2013 Women's Cyclocross Championships

I've decided to change gears for today, and write about Women's Cyclocross, like I did last year. I've still never watched cyclocross, but it looks really interesting to me. Maybe I should Youtube some videos and check it out.

However, what caught my attention this year, was Katie Compton's amazing comeback from a terrible start. She ended up with the silver for all her hard work. Marianne Vos, the Women's Road Race champion, received gold.

Vos storms to victory in Cyclo-cross World Championships

Powerful, graceful, flawless - Marianne Vos reigned supreme for the fifth straight year, placing her sixth career elite women’s cyclo-cross world alongside her two road race rainbow jerseys and a pair of Olympic gold medals in Louisville, Kentucky.

American Katie Compton had a poor start, but chased valiantly to win the silver medal.

The battle for bronze looked to go to the Czech Republic for the second race in a row, but Katerina Nash hearbreakingly suffered chain problems in the sprint and was overtaken by Lucie Chainel-Lefevere for the bronze.

“A world championship is always special,” Vos said. “For me, the pressure is going up every year because everyone expects you to win. Of course, if you already won it five times, they think you can win it for the sixth time. They think it will be easy, but I was kind of nervous. The difficult moments were in the past two weeks.”

Following the example of her compatriot Mathieu van der Poel who crushed the junior men’s field, Vos gave no mercy to her fellow elite women, although she waited until longer to make her move.

No other athlete in cycling history has dominated year round as Vos has, and it was no different in Louisville. Despite rapidly changing course conditions as the sun began to melt the morning’s snow, Vos was only in reach of the other racers on the first lap, but as soon as she had sized up her competition she shifted into another gear and motored away.

“Today during the race in the first lap, I felt a bit uncomfortable on the course because it had changed a bit due to the conditions,” Vos said. “From then on, I was in first place and held my own pace.”

A crash early in the last lap took down some of the back markers, including Americans Georgia Gould and Meredith Miller.

The first leading group emerged on the first half lap, with Vos hanging back with Chainel-Lefevere, with mountain bike specialist Eva Lechner (Italy), Christel Ferrier Bruneau (France) and Vos’s teammate Sanne van Paassen holding a gap over a large group with Compton, Nash, Cant and others.

Vos shredded the leading group with a blistering acceleration on the second lap as the sun came out and began to melt the top layer of the course. Quickly establishing her intentions, the Olympic road champion opened up an unbeatable gap.
By the end of the second lap Nash was surging forward to join Lechner and van Paasen, followed by Compton in fifth, while Chainel struggled on the runs and lost a few positions.

Compton recovered from her poor opening laps to chase her way up to the leading group, and by the midpoint had moved into a medal position. However, by the time she found van Paassen’s wheel and pushed past into second place, Vos already had more than a minute’s lead.

Compton quickly pulled away from the chase while van Paassen and Lechner’s earlier efforts took their toll. Although the American was superior from the other silver medal contenders, she continued to lose time on the Vos locomotive into the final lap.

Nash distanced the other chasers and looked set to secure the bronze, with Chainel leaving van Paasen behind for fourth, but a bobble by Nash on the last part of the course allowed Chainel to catch up.

Nash got back in front for the sprint, but had problems with her chain and had to dismount and run to the line, missing out on the medal to the Frenchwoman, but holding on for fourth just ahead of van Paassen and Lechner.

