Ferrier-Bruneau to Hitec, Corset retires - and more gossip, rumour & news from the women's peloton
by Sarah Connolly on Oct 11, 2011 11:34 AM EDT
in Women's Cycling
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It's been a week of mixed news for the women's peloton - very exciting times, as Hitec Products UCK continues their change of direction and takes on more top talent, signing Christel Ferrier-Bruneau - and sad times, as Ruth Corset, a great Aussie rider retires on a high. All this and much more signings, team news and gossip below the jump!
Hitec Products UCK sign Christel Ferrier-Bruneau
Last week we reported that Hitec had taken on one of the rising stars of 2011, Elisa Longo Borghini, and Polish climber Sylwia Kapusta, and they haven't stopped there! Yesterday, the press release went out that they're adding French National Champion Christel Ferrier-Bruneau, a rider who any team would be proud to have on side.
This will probably be the biggest team Ferrier-Bruneau has ridden for, and I'm not sure why, as she's one of those riders who will always try to get away, and lights up races. Her road career started in 2007 with small French team Les Pruneaux d'Agen which morphed into Team Lot-et-Garonne, then in 2009 she signed for Nicole Cooke's short-lived Vision 1 project, and after that, moved back to a French team Vienne Futuroscope. In 2011 she raced for Gauss, and had her best season so far, coming 2nd overall in the hilly Tour de l'Ardèche and 11th in the World Cups Trofeo Binda amongst over great results, but her palmares don't show her impact on races - she's definitely not a rider to sit happily in the bunch, waiting for a sprint finish, and will always fight to make a race more challenging.
Stef Wyman summed up Ferrier Bruneau well: "She is a true all-rounder who lives for instruction, information and tactics - she can react in a second and can push herself to limits not possible by others. She's class."
These three Hitec signings signal a different direction for the team. They've been built around Emma Johansson, with a team of predominantly young, Norwegian riders who have been able to get experience competing in the small races as well as the huge ones - but with these new signings, there should be less pressure on Johansson, especially as each of the new three are definitely riders the peloton will sit up and take note of. There are fun times ahead! In the meantime, follow Ferrier-Bruneau's adventures in Cyclocross over the winter on her website...
Ruth Corset and Rebecca Romero retire
On the sad side, Australian climber, Ruth Corset, has announced her retirement. Corset, who came 6th in this year's Giro Donne, including 3rd place on the mountainous Stage 8, has ridden reduced seasons with Team Australia, as she has two young children back home in Australia and so has spent short trips in Europe for key races (where she has had great results, especially in the hilly races). It is always hard for the Australian riders, and juggling pro cycling with a family seems so much harder for the women riders than for the men, so it's not surprising Corset is choosing to retire. She definitely leaves on a high, however, with that Giro result - and it must be a good feeling for riders to leave because it's their choice, rather than through injury or lack of options. I wish her all the best for the future, whatever she chooses to do next - good luck Ruth, and thanks for enlivening the racing!
In track news, reigning Olympic Individual Pursuit Champion Rebecca Romero has announced she is taking herself out of contention for the 2012 Olympics. Romero is one of about six British riders competing for three places on the Team Pursuit squad, and it's not too much of a surprise that she has pulled out - there's a nicely detailed (if possibly a tad biased) article on some of the reasons why in The Guardian.
Other news
Rabobank (Nederland Bloeit) have announced that they've signed Roxane Knetemann, the 24-year old daughter of former World Champion and joint holder of the most TdF stages won by a Dutchman, Gerrie Knetemann. Knetemann rode half the 2011 season with Skil-Koga, and the second half with Batavus - she'll be joined at Rabobank by Australian Crit Champion and u23 ITT Champ, Lauren Kitchen. EDIT!! And Liesbet de Vocht and 17-year old Rebecca Talen! De Vocht moved from Nederland Bloeit to TopSport Vlaanderen last year, but it's great to see her back - and it seems like Rabo will be an intriguing mix of (very) experienced and (very) new young riders.... it's reminding me of Nederland Bloeit 2010, when every rider on the team won at least 1 stage/race, and I like it!
