Girls on Tour 2007

World Cup leader Nicole Cooke attacks World Champion Marianne Vos on the Fleche Walloon

Europe is the undisputed ‘capital’ of the road cycling world and even your most casual follower of cycling will probably have heard of the Grand Tours; the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España, that are the pillars of the men’s professional race cycling scene.

However, what is not so well documented, but which is just as thriving a sporting arena, are the professional women’s races that make up the UCI calendar. This calendar includes a number of one day races and tours that mirror the men’s calendar. In fact, women have stage races that echo each of the men’s grand tours.

History
There is no doubt that women’s racing has been struggling for something approaching equality in terms of wages, prize money and media coverage since it was first recognised in the late 19th century, but that lack of recognition has not stopped women from entering the sport or fighting for glory over the years.

Not surprisingly, it was France that pioneered the way for women’s cycling and it was here that the first World Championship, which included races for women, was run back in 1958.

Today there is a full calendar of over 70 professional races throughout the year and within this there are prestigious stage races and the UCI World Cup series, which runs from March to September in preparation for the World Championships.

There are essentially three types of professional races, just as we have on the domestic scene:
1. Time trials
2. Tours or Stage Races
3. One day races

What is a stage race?
Races that run over several stages (up to 3 weeks for the men, usually 1 week for women) with daily stages that include:
• Mass start road stages
• Individual and team time trails
• Rest days

Stage race prizes include:
1. General Classification, based on time amassed across all the stages
2. Team classification, as above but for the team
3. Queen of the Mountains, based on points awarded for reaching the summit of designated climbs
4. Points classification, based on points awarded for mid race sprints

Leda Cox races for a top Italian squad - read more about her bike and Italy

The Grande Boucle
The women’s Tour de France, now known as The Grande Boucle, was first run in 1984. In the early days, the race ran alongside the men’s race and the first winner, Marianne Martin (USA), actually shared the podium in Paris with the winner of the men’s race that year, Laurent Fignon (who was, it has to be said, less than impressed with the arrangement!)

Originally the race was run over 15 stages, although the modern format for the race is now usually just five and today it runs quite separately to the men’s race. However, the list of winners is testament to the status of this race and includes GB’s own Nicole Cooke, who took the tour last year by over 6 minutes on general classification. She lead from start to finish and put a decisive amount of time into her competitors during the fourth stage, a 115km route, which took in the gruelling climb of Mount Ventoux. She made history with the win because no other British rider had ever even achieved a podium place in a grand tour, let alone a win.

Nicole won again this year, in a race dominated by her team who finished 36 minutes ahead of the second placed team. It was the 19km individual time trial (stage 3b) that gave Nicole the opportunity to put time into her rivals and she was delighted to share the final podium with her team mate Priska Doppmann (Sui) and, in third place, Emma Pooley (Gbr) who rode as part of the GB squad in support of Nicole at the 2005 World Road Race Championships.

Giro d'Italia Femminile
Men and women have a slightly more colourful history in the Giro. In 1924 the field for the men’s race actually included a woman, as Alfonsina Strada simply failed to draw attention to the fact that she was a woman and she rode and raced with the men. Back in those days women who raced bikes were considered graceless and grimy. The Italians labelled her the ‘devil on wheels’ and they crossed themselves as she rode by.

Much to her credit, she not only finished the race, but she beat two men in the process and earned a great deal of respect along the way.

Since 1988, women have been spared the need for subterfuge in order to ride the Giro and once again GB’s Nicole Cooke is amongst the past winners:

Nicole Cooke

UCI World Cup Series
Alongside the big tours, the UCI runs a series of races that make up the World Cup and there are over 230 women from across the world who make up the pro-racing teams that do battle on this stage. Their ages range from 19 years to 49 years, the oldest lady being the formidable Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli, with an unprecedented 51 national and world titles to her name.

