Women's Tour of Britain

couerdelion

Whilst we are all caught up in Giro fever another big race kicks off today - The Women's Tour of Britain.

The race takes place around the East Midlands and East Anglia and kicks off today with a 58 mile stage around Northamptonshire.

The stages are:
Stage1 - Oundle to Northampton
Stage2 - Hinckley to Bedford
Stage3 - Felixstowe to Clacton
Stage4 - Cheshunt to Welwyn Garden City
Stage5 - Harwich to Bury St Edmunds

Official website is http://womenstour.co.uk

Lizzie Armisted is the current points leader (160 points clear) but Marian Vos has all the class to win this event. Others to watch are Lucy Garner, Hannah Barnes, Laura Trott, Dani King and Emma Pooley (slight Brit bias from me) amongst the 96 riders. Full list is here

There's a lot of TV coverage for this event (compared to the usual amount for women's racing) - highlight shows are on sky, ITV4 and Eurosport. From memory it's Eurosport 2 tonight and then Eurosport 1 the rest of the week.

Should be some exciting racing!

MB Lacey

Following updates from here.

Go on Lizzie!

http://www.womenstour.co.uk/live/index.php#.U2n90aJ8qqg

MB Lacey

Kind of frustrating there isn't one photo of the actual race in the twitter feed!
And no tv coverage for us?
I saw that it's being shown for an hour tonight on ITV4, but UPC stopped showing that channel in the last month.

couerdelion

MB Lacey wrote: »

Kind of frustrating there isn't one photo of the actual race in the twitter feed!
And no tv coverage for us?
I saw that it's being shown for an hour tonight on ITV4, but UPC stopped showing that channel in the last month.

Yeah, it's a shame it's not on live but at least this is an increased profile compared to normal for women's cycling and that's a start. Stilll a way to go till it gets equal billing as with the ITU triathlon races...

There's highlights on Eurosport 2 tonight (Eurosport 1 other nights) plus I think the BBC have some highlights as well.

Dunno if you can share twitter pics? this was the start

MB Lacey

Oh great thanks, cool pic.
Wonder why that photo doesn't show on the official Women's Tour site.
I'll switch over to Women's cycling feed.

We don't get ITV 4, but I think we have maybe the basic eurosport channel and sky, bbc 1 - will look it up - thanks.
Agree about the increased coverage - it's great.

Sr. Assumpta

More tv coverage / highlights options here.. http://www.thewomenstour.co.uk/about/tv.php#.U2ouvhdOOUo

Stage 1 just finished, and Hannah Barnes (United Healthcare) took the 'Best of British' jersey after the stage... Hannah rode 'Ras na mBan', our own International Stage Race for Women, last September in Co. Clare. She won 3 stages and took home several jerseys then, and she was a very impressive rider to watch race.

MB Lacey

It's not available on itv4 in Ireland but highlights are on eurosport2 10pm (upc).

spoke2cun

It is available on itv4 here in Ireland. It's a free channel on a sky box.

Sr. Assumpta

spoke2cun wrote: »

It is available on itv4 here in Ireland. It's a free channel on a sky box.

ITV 4 is also provide to my tv by my Freesat box, free...

couerdelion

Strava Activity Playback of stage 1 - http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/#138494425,jlhBCHduQQiejkEIzKFBCPfDQQgrz0EIl9BBCO3iQQiR70EIZjdCCFtPQgg=

Not that interesting but you can click on any of the girls links to get information on their ride today (or follow them to look at rides in future) such as average speed / power etc.

MB Lacey

Wasn't that great to watch?!
Tactics, crashes, snotting, failed attacks, Lizzie Armistead sprinting off too early and ending up 8th, Hannah Barnes sprint at the end to 3rd, the seconds between Marrianne Vos and Emma Johannson at the line?!
I loved it.
I'm always amazed how they can stay together for nearly 100k and time everything for the last 500m.

After following the live tweets from the official Tour site and Total Women's cycling site it was great to get the visuals.

UPC mustn't have bought into some deal for certain sports being shown on ITV4, all I got was a blank screen saying 'Due to Regional restrictions we cannot show the following programme...' but I can watch non sporting programmes on itv4 no problem.

But watching it on Eurosport2 was great, I liked the commentators.

