Giro Donne Stage 1

Giro Donne news

RAISport2 will be broadcasting a 50-minute show each day at 19:00CEST (18:00BST), featuring race coverage, results and interviews with the riders. The channel is widely streamed online.

The Giro hasn't got off to a good start for the favourite Marianne Vos, who has had one of her bikes stolen. The highly distinctive Giant machine had already been sent to Italy ahead of the Dutch star, who was traveling to the race with the Rabobank team when the news reached her.

The official Twitter account is @Girodonne, hashtag #girodonne

(Most) Giro Donne stage maps/profiles revealed

Stages 5 and 7 are still under wraps for some reason.

1 29 June: Napoli - Terracina 139 km

2 30 June: Roma - Roma (individual time trial) 8 km

3 1 July: Montecatini - Montecatini 99 km

4 2 July: Vernio - Castiglione dei Pepoli 126 km

5 3 July: Polesella - Molinella 126 km

6 4 July: Modena - Salsomaggiore 124 km

7 5 July: Salice Terme - Castagnole delle Lanze 120 km

8 6 July: Crugnola di Mornago - Lonate Pozzolo 117 km

9 7 July: Sarnico - Bergamo 108 km

Stage1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 6

Stage 8

Stage 9

Giro Trentino Donne Stages 2a and 2b

Stage 2a

Sunday morning's Stage 2a consisted of four laps around a 15.7km parcours at Sarnonico, without the big climbs that have formed part of this race in years gone by but with a few hills. A small rise of only around 35m began right at the start line and continued for the first 0.8km, followed by a mostly flat section leading to just past 5km and a 135m descent to 7.5km; from that point back to the start line it was mostly uphill through the forested hills just north of Romeno.

There were the three intermediate sprints - the first at 16.5km, the second at 31.4km and the third at 47.1km; each of them beginning at the top of the low hill 0.8km after the finish line. The first two fell to Fabiana Luperini (Faren-Honda) with Sharon Laws (AA Drink Leontien.nl) second, Grete Treier (S.C. Michela Fanini Rox) third and Tatiana Guderzo (MCipollini-Giambenini-Gauss) fouth, the four of them having led for most of the race despite the consistent effort of a strong chase group that included Emma Pooley (AA Drink-Leontien.nl), Judith Arndt (GreenEDGE) and several others. Luperini and Laws switched places on the third.

Sharon Laws laid down some serious
power to get within 10" of Luperini
within a very short time

The hills weren't big, but 242m of vertical gain per lap has a cumulative effect: not far off 1000m for the entire stage - that's a respectable climb by anybody's standards and was expected to bring the climbers, many of whom were left looking a little out of place on yesterday's flat and sprinty 98km parcours, right back into the game. There might not be any of the knee-busting high mountains where the likes of Pooley could leave the rest of the field standing, but since the climbers will have suffered much less than the sprinters by the last part of the race they were expected to do well today. That turned out to be very much the case when five-time winner Luperini launched a solo attack leading into the final kilometres, breaking away from the other three leaders to gain a lead that grew to 28" for a short while. Only Laws could put up any sort of meaningful resistance, using a burst of sheer power to get within 12" as the finish line approached. She chased the Italian all the way, but her efforts came too late and Luperini won by 10" in what must have been one of the most hard-fought and exciting stage finishes so far this season. What made the situation even more interesting, however, is that the race was now in the unusual position of having the lead time shared by five riders, more than half of whom with an apparently very real chance of doing sufficiently well in the time trial to win overall...

Stage Result
1. Luperini,
2. Laws +10";
3. Treier +35",
4. Guderzo +40",
5. Ratto +51"
6. Cantele  ST
7. Vullumsen  ST
(Top ten and links to full results to come...)


Top Eight GC after Stage 2a

  1.  Noemi Cantele Be Pink 2h32'33"
  2.  Linda Villumsen GreenEDGE ST
  3.  Malgorzata Jasinska MCipollini-Giambenini-Gauss ST
  4.  Charlotte Becker Specialized-Lululemon ST
  5.  Alexandra Burchenkova S.C. Michela Fanini Rox ST
  6.  Olga Zabelinskaya RusVelo ST
  7.  Emma Pooley AA Drink-Leontien.nl ST
  8.  Rossella Ratto Verinlegno-Fabiani ST

2a Photos: Luperini wins - Podium
Official race photoset

Villumsen leads Stage 2a

Stage 2b

Linda Villumsen, seen here competing for
her native Denmark in 2009, won both
the stage and overall

This afternoon the riders were back in action on what seemed a rather flat and straight-forward 5km time trial on paper; exploring the route with Google Earth revealed a number of tricky corners and tight Z-bends, especially on the cycle path leading back to the start, and several of the riders said afterwards that the initial 0.8km were far harder work than they'd expected. It looked like a good one for Judith Arndt, race organisers fancied Emma Pooley's chances and fans had made various choices of their own.

