It’s that time of the week again. Ella Picks Monday is our attempt to bring you the best, most important or most interesting content we stumbled upon over the past week –and oh man was this week jam-packed with good finds. Our picks for the week include various video clips out of National Road Championships held across Europe and select parts of Asia and South America, a comprehensive Giro Rosa race preview from Velofocus, news on the Veloroos out of Race Across America and a collection of stories on the connection between equality and sport. Happy reading and watching!
News
Big ups to the UCI for the introducing a new Women’s Under-23 category at the UCI Cyclocross World Championships next year. According to their press release, the new category will also apply to Continental Championships. National Federations that wish to follow suit will also include the new category at the National Championship level. Also announced – the Women’s U23 category prize money will match the prize money offered to the Men’s U23 category and prize money for women at World Cups will increase by more than 50 percent at the UCI Cyclocross World Cup series.
Bigla announced the departure of sport director Manel Lacambra and sprinter Shelley Olds. Several days later, the Swiss-registered squad announced the signing of Rio Olympic-hopeful Carmen Small.
The USA Pro Challenge has revealed the route for the inaugural women’s event to be held in August 2015. The three day stage race includes a time trial, a day in the mountains and a technical circuit race. The stage one time trial in Breckenridge uses the same course used in the men’s race.
We’re happy to hear Julie Leth (Hitec Products) is on the mend following her nasty crash at Winston-Salmem. The Danish rider sustained a fractured vertebra, two breaks in her jaw and a broken elbow. She calls her progress slow but steady.
Nationals
We complied a list of results, reactions on social media, comments from your new national champions and links to race report on Ella over the five days of National Championships racing. Here are some of the additional stories and videos we’ve stumbled across.
Wiggle Honda sent a video crew out to Japan with Mayuko Hagiwara – and this is the result:
Props to Lizzie Armitstead (Boels-Dolmans) on reclaiming her road title at the British Road Championships and for posting the best well-humoured post-race tweet:
Safety first ? pic.twitter.com/BvHJNRdncH
— Lizzie Armitstead (@L_ArmiTstead) June 28, 2015
Replays and highlights from several of the women’s race:
France – road race won by Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Rabo Liv)
Germany – road race won by Trixi Worrack (Velocio-SRAM)
Italy – road race won by Elena Cecchini (Lotto Soudal Ladies)
Great Britain – road race won by Lizzie Armitstead (Boels-Dolmans)
A story of a different sorts out of the National Championships – Total Women’s Cycling speaks to British time trial champion Hayley Simmonds (Velosport) about how she lost 45 kilograms en route to her goal medal ride.
Giro Rosa
We are four days out from the start of the only Grand Tour of the women’s calendar –the Giro Rosa. The tour is jam-packed with drama and excitement over ten days of racing that includes time trials, summit finishes and sprints. With stage wins that are as hotly contested as the overall victory, this is one of the most prestigious races of the year.
Velofocus has assembled this incredibly informative Giro Rosa guide that includes all the basic information, an in-depth look at each stage, a start list and picks for the overall.
Orica-AIS announced their Giro Rosa team today. The eight-rider squad includes seven Australians and adopted Aussie Valentina Scandolara.
Liv Plantur also announced their Giro Rosa team -and they did so in the same news release as their Tour de France squad announcement, which we love. Their eight-rider squad is headlined by 2009 Giro Rosa winner Claudia Lichtenberg (racing then as Claudia Haüsler).
AVIVA WOMEN’S TOUR
We know, we know. We shared a big set of links out of the Aviva Women’s Tour last weekend, but we’ve got one more we can’t resist passing along – a videographer’s perspective on the British stage race told in words and images.
And if you haven’t pored over our Aviva Women’s Tour gallery, you’re missing out. The Grubers captured every the feel good spirit that embodies the race perfectly.
Veloroos
The Veloroos won the four-person female under 50 team category of the Race Across America on Friday, setting a course record in the process as they covered the 4834 kilometre course in 157 hours and 21 minutes with an average speed of 19.08 kilometres/hour.
You can watch daily videos from their incredible adventure here. The final day film is below.
Features
We shared Lillie Rumpf’s pregnant pedalling story on Ella last week, so we were thrilled to stumble on two additional tales of women riding while pregnant. This Bicycling Magazine features Tara Newcomb who is still turning the pedals while eight months pregnant – with twins! – as part of their #GetSomeoneRiding campaign. This story in the Gold Coast Bulletin features Olympic gold medallist Sara Carrigan, who rode to a doctor’s appointment the day before giving birth.
Two weeks ago, we wrote about Carmen Small’s decision to race in the men’s pro field at the North Star Grand Prix following the cancellation of the women’s race. Bicycling Magazine has an excellent post-race follow-up piece.
Meet the race doctor who treated Lizzie Armitstead after her Aviva Women’s Tour crash, and learn what’s involved in providing medical support during a stage race.
July 18, 2015 marks the 10th anniversary of the accident that claimed the life of Amy Gillett and critically injured five other members of the Australian national team. Rob Arnold at Ride is speaking with the five survivors. Hear from Louise Padgett here and Alexis Rhodes here. Keep an eye out on our Twitter channel for links to the next three interviews.
Equality
We love this piece in The Atlantic that claims that women’s soccer is a feminist issue. We’ll add that women’s cycling is, too.
We were thrilled to see this ABC piece doing the rounds on Twitter and Facebook. Entitled “Entrepreneurs take note: women’s sport is an untapped market”, the feature uses the interest in the Matildas and the Firebirds to make their case. Our favourite line: “The myth that there’s no interest in women’s sport is crumbling fast, and while the nay-sayers may be circling the wagons, questions of both the quality of play and the sport’s overall product are rapidly being answered.”
Sports Illustrated write Andy Benoit called women’s sports “not worth watching” and unleashed a firestorm on Twitter in response. Jen See wrote this fantastic piece for Bicycling Magazine that examines this claim –and includes comments from Marianne Vos, Georgia Gould and Kristy Scrymgeour in outlining the uphill battle female cyclists face in showcasing their sport.
Members of Norway’s World Cup football team make a spoof video in which they mock the stereotypes associated with women in their sport. Watch it here.
We know who will be cheering for during the Tour de France – Nairo Quintana. The Colombian features in a pro-equality gender rights campaign. His message: “Fighting for women’s equality starts in the home.”
Ella Reads You Don’t Want to Miss
Here are a few of my favourite stories published on Ella in the last week:
- Riding to recovery: what it took to fall in love again
- Ban leave passes and bin brownie points: The nice girls’ guide to negotiating ride time
- Ask ALP: How do I train with minimal free time?
- The camaraderie of climbing 8,848 metres together
- Alexis Ryan’s South Indian biryani