Full Results

Elite women

#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Marianne Vos (Netherlands)	0:43:00
2	Katherine Compton (United States Of America)	0:01:34
3	Lucie Chainel-Lefevre (France)	0:02:10
4	Katerina Nash (Czech Republic)	0:02:12
5	Sanne Van Paassen (Netherlands)	0:02:15
6	Eva Lechner (Italy)	0:02:17
7	Jasmin Achermann (Switzerland)	0:02:36
8	Sabrina Stultiens (Netherlands)	0:03:06
9	Ellen Van Loy (Belgium)	0:03:18
10	Kaitlin Antonneau (United States Of America)	0:03:19

Cyclo-Cross World Championships, Elite Women

I am more of a road bike girl, but blogging for over 6 months has made me learn there is more to cycling. And as cyclist's names repeat, I learn more about them and want to feature them in my blog. So here are the results from the 2012 UCI Cyclo-Cross World Championships:

Cyclo-cross Worlds: Vos unstoppable in retaining rainbow jersey

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/championnats-du-monde-world-championships-2012/elite-women/results)

Marianne Vos out-powered the rest of the field during the cyclo-cross world championships in Koksijde, Belgium. Almost forty seconds later Daphny van den Brand (The Netherlands) won the sprint for second place ahead of local favorite Sanne Cant (Belgium). At 24, Vos overtakes Hanka Kupfernagel (Germany) as record holder with five ‘cross world titles.

“It was not my goal to overtake her but five titles is fantastic,” Vos said.

On the technical course Vos clearly struggled to get through the sand stretches but that didn’t keep her from quickly earning a comfortable lead. Vos built up a lead of a minute and plowed her way through the sand to a well-deserved win.

“Technically it wasn’t good today. I wouldn’t deserve getting a dune named after me like the Elite Men’s winner will enjoy. Getting a mud section or a stretch of pavement named after me would be more correct,” Vos said.

Two women missed their start at 11am and they were Vos and Katherine Compton (USA). While Vos quickly recovered Compton didn’t and a little later she was caught up in a crash.

“I missed my first pedal stroke at the start and that raised the adrenaline to the top. If I had the opportunity I would take the initiative and ride my own race. I quickly had a gap but I realized that it would be a long forty minutes,” Vos said.

Unlike Vos the US champion struggled to get in the rhythm on the Koksijde course. After the first lap she rode outside the top-15 at nearly a minute from Vos. “I missed my pedal and couldn’t find it. Then I crashed in the first right hand turn before the pit. From there I got stuck in traffic but I’ve never given up. It’s hard to get back. I kind of saw this coming,” Compton said.

While Vos comfortably led the race ahead of Van den Brand another Dutch rider, Sanne van Paassen, was under pressure from Cant who made progress and brought along Katerina Nash (Czech Republic) and Sophie de Boer (The Netherlands).

Early on in the third lap a group with Compton, Jasmin Achermann (Switzerland) and Nikki Harris (UK) bridged up with Cant, De Boer, Van Paassen and Nash. Right at the first sand stretches Cant blasted away and in no time Van den Brand was caught. Van Paassen and Compton then bridged up, creating a first chase group at 34 seconds from Vos with Cant, Compton, Van Paassen and Van den Brand. Further back a head-first dive from Helen Wyman (UK) in the sand caused a scare but the British champion continued her race.

During the penultimate lap Vos extended her lead to one minute while behind her Compton struggled to keep up with the three other chasers. Nevertheless none of them wanted to work on the long start-finishing straight and Compton quickly closed down the gap of 10 seconds.

In the final lap Vos made no mistakes and clearly was in delight, emotionally celebrating her fifth world title when she crossed the finish line. In the chase group a battle unfolded in which Cant, Van den Brand and Van Paassen exchanged attacks.

Compton followed at a short distance but never managed to overtake any of the three other women. In the final sections Van Paassen lost ground too but she was enormously happy with her fourth place. “I’ve been struggling with my health for two months and arrived here without competition. Despite that I simply manage to finish fourth and wonder why I was worrying that much. It makes me emotional,” she told Cyclingnews.

In front of her Cant sneaked ahead of Van den Brand and she turned into the finishing straight as leader. Cant didn’t have a sprint left in her legs though and Van den Brand easily captured second place in her last world championships race.

