Tour de l'Aude 2009

[Skip Madness]

The first of two grand tours this season is upon us (there is no way this year's edition of the Grande Boucle can be considered one), starting tomorrow with a 3.9km prologue in Gruissan.

Saturday sees a fairly flat first day and that is followed by a 27km team time trial on Sunday.

Stage three has a long but not very difficult climb in the middle, while stage four features the steep Côte de Fanjeaux on what is otherwise not a tough day.

Stage five has the first-category Col Fourtou topping out with 27km to go.

Stage six features probably the most difficult climb of the race, the Calvaire, but it comes a long way from the finish.

Stage seven is more of the same - three classified climbs but none of them difficult.

Stage eight is probably the toughest of the race - four classified climbs, none of which are very big but cumulatively they should provide the best chance for the climbers.

The final stage features five climbs, all straightforward despite their categorisations.

It is a deeply uninspiring parcours - this in a part of France which features the climbs of Pailhères, Font Romeu and the Pic de Nore. Those climbs have featured in some past editions, so why they do not take the race back to them I do not know.

Anyway, who is riding - there is a full list of the riders in PDF format here but the main names to look out for are (including the Brits in bold):

Flexpoint: Susanne Ljungskog, Loes Gunnewijk, Loes Markerink
DSB: Marianne Vos, Angela Hennig
Columbia: Ina Teutenberg, Chantal Beltman, Emilia Fahlin, Luise Keller, Linda Villumsen
Nürnberger: Amber Neben, Trixi Worrack
Cervélo: Emma Pooley, Kristin Armstrong, Claudia Häusler
Vision 1 Racing: Nicole Cooke, Gabby Day, Vicki Whitelaw, Helen Wyman
Red Sun: Emma Johansson, Paulina Brzezna
Bigla: Noemi Cantele, Nicole Brändli, Modesta Vzesniauskaite
Lotto: Rochelle Gilmore, Lizzie Armitstead, Emma Silversides
Gauss: Julia Martisova, Tatiana Antoshina
Canada: Julie Beveridge
Selle Italia: Martine Bras
Cmax Dilà: Edita Pucinskaite, Silvia Tirado Márquez, Marta Vilajosana
Fenixs: Natalia Boyarskaya, Svetlana Bubnenkova, Catherine Hare
Netherlands: Chantal Blaak
Vienne Futuroscope: Pascale Jeuland
Great Britain: Sharon Laws, Jessica Allen, Katie Colclough, Alex Greenfield, Lucy Martin, Jo Rowsell
ESGL 93: Sophie Creux, Leda Cox, Béatrice Thomas

Fourteen Brits - that is not bad going even with the inclusion of a national team. So far this season, Pooley started well but since than has been inconsistent; Cooke has generally misfired a little; Armitstead, Allen and Martin have all had a mixture including some good placings; Hare has been strong; while Colclough and (in particular) Greenfield have both scored an impressive victory each to their names amongst other performances. The others have no results of note that leap to my mind. For some of the younger riders this will be the biggest race so far in their careers.

Any predictions? The lack of stage races in the women's calendar can make it hard to judge form adequately, so this is my rough guess:

GC
1 - Amber Neben
2 - Susanne Ljungskog
3 - Luise Keller

Points - Ina Teutenberg

Mountains - Emma Pooley

Young rider - Claudia Häusler

Hot spots - really, who's got any idea

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Seems a good series of guesses. Cooke seems to be suffering from POSD - Post-Olympic Stress Disorder.

 

[Skip Madness]

Linda Villumsen won the prologue for Columbia. Emma Pooley was the best placed of the Brits, finishing 19th at 0'13.

By the way, contrary to what it said on the start list, Sharon Laws and Jessica Allen were injured and could not make the start for the GB team - they were replaced with Nikki Harris and Anna Blyth. Blyth turned in a good performance today, finishing 22nd at 0'15 - the second best among the Brits, while Harris was 26th at 0'17.

 

[Skip Madness]

Anna Blyth abandoned in today's stage, which was won by Ina Teutenberg - who now exclusively owns the record for most total Tour de l'Aude stage wins at 16 victories.

