Emakumeen Bira, 12th-15th June
No uphill time trial, this year, sadly, and no uphill finishes, but PLENTY of hills in each of the 4 stages. Have a look at the race profiles in any of these great race previews:
- Cobbles & Hills (Spanish or google translate)
- El Pelotón (Spanish or google)
- On Velofocus (English)
- On VeloRooms (English and forum)
In part 1 of my interview with Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, she tells us a bit more about what the race is like to ride, and you can follow the race with our Podium Café friends, Babelia, Marcos and Saul - follow them on twitter through those links, and Babelia through the Road & Mud twitter account as well. Of course I've added them all to my live race tweeting twitter list, and there's already a ton of information on the #Bira twitter hashtag.
And Road & Mud has a history of the Basque races, in Spanish or via google. And if you didn't see if last year, or want to be reminded of it, check out Saul's article on being at the race, right here on the Café!
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North Star Grand Prix, 11th-15th June
amrook wrote us a great preview of the race, with an excellent interview with Anna Grace Christiansen talking about how she helped get together a team for the race (inspiring!) which you should read before you do anything else!
We've had the first 2 (of 6) stages, and you can see the video:
Stage 1: St Paul ITT (results, photos on the race site and on Velonews)
Stage 2: St Paul Downtown Crit (results, photos on the race site)
You can follow all the action with the race twitter, and Eric Maresjo, the Tibco mechanic livetweets as well - and there's a ton of information on the excellent race website. Videos will show up here.
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Of course, if you find anything about the races, do add it all to the comments, and let's chat about the races and any other news that comes up. racing is wonderful!