Marta Bastianelli was the eleventh rider to go and set an early benchmark at 8'48.33", but it wasn't very long before Elke Gebhardt (Be Pink) cracked it with 8'40.45". Shelley Olds (AA Drink-Leontien.nl) then toppled her when she completed the course in 8'26.83", which stood as best time for a while until Katarzyna Sosna (Vaiana-Tepso) shaved off more than eight seconds to record 8'18.91". Inga Cilvinaite (Diadora-Pasta Zara) came close with 8'20.98" before Jessie Daams managed 8'17.58" (AA Drink-Leontien.nl).

By this time, the real big-hitters were getting ready to head out. Judith Arndt showed them all how it's done with a blistering 7'57.69" - the first sub-8' and enough, many will have thought, to win her the stage; but then Linda Villumsen (GreenEDGE) smashed it with 7'53.14", winning herself the General Classification and the stage. Noemi Cantele, who performed so well to win Stage 1, was still to go but at this point her ride was really just a formality: only her most die-hard fans would have given her much chance of beating those superb times dset by Arndt and Villumsen, and her eventual 8'08.06" is proof that she was outclassed.

Stage 2b

  1.  Linda Villumsen GreenEDGE 7'53"
  2.  Judith Arndt GreenEDGE +04"
  3.  Olga Zabelinskaya RusVelo +07"
  4.  Claudia Haüsler GreenEDGE +14"
  5.  Emma Pooley AA Drink-Leontien.nl ST
  6.  Noemi Cantele Be Pink ST
  7.  Tatiana Guderzo MCipollini-Giambenini-Gauss +16"
  8.  Rossella Ratto Verinlegno-Fabiani +22"
  9.  Jessie Daams AA Drink-Leontien.nl +24"
  10.  Katarzyna Sosna Vaiana - Tepso +25"
(Full stage result)


Final General Classification

  1.  Linda Villumsen GreenEDGE 4h26'05"
  2.  Olga Zabelinskaya RusVelo +07" 40
  3.  Emma Pooley AA Drink-Leontien.nl +14"
  4.  Noemi Cantele Be Pink +15"
  5.  Rossella Ratto Verinlegno-Fabiani +22"
  6.  Charlotte Becker Specialized-Lululemon +38"
  7.  Alexandra Burchenkova S.C. Michela Fanini Rox +40"
  8.  Malgorzata Jasinska MCipollin-Giambenini-Gauss +1'41"
  9.  Sharon Laws AA Drink-Leontien.nl +3'19"
  10.  Grete Treier S.C. Michela Fanini Rox +3'45"

(Full General Classification)

2b Photos: Pooley and Villumsen (Manel Lacambra)


GreenEDGE race report

Guide - Stage 1 - Stage 2a & Stage 2b

Overview

It has been, in the opinion of everyone following it that I've spoken to, an absolutely superb race full of excitement, first-rate riding and with nothing certain until the last few minutes, suspense. It should be remembered that it almost didn't happen this year: with the global economy in its current state, women's races (which have always been underfunded) are being cancelled left, right and centre, but fortunately the organisers managed to find a way to go ahead even though they were forced to cut it by one day. Yet the UCI is not in financial difficulty - in February this year, they very proudly announced that average salaries paid to (male) Pro Tour riders had risen from €190,000 to €264,000 over a three-year period from 2009 which, they say, is evidence that cycling is bucking the worldwide trend and doing very well ("So we're obviously doing a good job" is what they seem to really be saying).

The UCI is responsible for co-ordinating efforts to develop cycling in all its many forms. When riders asked president Pat McQuaid why it is that Pro Tour riders receive a guaranteed minimum salary and the female riders do not, the official line was that it's because women's cycling isn't "developed" enough.