The World Cup is a series of 10 races, which are raced by the very top professional riders throughout the season and in preparation for the World Championships.

The World Cup calendar this year includes:
03.03.2007 Women’s World Cup Geelong, Australia
08.04.2007 Ronde van Vlaanderen, Belgium
14.04.2007 Ronde van Drenthe, Netherlands
25.04.2007 La Flèche Wallonne, Belgium
13.05.2007 Berner-Rundfahrt, Switzerland
02.06.2007 La Coupe du Monde Montréal, Canada
03.08.2007 Open de Suède Vargarda, Sweden
05.08.2007 Golden Hour Team Time Trial, Denmark
01.09.2007 GP de Plouay, France
16.09.2007 Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt, Germany

After six rounds, the series leader is GB’s Nicole Cooke (Raliegh Lifeforce), who is defending her win of this series in 2006. She is just 53 points ahead of the world number one ranked Marianne Vos from the Netherlands (DSB Bank), and who is also the current World Road Race Champion.

These two have been jostling for position all year and have a significant margin over the other riders at this stage:

World Cup Series - Individual Standings after round 6
1. Nicole Cooke (GBr) Raleigh Lifeforce 278 points
2. Marianne Vos (Ned) DSB Bank 225 points
3. Oenone Wood (Aus) T-Mobile 109 points
4. Fabiana Luperini (Ita)Menikini-Selle Italia-Gysko 90 points
5. Edita Pucinskaite (Lit) Nürnberger Versicherung 76 points

So the stage is set for Marianne and Nicole to continue their battle throughout the season and this suggests the world road race championships, to be held in Germany on 29th September, will be an historic showdown for these talented riders.

In preparation for this, here is a bit of background:

Marianne Vos
Marianne is currently 20 years old and is the current world champion. She is also the number one ranked female road cyclist in the world, based on UCI points earned for race results this season.

Marianne started cycling at the age of 6, inspired by her older brother, she rode her first race at 8 and was instantly successful. She has been the Dutch National titles in cyclo-cross, road and mountain biking. Vos has also competed on inline and speed skating.

Her biggest wins include:
World Road Race Champion (2006)
World Cyclo-cross Champion (2006)
European Road Race Champion (2006)
European Cyclo-cross Champion (2006)
La Flèche Wallonne Féminine (2007)

Little known fact: Marianne’s cat is called Chiapoessie, named after former Italian road racer Claudio Chiappucci (‘poes’ is the Dutch word for cat).

Nicole Cooke
Originally from Wick in Wales, Nicole, 24 years old, is the defending champion and current leader of the UCI World Cup. She has four junior world titles to her name but as yet still has to win a senior title. Cooke began cycling very young and she won her first senior national title at just sixteen. She has won the British National Road Race for the last seven years

Her biggest wins include:
Commonwealth Games Road Race Champion 2002
UCI World Cup Champion 2003
Giro d'Italia Femminile 2004 (she was the youngest person ever to win the race)
UCI World Cup Champion 2006
La Grande Boucle 2006
Tour of Flanders 2007
Geelong Tour and World Cup 2007
Ronde Van Vlanderen 2007

Little known fact: rumour has it that at the tender age of seven, she fell of her bike and fractured her skull, but she got up and pedalled home on her own, even though her vision was severely impaired!

Brit Women Abroad
Nicole is just one of a growing number of British women who race in Europe and make cycling their day job, here are some other names to look out for:

Nicole COOKE Raleigh Lifeforce
Tanja Slater Raleigh Lifeforce
Rachel HEAL Webcor (based in US)
Caroline KLOIBER USC Chirio Forno D'Asolo
Cath HARE Rapha Condor
Leda COX Saccarelli EMU
Lizzie ARMITSTEAD Global
Helen WYMAN Global
Gabby DAY Global
Nikki HARRIS Global
Emma SILVERSIDES Global
Katie CURTIS Global
Emma Pooley Specialized Dfw