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Podiumcafe Women's Raceday of the year: Nominations

Usually a tricky category because we've all seen fewer races and some of the best efforts we've only read about or seen highlights of but this year we've actually seen more than ever. A few World Cups, a few well covered stageraces, Worlds..... So what was your favorite? Remember to give good reasons for your nominations

I'm going to start the nominations off with one stage and one one day race.

* GiroRosa Stage 1
While we saw the TdF doing some tough opening stages in Yorkshire there was nothing like the kick in the teeth the peloton in the Giro got after the prologue when they thought they were facing a fairly pedestrian first stage with some little hills to annoy the sprinters a bit. What they got was radically different with a finishing circuit with a tough climb and technical, bordering on brutal, descent. We got attacking racing, a large part of the peloton spit out the back on the crazy laps and ultimately a devastating attack by Pauline Ferrand Prevot that made an elite group where Vos (duh) could take the win on the line. It was the Giro-racing at it's best, Rosa or not.

* Ronde van Drenthe World Cup
Opening day of the World Cup was Vos-less and it was up to other Rabo/Liv riders to seize their opportunities on home ground. They used their power to launch Slappendel and van der Breggen in a break with some classic crosswind attacking. Slappendel sacrificed herself to keep van der Breggen ahead of a chase behind that was messed up at times but got serious when Ellen van Dijk did the work to allow Armitstead to attack and bridge to the front on the last climb. A classic day of dutch racing with attacks and chasegroup psychology determining the eventual outcome.

So, what other nominations do you guys have?