OK Pat. Like a lot of fans of the women's sport, I've called you quite a few nasty names over the years. Right now I'm going to say sorry for that, even though you can't force me to keep my personal opinions quiet like you did with Chloe Hosking. In fact, I'm going to credit you with some intelligence (we'll overlook that whole South Africa thing from back in the day, even though it was really stupid, because hey, we were all young and foolish once). Now - a question: do you want women's cycling to develop, right to a level where races turn a profit, the development of cycling in all its wonderful shapes and forms being kind of point of the UCI and all? Do you, in fact, give a shit? (Don't forget that if women's cycling did turn a profit, it'd mean more cash for the UCI and for you. Betcha give a shit now, don't you?)

Races like this are how you do it. Stages 1 and 2a were hard-fought right from the start line and they finished with high-speed, high-adrenaline battles that would have made superb TV. Cycling fans love cycling, not just men's cycling (nor only women's, of course) - believe me, give races such as this one the backing they need to survive and grow and we will watch them. Thousands of us around the world have been avidly following Twitter for every scrap of information we can find, jut like British cycling fans used to tune into French broadcasts on shortwave radio before British TV cottoned on and paid the ASO for the right to show it. There is a potential audience, and just as soon as sponsors realise that they'll be wanting to give you money.

Do it - the UCI, cycling and you will be richer. You never know, people might even stop saying you're a dick.

Sarah Connolly on the weekend's women's racing

Noemi Cantele wins Stage 1, Giro Trentino Donne

Cantele at the World Championships,
2009

Many fans will have been concerned that the organiser's decision to adopt an unusually flat parcours might make for a less interesting Giro Trentino Donne this year - an especial worry when the race has already been shortened from three days to two due to financial problems as reduced interest might very well spell the end of the 19-year-old race. However, in any form of cycling the personalities and riding styles of those who take part count towards the overall success of a race, and when you have riders such as the ones in this event it's never going to be boring.

The peloton stayed together up the first climb, but numerous riders were visibly restless and waiting for their chance at launching a breakaway attempt. A group of 18 got away shortly after the climb and AA Drink-Leontien.nl's Sharon Laws and Emma Pooley accompanied by GreenEDGE's Judith Arndt wasted no time in splitting off from them to form a lead group with Laws briefly riding ahead solo, though there was a good bit of tit-for-tat as riders swapped places and found their positions. Sadly, the race ended after just 15km for Rochelle Gilmore - the Faren-Honda rider later reported that she'd already had too much for "ones head, legs & bike to cope with" after both her original and replacement bike developed problems.

Before too long the race had settled into three groups - Pooley, Noemi Cantele (Be Pink) and Linda Villumsen (GreenEDGE) with a 49" advantage over a chasing group of 15, then the main field some 2' back. The times varied and a few riders came and went from the chase group, but this arrangement characterised the majority of the rest of the stage. Pooley was the fastest rider through the first and second intermediate sprints with Villumsen and Cantele taking second and third place in the first, then switching positions in the second. A few kilometres on they upped the pace, building their lead over the chasers to 1'42" and putting more than three minutes between themselves and the main group, who responded by speeding up just as Luisa Tamanini (Faren-Honda) made an unsuccessful bid to bridge from chasers to lead. Rossella Ratto (Verinlegno-Fabiani), Olga Zabelinskaya (RusVelo), Alexandra Burchenkova (S.C. Michela Fanini Rox), Malgorzata Jasinska (MCipollini-Giambenini-Gauss) and Charlotte Becker (Specialized-Lululemon) had more luck, clawing their way to the leaders not long before the race entered its final 25km - which immediately made the outcome far less easy to predict, many people deciding Becker was a good bet.

Emma Pooley's solo attack with 4km to
go was the highlight of the race, even if
ultimately unsuccessful

Most of the chasers apparently decided there was little point in carrying on now; many of them dropped back to join the main group who were now 4'07" behind the leaders, so with 15km to go it was obvious that the contenders had been narrowed down to eight riders. They were still together at 10km to go with no obvious signs of splitting, at which point the last few chasers gave up the fight and accepted what was now inevitable.

Pooley was the first to go, launching a daring attack 4km from the line and looking for a few moments like she might just pull it off, but she'd apparently over-estimated her reserves and was rapidly caught. Even now it remained unclear how the finish would play out - was it going to be a bunch sprint or would there be more attacks? Pooley tried again with 800m to go, but in the end the group went with the first option, all kicking off together and fighting hard for the line; Cantele turned out to be the fastest by just centimetres. It was a thrilling end to a superb stage, proof that this race has a great future if it survives these difficult times - so get your wallet out, Pat McQuaid.

