenone Wood
2007 Hanka Kupfernagel
2008 Suzanne de Goede
2009 Rochelle Gilmore
2010 Ellen van Dijk
2011 Adrie Visser
2012 Mieke Kröger

Parcours

View Sparkassen Giro 2013 in a larger map

Short circuit: 1.53km
Long circuit: 12.8km

The short, tight city centre circuit suits those riders who feel comfortable in the elbow-to-elbow battles that take place in urban criterium races and, with those sharp corners, is a challenging test of bike-handling skills when taken at speed. The long circuit is an entirely different affair, well-suited to those time trial specialists who can hunker down into an aerodynamic tuck and keep turning a big gear, swallowing up the miles at high speed.

It's an unusual combination with few riders possessing the skills needed to excel on both types of parcours - which is why the Giro has tended to throw up unexpected winners throughout its history.

2012 podium

Tour de Feminin - O cenu Ceského Švýcarska 2013

04-07.07.2013 Official Site
Czech Republic/Poland, 5-stage Road Race, 424.6km
UCI 2.2

Stage reports and results here

It's been two-and-a-half months since the Gracia Orlova, now the Elite Women's peloton returns to the Czech Republic for the Tour de Feminin, the second of the nation's two big stage races (they've also got the European Under-23 Championships later on in July). The Tour has taken place every year 1988, when it was known as the Tour Krasna Lipa after the town that hosts one start, two finishes and is visited several times during the race. The winner's list from the first edition to 2012 looks like this:

Hanka Kupfernagel (who still
races today, though sadly not
in this event as she now focuses
on cyclo cross) has won the
Tour a record five times - her
first and final victories were an
incredible 11 years apart.

1988 Radka Kynelova
1989 Radka Kynelova
1990 Ildiko Paczova
1991 Ildiko Paczova
1992 Alena Barillová
1993 Sandra Schumacher
1994 Zinaida Stahurskaya
1995 Lenka Ilavska
1996 Hanka Kupfernagel
1997 Hanka Kupfernagel
1998 Svetlana Guiguileva
1999 Hanka Kupfernagel
2000 Hanka Kupfernagel
2001 Sandra Wampfler
2002 Bogumila Matusiak
2003 Valentyna Karpenko
2004 Trixi Worrack
2005 Tina Liebig
2006 Theresa Senff
2007 Hanka Kupfernagel
2008 Angela Brodtka
2009 Alexandra Burchenkova
2010 Trixi Worrack
2011 Amanda Spratt
2012 Larisa Pankova

...and there's very good reason to expect more excellent Czech races in the future, because Czech organisers seem to understand far better than certain other race organisers that if you want your race to grow and be successful in this day and age then you need a top quality, informative, updated website. The Gracia Orlova has one, offering some of the best maps in the sport; the Tour du Feminin, although its maps aren't so good, also has a very good website - whereas many races don't reveal details until a few days before the riders start, just about everything a fan could want to know about the 2013 edition is already online more than a month before race day. That's great: letting fans know what's going on creates a buzz, which in turn creates a following, and more fans following a race means more interest from the all-important sponsors, securing the future of the race and helping to secure the future of women's cycling. So, keep setting a good example, Tour organisers, and here's to another 35 years.

Parcours
They like a complicated route, those Tour de Feminin organisers - with the exception of the Stage 3 individual time trial and the simple circuit of Stage 5, the parcours loops this way and that, then revisits the same stretches of road (sometimes several times) before suddenly veering off in another direction altogether. With that in mind, I'd like to point out that I created the maps below from the text directions on the website before official maps had been published; for that reason, they should be considered to be for illustrative purposes only - refer to official directions if in doubt and, if my maps differ from the official directions, I recommend you assume the organisers are correct and I'm wrong.

There are no big mountains in this race, but there are plenty of challenging hills in all but the time trial. The majority of the roads are of good quality, the Czech equivalent of an English A-road (but not some Welsh or Scottish A-roads), which when combined with the flat or slightly descending final 3km sections of each stage creates an interesting situation similar to that created by the parcours at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda in which neither climbers, rouleurs nor sprinters start the race with an obvious advantage - the Tour will most likely be won not by the rider to whom the route is most suited, but to the rider who performs best overall.

Stage 1 (4.7.2013, 112.2km, Krásná Lípa-Krásná Lípa)

View TdF in a larger map

Stage 2 (5.7.2013, 100.7km, Jiříkov-Jiříkov)
Final lap completed four times.

