Preview: Tour Féminin en Limousin - 22nd-25th July
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 23, 2010 1:00 PM EDT
in Women's Cycling
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PrintYou might think there's only 1 stage race in France worth following this week, but you'd be mistaken! While half the women's peloton are in Germany, riding Thüringen-Rundfahrt, the other half are in deep rural France, riding the other post-Giro stage race. The website will try to tell you it starts on 21st July, but don't be fooled, that's just official presentation. It's a 4-stage race, and all although it's not as hilly as Thüringen, it's still hard racing.
Last year it was won by Lotto's Grace Verbeke, who won the first stage and never looked back. She'll be back to contest this year's race - and below the jump I'll tell you what she'll be facing.
It's been interesting playing compare'n'contrast with the different race websites this season. On the women's side, most of the races haven't quite got the hang of sharing information to publicise the race, and while part of that is obviously about funding, it seems mostly strange. Limousin doesn't have a website that hits the glories of Thüringen (which has videos! Photos! The best ticker in the world!) but it's still a pretty good site that has lots of fun extras that bodes well for 2010. I especially like the slideshows of last year's race, and there's a link to radio coverage.
One thing I really like about it is the way they've plotted the stages on Openrunner, so you can have a look at the routes on google maps, and really get a feel for the terrain.
Stage 1 is 118km, from Lissac-Sur-Couze, 4 times round the Lac du Causse, then looping round the hills round Collogne-la-Rouge, back past the Lac and up through 2 sprint points along the river to end in the town of Brive la Gaillard. It's got the biggest climbs of the race, and lots of small, sharp hills, so it'll favour the breakaway artists and riders who like the descents. It passes various viewpoints on the map, so would be a beautiful stage to watch...
Stage 2, around Saint-Sulpice-le-Guérétois to is a 17.4km Time Trial, and looks pretty straightfoward. The interesting thing for me on this stage will be how Paralympian superstar Sarah Storey shapes up against her first Pro-Tour competition. It might be a bit too flat for her, but obviously, I'll be crossing fingers and toes for her.
Stage 3 is 110km from Saillat Sur Vienne through St Junien, round a large loop, back through St Junien, then twice round the smaller loop through Saillat again, ending in St Junien. It's lumpy, with the largest climb being about 60m, but with a sharp descent on the last loop
Stage 4 starts and finishes in Roussac, looping around the town, before ending with 4 bumpy laps of the town. It's likely to be hard and fast attritional racing - by the time they hit the final lap, I'm sure they'll be sick of the sight of the town!
So who's riding?
Well, there IS a startlist, but it doesn't look 100% reliable, given that some riders appear twice for different teams, and others are riding at Thüringen - so as with a lot of races this season, we'll only really know once the race starts, and we get the first set of results.
It's got fewer Pro Teams than the German race, with Lotto and Top Girls being the biggest names, but there are some strong teams in disguise. Assuming they are actually riding, the Russian National Team, with Alexandra Burchenkova (who just won the European U23 Time Trial) and Svetlana Bubnenkova from Fenixs-Petrogradets, and Tatiana Antoshina from Valdarno, who finished 8th overall in the Giro Donne, is pretty formidable, although it might not be hilly enough for them to gain huge advantages. The Belgian National Team has Ludivine Henrion, who usually domestiques for Red Sun, and Belgian national champion Liesbet de Vocht, who as a rider for Nederland Bloeit, is contractually obliged to try for breakaways wherever possible, or so it seemed. In the last big race in France, the Tour de l'Aude Liesbet was denied a stage win with team-mate Annemiek Van Vleuten, after being sent the wrong way - and she just won the Dwars door de Westhoek, so what with one thing and another, she'll definitely be one to watch out for. Nederland Bloeit have been my stand-out team of the season, so it'll be interesting to see how Liesbet does without them.