Tomorrow, the riders have two stages. The first consists of four laps of a 15.7km road parcours at Sarnonico followed by a 5km individual time trial.

Guide - Stage 1 - Stage 2a - Stage 2b

Top Ten

  1.  Noemi Cantele Be Pink 2h32'33"

  2.  Linda Villumsen GreenEDGE ST

  3.  Malgorzata Jasinska MCipollini-Giambenini-Gauss ST

  4.  Charlotte Becker Specialized-LululemoN ST

  5.  Alexandra Burchenkova S.C. Michela Fanini Rox ST

  6.  Olga Zabelinskaya RusVelo ST

  7.  Emma Pooley AA Drink-Leontien.nl ST

  8.  Rossella Ratto Verinlegno-Fabiani ST

  9.   Sharon Laws  AA Drink-Leontien.nl +3'27"

  10.   Greta Treier   S.C. Michela Fanini Rox  ST

Photos: The Break - Cantele, Villumsen, Pooley - Cantele wins - Full results - Podium - Photoset
(With thanks to Sarah Connolly for mentioning the "personalities over parcours" concept!)

Giro Trentino Donne

Trentino is a nice and simple sort of race - there's a 98km road race from Trento to Mezzolombardo with a couple of small climbs and a sprinty finish to start things off today, then tomorrow riders complete four laps of a 15.7km at Sarnonico in the morning before competing against the clock in a 5km individual time trial starting at Romeno and heading back into Sarnonico in the afternoon. It used to extend over three days but, like so many races, has suffered serious financial setbacks over the last couple of years.

What complicates matters is that the race falls so close to the start of the last Grand Tour in women's cycling, the Giro Donne, which means it's prime opportunity to get in some valuable extra race training and - most importantly - have a good look at one another's form. In fact, Trentino organisers are so used to their race being used in this way that they even seem to alter the route to reflect the Giro Donne parcours: in most years, the climbers come here while the sprinters go to RaboSter in the Netherlands; this year the Giro Donne is notably less mountainous than usual and so is Trentino, so a few riders who tend to specialise more in the sprints are here this year.

Because the race is so useful for the Giro Donne, many of the top names show up on the start line and what would in all likelihood have been a relatively unimportant weekender becomes a 2.1 designated race of considerable prestige. Past winners Judith Arndt (GreenEDGE, won 2011), Emma Pooley (AA Drink-Leontien.nl, won 2010), Nicole Cooke (Faren-Honda, won 2009) and Fabiana Luperini (Faren-Honda, won 2008 and 2002) are all in attendance, but victory is far from guaranteed for any one of them - their teams and others have sent along strong squads consisting of fast riders able to hold their own in a sprint and in a great many cases very capable of snatching a win from under the big guns' noses. (Start list here)

Other than that climb in the first 15km and the two little blips between 35-50km, it's a very flat parcours. This means that breakaways are likely - with so many teams sending very strong riders in addition to their leaders, there's a good chance we'll see several attempts firing off the front of the peloton within the first few kilometres and certainly by the end of the first descent. If they prove unsuccessful, others will replace them and, sooner or later, one of them will get away. Whether they can keep going to the end or whether the peloton will chase them down remains to be seen, but a group of strong riders working together will have a very good chance.

Following the race: there's no live ticker for this one, which is rather disappointing considering the importance of the race but probably to be expected considering the organisation's economic woes. It's much easier to keep track of RaboSter, but some sort of Trentino commentary should be available on Twitter. fans will be retweeting any scraps of information they find - check hashtags #Trentino and #womenscycling and see what's on offer. I'll be retweeting anything I can find - @cyclopunk.

Guide - Stage 1 - Stage 2a & Stage 2b

Matrix-Prendas win Johnson HealthTech GP

Helen Wyman won Round 5, putting
herself into second place overall

That's all, folks: the 2012 Johnson HealthTech GP is over - but what a series it's been! The last round, which took place on the 14th of June in Stoke, was if anything the most hotly contested so far as the teams battled to try to grab last-minute success from Matrix-Prendas, who had pulled out all the stops and were giving it everything they've got to put on a good show and take a victory in front of the residents of their home city... and when Helen Wyman won the round, they did it with a 27 point advantage, helped by Jessie Walker's third place.

