Kristin Armstrong wins the Tour of California TT

Womens Cycling News

Alison Shanks

Links

Lucy Garner leads the very strong entry of 53 riders in the Hillingdon Women’s GP - British Cycling

Putting the brakes on inequality in women's cycling - Kathryn Bertine, ESPNW

Armstrong leaves 'em in the dust - Bakersfield.com

Shanks adapting to pursuit - NZHerald

Hughes does it for Daron - LFP

London calling for Tiffany Cromwell - Adelaide Now

Races 19-26.05.12

One-day races
19.05.12 - Chrono Gatineau Rona (1.1, Canada) Start list, map and profile
19.05.12 - Copa Fundadeporte (1.2, Venezuela)
20.05.12 - GP Comune di Cornaredo (1.2, Italy)
20.05.12 - Clasico Fundadeporte (1.2, Venezuela)
21.05.12 - Grand Prix cycliste de Gatineau (1.1, Canada) Map and profile
25.05.12 - Parkhotel Valkenburg Hills Classic (1.2, Netherlands) Start list
26.05.12- 7-Dorpenomloop Aalburg (1.2, Netherlands) Start list, map, Twitter, radio (available online, in Dutch)

Stage and multi-day races
23-27.05.12 - Tour de Free State (2.1, South Africa)
Stage maps and profiles 1, 2, 3, 4
24-28.05.12 - Exergy Tour (2.1, USA)
Stage maps P, 1, 2, 3, 4 Stage profiles P, 1, 2, 3, 4

Saddles in the news

Several newspapers and websites seem to have all discovered "cycling may lead to loss of genital sensation in women" studies over the last week or so, with stories based around it for some reason for some reason appealing even to papers that usually show no interest in cycling in general and even less in women's cycling (ie, the vast majority of the media). (see 1, 2, 3)

Why this should be is a mystery: it's definitely something that everyone - especially female cyclists - should know about, but precisely why this story rather than the hundreds of others concerning female cyclists and women's cycling each and every week are so comprehensively ignore remains unexplained. There are those who will put it down simply to society's obsession with sex; there are others who will see hints of something more sinister, perhaps evidence that society still believes that "sex is what women are for" and that if a woman loses interest in it, she has no further value. I'm in the first camp. Doesn't matter - that's not what this article is about.

Relieving the numbness experienced by male cyclists is
simple - just cut out the central part of the saddle

PNS suddenly came to the fore in the late 1990s when male mountain bikers began complaining about it (road cyclists, far more masochistic than mountain bikers, had presumably always thought of it as just another sacrifice that had to be made to the wheel). It had been well-known for years that male riders can suffer genital numbness or penile numbness syndrome, and there had been studies claiming cycling may lead to male impotence for, well, about as long as there had been bicycles (there are just as many others that say it doesn't). That was a good thing, because somebody realised that if they could invent a saddle that prevented it, they were going to sell lots of them. So, a study was commissioned - and discovered that the problem was caused by pressure on the blood vessels in the perineum. That was a good thing too, because the answer seemed obvious - make saddles with a softer central section, or even eliminate the central section entire. So they did, and they worked, and now almost all "serious" saddles (as opposed to those fitted to cheap bike-shaped objects which will never be ridden more than a kilometre or two anyway) are made that way.

So if you want to do the same for women, you just cut out
the central section of a women-specific saddle, right? Er,
no - this may come as a surprise, but men and women are
not physically identical.

If one listened carefully, in among the moans of hundreds of thousands of men complaining about their numb willies could be heard the dulcet tones of the far smaller number of female cyclists pointing out that they too found their saddles less than ideal and that they too were experiencing numbness. The even smaller number of bike companies and saddle manufacturers that had realised that some people who enjoyed riding bikes happened to be women took notice and cut out the middle sections on their women's saddle designs. Unfortunately, because women's cycling was and remains a far smaller market than men's cycling, those that understood that women and men are not constructed identically couldn't afford to commission a proper study this time. As a result, women's cut-out saddles didn't work quite so satisfactorily as men's.

"Noseless" saddles are of little use to competitive and
serious cyclists as they severely curtail bike control

For the same reason, further research has only recently been conducted - fifteen years after the men's anti-PNS saddle became popular. The new study, conducted by Yale, took a detailed look at the effect saddles have on the female anatomy, rather than simply using data obtained from studies conducted on males. It recommends that female riders position their saddles lower than their handlebars to relieve pressure (the opposite is true for men), which is all well and good for women who use bikes for short, low-speed journeys. It's completely useless for women who race, because if they set up their bikes like that they'll be sitting bolt-upright and get completely thrashed by opponents in the traditional, steamlined position. Another option is to use a "noseless" saddle, one that supports only the "seat bones" of the pelvis - which is once again useless for women who ride competitively because "noseless" saddles cannot be used to control the bike as can standard designs.