Tonight it's on Eurosport1 again 10pm.
ITV4 9pm.

couerdelion

MB Lacey wrote: »

Wasn't that great to watch?!

It was really good. Definitely on a par with the men's which isn't something you can say about a lot of sports.

The girl who was in the second crash didn't look great- laid down face first on the floor and I thought the pack was too busy letting each other lead the chase to worry about catching Elise Delzenne who nearly managed a solo breakaway of 40km for the win.



I reckon Delzenne only wears her national kit because the specialized/lulu lemon kit is so goddamn awful - I've googled it and it looks ok in still photo's but it looked pretty minging on TV anyway.

QueensGael

My dumbass Eurosport sub (PC/Mac version) isn't working, although I've been charged for it. Anyone else having problems with it?

couerdelion

Horrible conditions yesterday and if anyone watching still didn't know who Rossella Ratto was yesterday, then they should know now.

To my eye she has an inefficient cycling style that is hard to watch, as her knees flicks in towards the top tube with every turn of the pedal but what power she does put down is used in the best way - to try and breakaway from the pack. On stage 1 she got away but it was to no avail as she was reeled back in again. Stage 2 saw the breakaway stick and she now holds the yellow Jersey for stage 3. It's unlikely she'll be able to defend it as the team won't be strong enough and she'll ultimately waste energy chasing down her rivals. I think the race is now Vos's for the taking. She's 8 seconds up on Armisted and surely she won't let that lead go.

Ratto's brother rides today at the Giro as Stage 3 of the WTOB heads to the coast with a finish at Clacton on Sea.

smurphy29

Odd decision from Orica-Greenedge not to chase hard and defend yellow. Lizzie Armistead seemed a bit nonplussed in the post-race interview. Exciting finish with the breakaway just hanging on by 6 seconds.

Vile conditions, must hav been a thrill for the riders to see such great crowds out. A fine move to get so many schoolkids out to cheer by the roadside.

manwithaplan

Orica looked happy enough to lose the jersey - I suspect they didn't want everyone looking in their direction every time a move went up the road.

couerdelion

manwithaplan wrote: »

Orica looked happy enough to lose the jersey - I suspect they didn't want everyone looking in their direction every time a move went up the road.

Strange tactics from Orica - it's 'only' a 5 stage race so it's not like wining stage 1 means they've to defend for 3 weeks like in the TdF. Surely it's easier to win from the front?

Johansson is world number 1 so the pressure is on her anyway - if she could have kept the yellow jersey after outsprinting Vos on stage 1 then it would have put a real marker down for the rest of the season rather than everyone thinking that she is only world No. 1 because Vos has hardly raced.

Still, it makes for exciting racing as the big names continue to vie for the win and extra seconds that will give them overall victory.

manwithaplan

I reckon they knew the two out front wouldn't be a threat to GC come the end of the race. Was there a time bonus for the winner? If so, it made sense to take that out of the calculation as long as the two out front didn't gain too much time. Ultimately it's about where the 'big favourites' finish relative to each other and there's no point wasting energy defending the jersey against anyone else - that energy will be needed to fend off real threats on GC.

couerdelion

Yes, stage winner got 6 seconds.

If you exclude the two in the breakaway yesterday as having no realistic chance then its:

Vos
Johansson +1s
Armisted +8s
Barnes +9s

I can see Ratto just sitting in though on Vos's wheel knowing that it's now up to them to do something.

MB Lacey

smurphy29 wrote: »

Odd decision from Orica-Greenedge not to chase hard and defend yellow. Lizzie Armistead seemed a bit nonplussed in the post-race interview. Exciting finish with the breakaway just hanging on by 6 seconds.

She wasn't happy was she.
Here's the race report from Orica Greenedge explaining yersterday's tactics / lack of chase.

Seems a lot livlier today, both race wise and weather wise

Live Updates Stage 3

QueensGael

And we're off! Weather looks like a summer's day in Kerry over there...

MB Lacey

QueensGael wrote: »

My dumbass Eurosport sub (PC/Mac version) isn't working, although I've been charged for it. Anyone else having problems with it?

Did you get sorted? Have you been able to watch on tv?

QueensGael

MB Lacey wrote: »

Did you get sorted? Have you been able to watch on tv?

Yeah, kinda, enough that I can watch it on the computer now anyways!