Other national teams include Team Australia, with Kirsty Broun, Amanda Spratt and Australian National Champion Ruth Corset, Team USA's junior team, with National Junior Road race & TT Champion, Coryn Rivera, Teams Canada and Scotland - alongside a really interesting range of other teams. A handful of French teams, Team Asahi from Japan, and my very favourite team ever, Horizon Fitness, home of Sarah Storey and 'Cross star Helen Wyman. I have been ranting about how amazing Horizon are at the drop of a hat, lately, but if you're somehow missed that, let me know in the comments, and I'll happily do it all over again. The advantages to both Horizon and Team USA being at the race is that they're very, very internet savvy - Manel Lacambra, the USA DS, has been giving us in-race reports via his twitter for all the races he's been at - and Horizon's DS, Stef Wyman, is likely to be even better, now the team's at pro races. If there's any kind of internet nearby, there'll be rider blogs, photos, updates and all kinds of home-made media.
As for the big teams, I'll be interested to see Grace Verbeke's form, as Dwars Westhoek was her first big race since GP Valladolid in early June. If she's well, I wouldn't be surprised to see her win the race again, as she likes the lumpy stages where she can attack and escape. Her team looks more of the sprinty iteration, with Rochelle Gilmore being the biggest name there - and apart from the Russians, Top Girls' Elena Berlato could be her biggest threat for the overall.......... although when the first stage is over, giving us a final startlist, we could see a whole 'nother set of names!
Feel free to update the thread with facts or things I've missed, and any results, photos, interesting blogs and random stuff you find about the race - the more, the merrier!
Bump - Just a reminder that the local news (19:00 CET) is about to start here complete with a report on how the race is going.
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Heh, I'm not normally apologising for getting thigs wrog *quite* this soon
But it sounds from Horizon’s site that the TT is harder than it looks on the map:
We arrived at our hotel at around 4:30, and the girls went out for a ride in the area where Friday’s time trial will be held. It’s going to be a hard course with hills, narrow roads and technical descents.
Before that there is a very interesting start to the tour with opening laps of the first stage including a first category climb. 4 times up this in the first 40km’s before taking on the bigger loop of the course is going to be a very significant. And with 180 riders down to start, it could be a crazy first day.
The organisers have put a lot of work into getting out information for this race
but almost all of it is in French. Last night was the team presentation which was originally intended to be a 5th stage, but for some bureaucratic reason I don’t understand involving not depositing the papers at the prefecture it fell through. You can listen to Claude Lecourt, the organiser, explain why here (and if your French is a bit weak then still give it a try as the interviewer speaks v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y). If you can cope with that then you might like to try a video interview with the same M Lecourt who describes the course in a bit more detail and explains the problems that the organisers have to face. I can’t remember where I read it but one stage had to be altered at the last minute because of storm damage to a bridge they were due to cross.
The local France3 will have a report on its evening news bulletin at 19:00 every day which you can watch live over the web or find in their archives a couple of hours later. And if you are in Japan, then a TV station is at present in France ready to send home daily reports from here.
And completely off topic here
but coming up at the end of the month is the Tour de Charente-Maritime Feminin where all the photos are credited to one Jacky Durand. Is he creeping off on long breakaways from his Eurosport gig?
Lovely post Pigeons!
Go Helen Wyman and the girls…would be terrific to see them do something here. And we have some nice Basque representation here too with Lointek’s Mireia Epelde ;)
Nice marmotte
Thankyou!
& I can’t believe I forgot to add Lointek – there’s a note in my notebook to mention them, for you!
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 21, 2010 9:51 AM EDT up reply actions
Why I love Horizon, part 849
Preview post about the ITT course
We’ve just got back from our pre-ride of the TT course. There were mixed emotions in the group about the course. There are a couple of sections where there is a bit (Lot) of gravel on the road which makes those areas a little harder than perhaps they should be.
It also hard to get a clear picture in your mind when it raining the whole time you are on the course. But over all its a good course, very different anything you’d get in the UK. Lots of small hills, and twisty downhills. Straighlines through the corners are possible, so I think the winning time is going to be very fast.