 

[Keith Oates]

Nicole is not having the best of years so far, I hope that it will improve but some of the spark seems to have gone ATM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Skip Madness]

Emma Pooley was in a one-woman breakaway today - unsuccessfully, although she managed to hang on to the back of the peloton when she was caught and remains within 20 seconds on GC.

Tomorrow's stage has two climbs - they are not huge but they could cause a split. From memory it is similar to the stage last year in which Susanne Ljungskog effectively won the race. She has been quiet so far so she might fancy making a move tomorrow.

 

[Skip Madness]

Today was a big stage for Nicole Cooke - she finished second to Marianne Vos and has accordingly moved up from 36th at 1'38 down to 4th at 1'19 down from new race leader Regina Bruins. Previous yellow jersey Amber Neben lost 2'24 today and is now 7th at 2'11. Most dangerous and realistic favourite from here on is is Claudia Hausler - 3rd today just three seconds back and 2nd on GC at only 0'08. Vos is now 3rd on GC - I have always thought that the Tour de l'Aude is the only grand tour she can realistically consider winning and she has an outside chance this year, but Hausler is stronger on the climbs and will fancy putting some time into Vos and Cooke on a couple of the remaining stages.

Emma Pooley finished in a group containing Lizzie Armitstead, Nikki Harris and Emma SIlversides more than 4'00 down and is now 16th at 4'45 down on GC. Pooley is leading the mountains classification at the moment, though.

Here is the current leaderboard after five days:

1 Regina Bruins (Ned) Cervelo TestTeam 9.40.20
2 Claudia Hausler (Ger) Cervelo TestTeam 0.08
3 Marianne Vos (Ned) DSB Bank 0.20
4 Nicole Cooke (GBr) Vision 1 Racing 1.19
5 Trixi Worrack (Ger) Equipe Nurnberger Versicherung 2.02
6 Kristin Armstrong (USA) Cervelo TestTeam 2.05
7 Amber Neben (USA) Equipe Nurnberger Versicherung 2.11
8 Susanne Ljungskog (Swe) Team Flexpoint 2.29
9 Noëmie Cantele (Ita) Bigla Cycling Team 3.00
10 Emma Johansson (Swe) Red Sun Cycling Team 3.11

 

[Skip Madness]

As seems to be the case with this race nowadays, the GC seems to be virtually sorted via a monster breakaway, this year with Cervelo and Nurnburger wiping out the field on the early hills yesterday leaving Trixi Worrack to win the stage ahead of Claudia Hausler and Kristin Armstrong, with the trio more than six minutes ahead of fourth-placed finisher Marianne Vos.

That means that this year's race will surely be won by one of the current top three:

1 Claudia Hausler (Ger) Cervelo TestTeam 15.00.03
2 Kristin Armstrong (USA) Cervelo TestTeam 1.11
3 Trixi Worrack (Ger) Equipe Nurnberger Versicherung 1.51

Everyone else is more than six minutes back now.

It should be Hausler's from here on in - Worrack is not incapable of pulling back 1'51 but she tired towards the end of Gracia-Orlova and all Haulser needs to do is marshall her to secure her first grand tour win.

No sign of today's results yet.

 

[Will1985]

Results up on the Tour website:
1 Vos 2:30:01
2 Hausler +0:09
3 Worrack +0:21

The rest came in in small groups after +2:55

Pooley slipping further away from the Mountains jersey.

 

[Skip Madness]

Pooley slipping further away from the Mountains jersey.

Yes - there are enough climbs left to take it back by my reckoning but I am not sure she has it left at this point.

It is probably too early to be talking about favourites for the Giro, but another strong performance by Hausler today puts her pretty near the top. We should get a good idea come the Emakumeen Bira, which will see Fabiana Luperini and Edita Pucinskaite in attendance among others including Hausler.

 

[resal1]

Thanks Skip for keeping us posted. When you look at it, in 10 days there is virtually action each day without many days consumed on intermediate sprint stages.