(It seems like we've only heard about riders leaving TopSport for 2012, and I keep seeing suggestions that yet more are going. That's always an interesting sign, especially for a well-funded team like TopSport, with an aim of supporting riders to the 2012 Olympics....)
Irene van den Broek (formerly AA Drink-Leontien.nl) and Lieselot Decroix (TopSport Vlaanderen) will join Martine Bras at Dolman's Landscaping. It looks like Van den Broek's AA Drink team-mate, Linda Villumsen will also be leaving - Wielerland report that Villumsen has been linked to GreenEdge, and that Chantal Blaak was approached by Rabobank, but has chosen to stay at AA Drink with Kirsten Wild, Lucinda Brand and Marijn de Vries. It will be interesting to see what happens to AA Drink - this year they had a lot of riders, and so far we've heard about riders leaving, but no new signing, yet...
Basque fans should be happy that Eneritz Iturriagaetxebarria Mazaga is renewing with Lointek for another year - yay! We keep the Basquest rider in the peloton!!!
And Café readers should be especially pleased to hear that Horizon Fitness-Prendas Ciclismoo will be returning again in 2012. They'll be aiming to repeat their mix of riding the UK season and as many international races as they can get the invites for. It sounds like Olympic hopefuls Dani King (current Team Pursuit World Champion) and Jo Rowsell (Team Pursuit World Champ 2008 & 2009) are staying for 2012, which is even better news - although the Olympics will certainly shape the look of the 2012 team and race programme. Regular readers will know I'm a big fan of the team - but don't take my word for it - read about their fabulous 2011! Not bad for a small UK team run on a shoestring!
Miscellany
Other things you might be interested in: Junior World Champion Lucy Garner interviewed by VeloUK - on how she got to the Worlds, and how it feels to be Champion; and Garmin-Cervélo's Carla Ryan talks about her 2011, the problems she had in the first half of the season, and how very, very happy she was to ride the Worlds for Australia!
And although I fanposted this, it's worth repeating... Marianne Vos is currently in Bhutan, for an international sports exchange programme that is part of the celebrations of the Bhutan royal wedding. Vos has been running some cycling workshops with young people, and has been posting some very happy tweets - but I don't think anyone will be surprised to see that when she was in Delhi, she couldn't just ride in a rickshaw, she had to get on the bike as well! Of course she did - this kind of thing is one of the many reasons she has so many fans!
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Fabulous column - we really don't pay you enough!
What a shame Ruth is retiring, I was hoping she would get a ride with Greenedge, but young kiddies will that to you and I am sure it is the right decision.
Hahahaha!
I’m really sad re Ruth Corset. What I’d thought was because Team Aus will still be riding the big races in Europe next season, Corset would continue coming over for short trips, and rip up the races – she’d be a fantastic cornerstone for the team, especially if it’s a development squad. But like you, I’m sure she’s made the right choice for herself – hope whatever happens next is all good for her too!
Aka Pigeons!
by Sarah Connolly on Oct 11, 2011 12:56 PM EDT up reply actions
Is there going to be any link
between the Australian team and the women’s version of Gerry Ryan Motorhomes?
by RollinRollinRolland on Oct 12, 2011 6:01 AM EDT up reply actions
Apparently, sort of
In that there’s the links to Cycling Australia. My understanding is that Team Aus will be more of a development squad (and, I assume, a place for trackies to ride a couple of road races in the summer) and the GreenEdge will be another route to pro – and I would imagine they’d be looking closely at riders, much like Sky does at the Team GB men’s junior/u23 teams – but I don’t think there’ll be an automatic progression route, or anything to prevent Team Aus riders signing to other team (it’s also my understanding that Cycling Aus are more than happy to have Aussie riders all over the peloton, for World Champs etc points, and experience etc etc)
(NB my understanding comes from chatting with people at a race or two, so it could all be complete nonsense!)