The news report is already on the web
Fast forward the edition of 21st July to 5:20 for about 4 minutes coverage of the team presentation including interviews with Grace Verbeke (although if someone asks “are you trying to win this year too,” “I’m looking to improve my fitness for the Worlds” isn’t perhaps the best answer) and Claude Lecourt.
And Lecourt said that the first stage was a bit tough
and that they would have preferred to have something like that for the last stage instead.
It does look like the hardest stage from the profiles
Hope it doesn’t decide the whole race.
Poor Grace, do we know what’s happened to her since June?
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 21, 2010 2:36 PM EDT up reply actions
And Radio RMJ has posted a magazine programme
which won’t be broadcast on the radio until tomorrow morning. Here
James Miller
says the Team USA is juior riders prepping for the Juior World Champs in Italy in August
The organisers are reporting something completely different
1. Veronica LEAL BALDERAS (well actually they call her Monica)
2. Ruth Corset
3. Grace Verbeke
Ruth Corset gets the leader’s jersey because of bonuses from intermediate sprints. The field was broken into little groups over that tough course and a group of 8 led the way, including Edwige Pitel (presumably she gets a mention for being the leading Frenchwoman).
They're sayig Treier in the linky....
Can’t see any table of results, though….
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 22, 2010 1:35 PM EDT up reply actions
Ha Ha
damn those tiny race websites. It said Balderas when I linked it. This one still does. I’ll go and check the TV news in a bit.
Ha!
Here it says Treier, and Pitel gets the “Best French” jersey – I love these race jerseys like in the Giro, so they can have National Pride on the podium. Races held in the Netherlands just have the GC, young rider & sprint jerseys for those ;-)
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 22, 2010 2:23 PM EDT up reply actions
That page now has pdfs up with all the results
and it looked like a rough day. 8 riders raced for the win, 21 came in 48 seconds behind, the next group was at 4 1/2 minutes, then people carried on arriving for the next hour. Have pity for the Japanese girl who came last in a race where a TV crew has specially flown out from Tokyo to film them.
The TV news report for stage 1 is quite good
22-07-2010, forward to 7:30. The decisive break came 20km from the end. Grete Treier had a kid just 9 months ago and was surprised to be so competitive so soon.
Treier so sweet in that interview!
and her English is so good, too
From the video, Liesbet de Vocht was up in the final sprint – maybe 5th?
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 22, 2010 3:59 PM EDT up reply actions
Ooh, how do you do that with France 3?
I had to install Silverlight to watch those reports, and I thougt it was meant to stop you doing stuff like that.
I just watched it on IE on a work laptop and pressed PrtSc… It’s not as good quality a pic as RMT, but it just happened!
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 22, 2010 5:26 PM EDT up reply actions
D'oh
And did you notice this yesterday? If you go to the front page of the race website, the box for RMJ radio now says at the bottom:
RMJ RADIO OFFICIAL TOUR WOMEN in Limousin Poitou-Charentes
Exceptional coverage of all stages
Each day of direct, exclusive interviews, summaries …
I don’t remember seeing it in English before.
Me neither – but they put up a mini race report on the radio site relatively early
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 22, 2010 5:51 PM EDT up reply actions
Ooooh! Results stage 1!
Stage 1
1. Grete TREIER, MICHELA FANI, 3:06:12 (+ 10 bonifications)
2. Ruth CORSET, AUSTRALIA, s.t. (11 boni)
3. Grace VERBEKE, LOTTO, s.t. (7 boni)
4. Liesbet DE VOCHT, Belgium, s.t. (+6 boni)
5. Tatiana ANTOSHINA, Russia, s.t.
6 . Edwige PITEL, MICHELA FANI, s.t.
7. Natalya BOYARSKAYA, Russia, s.t.
8. Svetlana BUBNENKOVA, Russia, s.t.
9. Jennifer HOHL, BIGLA, +48
10. Jennie STENERHAG, ALRIKSSON, +48
My favourites:
Treier wins the sprint
Podium – Verbeke in mountains, Rivera in young rider, Treier stage winner, Corset race leader
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 23, 2010 4:27 AM EDT up reply actions
Edwige Pitel wins stage 2 - ITT!
