Pro Women's Cycling

We're at the halfway point through the 2017 Giro Rosa with five stages completed. We cover each of the stages so far, from the opening TTT through to the ITT and all the travails and changes on GC in between. There has been more than a fair share of surprise Giro geomorphology including some truly brutal climbs and so on. An incredibly close sprint finish and more. There's lots to cover and lots more to speculate on as we continue into the second half of the stages. (Spoiler Warning: We do actually cover the end of stage 6 so bail out early if you don't want us to reveal the winner for you).

All year we watch the TV highlights of the UCI women's WorldTour made by Rose Manley, of InCycle TV. I've always enjoyed Rose's work, so I was delighted when she came on the podcast and told me all about the effort that goes into producing these, and the features she's been making on various riders throughout the season, as well as the high and low points of the year so far. For links of everything we talked about, go to my site http://www.prowomenscycling.com

This week we preview all the stages of the 2017 Giro Rosa, from the Team Time Trial all the way through to the climb of Mount Vesuvius. There's stages to suit the sprinters, the puncheurs, the roleurs and the climbers. Who is suited to each stage? Which teams have the strongest rosters? Who are the riders to watch? How is the race likely to unfold? We answer all of these questions and more. We even unlock the age-old secret of how to interpret the race book (It's Idiosyncratic, Unless It's the Exact Opposite).

Balint Hamvas and Sean Robinson are Vélofocus, who take gorgeous photos of women's cycling. They told me about how the 2017 season is going, their highs and lows - and all about their kickstarter for a fantastic coffee table book about the year in women's road cycling. Listen here, and head to my website, https://prowomenscycling.com/velofocus-interview/, for the links of where you can buy their book, see their work, and a lot more.

This week Sarah and Dan recap the Ovo Energy Women's Tour held in the United Kingdom, reviewing each of the stages and exploring some of the more surprising results. Along the way they accidentally reveal which one of them is the REAL comic book geek (you won't be surprised when you hear who it is!) and of course, take some time to wrap up the other things that they've seen around the way over the past week.

This week marks the beginning of the Ovo Energy Women's Tour, the United Kingdom's best known women's stage race. We run through a full preview of each stage, the riders that are likely to do well and the teams who have very clearly come prepared for this year's contest. Following that we also take a quick look at the recent downhill mountain bike event at Fort William, with a bit of a surprise result.

Isabelle Clement is the director of Wheels for Well-Being, a charity dedicate to helping disabled people cycle more, through both their sessions giving people in London with a hug range of disabilities try a massive range of bikes, and through their national campaigning work. She told me all about these aspects of her work, and talks about barriers to disabled people cycling, both physical, in terms of infrastructure, and emotional, as well as the charity's successes, plans for the future, and what we can all do to help support disabled people's cycling. Find out more about Isabelle, Wheels for Wellbeing, and things we can all do to help, on my website: https://prowomenscycling.com/2017/06/04/isabelle-clement-wheels-for-wellbeing-and-their-work-helping-disabled-people-cycle-more/

This week's podcast is a little bit of a catchup as we cover off the impact that May has had on the peloton with races going on in the USA, the Basque country, Belgium and more. Riders and teams have had to choose where to apply their focus and resources and it's made for a very interesting month. We take a particular look at how the Tour of California and the Emakumeen Bira played out and then how they contributed to the way that Gooik-Geraardsbergen-Gooik was raced. As always, there's plenty to laugh about and more than a few diversions along the way!

Hopefully you listened to the recent BBC Radio 4 Women's Hour programme dedicated entirely to women's cycling, and set at the London Bike Kitchen. If you did, you will have heard LBK Director Jenni Gwiazdowski talking about their work teaching people to repair their own bikes - or maybe you've heard the Wheel Suckers' podcast Jenni runs with Look Mum No Hands' Alex Davis, which I was on that same day. You can imagine, being in the LBK space, and being on the podcast made me want to know a whole lot more - how and why did Jenni set up LBK in the first place, and what do they do? Why's she podcasting? What's her superhero secret origin story? There's only one way to find out - asking her! Click through to my website for the links to everything we talked about: https://prowomenscycling.com/2017/05/25/jenni-gwiazdowski-london-bike-kitchen/

This week we talk through the events in China at the Tour of Chongming Island. We catch up on Marianne Vos' first win of the season. We take a look at the Women's Tour of California (aka The Breakaway From Heart Disease Women's Race presented by SRAM). We catch up on the latest news from BMX and we take a few minutes to reflect back on the last five years of podcasting. That's right, it's our FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY EPISODE!

