Hello and thank you for opening this week’s Wheel Talk Newsletter. We’re four race days away from the end of the 2024 season and if the transfer announcements rolled out so far don’t have you already counting down to next season, why are you even here? No, just kidding, I think we could all benefit from a little offseason, or if you’re me, a month to reset before Ruka, Finland (the start of the cross-country skiing World Cup season, obviously).
Wheel Talk
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The Simac Ladies Tour signalled the end of WorldTour racing in Europe for the year, and with such a tight turnaround between Simac and the Tour of Chongming Island, it’s unlikely we will see the likes of Lorena Wiebes, Elisa Balsamo and Charlotte Kool line up to sprint in China.
There was a lot of SD Worx-Protime hype over the weekend, and rightfully so. The top team ended their season with another overall win, thanks to Lotte Kopecky’s stage 6 victory and Wiebes’ three stage wins. Throw in a surprise first WorldTour win for Barbara Guarischi and the Dutch team mopped the floor with the rest of the field in the Netherlands.
An SD Worx-Protime near-clean sweep isn’t new or surprising, but what is surprising is the performance of Zoe Bäckstedt. It’s not surprising that she finished third overall as she was fifth overall in last year’s edition, but it was surprising, and impressive, that she was able to land on the podium completely solo.
By now the Simac Ladies Tour must have a special place in the heart of the British rider. In 2023 it was her first race with Canyon-SRAM after swapping teams near the end of the season. In case you don’t remember, she rode for EF Education-TIBCO-SVB for most of the 2023 season but was set to leave the American team in the restructuring. With the cyclocross season in mind, she joined Canyon-SRAM before the end of the road season.
So when she lined up for the Simac Ladies Tour in 2023 she was on brand-new equipment, in an entirely new environment, yet she still managed to lead the team throughout the week and win the Youth Classification.
The 2024 season hasn’t been exactly what Bäckstedt would have hoped for. She had to pause racing throughout all of June, July and August due to illness and only returned to the peloton for Tour Feminin l’Ardeche at the beginning of September.
Bäckstedt lined up for the Simac Ladies Tour with the minimum number of teammates, four (five riders total), and won the time trial that started the race, only to be stranded, teammates-less, by the end of stage 2 while in the leader’s jersey.
Even solo, Bäckstedt was able to hold onto the lead after stage 3, which was especially impressive because SD Worx-Protime used some crosswinds to split the peloton. Since the race was overall a pretty flat one, the seconds Bäckstedt gained in the time trial made all the difference in the overall, but her performance during stage 3 was especially notable. It’s also worth noting this was her final race with her dad as her DS since Magnus is leaving Canyon-SRAM.
Clearly, Bäckstedt is in some phenomenal form, great news for her upcoming cyclocross season.
Racing Continues …
… At Tour of Chongming Island and Tour of Guangxi!
The WorldTour season wraps up with the three-stage Tour of Chongming Island and the one-day Tour of Guangxi in China. Normally races for the sprinters, the four days of racing present an opportunity for smaller teams to gather some UCI points before the end of the year.
The Basics
Tour of Chongming Island is from Tuesday, October 15th to Thursday, October 17th
Tour of Guangxi is on Sunday, October 20th
Live coverage for each stage of Chongming Island starts at 7:05 am CET/1:05 am EST and 5:15 am CET/23:15 EST (Oct 19th) for Guangxi
Streaming can be found on Discovery+ or MAX depending on your location
The Route(s)
Ok, bear with me because – just like last year – neither race has a website or any route information. We do have some info on VeloViewer:
Tour of Chongming Island
Stage 1: Chongming New City Park (108.7 km, 169 m)
The weather for the first stage was less than ideal. Rain fell on the peloton which led to some crashes in the bunch. Race favourite Daria Pikulik of Human Powered Health was one of the riders to go down, but thankfully she was able to finish the stage.
UAE Team ADQ delivered an impressive lead out, but it was Mylene de Zoete of Ceratizit-WNT who took the first stage victory ahead of UAE’s Tereza Neumanova. Silvia Zanardi (Human Powered Health) finished third.