1. Edwige Pitel, Michela Fanini, 25’40"
2. Grete Treir, Michela Fanini, +1s
3. Ruth Coset, Aus, +7s
4. Tatiana Antoshina, Russia, +8s
5. Valsecchi, +18s
6. Grace Verbeke, Lotto, + 18s
7. Rachel Neylan, Aus (?), +19s
8. Mustonen, +24s
Sarah Storey came 15th, in her first pro mainstream Time Trial!
Grete Treier moves into the leader’s jersey
Grace Verbeke keeps the mountains jersey
Julie Beveridge takes Best Young Rider
That'll please the French
On last night’s TV report, the reporter said that she expected Pitel to improve her place today because she was a timetrial specialist. But then I looked at the top 5 and they all seemed to be TT specialists.
Indeed
Pitel must be the oldest rider there by a long way, no?
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 23, 2010 2:19 PM EDT up reply actions
I guess so
it just seems a bit mean to check it
So you watched it all too
Festival in Fursac, small children playing the trumpet, etc.
I remember during Aude that when they didn’t have a report on the 19/20 news, they would instead have something on the next day’s lunchtime news bulletin.
RMJ interview Sarah Storey
aw!
She sounds all self-conscious in French!
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 23, 2010 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions
Photos Stage 2
I like…
novel ways of preparing for an ITT
Podium – don’t know what Sarah Storey won, but it’s good to see her there
Not much in the way of news coming from Limousin so far today
Grete Treier won the bunch sprint and stays in the lead.
Here's the top ten from yesterday
1 66 TREIER Grete MICHELA FA 3 1 44 – bonus 14
2 54 CORSET Ruth AUSTRALIE à 0 – bonus 10
3 60 DE VOCHT Liesbet Belgique à 0 – bonus 4
4 92 MUSTONEN Sara HITEK à 0 – bonus 1
5 1 VERBEKE Grace LOTTO à 0
6 55 HENRION Ludivine Belgique à 0
7 81 ANTOSHINA Tatiana RUSSIE à 0
8 145 HOHL Jennifer BIGLA à 0
9 5 MOOLMAN Ashleigh LOTTO à 0
10 139 HANNES Kaat BENELUX à 0
That’s an odd mix of names, with sprinters, time triallers and climbers all mixed in together. Note the number of bonus seconds available. Now here’s the GC top 5:
1 66 TREIER Grete MICHELA FA 6 33 13
2 54 CORSET Ruth AUSTRALIE à 9
3 61 PITEL Edwige MICHELA FA à 23
4 81 ANTOSHINA Tatiana RUSSIE à 31
5 1 VERBEKE Grace LOTTO à 34
So Ruth Corset could win if she gets enough of the bonuses. She was interviewed by RMJ (towards the end of this piece – she answers in English and the interviewer translates) yesterday.
You can download all the results to date as pdfs here
My theory is they're in some kind of internet blackspot
I mean, a race with Manel, Ash Moolman, Stef Wyman and all of Horizon, and we’re barely getting any news at all?
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 25, 2010 6:50 AM EDT up reply actions
Results - Taylor wis stage 4, Treier wins the GC!
1. Carlee TAYLOR, AUSTRALIA, 3:20:10 (+ 10" bonifications)
2. Kelly DRUYTS, TOPSPORT, à 38 (6" boni)
3. Coryn RIVERA, USA, à 38 (4" boni)
4. Nadia TRIQUET-CLAUDE, VIENNE, à 38
5. Sara MUSTONEN, HITEK, à 38 (+1" boni)
6. Grace VERBEKE, LOTTO à 38
7. Tatiana ANTOSHINA, Russia, à 38
8. Ludivine HENRION, Belgium, à 38
9. Jessica GLASBERGEN, MIXTE ZRT, à 38
10. Grete TREIER, MICHELA FA, à 38 7
FINAL GC
1. Grete TREIER (Est), MICHELA FANINI
2. Ruth CORSET (Aus), Australia
3. Grace VERBEKE (Bel), LOTTO
4. Tatiana ANTOSHINA (Rus), Russia
5. Liesbet DE VOCHT (Bel), Belgium
6. Sara MUSTONEN (Swe), HITEK
7. Carlee TAYLOR (Aus), Australia
8. Edwige PITEL, MICHELA FANINI
9. Kelly DRUYTS (Bel) TOPSPORT
10. Jennifer HOHL (Sui) BIGLA
No tv these last days, but I now know more about the local festival and politics than I expected to…..