View TdFSt213 in a larger map

Stage 3 (6.7.2013, 17.8km Time Trial, Bogatynia, Poland)

Stage 4 (6.7.2013, 95.2km, Rumburk-Rumburk)

View TdFSt4, 2013 in a larger map

Stage 5 (7.7.2013, 98.7km, Varnsdorf-Krásná Lípa)
Final lap completed two-and-a-half times.

View TdFSt5, 2013 in a larger map

Start List
Subject to change; for updates check the official website and Women Cycling Fever.

Note that several of the Elite Women teams aren't sending squads to this race and those that are will be sending their less well-known riders in addition to a few big-hitters. Meanwhile, there are a number of team names that aren't so immediately familiar: if you want to see the potential stars of the future, pay attention to the results their riders chalk up - you can guarantee that the more famous teams with their bigger budgets will be looking out for new talent.

NSR
TBA (to be announced)

Endura Lady Force
11. Kloppenburg Margriet
12. Classen Marjolein
13. Klok Ines
14. Van den Stelt Iris
15. Goeghegan Michelle
16. Verstichelen Femke
17. 
18.

Park Hotel Valkenburg
21. Eshuis Aafke
22. Van den Hoek Bianca
23. Klep Inge
24. Markus Riejanne
25. Slik Rozanne
26. Soemantha Lisanne
27.
28.

CTC
31. Boylan Lydia 
32. Juniper Nicola 
33. McKay Helen 
34. Oliver Tamina 
35. Wingler Astrid 
36.
37.
38

Australian National Team
41. Cure Amy 
42. Sulzberger Grace 
43. Roper Emily 
44. McConville Chloe 
45. Ankudinof Ashlee 
46. Baker Georgia 
47. Heather Taryn 
48. Wiasak Rebeca

Peugeot-Start Lublin
51. Wasiuk Olga 
52. Krawczyk Monika 
53. Urbaš Kinga 
54. Tuhai Ksenia 
55. Wasiuk Izabela 
56.
57.
58.

Slovenian National Team
61. Batagelj Polona 
62. Pintar Ursa 
63. Novak Alenka 
64. Opeka Ajda 
65. Kalan Urska 
66. Kern Spela 
67.
68.

NWVG-Bike4Air
TBA

Racing Students-NSR
81. Büchel Andrea 
82. Costa Rute 
83. Hammes Kathrin 
84. Heiny Elen 
85. Lorch Dorothee 
86. Meizer Steffi 
87. Sägesser Jennifer 
88. Stienen Jutta

Pra Tomagno
91. Stolsova Bubnonigova Světlana 
92. Boyarskaya Natalia 
93. Molicheva Irina 
94. Gonez Sandra 
95. Marcelli Emma 
96. Fazeli Niknaz 
97. Drobysmeva Olga 
98. Godart Suzia

Maxx-Solar
101. Beck Luisa 
102. Fischer Lisa 
103. Klein Theres 
104. Lechner Corinna 
105. Trotman Reta 
106. Weigl Magdalena 
107. Wotsch Melanie 
108. Zanner Beata

TKK Pacific Torun
111. Niewiadoma Katarzyna 
112. Brzezna - Bentkowska Paulina
113. Brzezna Monika 
114. Wilkos Katarzyna 
115. Fraczek Natalia 
116. Wasiuk Olga 
117.
118.

Stevens 1A CrossTeam
121. Bachmann Liv-Susanne
122. Scheuch Jannika
123. Dittmann Sabine
124. Buchholtz Michelle
125. Roersch Inge
126. Hoyer Xenia
127. Lambracht Bettina
128. Wesselhoeft Benita

Bigla
131. Graus Andrea 
132. Hranaiová Katarina 
133. Aubry Emilie 
134. Ehrler Désirée 
135. Hanselmann Nicole 
136. Brühwiler Larissa 
137.
138.

RusVelo
141. Bocharnikova Elena 
142. Bezrukova Iana 
143. Dobrynina Olga 
144. Shamanova Tatiana 
145. Dobrynina Kseniia 
146. Zavershinskaya Anna 
147. Nikolaeva Ksenia RUS 19950225
148.

