Tickhill GP 2014 Winner Tanya Griffiths Post Race Interview

Winner of the elite women’s race at Tickhill GP and new CyclingShorts.cc team member – Tanya Griffiths talks to us about women’s cycling and her Tickhill win.

 

GIANT SHEFFIELD WOMENS ELITE 1/2/3
1. TANYA GRIFFITHS                 Starley Primal Pro Cycling
2. GRACE GARNER                    RST Racing Team
3. HANNAH WALKER                Epic Cycles – Scott WRT
4. MELISSA                                   Matrix Fitness Vulpine
5. LOUISE BORTHWICK            Matrix Fitness Vulpine
6. NICOLA JUNIPER                   Team Echelon
7. CHA JOINER                            PEARL IZUMI Sports Tours International
8. GABRIELLA SHAW                  PEARL IZUMI Sports Tours International
9. CHARLOTTE BROUGHTON   MG Decor
10. KAYLEIGH BROGAN             Team Thomsons Cycles

Jacob Scott & Marcin Bialoblocki Interview – Tickhill GP

 

CyclingShorts.cc talks to Jacob Scott (Haribo Beacon) and Marcin Bialoblocki (Velosure Giordana) on their podium spots in the Yesss Electrical Tickhill GP Men’s Elite 1/2/3 race.

 

YESSS ELECTRICAL MENS ELITE 1/2/3
1. HARRY TANFIELD        –   KTM road-and-trail.com
2.MARCIN BIALOBLOCKI     –  Velosure Giordana
3. JACOB SCOTT                 –  HARIBO Beacon Cycling Team
4. JON MOULD                   – NFTO
5. RICHARD HEPWORTH – Velosure Giordana
6. RUSS DOWNING           – NFTO
7. JACOB TIPPER               –  KTM road-and-trail.com
8. MATT CRONSHAW      –  Velosure Giordana
9. BRAD MORGAN            –  Velosure Giordana
10. WILLIAM BJERFELT    –  Metaltek Kuota RT

Women’s Cycling – Opportunity Knocks

Ryedale Women's Grand Prix 2014 inc BC Junior Nat WRR Championsh

Image ©chrismaher.co.uk / CyclingShorts.cc

I read something recently about how women’s cycling is in excellent health in the UK and I have to say that I was very surprised by that statement. Yes, there has been an increase in the number of races available, but there have also been a few races which have been cancelled due to low rider numbers and other races practically begging riders to support events (I am guilty of the latter), so you may be able to see why I am surprised.

At the beginning of this year, I was one of three coaches who saw nearly 100 female riders attend novice race training sessions in the North West and North Wales. My aim was to inspire at least 20% of those attending to try road racing, which kind of worked with the first event that I am involved in having 74 entries in advance, nearly doubling the number of entries for the same event the year earlier.

However, as the season progressed, there came the inevitable drop off in numbers, and now I have two events in August which have just 17 and 15 riders entered in advance at present.  These are the CDNW events at Oakenclough on 10 August and Great Budworth on 23 August.  These are events which are restricted to second, third and fourth category riders, there is an overall league and a league for those who started this year as fourth category riders (currently unique in the UK, I believe, and something that I devised to try and encourage women to have a go at road racing without having to worry about more experienced riders in the race).

Back in May this year, prompted by another article about women’s cycling, I wrote about the sport from a grassroots’ perspective where I urged female riders to enter in advance to show the organiser that his/her race was being supported to prevent them being cancelled, especially where road racing was concerned due to the cost of putting an event on.  Unfortunately, there now seems to be a few issues which are making cancellations more prevalent:

  1. There are more races being held which leads to a dilution in rider numbers;
  2. Women don’t seem to support road races, for a variety of reasons, possibly because they are more expensive, harder to win licence points and tend to lead to riders having to take a leap of faith to try something different;
  3. There is still a massive issue with rider retention – of the 70 women who registered for the CDNW league last year, only around 40 of them have registered this season, with even less actively taking part;
  4. Racing is expensive, especially when you find yourself in a crash;
  5. Cycling is actually a hard sport, which leads to many riders becoming disillusioned early on and then giving up practically straight away because “it isn’t for them”.
JadanPressWomensCircuitRace14_2083A

Image ©chrismaher.co.uk / Cycling Shorts.cc

I have to say that organisers don’t help sometimes. There seems to be a misconception that there are similar numbers of men and women racing, which is totally untrue. Mid-week races are especially difficult for women as there are probably less than 100 women who race regularly in the UK and have the time, money and inclination to travel to all of the races, but as the majority of these have to take time off work to attend, there are only so many days’ holiday you can afford to take to use to attend a bike race. Many organisers then complain that their races aren’t being supported by the riders, and those who do support events then get irritated because it is the same people attending the events, and the riders then feel like they are being treated unfairly just because they don’t have the time or money available to attend.