Horizon updates on their race
Stage 1
With the course for day 1 clearly being set by someone with a great sense of humor, the first 40km’s were going to be very challenging for a lot of the 172 riders on the start line. There were 4 laps of lake including a 1st category climb. For some this would be a great a great warm up, for others it was their worst nightmare.
Sarah, in contrast, set the course on fire. Blasting around the technical route and finishing in a leading team. An amazing ride, and great for moral. Sarah was in 1st position for a long time, and it wasn’t until the last set of riders that she started to slip a little from the top of the pile. She finished 15th, on a course that is nothing like she has ever TT’d on before. Fantastic.
This lack of in-race communication makes the pre-race instructions more important, and knowing the course is getting more vital. There is no chance warn riders of problems ahead of them or dangerous roads etc. On this stage the meeting took place in the strange surrounding of the car park of one of the strangest shop combinations that could possibly exist. A sex shop, and cheese shop. Yes, that’s right, all under one roof. Only in France!
The final day and we had all of our riders on the start. What an achievement for Penny and Britt. Britt has been out of the sport since the end of her junior year with Glandular Fever. 2 years away and on a reduced program this year, she’s managed to fight through. She was also the ‘Lanterne Rouge’, something that we were kind of proud of.
useless, me
top quote should be
With the course for day 1 clearly being set by someone with a great sense of humor, the first 40km’s were going to be very challenging for a lot of the 172 riders on the start line. There were 4 laps of lake including a 1st category climb. For some this would be a great a great warm up, for others it was their worst nightmare.
by Sarah Connolly on Jul 26, 2010 1:05 PM EDT up reply actions
Here's a bit I didn't notice before
From the Horizon stage 4 report
Penny was one of the youngest in the race. Still a junior and therefore on restricted gears
So was Coryn Rivera on the junior gears too when she outsprinted all those others for third place? That’s even more impressive.
Some blogs from Horizon riders
Crossing the line after a quick corner I was leading for about 90 minutes with my time of 26m 31s and ended up 15th after the whole field had been through, the winner was only 51s up so I was quite chuffed to have got so close. I’d also had the chance to ride in the Australian team car for the final hour, behind Shara Gillow and Ruth Corset, both finished in the top 10 and it was interesting for me to see how effective they were out of the saddle on the climbs compared to me.
Britt Joachems’ blog - in Dutch
Al met al denk ik dat dit voor mij een goede trainingsweek is geweest en ik weer veel ervaring op heb gedaan. Met het team hebben we het leuk en erg naar ons zin gehad. Nu nog even bijkomen en dan weer op naar de volgende wedstrijden
Our main accommodation for the tour was in a school, with school dinner type meals, consisting of food that had been cooked to within an inch of its life. A personal favourite of mine being the sausage which you could peel (which we then found cut up in our salads the next day). Most meals you had to just tuck into mountains of bread as unlike Helen we weren’t fans of miscellaneous lentil dishes. I was rooming with the notorious Alex Greenfield and fellow Yorkshire lass Penny Rowson and we were the ‘naughty room’ although after having to enforce a ‘euro in the pot’ rule for Helen’s immature ways I personally feel we were wrongly labeled.
Stage 3 was probably the worst for me suffering all day from the off. I felt a bit off all ride but just had to man up and get through it, although it was oh so tempting to just stop when you rode through the feed.
Here's an interesting development
France 3 Limousin have made an appeal for anyone with amateur footage to contact them for a Web TV project. It’s nice to see mainstream media getting involved in projects like this, and it would be worth keeping an eye on that blog for any further developments.
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