Breast Care
151. Ryan Carla 
152. Barr Jane 
153. Bradley Amy 
154. Ewing Anne 
155. Galloway Claire 
156. Rivera Coryn
157. Shaw Gabriella 
158. Weaver Molly

Squadra Scappatella
TBA

Grand Prix de Dottignies 2013

01.04.2013 Official Site
Belgium, One-day Road Race, 113.76km
UCI 1.2

If you'd just spent your Sunday dealing variously with the sort of cobbles that make bits fall off your bike and climbs as steep as 20%, you'd probably want to spend Monday in bed, right? I know I would. But then, I'm not a professional female cyclist, and there's no way I could cope with doing all of that one day and then racing for another 114km less than 24 hours later (nor, for that matter, could I cope with taking part in either race) - but that's precisely what several of the riders taking part in this year's GP de Dottignies did, because it took  place the day after the Ronde van Vlaanderen.

The Race
Using the popular "circuits" format with four laps around a 28.44km course, the race featured three climbs in the first half of each lap. The first of these, Ronceval, began shortly after the start and reached a peak of 48m 3.33km into the race - it's the longest climb on the parcours and as a result isn't especially steep, though the maximum 5.3% gradient will undoubtedly have felt increasingly difficult each time the riders climbed it. GPM points were on offer for the first riders to the top on Laps 2 and 4. The second climb, Kooigembosberg, also reached 48m (peak 9.17km); however, the ascent is far shorter at 1.2km and the gradient, therefore, steeper with a maximum of around 12.2% through the woods just after the junction with Grote Dalestraat. GPM points were awarded on Lap 1. The third climb, Sint-Denijsberg, is lower with a peak of 37m 12.05km into the parcours; the steepest point is 7.7% and located by the Sint-Denijs church. GPM points were awarded on Lap 3.

In addition to the climbs, there were two cobbled sections. The first is 300m in length and located 7.31km into the race on Kooigemstraat immediately after the right-hand turn from Koninklijkestraat; partially covered in tarmac, they didn't look to be particularly challenging but must have hurt bodies made tender by yesterday's rough stuff. The second stretch was longer at 700m and located on Jacquetbosstraat 23.47km from the start; they began at the left-hand turn onto the road and run along the sides of a central tarmac strip, starting rough but becoming smoother to the end of the section.

With the climbs not being especially challenging and completely flat final 3km ending with a straight section of  300m to the finish line after the left-hand turn onto the Rue du Sous-Lieutenant Catoire at Dottignies, this was a race that looked on paper to be suited to the sprinters and most likely to end with a bunch sprint - but it didn't. A group numbering thirteen riders (five of them from Rabobank) got away from the pack soon after the first lap started, but never managed to increase its advantage to much more than a minute. However, a combination of the group's strength and lack of concerted efforts to bring them back once the peloton split apart into several small groupsin strong crosswinds meant that a minute was plenty long enough.

Vera Koedooder, who took the time to
say thanks for this report!

The lead group members started attacking one another with some 20km still to go and, before long, were reduced in number with only Sanne van Paassen, Roxane Knetemann and Iris Slappendel (Rabobank), Vera Koedooder (Sengers), Laura Trott (Wiggle-Honda), Alena Amialyusik (BePink), Esther Fennel (Koga) and Katarzyna Pawlowska (GSD-Gestion) hanging on as the pace stepped up. Dutch Madison Champion (shared with Marianne Vos) Knetemann was the first to attempt a break and successfully created a small gap before Koedooder caught her, then the group swept them up again. Slappendel went next, but was brought back even more rapidly.

Finally, Koedooder launched her own attack. Slappendel tried to catch her, but Koedooder simply accelerated; Slappendel's response - more acceleration - caused the pair to get faster and faster, but finally it was Koedooder who proved to have the greater reserves, staying 6" ahead of her persuer and 48" ahead of the next rider at the line to take a well-fought and deserved second victory of the season.

Meanwhile, back down the road, what was left of the lead group ensured that fans who'd been hoping for a bunch sprint were not disappointed; van Paassen got her position on the podium after a thrilling high-speed battle with the five others.