What it all boils down to is that female cyclist's health has suffered because, until recently, nobody had really looked at what was causing the problem they were experiencing. Now we know. What remains to be seen is whether a saddle manufacturer will take those findings and use them to develop a saddle that doesn't cause the problem, will permit women to ride in the standard streamlined racing stance and doesn't limit bike control. What do you reckon? Another fifteen years? Possibly, if manufacturers decide that such a saddle wouldn't sell in sufficient numbers to justify the cost of developing it. Possibly less, if enough of us talk about it and let manufacturers know that such a saddle would sell (I'll have to leave that part up to you female cyclists, since I'm merely support crew rather than on your team). Despite the sport's financial problems and neglect at the hands of the UCI, there are more female racing cyclists around nowadays than ever before - let the manufacturers known that it's in their interests to provide a women-specific anti-numbness saddle that actually does what it promises.

Women's Cycling News

Grand Prix cycliste Gatineau to Feature World’s Best Women Cyclists - Podium Insight


Van der Geest wins cycling race - Botswana Gazette


Olympic dreams, Italian style! - Podium Cafe


Plans for Flemish-Dutch woman race - Wielerland (in Dutch)


Venus de Miles: A ride of their own - Daily Peloton


Primal/MapMyRIDE Women’s Team Tapped for Exergy Tour - Bike World News

Giro Donne 2011 videos

Organisers of the Giro Donne - probably the greatest women's cycling race in the world - have uploaded several high quality videos from the 2011 edition on Facebook. See them all here.

Women's Cycling News 12.05.12

Tour of Chongming Island World Cup details

Start list

Map

Profile

Ruiter Dakkapellen closes women's team
It's always a sad occasion when a cycling team is forced to come to an end. A team is not an easy thing to put together, and keeping it together is even more difficult - managers, helpers and, away from the big salary glitz of the men's ProTour, riders put in a great deal of effort, more frequently inspired by their love of the sport than by the salaries they might receive. Even more sad is when a team facing financial hardship takes the all too common decision to save money by closing down its women's team, as has been the case with Ruiter Dakkapellen now that their main sponsor has gone bankrupt.

It's not the team management's fault, really. After all, in times when even high-profile squads such as the legendary HTC-Highroad can fall by the wayside when new backing can't be found, securing sponsorship for a relatively little-known men's team such as Ruiter is a task that would challenge Hercules. Doing the same for a women's team, when women's cycling is entirely ignored by the majority of the media and has suffered for years from what sometimes seems almost willful neglect at the hands of the UCI, would be enough to make Hercules throw his hands in the air and give up. Perhaps the managers will be fortunate and find a new company to sponsor the men. The chances of doing the same for the women is unlikely, so they're forced to release the riders so that they can seek contracts elsewhere.

Can the UCI help to prevent this happening? Almost certainly. They could provide more financial assistance to races - several have found themselves in difficulty recently, and races are what create exposure. They could also encourage more race organisers to run women's races alongside men's races, as has already been done at many of the Flanders Classics and at Britain's Halfords Tour Series - and in both cases has generated increased interest. They could create a dedicated women's cycling commission to look into what needs to be done if women's cycling is to be saved and listen more to the riders and managers, many of whom have some extremely interesting ideas. Will they? Past experiences suggest not.

Good luck Joan Boskamp, Ilona Hoeksma, Anne Heijkoop, Britt Jochems, Nathalie van Katwijk, Tessa van Nieuwpoort, Julia Soek, Lisanne Soemanta, Noortje Tabak, Annelies Visser, Hannah Welter and Melanie Woering. See you all on a parcours soon.

Scott-Contessa struck by thieves

Beth Crumpton completed the Czech
MTB World Cup round in a borrowed
bike - and still came ninth!

The Scott Contessa MTB team was targeted by thieves who stole all the junior riders' bikes last night, just a day and a half before the start of the Nove Mesto na Morave round of the World Cup in the Czech Republic...

Beth Crumpton ‏ @BethCrumptoncant believe all junior bikes were stolen last night at czech, thankyou so much to @tracy_moseley and Annie for letting me and Al borrow!