It really would make a fascinating read to find out what exactly was going on each day. At the moment all we can do is look at the final result and collect a tiny bit of story from the race web site or womenscycling. For example yesterday on CN all we have is a cryptic clue alongside a picture of Vos "she was coasting in the breakaway group ready to go with the 4 rider attack. When did they go ? What was their max lead ? Did Worrack make any attempt to take advantage of the fact that Cervelo probably had to waste riders on the front to keep Vos from taking the overall lead or was the danger so great that Worrack and Nurnberger had to join forces with Cervelo ? What is Cooke's team like ? How was Lizzie Armistead doing ? Why isn't Pooley being used as a GC contender on a race like this ?

Given the UK interest, it is astonishing that non of the media are getting the story back. Eurosport or somebody is missing a trick here. There is probably a story that is more condensed and fascinating than waiting for a flat intermediate stage and seeing if team Columbia can put Cav in the right place at the right time.

 

[Skip Madness]

Well that is that - Claudia Häusler is a champion and the Giro is less than six weeks away. Between then we have (in terms of stage races of note) the Emakumeen Bira, Trentino, Zeeuwsche Eilanden and Grande Boucle.

I managed to score precisely none of my predictions correctly, although I had not realised that Claudia Häusler did no longer qualify for the young rider which is quite a good excuse. Of special note from a British perspective were Lizzie Armitstead's strong placings overall - 14th in GC and 2nd in the young rider.

It really would make a fascinating read to find out what exactly was going on each day. At the moment all we can do is look at the final result and collect a tiny bit of story from the race web site or womenscycling. For example yesterday on CN all we have is a cryptic clue alongside a picture of Vos "she was coasting in the breakaway group ready to go with the 4 rider attack. When did they go ? What was their max lead ? Did Worrack make any attempt to take advantage of the fact that Cervelo probably had to waste riders on the front to keep Vos from taking the overall lead or was the danger so great that Worrack and Nurnberger had to join forces with Cervelo ? What is Cooke's team like ? How was Lizzie Armistead doing ? Why isn't Pooley being used as a GC contender on a race like this ?

Different season, same complaints about coverage. I suppose it is half-arsed because the media is not aware of the possible market, but even when I e-mailed the organisers of the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Flèche Wallonne about TV coverage I received not so much as a courtesy reply, so the organisers are not exactly helping themselves.

The truth is it has been a bad season already for women's cycling. All of the hopes about the Grande Boucle we had last year have unravelled with the unveiling of this year's race; all four of El Salvador's UCI ranked races have been cancelled due to in-fighting between the national federation and the race organisers; the Tour de l'Aude we are writing about was based on another sub-standard parcours; and there have also been the problems with Annalisa Cucinotta. I wonder if it is a mixed blessing that at least the media outlets are not emphasising these areas where the women's side of the sport is failing, which would lower some of the already-ungenerous perceptions about women's cycling, but I would rather they did and we all got better quality races and coverage as a result.

 

[resal1]

Chicken or Egg - the next step has to be the media. The point I was making is that the product is fine. In many ways it is more telegenic than the men's scene - as witness the Olympics and World Champs last year. A bit more media spotlight and it would polish up fine. It needs somebody employed, not by one organiser or one team or one media outlet, to do a pro job on behalf of the women. The UCI have made token efforts in that direction. The problem is finding that person. Generically, issues like this are always very difficult to solve. Someone from the outside; they probably will not understand the issues sufficiently to deal with them before they have manifested themselves and by then it will be too late to rectify. Someone From the inside; frequently in situations like this, they are precisely the wrong person. Anybody "still active" is dismissed as working for purely selfish reasons. Those who have "finished" tend to have a chip on their shoulder about how, when they did it, they were never recognised and so subliminaly will just want to reinforce the status quo and yet all the time bleat on about how "impossible" it all is.

Finding and funding the right person would be a difficult ask. There will be all manner of unsuitable candidates who would have zero real impact. In the meantime, I suppose we just have to write to the MD at Eurosport.