Prize money can sometimes hinder race entry numbers too, unfortunately. If there is a significant cash prize for the winner, the race tends to attract the better riders (who may not have as many commitments as other riders), so those riders who end up making the numbers up never get a look in for prize money and are less likely to enter just so someone who is practically a full time rider can win the race. Which makes sense to me – I have a career (outside of cycling) and I often don’t have time to do any training during the week, so I don’t need to pay £20 to enter a race to be dropped on the start line because I am still recovering from working, when others in the race are as fresh as a daisy. That may seem like a negative comment to make, but it’s a reality that many female riders face, I’m afraid.

Having said that, Tickhill Grand Prix on 24 August is leading the way by having an elite women’s race (E/1/2/3) and a women’s support race (3/4 categories only), both of which have sponsorship from Giant Sheffield, so if there are any readers out there who want to have a go at town centre racing but want to do it without racing against the top domestic riders, why not enter the support race, which you can do by clicking here.

I always try to be positive and look for solutions to resolve issues rather than just complaining about the problem and doing nothing about it. British Cycling is now looking at women’s cycling in an attempt to resolve the position, but even I am struggling at the moment to see how the sport can move forward. Only with more opportunities can the sport of women’s cycling in the UK hope to develop properly, but there does seem to be a fair few people who don’t want the sport to progress. There are good points to social media, but just because you get 40 re-tweets to a link to a website doesn’t mean that you will get any more entries.  Neither does complaining about riders not entering an event – they’re even less likely to support an event if they feel that they are being coerced into riding.

DoncasterCycleFestival2014_1071B

Image ©chrismaher.co.uk / Cyclingshorts.cc

Women’s cycling is still years away from achieving equality with the men’s sport; how can it when the numbers participating are nowhere near to the number of men racing? Sport should be aspirational, a means for people to achieve outside of their everyday lives, but women’s cycling is anything but that at the moment. Most domestic races are run by local clubs who have to have an event break even as they don’t have reserves to fall back on, so it usually means that in order for a race to go ahead, there will be a minimum number of riders required to meet the costs of running it. Unfortunately, road racing has additional costs to circuit races, especially if you have accredited marshals, which means that you tend to need at least 20 entrants in order for an event to go ahead, and that’s without prize money. If a race is lucky enough to have a sponsor, then the organiser will want to protect the sponsor’s investment by ensuring that there is a decent field – it doesn’t look good if somebody has put up £1000 in prize money and then 10 people turn up, so if you find yourself being annoyed that an organiser of a sponsored event is complaining about the lack of entries, think twice before making a comment.

I guess in conclusion there are a few things that everybody needs to bear in mind about women’s cycling – there is a long way to go before it can be described as being in excellent condition, it needs rider support to develop and, I am afraid ladies, that if you want businesses to sponsor an event that you are riding in, then you need to enter in advance to support the organiser’s attempts to offer as near to equal opportunity as he/she can provide.

 

Race Report – Women’s Tour 2014 Finale

 

 

Marianne Vos takes Friends Life Women’s Tour overall victory

Marianne Vos cemented victory in the inaugural Friends Life Women’s Tour by taking her third consecutive stage victory in Bury St Edmunds, out sprinting Giorgia Bronzini and Amy Pieters on Angel Hill.

The ensuing time bonuses ensured Vos finished 30 seconds clear of stage winners Emma Johansson and Rossella Ratto in second and third places, with the latter also claiming the Matrix Fitness Best Young Rider jersey for the highest placed Under-23 rider.

Italian duo Bronzini and Susanna Zorzi, who claimed the week’s overall combativity award, were fourth and fifth overall, with Pieters just edging Lucy Garner and Hannah Barnes in sixth, seventh and eighth places.

Garner also took the Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research Best British Rider jersey, inheriting it on Sunday morning in Harwich after Lizzie Armitstead withdrew through illness and then defending it from Barnes in the final sprint, despite clipping the barriers in the final corners.