“That grass section ahead of the finish is quite tough so Cant probably had sore legs. I had enough power left and noticed that Sanne didn’t have her hands in the drops. It’s my first silver medal and with such a good Marianne I can’t be disappointed. I started real fast, maybe a little bit too fast because I never felt good,” Van den Brand said.

When crossing the finish line Cant threw her hands in the air, clearly not disappointed with her loss in the sprint. “I still have a hard time to believe this. I felt really well and apparently in the sand I was among the best. To me it didn’t matter what medal I would take. In every category the Belgians expected, except in the Women’s category and then I pull off this,” Cant said.

British rider Harris rode a great race and finished sixth at one minute from Vos. Wyman placed thirteenth.

Further back American riders Nicole Duke and Meredith Miller cracked the top-20, Amy Dombroski (USA) was 23rd while Kaitlin Antonneau (USA) disappointed with her 26th place. “It’s been a long season and it wasn’t good today. I improved my result from last year though so that’s positive,” Antonneau told Cyclingnews.

Results

#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Marianne Vos (Netherlands)	0:41:04
2	Daphny Van Den Brand (Netherlands)	0:00:37
3	Sanne Cant (Belgium)	0:00:38
4	Sanne Van Paassen (Netherlands)	0:00:49
5	Katherine Compton (United States Of America)	0:00:53
6	Nikki Harris (Great Britain)	0:01:03
7	Sophie De Boer (Netherlands)	0:01:05
8	Katerina Nash (Czech Republic)	0:01:11
9	Jasmin Achermann (Switzerland)	0:01:12
10	Lucie Chainel-Lefevre (France)	0:01:54

Even in professional sports, equality isn't there...

Bronzini: my jersey is worth as much as Cavendish's

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bronzini-my-jersey-is-worth-as-much-as-cavendishs)

Giorgia Bronzini has lamented the lack of structure and sponsorship in women’s cycling in Italy and internationally, and rebutted UCI president Pat McQuaid’s assertion that women’s cycling has “not developed enough” for a guaranteed minimum wage.

McQuaid’s comments were made at the world championships in Copenhagen in September, where Bronzini captured her second consecutive rainbow jersey in the women’s road race.

“I’d say that moment has arrived, and has done for a while. Women’s cycling is ready to make important steps,” Bronzini told Tuttobici. “Already in Copenhagen I wanted to speak with the president of the UCI to inform him that my jersey was worth just as much as Cavendish’s one, and to give him a list of reasons why we women deserve more.”

Worlds silver medallist Marianne Vos will ride in the colours of Rabobank in 2012, and Bronzini called on the top-level Italian squads to follow suit and form their own women’s teams. The Italian will return to the Diadora-Pasta Zara-Manhattan set-up in 2012.

“Italian women give more to cycling than they receive,” she said. “Our movement is growing in numbers and in value, with results that the men haven’t been able to obtain, at least in the last few years. What are we missing? Structures, from managers to teams, and above all, we’re lacking money and sponsors.

“Abroad they’ve understood that women improve cycling, and some of the biggest teams have opened a women’s section,” she said. “The cost is very limited, because the organisation already exists, from mechanics to masseurs, from bikes to team cars.”

Bronzini admitted that she would discourage her fellow countrywomen from attempting to pursue careers at the highest level, so few are the opportunities. “In Italy, it’s very hard, so much that when I’m asked for advice on women’s cycling, I immediately say that it’s better to stop or not even start, and devote yourself to something else,” she said. “But then I add that if you have passion and desire, cycling brings emotions and adventure, discipline and character.”

While top-level women athletes in other sports receive coverage more on a par with their male counterparts, Bronzini feels that women’s cycling is still a long way behind.

“There’s no comparison. In tennis, they’ve almost reached equality in terms of prize money. In basketball and volleyball, and even in skiing and swimming, there is more attention and space. We’re still relegated to walk-on parts.”

Although sponsorship opportunities remain limited in women’s cycling, Bronzini believes that change can begin to be effected if national federations start to treat women riders as professionals. “As long as we’re still considered to be amateurs, we won’t be able to get the same treatment as our professional colleagues.”