Click to enlarge

Winners

1 Vera KOEDOODER (Sengers) 2h57'23"
2 Iris SLAPPENDEL (Rabobank-Liv/Giant) +6"
3 Sanne VAN PAASSEN (Rabobank-Liv/Giant) +48"
4 Laura TROTT (Wiggle-Honda) ST
5 Katarzyna PAWLOWSKA (GSD-Gestion) ST
6 Alena AMIALIUSIK (BePink) ST
7 Roxane KNETEMANN (Rabobank-Liv/Giant) ST
8 Esther FENNEL (Koga) ST
9 Emilia FAHLIN (Hitec Products-UCK) +1'33"
10 Alexandra BURCHENKOVA (RusVelo) ST

Full results here

8th Memorial Davide Fardelli

The 7.85km circuit - the Elite Women will complete
three laps (click for enlargement)

02.09 Official site
Italy, 23.55km Individual Time Trial, UCI 1.2

Be Pink are Tweeting from the race

↓↓↓Parcours, starters (when available), weather↓↓↓

Davide Fardelli, born on the 6th of January 1972, discovered his love of cycling aboard a mountain bike when he was 28 years old - older than most, so he made sure that he made up for lost time by riding as much as possible. "The bike, you know, is a love that often has no limits" says the official race website; in 2002 he decided to give road cycling a go. While he continued mountain biking, road cycling became his passion and, before long, he began to do well in amateur races. Then, on the 26th of August in 2004, he was badly injured in a crash. Four days later, having experienced a great deal of pain, he died. This race is a celebration of his life and of the sport he loved, now in its eighth edition and bigger than ever before.

It consists of six events in total, all of them individual time trials. The Elite Professional men and women race on an identical 23.55km parcours consisting of three laps of a 7.85km circuit with a small hill (17m in 0.86km, average gradient a little over 1.5%, maximum 4% near the top) beginning just after 1km from the start line. The rest is either slightly descending or flat, making it a parcours likely to generate very high speeds. It's very much a race for the strong time trial specialists who are able to produce a lot of power for a long time through the several straight sections, then do the same again on the next - and keep it up for all three laps. There are one or two points where riders might need to exercise caution, but overall this is not a technical parcours: it's more about power than finesse and even the predicted bad weather is unlikely to create many problems.

The Parcours
The race takes place in a glacial valley just north-east of Lago d'Iseo, Lombardy's fourth-largest lake, beginning at a car park on the SS42 road at Rondinera in Bergamo. Mountains rear up immediately to the north and the fortified village of Castelfranco, atop a rocky outcrop, can just be seen from the road. To the south, more mountains can be seen above the roof line of a building bearing the name Fardelli Ernesto & C. - the headquarters of the Global Radiators company created by Davide Fardelli's father, and where he worked before his death. Having turned right out of the car park and onto the SS42, riders will want to make use of the smooth, modern road surface to get up to a reasonable speed immediately but not risk using up too much energy that might be put to a better use later on. There has been a lot of construction work taking place on the far side of Rondinera, around 0.75km from the start; riders will need to take care on their first passage in case there is sand or mud on the road. This is especially likely with the heavy rain forecast for the end of the week and lighter rain through the weekend as the houses to the left of the road are built right up against the lower slopes of the mountains, giving ample opportunity for soil and stones to be washed down onto the road. If the rain keeps up throughout the race, there's no guarantee that because the road surface was free of mud on one passage it will be on the next, either.

Click for enlargement

After passing a field on the right, the riders arrive at Rogno - three houses (one pale green, two terracotta) on the right mark the beginning of the climb which shouldn't give anyone any problems provided they pace themselves properly through to the last lap. Rogno will never win any "most beautiful village in Italy" competitions: it's an industrialised place where people live and work rather than a tourist trap (and let's face it - it would have some very stiff competition), but it does have its charms. One of the most attractive is the old stone house on the right of the road some 1.56km from the start with a football pitch next door - it not only looks nice, it also provides a handy landmark to let the riders know they've reached the steepest part of the climb. A little further ahead, having passed by the town hall on the left, they pass into a narrower section with buildings right up against the road on both sides, then it opens up again as the riders leave Rogno and head into Bessimo - the two villages are all but contiguous, with only a field separating them.

2011 winner Judith Arndt, seen here at
the 2012 Olympics

Bessimo is more industrialised that Rondinera and Rogno, the grey factories next to road don't give a good first impression when the village is approached from this angle, though the mountains - like most mountains - are breathtaking. The road passes straight through with the riders negotiating a roundabout at 2.85km; to the right is what must be one the most intriguing provincial superstore units anywhere in Europe: an Iperfamily with an entrance that looks like a huge, glass orchid. 0.33km later, they turn right onto the Via Nazionale. It's a wide corner, but taking the fastest and tightest line around it leads straight over two drain covers that could prove perilously slippery (there's a third in the middle of the left-hand lane too, where it could catch out a rider taking a wide line). The road descends past a field to the left and industrial units to the right but is straight enough for fuel spillages left by trucks and tractors to be unlikely to cause problems and so the road can be negotiated at high speed; after rounding a sweeping right-hand bend it narrows considerably and passes under overhanging trees - a spot where some riders might experience punctures. After 0.75km from the right turn, the River Oglio comes into view on the left of the road, a short way further ahead the Lago di Rogno appears on the right before the race enters the most attractive part of the parcours with superb views over Rogno to the mountains on the right and across the river to more mountains on the left, then the road bends right, left and right again before reaching 4.95km from the start and the next corner, where the riders turn left.