If last week was the treble, with three big races, this week it was octuplets! Dan has been in Tokyo for the last week, and missed out on all the racing, so I catch him up on the action from the USA Crits Speed Week, the Festival Elsy Jacobs in Luxembourg, the Tour de Yorkshire in the UK, and over in France, the first round of the 2017 Downhill MTB World Cup in Lourdes. Along the way we talk mindgames in racing, the implications of having eight different women's cycling livestreams over three days, and a lot more. And I told him about my adventures on BBC Woman's Hour, and recording with the Wheelsuckers Podcast. Lots of videos and links to things we talked about, and even more things we didn't get time for, including some interesting articles and gorgeous films, over on our website: https://prowomenscycling.com/2017/05/05/podcast-2017-episode-15/

This week's episode covers a lot of historic moments in the midst of a very dynamic 2017 season. There's Tour of the Gila in the US and Omloop van Borsele to cover off, along with the first ever women's edition of Liege-Bastogne-Liege in all it's conTEXT and glory. There's some interesting articles from during the week including the latest edition of Ella's SHE-cret Pro which seems to have stirred up a bit of controversy. In addition to which we take the time to appropriately thank the UCI for their help with making La Course more La Course-y than ever before. Click through to our website for all the videos and links that go with this podcast: https://prowomenscycling.com/2017/04/24/podcast-2017-episode-14-the-treble/

We're in the middle of the Ardennes week which means there's heaps of racing and heaps of climbs around. This week Sarah and Dan talk through how Amstel Gold and Fleche Wallonne both unfolded (they were amazing!), and what this might mean for Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday. There's also time to catch up on some of the main results from the recent Track World Championships, and to find out a bit more about Lizzie Deignan's new book "Steadfast" which is out now. Of course there's plenty more in the podcast and even more in the post!

This week Sarah and Dan talk through all of the racing for the junior women and the elite women at the Healthy Ageing Tour in the Netherlands. A fantastic set of races that are run entirely by volunteers that include live coverage for the elite women and comprehensive video highlights for both, proving that there really are no excuses for big race organisers (*cough* ASO *cough). There's also a bit of time to discuss what the race organisation looks like and involves along with a look ahead to the beginning of the Ardennes week of hilly classics, beginning with Amstel Gold on Sunday. And most importantly, Sarah teaches us the Buffalo Bill joke.

So this week Sarah was not only AT the Ronde van Vlaanderen but was doing the live English commentary for the race along with Rochelle Gilmore. We talk about what it was like roadside at the race and in the commentary booth before diving into all of the attacks and moves that made up the race. It was an amazing race and there are so many highlights to appreciate.

We're fully into the cobbled classics section of the season and we're a little bit excited. We recap the races of the last week, in particular Dwars door Vlaanderen and Gent-Wevelgem which were great and had captivating finishes. Then we take a look ahead at what to expect on this holiest of cycling Sundays, when the women hit the cobbles for Ronde van Vlaanderen. We also talk about the first round of the Enduro MTB racing in Rotorua, New Zealand. There's the ABSA Cape Epic to catch up on and we also follow the India Pacific Wheel Race (even covering some of it live - sort of) where Sarah Hammond is third overall, and the riders have already covered 4,500km but still have about 1,000km to go. It's an epic podcast for a week of epic racing!

Isla Rowntree is best know for her company Islabikes, which transformed children's cycling - but before that she was integral to the fight for women's cyclocross, in the UK and internationally. Now her next challenge is the Imagine Project, creating sustainable bikes and cycling models for a world of scarce resources. We talk all this and more - and you can read the interview too, on my website, https://prowomenscycling.com/2017/03/26/sarah-interviews-isla-rowntree/

This week we catch up on all the attacks (so many attacks!) from Trofeo Moreno and Trofeo Binda last weekend. You know racing is intense when top riders are gunning it on the front just to settle down the sheer number of attacks! The Dwars Door Vlaanderen started while we were recording, so we give that a moment's consideration and also take a look ahead at Gent-Wevelgem on this weekend. There's a heap of cool media and some epic races including the ABSA Cape Epic and the Indian-Pacific Wheel Race; and of course heaps more!

Catherine Marsal is a legend of women's cycling and French cycling in general. Racing her first Olympic Games at 17, becoming the first ever Junior Road World Champion, and then the first woman to ever be Junior and Elite Road World Champion; winning World Championships golds as a Junior on the track in the Individual Pursuit and in the Team Time Trial; winning the Giro d'Italia, and another of the (now lost) Grand Tours, the Tour de l'Aude twice; and becoming the World Hour Record champion... and much more. After she finished racing, she was a Directeur Sportif for Team SATS, and then after a break from cycling to do a degree and work in business, three years ago she took the job of women's coach/manager for the Danish National Team - which has, of course, included being team coach when Amalie Dideriksen became the 2016 Road World Champion. We talked about her amazing life in cycling, the ups and downs, racing with/against Jeannie Longo, and of course, the incredible results of the Danish women, and a lot

This week we revisit all of the excitement from the Women's World Tour at the Ronde van Drenthe. There's more great racing from Drentse 8 and Setmarna Ciclista Valenciana. On top of this we have several really good articles about ways to improve women's cycling to discuss and there's been some interesting news in regards to British Cycling, and Jeannie Longo's husband Patrice Ciprelli. Of course we can't finish on a downer so we also take note of some of the fun stuff we've seen around the web this week. As always, heaps of links and videos in the post on the website!