Other News
 "Cyclist Willow Rockwell gives up her Olympic dream" (ESPNW)

"Moyse mulling her sporting future" (The Guardian, Canada)

"BMX: Olympian Shanaze inspires young Jamie’s world bid" (This Is Wiltshire)

"Global women's cycling day celebration 13th of May" (Conway Daily Sun, NH, USA)

BBC Radio 4 to broadcast Burton play

Beryl Burton, Britain's most successful athlete

Those commemorating the anniversary of the birth of the legend that was Beryl Burton will be pleased to know that later this year a short play telling the story of her life and remarkable career is to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Titled La Yorkshire Dame a Bicyclette, the play will star Maxine Peake - who also wrote the script, her first - as the British cyclist who won numerous titles and set world records during the 1950s and 60s.

"Despite beating men and women in championships across the globe, Beryl received no support, training or sponsorship and in fact, very little acclaim in the UK and Maxine wanted to dramatise her story," says producer Justine Potter. No date has yet been set for the broadcast, but it is likely to go out in the station's 45-minute Afternoon Drama (formerly and popularly Afternoon Play) slot.

Radio 4 is available worldwide on the Internet.

Johnson HealthTech Women's GP

In 2011, the four-round Johnson HealthTech Women's GP Series was run alongside the Halfords Tour, using the same infrastructure and parcours. It too proved enormously successful and has been extended to five rounds this year as a result. Helped enormously by TV coverage (again provided as part of ITV4's Halfords Tour programmes for 2012), the series has done an excellent job of raising the profile of women's racing and the athletes who took part, so much so that Johnson HealthTech managing director Jon Johnston is proudly able to claim that the series encouraged the formation of several new teams. So there we go - proof that if men's and women's races work together, everyone wins. Get to it, Tour of Britain.


A full list of teams competing in the GP has yet to be published, thus far For Viored, Node4-Giordana and Matrix Fitness-Prendas are confirmed.


Johnson HealthTech GP Series
1. Tuesday, May 22 - Oxford
2. Tuesday, May 29 - Peterborough
3. Thursday, June 7 - Colchester
4. Tuesday, June 12 - Woking
5. Thursday, June 14 - Stoke-on-Trent

Tour of California to hold women's time trial
After a successful experiment in 2011, the organisers of the Amgen Tour of California have confirmed that they will again hold a women's time trial on the 17th of May - the same day and same 29.6km Bakersfield parcours as the men's Stage 5 race.


The event is by invite only and boasts a $10,000 prize fund, considerably greater than is on offer in most European women's races. After her stunning performance at the Tour of the Gila, last year's winner Krisitin Armstrong will be favourite for victory.


Provisional Start List
  1.   Alison Tetrick  Exergy Twenty12

  2.   Tayler Wiles  Exergy Twenty12

  3.   Kristin Armstrong  Exergy Twenty12

  4.   Emilia Fahlin  Specialized-Lululemon

  5.   Loren Rowney  Specialized-Lululemon

  6.   Bridie O'Donnell  Vanderkitten-Focus

  7.   Janel Holcomb  Optum Pro Cycling p/b Kelly Benefits Strategies

  8.   Jade Wilcoxson  Optum Pro Cycling p/b Kelly Benefits Strategies

  9.   Alison Powers  Now and Novatis for MS

  10.   Robin Farina  Now and Novatis for MS

Tchalykh wins Azerbaijan TT
Elena Tchalykh (Dolmans-Boels) won the Azerbeidzjan de Heydar Aliyev Anniversary Time Trial, the first UCI women's event in Azerbaijan and one that has been controversial, not least of all because police and government authorities reportedly regular use rape (and threats of rape) against defendants and defendants' families as a means of coercing confessions from prisoners.

In fact, since the country's human rights record is extremely questionable overall (political prisoners are routinely imprisoned without proof of wrongdoing, prisoners are tortured and beaten, the media is strictly controlled by the authoritarian government, religious minorities suffer persecution despite token equality laws and thousands of citizens have been illegally evicted to make way for urban renewal in capital city Baku - more of this in the news in the coming weeks, since Baku is hosting the Eurovision Song Contest this month), organisations from any democratic nation shouldn't really be promoting anything in Azerbaijan except for popular uprising. Anyway, that's enough of that. Back to cycling...

Top Ten
  1.   Elena Tchalykh  Dolmans-Boels  34'37"
  2.   Olena Pavlukhina  +34"  15
  3.   Aleksandra Sosenko  Vaiana-Tepso  +1'00"
  4.   Maria Mishina  +1'06"
  5.   Olena Sharpa  +1'16"
  6.   Nicole Hanselmann  +1'21"
  7.   Oksana Lesnyk  +1'26"
  8.   Katarína Hranaiova  +1'40"
  9.   Emma Trott  Dolmans-Boels  +1'48"
  10.   Katarzyna Sosna  Vaiana-Tepso  +2'10"
(Full result)

Knokke-Bredene video