Aka Pigeons!
by Sarah Connolly on Oct 12, 2011 9:18 AM EDT up reply actions
Ok, thanks for the details
You don’t hear a lot about this with no news that it has been canned, you must presume it means that things are still going forward.
by RollinRollinRolland on Oct 12, 2011 9:52 AM EDT up reply actions
I'll be surprised if Team Aus keeps going when
there are other viable paths to the pro peleton, ie. Greenedge up and running.
I was told there'd be no math.
Just so its in this thread too
Greenedge’s Shayne Bannan says the womens team is coming:
What about the women’s team? Have there been any announcements?
No, there haven’t as of yet. We’re in the process of discussion. We’ve identified the riders of the women’s team and there will be an announcement in the next three weeks.
I was told there'd be no math.
The Team Aus DS Martin Barras said that they were definitely going to, when I asked him about it in Thüringen
This year they were running 2 different Team Australias in Europe – one that was big enough to field a full team – and win the GC! – in the Czech Republic while Ruth Corset & Shara Gillow were riding the Giro, and a track endurance team. There were a couple of races with 2 different Team Australias riding under different names, which was interesting, so they definitely have enough riders – and they’ll still have the same level of sponsorship, I THINK, so that shouldn’t be a problem.
They operate in a different way to the pro teams – they invite riders out to race in Europe for a set number of weeks, that can be extended if the riders do really well, so I imagine that won’t change – and it’s useful for riders who can’t commit to a whole season, or at uni, or working etc, and not ready/able to ride March – September…
Aka Pigeons!
by Sarah Connolly on Oct 12, 2011 1:19 PM EDT up reply actions
(I mean “a track endurance team in road races”!)
Aka Pigeons!
by Sarah Connolly on Oct 12, 2011 1:54 PM EDT up reply actions
And more new news I've edited in
Liesbet de Vocht returns to Rabo/NB after a year at TopSport – and they’ve also just signed Rebecca Talen… More via wielerland
Aka Pigeons!
So Rebecca Talen's dad was a pro cyclist too
but while Gerrie Knetemann was world champ, John Talen went one better and got the Lanterne Rouge back in 2004.
Lanterne Rouge is way way cooler though
Have Rabo signed any non-Dutchies yet?
D'Oh
from the Dutch half of Belgium is my defence. Give them time I guess. After all Hitec started out as a purely Norwegian team
Well,
a couple of years ago ze big boss Knebel started the re-orientation of the men’s team to national(istic) riders and appeal.
"Beer helps." -- Ant1.
I wonder how many really great women's teams Sky could have got
for the price of Cav
Hell, for the price of their Magic Bus!
Aka Pigeons!
by Sarah Connolly on Oct 12, 2011 3:04 AM EDT up reply actions
Düster still on the list
Don’t know about the Swiss side… It’ll be interesting to see which way they go – all-Dutch-and-Liesbet worked really well in 2010, but adding riders from other countries worked really well in 2011!
Aka Pigeons!
by Sarah Connolly on Oct 12, 2011 3:03 AM EDT up reply actions
Wonder if there are any other young daughters of former World Champs floating about?
I bet they’ve already tried for Amy Pieters!
Aka Pigeons!
by Sarah Connolly on Oct 12, 2011 3:04 AM EDT up reply actions
(oh, and remember Frinking's post on the Dutch cyclist breeding programmme?
Seems like the early iteration is working well!)
Aka Pigeons!
by Sarah Connolly on Oct 12, 2011 3:05 AM EDT up reply actions
Mine's going to be Marianne Vos
whatever she costs it’s low
I refuse to put her on my team. Rather go down the drain in a non
respectfully way.
Hi-tech.
Starting to look like an exciting team. See, there’s an argument (a good one) for running teams alongside men’s pro-teams, but I like it when they kind of develop like this, too.
"I’m hoping for the Mortirolo-Gavia combination, then we can ride down to Bormio for ice cream." Emma Pooley on the Giro Donne
Will be interesting to see the AA-Leontien and Garmin rosters
but it’s looking to be a good season with some fairly even-matched top teams.