For the second day running Lotto Belisol Ladies’ Emma Pooley was in the thick of the action, winning the Combativity Award for her constant attacking on the 108.3 kilometre stage through Tendring and Suffolk.

Loes Gunnewijk, Lauren Hall and Lisa Brennauer joined Pooley, but with no Rabo Liv rider in the font group they were brought back, setting up the final sprint finish of the week into Bury St Edmunds’ Angel Hill, where packed crowds awaited.

For the third day running it was Vos who powered clear, our sprinting Bronzini, with Pieters and Barnes in close attendance behind.

Vos’ consistent run of top three finishes and bonus points saw her claim the YodelDirect Points jersey, while Sharon Laws and Jolanda Neff’s week long battle for the Strava Queen of the Mountains jersey ended in favour of the British rider, three points ahead of her Swiss counterpart.

Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies claimed the overall Team Classification, with American rider Hall their highest finisher in ninth overall.

Highlights of Stage Five are on ITV4 at 9pm on Sunday evening, with a repeat at 8.10am on Monday morning.

62nd Royal Smilde Olympia ‘s Tour starts on May 12

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PRESS RELEASE

62nd Royal Smilde Olympia ‘s Tour starts on May 12

The opening day of the 62nd edition of the Dutch oldest bike race, Royal Smilde Olympia ‘s Tour is fast approaching. On May 12 in North Holland Hoofddorp the prologue will be held. After spanning several regions and over 850 miles the stage race will finish on May 17, also in Hoofddorp [five days later]. The final field and track can be found below.

Roadmaps of the 62nd Royal Smilde Olympia’s Tour:
May 12: Prologue | Hoofddorp (Ind. Trial ) 3.3 miles
May 13 : Stage 1 | Ulft – Gendringen 114.0 km
May 13 : Stage 2 | Gendringen ( TTT ) 14.7 km
May 14 : Stage 3 | Horn – Horn 170.9 km
May 15: Stage 4 | Zoetermeer – Rijswijk 152.4 km
May 16 : Stage 5 | Reuver – Reuver 208.6 km
May 17 : Stage 5 | Hoofddorp – Hoofddorp 186.4 km
The participating teams are:

  1. Rabobank Continental Team ( NED )
  2. National Team Australia ( AUS )
  3. Cycling Team De Rijke ( NED )
  4. Cycling Team Jo Piels ( NED )
  5. Metec – . TKH Continental Cycling Team ( NED )
  6. Koga Cycling Team ( NED )
  7. Dump Baby Cycling Team ( NED )
  8. ParkHotel CT Valkenburg ( NED )
  9. WV Young Rider ( NED )
  10. National Team USA (USA )
  11. National Team Azerbaijan ( AZE )
  12. Riwal Cycling Team ( DEN )
  13. 3M Team ( BEL )
  14. An Post – Chain Reaction ( IRL )
  15. KTM Team ( GBR )
  16. Jutland Sealand ( DEN )

The organisation of Royal Smilde Olympia’s Tour is proud that this year already the 62nd edition of the round takes place. “After the great winners of the past four years, Taylor Phinney, Jetse Globe and Dylan van Baarle, we are excited by the interest that this unique historic cycling event in the Netherlands is still getting,” said Foundation President Olympia’s – Tour Lex van Drooge. “This year the focus of the field is the young talent. Olympia ‘s Tour is for many a springboard to a professional career and professional young nature of the course remains a priority for the organization. Olympia ‘s Tour would continue to be. Now and in the future for youth.”

During Royal Smilde Olympia’s Tour you can follow the race via the website www.olympiastour.com and on twitter @OlympiaTour . News, short updates and discussion will be posted after each stage.

OLYMPIA ‘S HISTORY TOUR
The first edition of Olympia ‘s Tour took place in 1909, with the start and finish in Amsterdam, and it is the oldest stage race in the Netherlands. Since 1955 the race has been held every year, making it impossible to imagine the Dutch cycling calendar without it. The race is invaluable to enable flow from youth and national riders into international cycling.

Last year’s winner Dylan van Baarle of the Rabobank Continental Team, is now a pro in the U.S. World Tour team Garmin – Sharp. Of the last ten winners eight were professional cyclists: Dylan van Baarle, Jetse Globe, Taylor Phinney, Lars Boom, Tom Veelers, Stef Clement, Thomas Dekker and Joost Posthuma.

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