I know exactly what a dropped chain is like...

Dropped chain cancels direct Vos and Compton duel

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dropped-chain-cancels-direct-vos-and-compton-duel)

The entertaining cyclo-cross course at the citadel in Namur was expected to produce a World Cup duel between world champion Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit) and US national champion Katherine Compton (Rabobank-Giant Off-Road Team). A mechanical meant that would not be the case and both riders missed the chance to go head to head.

While the snow started to fall in Namur, the women lined up at the foot of the citadel. "Vos was laughing and saying that she should've worn long tights and gloves, too," Compton said.

Both Compton and Vos started well initially, but then Compton had to put her foot down. "I'm disappointed with my bad start. My chain dropped when I shifted before reaching the steeper part of the starting straight. I had to stop, get off the bike and get the chain back on. I was DFL," Compton said.

Meanwhile Vos powered away up front. For a short time, she was accompanied by French rider Lucie Chainel-Lefevre. By the end of the first lap, Vos dropped Chainel and from then on, Vos worked her way through the mud to her second World Cup win of the season. "It was a shame that Katie [Compton] had a problem in the beginning. It's more fun to fight it out with the best in front. I heard the announcer saying that she was moving up, but she had no chance to come back as she was nearly a minute down," Vos said.

During the second lap, Compton risked a lot by flying through a tricky off-camber section. She went head-first over the handlebars and in the second lap, she got stuck in the wiring at the bottom side of the section. "Running is so slow, so I gave it a go," Compton said. During the following two passages, things went smoother. "It still wasn't good, but I didn't want to change from riding to running."

In the end, Compton quite easily managed to get back to third place and she was content with that. "I'm happy that I salvaged the podium even though I lost so much time," Compton said. During the last lap, it even seemed possible to get back to Chainel, but the Frenchwoman held on to a margin of 15 seconds at the finish line. "I didn't know she was so close. I didn't see her," Compton said.

When checking out the lap times, it is clear Vos was going much quicker up and down the slopes of the citadel in Namur. Compton lost 43 seconds over Vos during her first disastrous lap, then lost 23 seconds during a not so fortunate second lap that included a bad passage at the off-camber section. During a clean third lap, she was still 17 seconds slower than Vos. Only during the last lap was Compton slightly faster than Vos. Of course, it's impossible to say how things would have unfolded if Compton would've been on Vos' wheel.

The tough conditions in Namur didn't allow any of the women to sit back and let others do the work. The snow, the mud and the steep sections in the course easily separated the good from the best. "I love this kind of racing. You need technical skills and power. It was hard and that climb after the start was the hardest. Downhill it was fun. What can happen." Compton wondered about crashing in a soft pool of mud or ice water.

Compton added that the most important thing was not to get sick at this time of the season, which was had happened to World Cup leader Daphny van den Brand (AA Drink-Leontien.nl), who finished eighth, and Sanne van Paassen (Brainwash), who didn't take the start in Namur.

It is still to be confirmed whether Compton will skip the next World Cup round in Zolder next weekend as she will soon be heading back to the US to prepare for the national championships on Sunday, January 8.

Vos: 2011 Readers' Poll Winner

2011 Reader Poll: Vos voted Female Road Rider of the Year

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/2011-reader-poll-vos-voted-female-road-rider-of-the-year)

Amassing 27 race wins in 2011, it was no surprise that Nederland Bloeit's Marianne Vos won the title of Female Road Rider of the Year in Cyclingnews' annual reader poll.

Vos, 24, has dominated women's racing this year. Her wins include the Ronde van Drenthe, La Flèche Wallonne Féminine, GP Elsy Jacobs and the Giro d'Italia Femminale, a well as the Dutch and World cyclo-cross titles. On the track, she also holds the Worlds scratch race title.