It seems almost impossible that the riders were passing industrial units only minutes before at this point on the parcours - there is an old and very beautiful house right by the corner, and the narrow road they turn onto looks as though it runs over an Alpine meadow. Cows are grazed along here but, kept off the road by electric fencing, shouldn't have left any slippery surprises; if the weather forecast turns out to be completely wrong, the main issue on this stretch is likely to be wind - there's little cover and riding into a wind blowing north-east off the lake would be hard work, while riding with a tail wind blowing down through the valley from the high mountains (which top 3,100m only 40km away) would make it more like land-yachting than cycling. The road is narrow but it's flat, smooth, mostly straight and likely to be very fast indeed, any rider who feels she had the strength in her legs when she approaches the finish line for the final time, knowing her race is almost over and that she has no need to conserve energy for layer, could put it to very good use and steal a big lead over her rivals by switching up to full power and then hammering through the 1km section between the left turn at the start and the right turn at the end - and could just as easily lose it in the last 200m, where overhanging trees make punctures more likely than anywhere else on the parcours.

Final kilometre

After the right turn, riders head north along a slightly wider road, passing a cottage on the left before entering a right-left-right S-bend leading into Rondinera 0.21km from the corner and marking 1km to go. 0.3km later (this section apparently has some drainage problems, hopefully not an issue on race day), they come to a crossroads where they turn left. Vehicles are prevented from reaching the crossroads by a line of low concrete bollards just around the corner - they will have to pass between these. The road is straight and extends for 0.2km; at the end - having passed through an alleyway between the buildings at the far end - they turn left back onto the SS42, ride back past Global Radiators and return to the start line.

Results

1. Edwige PITEL 33'29"
2. Martina RITTER +15"
3. Pascale SCHNIDER +21"
4. Patricia SCHWAGER +25"
5. Katarína HRANAIOVÁ +53"
6. Oxana KOZONCHUK +54"
7. Thrude KARLSEN +57"
8. Doris SCHWEIZER +1'18"
9. Jacqueline HAHN +1'19"
10. Susanna ZORZI +1'20"
Full results


Weather
Not looking good at all. Thunderstorms and 47mm of rain are predicted for Thursday, which is more than enough to bring mud onto the roads as described above. Sporadic heavy rain is also predicted for Friday, then heavy showers on Saturday. Race day morning should be dry with the wind blowing up the valley from the south west, more showers are expected in the afternoon when the wind will reverse direction - however, it'll be no stronger than around 5kph. Maximum temperature is expected to be around 27C.

Vos puts on a show! GP de Plouay 2012

The GP will consist of five laps of the red route
(click to enlarge)

25.08 Official site
France, 135km, UCI CDM (final round, Women's World Cup)

Plouay is a four-day festival of cycling. It begins on Thursday 23rd of August with a farmers' market and a BMX event; Friday 24th offers the open-to-the-public Cyclo Morbihan in which 3,358 people took part last year, a race for journalists and the senior's race. Saturday 25th has the Women's World Cup round and Sunday 26th has the legendary GP Ouest-France for Elite Men.

↓↓↓Starters, race report, results↓↓↓

The UCI announced in March this year that it had confirmed the GP de Plouay's status as a Women's World Cup venue until 2016, and it's not hard to see why - it's always been a fantastically well-organised event with enough going on to keep the huge crowds that show up to watch happy. With a selection of music, food, drink and all sorts of other entertainments going on in addition to the racing, it attracts a wide range of people, even many with no real interest in the sport who are simply looking for a good day out. It all comes together to form a superb showcase for cycling, and this year was no different - Plouay isn't the easiest place to get to in France and the weather forecast was decidedly unfavourable, but still hundreds of thousands of fans turned out to watch some of the top female riders in the world.