Rabobank – Hitec – Specialized – Garmin – AA Drinks and perhaps GreenEdge. They all have multiple threats and depth.
Yeah, I like both models
I still think there should be incentives for men’s teams to have women’s teams (in MTB, the team competition results now goes on combined top men & women – IIRC, top 3 men plus top 2 women – so it’s not mandatory, but that decision resulted in a flurry of men’s teams signing women. I know the structures are different, but it could help…) but I like when teams like Hitec develop – from little small Norwegian team, to signing Emma Johansson, to strengthening all over.
Aka Pigeons!
by Sarah Connolly on Oct 12, 2011 3:32 AM EDT up reply actions
It would be a simple step
to say that points scored in World Cup races could count towards Protour rankings if the women were part of a mixed team.
That would be superb!
World Cup + Giro Donne + a couple of big stage races
Aka Pigeons!
by Sarah Connolly on Oct 13, 2011 5:38 AM EDT up reply actions
A rather nice video
made by Petite Reines (but as I found it over at the blog of Lea, that’s where I’m linking) of half an hour from the French national champs at Boulogne sur mer including a quite fascinating segment in the car following Audrey Cordon to her bronze medal.
And anyone who has been thinking that the Tour de France will be a Cav snoozefest next year, then note that stage 3 finishes in Boulogne, probably very near to the finish line here. OK it’s not quite the Muur of Huy, but it’s fairly close.
Do we mention
that the “first stage” of the CX Giro d’Italia (it’s a fancy name for a series of races that don’t come day after day) was won by Vania Rossi?
And a reminder, if you've got three hours or so to kill
all the rest of the stage videos from the Giro di Toscana have been posted (scroll down to the bottom of the page). The crowds look great and I love the evening Time Trial
Hitec roster is now apparently complete! Their last signing is Thea Thorsen
She’s a 21-year-old Norwegian, guest-riding for Hitec last year – here are her palmares, and here’s the info from Wielerland.
So we know who’s been signed, we know Lisa Brennauer has gone to Specialized-lululemon – all we need is who is left from last year, but it seems a really good team!
Aka Pigeons!
Aaargh, my maths are useless!
I am ashamed to admit this, I subtracted 1992 from 2011 and got it totally wrong!!
Thanks so much – and FABULOUS team, Karl!
Aka Pigeons!
by Sarah Connolly on Oct 12, 2011 9:19 AM EDT up reply actions
Wielerland have that too
here. Tiff Cromwell to Greenedge I guess. Last year wasn’t a brilliant year for her, but surely she’s done enough in the past to get a spot.
Adrie Visser, Janneke Kanis and Monique van de Ree move to Skil-Koga aka 1t4i
Visser is a superb sprinter, and comes from HTC-Highroad, Kanis is the 2010 u23 European Road Race Champion, and Van de Ree is yet another rider leaving AA Drink-Leontien.nl.
The 2012 full team:
Regina Bruins, Suzanne de Goede, Janneke Kanis, Kelly Markus, Amy Pieters, Monique van de Ree, Linda van Rijen, Esra Tromp, Adrie Visser and Anne de Wildt.
That’s a really nice line-up to go with the team stepping up to become UCI-level. See the team website for more information!
Aka Pigeons!
by Sarah Connolly on Oct 12, 2011 11:38 AM EDT reply actions
I was just reading about Skil 1t4i
and thinking it was great that the womens team is effectively part of their application to ride the world tour, just like Greenedge. I hope they get the licence. One of the other big teams really should pick up the Highroad women’s team – maybe Garmin? its hard to believe Sky don’t run a women’s team.
I was told there'd be no math.
Highroad is now Specialized-lululemon, but yeah, they could easily partner with a men's team
And re Sky, aaaaaaaargh! Especially with the British Cycling involvement – and the fact that’s justified by the Olympics, when the British women have a higher chance of winning road medals than the men do – aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrggghhh!!!!
Aka Pigeons!
by Sarah Connolly on Oct 12, 2011 1:55 PM EDT up reply actions
So now you want Garmin to have two women's teams?
of course the Sky bit really sucks
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