If there was a stumbling block, it was the UCI Road World Championships, where Vos was again left feeling disappointed, standing second on the podium for the fifth consecutive year after being pipped in the sprint in the elite women's road race by Italy's defending champion, Giorgia Bronzini. Given her dominance of the 2011, Vos was overwhelming favourite when it came to the race for the rainbow jersey in Copenhagen. Vos however, backed away from any talk that the pressure proved too much.

"It's the world championships. There's always a lot of pressure in that race. That's what you do it for, you race for the big races and it's great to do the world championships for your country," Vos said. "Of course when everybody in the team does the work for you, you want to end it perfectly. That's a bit of pressure. But it's also great to have and after this season, I was sort of used to it."

Showing her class, Vos praised the efforts of Bronzini - "Giorgia is a fantastic sprinter, she won in a great way. Of course you think back about whether you made a mistake in the sprint, but I didn't. She was the best."

One of 15 riders on the UCI's new athlete's commission, Vos' voice is key as the push for improvements to be made in women's cycling continues.

In 2012, Vos will lead the new Rabobank women's team which has taken over Nederland Bloeit.

Second place in the reader poll went to last year's winner Emma Pooley, who was runner-up to Vos in the Giro Donne. Pooley broke her collarbone early in the season but fought back for wins at the Thüringen-Rundfahrt der Frauen, GP Oberbaselbiet, Chur – Arosa as well as overall victory at the Tour de l'Ardèche

Next best in the poll, was Judith Arndt. The German veteran who capped a strong back end of the season with a gold-medal-performance in the time trial at the UCI Road World Championships.

2011 best female road rider results

1 Marianne Vos 6161 (28.5%)
2 Emma Pooley 3782 (17.5%)
3 Judith Arndt 2467 (11.4%)
4 Giorgia Bronzini 2105 (9.7%)
5 Clara Hughes 1768 (8.2%)
6 Emma Johansson 1667 (7.7%)
7 Elizabeth Armitstead 1462 (6.8%)
8 Amber Neben 1154 (5.3%)
9 Ina Teutenberg 835 (3.9%)
10 Annemiek van Vleuten 233 (1.1%)
Total: 21,634

Miracles Do Happen

Rabobank Women's team signs miracle athlete Monique van der Vorst

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rabobank-womens-team-signs-miracle-athlete-monique-van-der-vorst)

One of the most amazing stories in the world of cycling has taken another remarkable turn this week as the Rabobank Women's Cycling team has announced the signing of Monique van der Vorst, a former handcycling athlete who was competing in a wheelchair until 2010. Van der Vorst had been disabled since she was 13 years old, and after a very successful career in handcycling, which saw her take the world championship title three times, she recovered the use of her legs and will now start a career in the pro peloton.

The Dutchwoman was on track in her preparation towards the 2012 Paralympic Games when she was hit by a bicycle while training in her wheelchair in the spring of last year. This third roadside accident of her career saw the now 27-year-old enter a lenghty rehab period, during which she gradually recovered the use of her legs. On November 20, 2010, she started walking again.

"Monique still has a lot to learn, but I'm sure that the rest of the girls will also learn a lot from Monique," said Rabobank Women Team director Jeroen Blijlevens. "She has the right mentality and willpower, she has proved that during her sports career. She would like to race on the road and we will support her to do it."

Van der Vorst herself was also happy to have signed with the Rabobank squad. "I am very honoured to be able to develop into a road rider with Rabobank. This team provides the best surroundings with a lot of experience and expertise. On top of that, I will be able to learn a lot from Marianne Vos," she said.

Women's Worlds Championships

I know this is a day late, but better late than never I guess...

Women of the Worlds

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/women-of-the-worlds)

The women will be riding hard in Copenhagen at the UCI World Championships, looking for glory for themselves and their countries.  Who can be expected to stand atop the final podiums?