In these times when numerous women's races are having to scale down as sponsors pull out or, as has happened with too many events already, vanish forever, Plouay has been growing. Last year, it consisted of six laps of a 19.1km circuit to make a total of 114.6km; this year riders will complete five laps of 27km to make 135km. It helps that the race takes place in Brittany, the heartland of French cycling, but it's also indication that the organisers know the formula for getting things right. Nevetheless, not all the riders liked the look of the new pacours - Lizzie Armitstead (AA Drink-Leontien.nl) had said she preferred the older one, but the changes seemed popular overall with riders and fans.

Start list - click to enlarge. It says "finale," but as always in women's cycling the results list after the race may contain a very different set of names.

The Race
The GP de Plouay and GP Ouest-France are Plouay's main claim to fame, so the road upon which it begins has been named the Boulevard des Championnats du Monde. It lies just outside the town and a little way to the north of the velodrome with a hard-surfaced area set aside specifically for the team vehicles and race infrastructure; the initial 500m is straight, slopes slightly downhill and tends to encourage the sort of spectacularly fast start that those spectators who were fortunate enough to find space on the raised grassy area along the northern edge of the road got to see today. A number of serious contenders took immediate control, getting into prime positions at the front of the pack even before the gentle right and left bends that carried them past what may the world's ugliest Carrefour (quite an achievement, it has to be said), then, 0.75km from the start, into the first corner and onto the D2. The corner is 90 degrees but reasonably wide and fast; with several shops and industrial units nearby it looked to be the sort of junction that frequently suffers from fuel spillages but fortunately it seemed to be a lot less hazardous than expected.

Riders followed the D2 for 0.52km with the road beginning to climb the Cote du Lezot, gradient around 7% in several places . There was a roundabout near the end, then some 60m later the second corner leading left onto the Rue du Moulin, which traveled uphill for 220m to a tight right corner onto the D178 (there's a nice view over Plouay looking south from the little white cottage on the junction, which the riders never got a chance to see as they were going the opposite way).  The D178 headed straight into a wide left-hand bend with forest to the right, then to the 140m summit of the Cote du Lezot just after a footbridge over the road and shortly before a gentle right-hander - there is another raised section to the left of the road, an ideal place from which to watch the race. 0.75km after the footbridge, they arrived at a junction and turned left towards the village of Kerscoulic 1km away (note the several rather non-French-sounding placenames in the area - Brittany is to France as Wales is to England and has its own distinct Celtic culture, traditions and language). The road climbed for a short way just after the junction, then descended before a very small climb to the village.

Profile - click to enlarge

 At the far end of the village, the road bent gently left and then right before it passed Questenen Plaine along a 0.61km straight section which descended for most of its length, then kicked up at the very end before the junction with the D110 (shown on the route map as the D10). Just after the third bend, the riders arrived at a roundabout (Le Pont Neuf) and followed the road to the right to continue along the D110. The roundabout marked the lowest point between the Cotes du Lezot and the Chapelle Ste. Anne des Bois, meaning that as soon as they'd passed it they began to climb again - and they continued to climb for the next 6.9km as they followed the course of the Le Scorff river  through the Foret Domaniale de Pont-Calleck (if you ever have a holiday in Brittany, make time to visit the Moulin de Coat-Cren around 1.5km along the D110 from the roundabout - Virginie, Les Déesses' locally-born guide to all things Breton, says it's one of the most beautiful sights in the region).

The Chapelle Ste. Anne, just west of Pont Callec, looks exactly like a scaled-down model of a grand Baroque cathedral with only three windows along each side. Anne is the patron saint of - among many other things - lost objects; riders who suffered on the climb to reach her chapel and had been losing hope may find it again half a kilometre further on where the parcours flattened out for 4km as it passed Poulgroix, then descended for the next four. 5.1km from the Chapelle, the race arrived at a junction with the D204, within sight of the Le Pont Neuf roundabout negotiated earlier.

Château de Manehouarn, Plouay; as seen on a million
jigsaws, postcards and boxes of chocolates

The D204 section was fairly flat and straight, offering an opportunity for those who may have conceded time on the climbs to try to win it back before the final Cote de Ty Marrec. At the end, the riders came to a junction and turned left onto the D769 - one of the main routes through the region and into Plouay, it has little of the rural charm found along some of the earlier roads. Fortunately, after around 0.15km (which takes them past the 5km to go point), the riders turned right onto the smaller Pont le Bris road leading for 1.6km past a lake and through forest before rejoining the main road. There was a sharp left-hand turn in the forest after 1.2km, marking the beginning of the Cote de Ty Marrec climb, and the reason the organisers had directed the race away from the D769 was to take in Minojehn du Calvaire, just after the left-hander - it climbed 45m in around 0.4km and was the steepest section of the entire parcours, surpassing 10% (in fact, it looks to be nearer 15% at the steepest part). It must have been an unbearable prospect for those riders who don't the hills, lurking near the end of every lap.

