Newsgroup: it.sport.ciclismo
Titolo: Introduction To Women's Cycling

Introduction To Women's Cycling
Women's racing actually started in the 50's, well at least some of the
records of the biggest events date back to this time. Elsy Jacobs won the
Worlds Championships road race in 1958 at Rheims France. Women's team time
trial started in 1987 at Villach Austria, while the individual time trail
started in 1994 at Agrigento Italy. Grande Boucle or Women's Tour De France
also known as the Tour De Feminin started in 1984. Giro d'Italia Femminile
started in 1988, and this was about the time Jeannie Longo entered the scene
and started her domination of the sport. She had a great rivalry with Maria
Cannins who was a great climber. The door was open to many new events that
have become the crown jewels of women's racing including Fleche Wallone,
Tour De Snowy, Tour De l'Aude, HP Challenge, Tour of the Gila, Tour De
Toona, Liberty Classic and many others both in Europe and America. Also the
advent of the World Cup series, which is a series of classics based on a
point system and year long competiton. Between the grand tours, world cup,
various classics and the world championships, this provided a platform
worldwide for the women to shine.
Racing in America has improved quite a bit over the years for women, but it
has also continued to flourish in Europe and especially Australia. In the
90's riders often rode for themselves although teams would continue to
improve in the 90's. Stronger teams, and money started to enter the sport
and for the first time, women started to enjoy earnings that were not
previously possible. Women like Leontien used their fame and talent to
increase their earnings in the same way Super Mario did. However these have
been few, since women like Leontien have been not only multi-talented in all
areas of cycling like track, road, and time trialing, but landed modeling
contracts and a variety of ads in major magazines. Her status as a cycling
superstar is extremely rare, but other have tried to follow in her
footsteps. Take for instance Rochelle Gilmore has had a successful cycling
career and has become a sexy model as well. Her antics have made her one of
more notable hot talents in the cycling world, as has others like Svetlana
Bubnenkova and Modesta Vzesniauskaite. Other glamorous gals of cycling would
include Nicole Brandli, Lynn Gaggoli and Dotsie Bausch.
Today while earnings pale in comparison to the men's salaries, things have
improved a lot in the last five years, and the Top women of the world today
can earn as much as 150k to 200k a year. Average salaries run around 50k a
year, and that's not bad at all. Consider that 50k a year would be
considered a middle class yearly income in America and not bad at all,
unless you have a big family. However many of the girls earn very little and
sometime even have to dig into their own pockets shelling out money for
meals, gas and hotels. Even some girls maintain their own bikes, turning
wrenches, and spraying WD-40 on the parts and such. Not really a pretty job
for women, but many do not mind at all. Most of the big teams supply meals,
gas and hotels free for the most part. After that more then likely there are
only a handful of top women who really are paid well, but things are
improving with better teams and sponsors every year.
Nevertheless, it's a very hard life for the hopeful young rider who has
dreams of stardom, riches and glory. There are many lonely hours training
nearly all year long just for a few minutes of glory. Used to be women could
achieve many solo victories in the past, which really highlights the glory
of the winner. One such rider who often rode solo to victory was Fabiana
Luperini, but during the mid 90's women's cycling was still growing, so such
attempts were not as highly publicized as it is today. While it's much
harder to solo to victory today with the improvement of women's teams, it
still happens on occasion as recently when Luperini soloed to victory in
Grand Premio Brissago is Switzerland.
Some riders like Longo who have often rode without being on a team, can have
it's ups and downs. Riding for a team means being a team player and a
delivery person bringing food and water to other team players. Also
sometimes being in the ideal position to win is negated by team tactics and
riding for the team leader. On the other hand, riding for oneself allows one
to totally focus on your goals, plus riding you own choice of bikes and
gear. The down side is spending more money on bikes, gas, food and hotels.
Also girls that refuse to be on any team and ride solo are sometimes at odds
with the various cycling organizations. Also girls often switch teams nearly
every year, and this can play havoc with a rider's career.
Some people think that some events like track, hour record and even the
Olympics means little when it comes to what a really great rider is. In my
opinion I always thought a grand tour rider was the best example of a great
cyclist. The ability to ride day after day and win on both flats, hills and
time trial, well is indeed a good yardstick to measure the greatness of a
rider, while track, one day races and even the Olympics are more or less
just slices of the pie. I do think that the Olympics is harder then many
people think. Like the Worlds, which seems to be the hardest one day event
since every women would like to win it, the games also represent the same
concept but it can be many days of the same mental and physical disciplines
especially when being multi-talented competing in track, time trialing and
the road events. The games are really hard on the nerves and mental
toughness is important as well as stamina and endurance to finish all the
events with a good effort. Still I think a grand tour is the best
measurement of a rider overall.
To win grand tours back to back year after year is another great
achievement, and when the tours are back to back within a few days or a week
of each other, then that is truly the mark of great champion to win all of
those. Very few men have even competed in all the grand tours back to back
in the old days, but today very few if any compete in the Giro, Tour De
France and the Tour of Spain. It's just too demanding and wears out the
riders. It's the same with the women, and very few can compete and win the
Giro and Tour De France back to back. Of course today the grand tours have
shortened their length of stages from the old days for the women like the
Giro, going from 15 stages to 9. However the last Tour De Femmin's all the
Top Pro Women were in it during 2003, still it had over 15 stages and many
hard mountain stages. Competing all year long also takes it's toll on the
riders. Racing seasons are extremely long compared to other sports, nearly
all year with only December off before they start training again. If fact