Node4-Giordana have been the only team to come close in this series. Lucy Garner, current Junior World Road Race Champion, won Round 4 and has been hot on the heels (and often ahead) of Matrix-Prendas' Annie Simpson all the way. Look Mum No Hands! and WindyMilla may have come fifth and sixth, but they too have provided many thrilling moments and plenty of top-notch action - the series would have been very much worse off without them.

Simpson's 72 points mean she wins overall, though organisers had to wait for her twelfth place finish to confirm that Wyman hadn't taken over. She also takes the intermediate sprint honours with a lead of just one point lead over Jo Tindley (VC St Raphael) in a competition that remained very far from decided until this final race. Annie's winning sprint in Oxford back on the 22nd of May is already being called one of the finest moments - if not the finest moment - of the entire HealthTech/Halfords Tour Series, and anyone who saw it will have no doubt whatsoever that she has many great years in cycling ahead of her.

Wyman, last year's winner and multiple National Cyclo Cross Champion, won the Sprints for the round. Known for the blistering bursts of acceleration she employs to gain early leads in the Dutch and Belgian cyclo cross races, where she competes against the best in the world, Helen attacked early on in the round and nobody was able to follow as she kept on building her lead; and by the time Laura Massey kicked of the bunch sprint the St. Albans-born 31-year-old star had already won. Her victory today earned her 72 points, which moved her up into second place overall.

Special mention goes to Team Mule Bar Girls, whose consistent good finishes earned them fourth place in the Teams classification. They are most definitely a team to watch, and if they keep improving as they have done so far this year Matrix-Prendas won't have it all their own way next year. The ultimate winner of the series isn't any one rider or team, however - it's women's cycling in Britain. In common with many countries, the sport receives little attention here compared to men's cycling which has grown in popularity over the last few years. To see such large crowds enjoying the non-stop and hard-fought action, made possible by the excellent work of the organisers and by Johnson HealthTech's sponsorship, bodes very well indeed for the future.

Highlights of the race will be broadcast by ITV4 at 22:00 on Friday the 15th of June, repeated at 09:40 the following day. 

Annie Simpson wins overall

Annie Simpson ‏@LittleSimo
We did it! Individual, sprints and team overall wins at @TourSeries!!! Amazing @onthedrops performance!! #winning



Harriet Owen ‏@harrieto93
Well, that's tour series over for the year, didn't quite get the time prize but congrats to @onthedrops who took the win! #solidracing


Top Ten Round 5
1)    Helen Wyman, Kona Factory Racing/Matrix-Prendas
2)    Laura Massey, Vivelo Bikes / Inverse / Cyclaim
3)    Jessie Walker, Matrix Fitness - Prendas
4)    Harriet Owen, Node4 - Giordana Racing
5)    Hannah Walker, Matrix Fitness - Prendas
6)    Lucy Garner, Node4 - Giordana Racing
7)    Jo Tindley, VC St Raphael
8)    Penny Rowson, Matrix Fitness - Prendas
9)    Ruth Winder, Team VanderKitten
10)    Alice Barnes, Twenty3c.co.uk - Orbea

Final Overall Top Ten
1)    Annie Simpson, Matrix Fitness - Prendas, 77pts
2)    Helen Wyman, Kona Factory Racing, 72pts
3)    Corrine Hall, Node4 - Giordana Racing, 62pts
4)    Penny Rowson, Matrix Fitness - Prendas, 58pts
5)    Laura Massey, Vivelo Bikes / Inverse / Cyclaim, 57pts
6)    Harriet Owen, Node4 - Giordana Racing, 54pts
7)    Jo Tindley, VC St Raphael, 50pts
8)    Hannah Walker, Matrix Fitness - Prendas, 45pts
9)    Alice Barnes, Twenty3c.co.uk - Orbea, 31pts
10)    Lydia Boylan, Look Mum No Hands!, 28pts

Teams Overall
1)    Matrix Fitness - Prendas, 202pts
2)    Node4 - Giordana Racing, 175pts
3)    VC St Raphael, 105pts
4)    Mule Bar Girls, 82pts
5)    Look Mum No Hands!, 45pts
6)    WyndyMilla UK Youth, 7pts

Sprints Overall
1)    Annie Simpson, Matrix Fitness - Prendas, 25pts
2)    Jo Tindley, VC St Raphael, 24pts
3)    Hannah Walker, Matrix Fitness - Prendas, 19pts