After rejoining the D769, riders faced another 0.3km of much gentler climbing followed by a flat 0.45km to the 3km to go point then 1.5km downhill, at the end of which they needed to scrub off speed to be able to negotiate a sharp left turn leading via a right turn 0.17km later back onto the D110. The 1km to go point lay 0.15km ahead, just around a sweeping left bend; then it was downhill all the way back to the start/finish line.

The first hour passed without notable incident other than a puncture for Marianne Vos, but with the assistance of her strong Rabobank team she was returned to the front of the race in no time at all. Speeds remained relatively sedate during the first couple of laps as the riders tested the roads to see what sort of speeds they'd be able to safely sustain around the corners later on and tried out new lines; but after 1h05' a split had formed - 55 riders were starting to open up a gap between themselves and the remainder, and the pace was already picking up. It wasn't much longer before some riders bridged and others fell back, the numbers changing to 45 and 30; the leaders were then whittled down to ten in the penultimate lap. During the final lap, the lead group was reduced further, down to a trio made up of Tiffany Cromwell (Orica-GreenEDGE), Elisa Longo-Borghini (Hitec-Mistral) and Vos, all of them sufficiently strong that the competition looked certain to have been slashed to three contenders. Their 35" advantage had almost doubled four minutes later, then doubled again over the next ten minutes, remaining at 2' as they climbed Ty-Marrec for the final time towards the 4km to go point.

Marianne Vos: 2012 Olympic
champion and winner of the
World Cup. World Champs
next? Very possibly - it seems
there's no race she can't win
eventually!

Vos doesn't always win (though it sometimes feels like it) and she's lost out in a few sprints this season. She also didn't need to win today, because the race offered 75 points to the winner whereas she started with an 84 point lead on second-place Judith Arndt's 176 in the World Cup so she may as well have already had that trophy on her mantlepiece, but Plouay was one of the increasingly small number of races she had never won. So, she rode to the utmost of her ability and put in superhuman effort to cross the line so fast her tyres were probably beginning to melt, her determination and sheer power driving 35" wedge between herself and Cromwell. When a rider puts in a show like that (and with that look of pure happiness that she still has each and every time she wins) who could ever tire of watching her take another victory? The takeover of Nederland-Bloeit by Rabobank earlier this year was predicted to put Vos into a position from which she would dominate competition, but there have been a few times when it looked as though the 25-year-old was simply too good for the team to be able to keep up and help when she needed it - directeur sportif Jeroen Blijlevens says that he picked a new squad for Plouay, and it looks as though he's found the combination that his champion needs. Perhaps 2013 will, therefore, be the year that she tops Eddy Merckx's record season total of 56 victories?

Cromwell took 50 points for second place and Longo-Borghini earned 35 for third, finishing 4" later. First of the remainder and 2'40" behind Vos for 30 points was European Under-23 ITT Champion Anna Vanderbreggen, who is having a superb season with Sengers after a couple of quiet years; Evelyn Stevens (Specialized-Lululemon) recorded the same time and took 27 points for fifth place.

Result
Top Ten
1. Marianne Vos (Rabobank) 3h39'45"
2. Tiffany Cromwell (Orica-GreenEDGE) +35
3. Elisa Longo-Borghini (Hitec-Mistral) +39
4. Anna Vanderbreggen (Sengers) +2:40
5. Evelyn Stevens (Specialized-Lululemon) +2:40
6. Luisa Tamanini (Faren-Honda) +2:43
7. Fabiana Luperini (Faren-Honda) +4:09
8. Trixi Worrack (Specialized-Lululemon) +4:09
9. Marta Tafliaferro (Mcipollini-Giambenini) +4:09
10. Judith Arndt (Orica-GreenEDGE) +4:09
Full results


TV/Video
Eurosport 2 will be showing footage from Plouay at 19:30 on Saturday the 25th in the United Kingdom; but the half-hour show will be shared with reports on the amateur race and other events and, as a result, the time devoted to the women's race is likely to be very short.