Time trial

The World Championship ITT is always a difficult race to predict, especially as the Olympics get nearer, when the riders from the peloton are joined by the specialists for the first time – and even the riders who have been racing in Europe all year haven’t raced against each other in a time trial that’s similar to this one.

The elite women ride 27.8km, two laps of the 13.9km city centre course that is the same circuit as the junior men and women.  There are one or two technical sections, including a small run of cobbles, but mostly this course will be combining straight roads – including a long part on different sides of the same road – with city corners.  With no climbs to face, it is the weather that could provide the biggest challenge for riders, especially if it changes over the course of the race.

A favourite for the race has to be Judith Arndt (Germany).  She not only has two bronze and three silver medals in previous World ITT Championships – coming second behind Great Britain’s Emma Pooley in Geelong last year – but she also has built up some superb form in the run-up to the race, winning the two September ITTs, the 23.6km Memorial Davide Fardelli in Italy and the 33.4km Chrono Champenois in France. 

Pooley herself will be a contender for the medals, although she may prefer a course with more hills, and the Netherlands' Marianne Vos will be well worth watching.  Last year Vos decided not to ride the ITT in order to focus on the road race, but this year she announced that she is planning not to contest the track events in next year’s Olympic Games, but to focus on the road race and the time trial.  Vos has been the stand-out rider of the year, and has already won a 2011 World Champion title at cyclocross and on the track, and this will give an idea of her chances of Olympic Gold.

Specialists in Copenhagen as part of their Olympic preparations are the Canadians,Tara Whitten and Clara Hughes.  Hughes won silver in the 1995 World ITT Championships, and bronze in the ITT and on the track in the Olympics the following year, before focusing on speed skating, winning Olympic medals.  She announced her return to cycling last year, aiming at London 2012.  Although she hasn’t raced in Europe this year, she won the Pan-American ITT title, the ITT and the overall GC at the Tour of the Gila, and the UCI 1.1-ranked Chrono Gatineau, and this will be her chance to benchmark herself against the European competition.

There is also the local rider Linda Villumsen.  Although she rides under a New Zealand licence, she was born in Denmark, and has been bronze medallist for the past two years.  She may prefer a more hilly course, but that home-country advantage can never be underestimated.

Road Race

If Vos is a favourite for the time trial, that goes double for the road race.  She has never finished lower than second since she rode and won her first elite World Championship Road Race in 2006 – and this course looks like it suits her down to the ground.

With ten laps of the same 14km circuit as the men, including some short, sharp climbs, this will be a real race of attrition, with the winds likely to play a key role.  When the women’s peloton ride courses like this one, it is usually all about which teams can use the wind and the climbs to force breaks, so positioning will be key, something that the Dutch riders excel at.  Vos is supported by 2011 World Cup winner Annemiek van Vleuten and sprinter Kirsten Wild, who currently sits eighth in the UCI rankings – either of whom are capable of winning the race themselves, if Vos misses a break.

If it ends in a sprint, Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Germany) could be the woman to beat, and with the strongest German team for years, she will have the support to get her to the end.  2010 road race Champion Giorgia Bronzini, too, could contest this one – and the Italians always bring superb tactics to the World Championships, with riders for every outcome, as they demonstrated last year and in 2009, when Tatiana Guderzo took the gold and Noemi Cantele the bronze.

If it ends in a small break, watch out for Emma Johansson, the Swede who almost never misses the crucial break, Teutenberg’s team-mate Judith Arndt, and the queen of long distance attacks, Emma Pooley.  There maybe aren’t enough hills for her, and Team GB always seems to ride for Nicole Cooke in the road race - but Pooley is given an opportunity to escape, she could make it all the way.  Cooke herself finally broke her long run of bad luck with a solo attack out of a small group to win the flat Stage 5 at the Giro d’Italia, and she will be hoping for a similar situation in Saturday’s race.

The women’s race is always exciting, and this one should follow the pattern women’s cycling fans love – lots of attacks, and excitement up to the line!