most pros even ride some during December, just to keep the legs loose. After
ten years of this, it can really take a toll.
Most riders careers are short in the sense of what it would be like compared
to a typical career where one works for 25 years and then retire. Only
Jeannie Longo has raced long enough to be called a lifetime career still
riding into her late 40's. Most of the women's careers are anywhere from
five to ten years, and many of those years could be with little pay. If they
are a great rider, often they don't come into good money until the last few
years of their career when they peak. Still some like to travel and race and
enjoy seeing the world, meeting women from other countries, learning new
languages, their cultures, food, etc. Kind of like exchange students in some
ways, where cycling is the course of study! It's a great way to see the
world if you are racing in Europe. The UCI circuit can include not only
Europe, but Australia and Canada as well.
Women are equally as fun to watch as the men, even more since they are
underdogs of the sport. The men enjoy the best sponsors and pay worldwide as
well and many more races to compete in. However the women are beautiful in
the bright colors of their sponsors and I think the silk and spandex,
Coolmax, etc, only adds to them making the sport all the more sexy and
enjoyable for the fans. They suffer and bleed, cry, laugh and rejoice just
as much as the men, and they offer just as an exciting race for the fans
then if you are simply not just fixated on speed. Top women are usually
compared to cat-2 men, but the best women can at times hang with cat-1 men.
However it's not so much the speed, but the bike handling skills, climbing
and team tactics that make it fun. Also solo efforts are equally compelling
to watch. Most of the women I have met at races have been very nice to talk
with and seem to revel in the attention. Women's racing is no longer a
social event but a real serious business where the lungs are bursting and
legs are burning. It's no longer the case where they circle lap after lap
chatting like friends out on a social ride. That might of been the case so
many years ago at some races, but today's top women is a totally serious
business punctuated by race radios, head sets, ear pieces, the best bikes
money can buy, computers for altitude, time trialing and heart rate. It's
all a science now, and on the cutting edge.
While in the old days, there were a handful of great riders dominating the
competition like Longo and Van Moorsel, today there are many riders that are
great. Also the quality and amount of good races worldwide has increased. In
the old days, the biggest women's events were the Women's Tour of France,
the Women's Giro, World Championships, Olympics, and not much else. In
America we had the biggest stage race in America and the biggest payoff
worldwide with the HP Women's Challenge. It reached as high as 100k in
payoff for the women in one year. Also Nicole Reinhart was headed for the
biggest payoff in history for women, a quarter of a million dollars for
winning 4 events which she was on her way to winning on the last lap of the
last event before the tragic crash that claimed her life. We also have
several big races here in America for the women today like, Tour of the
Gila, Redlands, Sea Otter, Tour De Toona, Liberty Classic and the now
retired T-Mobile International in San Francisco which offered a very steep
course, one that tested the best women in the world.
Also in Europe other races have been added, some have come and gone like the
Tour De Snowy. Fleche Wallone is alive and well for the women and is a very
classy famous one day event for the women. World cup events like Montreal,
Rotterdam Tour and Geelong Tour have become household words. Other less
known events but good one day races include Amstel Gold, Tour De Berne, and
women's Tour of Flanders. Women's Giro still enjoys the greatest prestige as
the biggest classic on the calendar, taking over from the turmoil that has
surrounded the women's Tour of France. The problems with the Women's TDF
have yet to be sorted out and it is a problem of divisions in ownership.
Still Europe has a wealth of classics and stage races to choose from, also
to note is the well known Tour De Aude which our American Amber Neben won in
2005. All that lacks really is for America and Europe to become truly
integrated on the World Cup scene as well as the incentives for Euro teams
to come to America to compete in our races. However this problem also
effects the men as well. We have as of yet, not fully integrated with Europe
except with teams like Discovery who race the Tour and the classics. None
more famous then Lance with Postal and Discovery, but the women in America,
and vice versa in Europe lack the money and the integration to race on both
continents.
Today's Top Women include stars probably none more well known then Oenone
Wood, winning of the World Cup, and the British sensation Nicole Cooke.
Other well known Top Women include Nicole Brandli and Joanne Somaribba, both
well known from their grand tour wins. Other characters well known for their
racing and antics like Svetlana Bubnenkova and Rochelle Gilmore. Some of the
older champions are still riding well like Jeannie Longo, Edita Pucinskaite
and Fabiana Luperini. The two well known twin pairs (sisters) in cycling,
the Polikeviciute and Beltman sisters. Powerhouses like Judith Arndt and
Zoulfia Zabirova are still riding well, both on the track and the road.
Newer stars are coming into their own like Tatiana Guderzo and Silvia
Parietti both winning, the nationals for Parietti and 2nd at the worlds for
Guderzo. Probably no bigger talent for the moment then Regina Schleicher who
not only won the worlds but won four stages back to back in the Giro, a
great feat! While some great riders have retired like Petra Rossner,
Alessandra Cappellotto and Genevieve Jeanson, others are coming into form
like Victoria Pendelton of Great Britain and Christine Thorburn of United
States.
Riders to look out for in 2006 are both some of the seasoned veterans and
relative newcomers, but look for Nicole Cooke to ride well this year as well
as Oenone Wood, Trixi Worrack, Regina Schleicher, Judith Arndt, Ina
Teutenberg, Fabiana Luperini, Giorgia Bronzini, Karin Thürig, Mirjam
Melchers, Nicole Brandli, Svetlana Bubnenkova, Christine Thorburn, Amber
Neben, and possibly Joanne Somaribba although while her name is on the team
list, she was to retire at the end of 2005.
Article written by Bruce Johnston

 Introduction To Women's Cycling
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Thank you very much Bruce!
-- 
http://modesta.biciticino.ch
Il sito dedicato alla giovane ciclista lituana Modesta Vzesniauskaite

 Il sito dedicato alla giovane ciclista lituana Modesta Vzesniauskaite
I look forward to more of your excellant photos and our queen Modesta!
Best,
Bruce