Photos: Vos (MarieTiburce)

Other Sites 
The legendary Gwéna, queen of women's cycling reporting, has an interesting post on the differences between this edition and 2011.
Monty at Podium Cafe has a guide which will be especially worth keeping an eye upon for the comments added during the race.
With a bit of luck, Meredith Miller will be writing one of her always-excellent reports after the race, bringing us news from within the peloton.
Tiffany Cromwell of Orica-GreenEDGE has a pre-race report.

Sparkassen Giro Bochum 2012

In previous years, the Sparkassen Giro featured a stage race in addition to a criterium, but due to the Olympics it's down to just the criterium this year and doesn't have UCI status (it had been 1.1). Neverthless, it looks set to be a superb event: very few organisers do quite so much to ensure their efforts produce a great day out for cycling fans and the public as a whole - taking place in the German city Bochum on the 5th of August, there are no fewer than seven races (including one with dernys and another for inline skaters), live bands, circus entertainers and, to finish off the day, a fireworks display. This turns a race into a sort of one-day festival and ensures that the race attracts people with no previous interest in the sport, generating welcome income for the city as well as for the race itself; and if even only a few of those who come simply because it's a good, cheap day out for the kids go home thinking that this bike racing thing seems quite good fun and that they might go to a few more races in the future then the organisers can be said to have done a good job.

There are obvious parallels with the IG Markets Nocturne, which has used a similar concept to become one of Britain's most popular cycling events within just a few years. The physical aspects of the two events are very similar too, both using a tight urban criterium parcours that tests riders' skills, ensures all spectators can see the peloton go by several times and makes it very easy for television crews to capture all the action - which is precisely what the sponsors want and goes a long way towards guaranteeing their continued financial support. It's also the sort of parcours that best demonstrates the fast, furious and ever-changing nature of most women's cycling races, with attacks coming left, right and centre and the riders' order changing on every straight and corner.

The parcours is 1.5km in length and begins on Südring by the junction with Kortumstraße (51°28'43.27"N 7°13'1.13"E), a wide thoroughfare with trees along a central reservation that could make for slippery conditions in wet weather, then heads east into a gentle left-hand bend for around 500m and passes by the tall Europahaus tower. 165m after the tower is the tightest corner in the race, a very sharp left leading onto Massenbergstraße. Just across the road is a sculpture created by Richard Serra and consisting of four huge slabs of steel - it's called Terminal and will look familiar to any British fan who has been through London's Liverpool Street Station, as his almost identical Fulcrum stands just outside the station. In addition to a huge amount of street furniture, the corner is made dangerous by tramlines: they vanish again as soon as the riders get onto Massenbergstraße but are ideally placed to catch front wheels. There's also a low concrete kerb separating the two roads, too.

City Hall seen from Bongardstraße, where riders turn left

80m after the corner, riders pass by the entrance to a tunnel and follow the road for 294m through right and left-hand bends leading onto Bongardstraße - the visible through the buildings on the right is the Propsteikirche St. Peter und Paul, founded by Charlemagne and built between 785-800CE but extensively remodeled since. The road then straightens out and continues for 200m to a 90 degree left turn onto Viktoriastraße by the grand City Hall - there's a lot of street furniture along Bongardstraße, but the junction is very clean and smooth; Viktoriastraße remains the same for 135m before being split into two narrow lanes by a central reservation - a potential problem if a large number of riders attempt to get into the lane at the same time, creating a bottleneck. The last corner, a 90 degree left, lies 198m ahead; it's another wide, clear junction with the only obvious hazard being a manhole cover in the middle of the road, right in the line of riders on the right of the peloton - this could be very slippery if conditions are wet. Riders then continue straight along Südring, passing the finish line 80m later. As is always the case with urban races on roads used by trucks and buses, there is a possibility of spilled diesel along the entire parcours.

Start lists have not been released, but will be added here when available. This year, the race does not have UCI status - it had previously been 1.1. However, it attracted some of the top names in women's cycling over the last few years including Ellen van Dijk, Tiffany Cromwell, Chloe Hosking, Noemi Cantele, Valentina Scandolara, Linda Villumsen, Hanka Kupfernagel, Annie Simpson, Helen Wyman and current World Champion Giorgia Bronzini - it seems likely therefore that it will still draw a very competitive field.

Events
Amateur race 13:00
KNAX MiniGiro 14:30
Professional Men 16:00
Professional Women 18:00
Fun Giro 19:30
Derny Race 20:00
Full programme including bands and fireworks