Stage 2: Chongming Island Country Park (129 km, 266 m)
Stage 3: Chongming New City Park (110.4 km, 198 m)
All three stages of Chongming Island are flat and expected to end in a bunch of sprints. There are some technical elements in the route, especially in stages 1 and 2, but nothing that will dramatically impact a peloton set on sprinting so it will depend on who starts the race.
Tour of Guangxi – Nanning (133.4 km, 1,195 m)
Guangxi is “hillier” than Chongming Island, but has also ended in a bunch sprint since its creation in 2017. That being said, the course prior to this year had only one climb far enough from the finish for the peloton to regroup if things split, this year Guangxi covers five laps of a 24ish km circuit that includes a 1 km ascent averaging 13%, maxing out at 18.7%. That should definitely spice things up.
Five times over that climb will definitely trim down the peloton, and test any sprinters hoping to take a season-ending win.
The Contenders
There are only four WorldTeams in attendance at the Tour of Chongming Island: UAE Team ADQ (who only started four riders), Ceratizit-WNT, Human Powered Health and Roland. Of the four, Human Powered Health comes with the strongest lineup, including both Pikulik sisters Daria and Wiktoria, Barbara Malcotti and Zanadri.
Ceratizit-WNT’s lineup includes Marta Lach, racing a final time before she joins SD Worx-Protime for the 2025 season, Kathrin Schweinberger and De Zoete. UAE Team ADQ has Eleonora Gasparrini and Neumanova.
Maggie Coles-Lyster is racing for Roland, alongside Tamara Dronova.
VolkerWessels has a strong team led by Femke Beuling Sofie van Rooijen, and Scarlett Souren. There are a handful of teams who traveled all the way to China to hunt results at a WorldTour level like ARA Skip Capital, Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi, Lotto Dstny, and Coop-Repsol. And then there are the “local” teams who have this one opportunity to impress on a bigger scale like Winspace, China Liv, the Thailand women’s team and the Chinese national team.
Tour of Guangxi is expected to have an identical startlist which can be found here.
Wheel Talk Podcast
This week on the podcast Loren, Gracie and I talked about the Simac Ladies Tour, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig’s move to Canyon-SRAM, and the lack of announcement around Demi Vollering’s 2025 team.
Obsessions: Abby – Abbott Elementary, Gracie – Shōgun, Loren – Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Let’s Discuss
Maximum team sizes.
We’re nearing the end of the season, and it’s pretty normal for teams to struggle to put together complete rosters for these final races, but the Simac Ladies Tour, normally the last “big dance” of the year for top teams, had an abnormally low turnout. Only 81 riders started the time trial last Tuesday, and the required minimum number of riders for a WorldTour event is 90. By Sunday, only 52 riders finished the race.
The maximum team size for a Women’s WorldTeam is 20 riders, plus two more neo-pros for a total of 22. ProTeams, which will be introduced next year, have a maximum team size of 18 (plus two neo-pros). So if a WorldTeam has two neo-pros under contract they can have 22 riders, if they have zero neo-pros under contract they can have only 20 riders.
For comparison, men’s WorldTeams have the same deal with 28 riders total plus two neo-pros. Obviously, the men’s calendar is a lot more extensive than the women’s, so they need more riders per team, but perhaps it’s time women’s teams up their numbers.
Looking at the biggest teams on the women’s scene this year, SD Worx-Protime has 16 riders (minus Anna Shackley who was forced to retire early in the year), Lidl-Trek has a 19-rider roster that includes five neo-pros, and Canyon-SRAM has 15 riders.
The glaring problem is clearly money. Do teams have enough budget to hire more riders? At the moment, salaries for existing WorldTour riders are on a constant upswing, which is requiring more of teams. But it’s not just salaries that are draining teams, it’s also more travel and more resources for riders to be able to perform at their best. More training camps, more staff. Throw in a few more riders and that’s also more equipment needed, etc. The answer isn’t exactly easy.
But for a WorldTour race to have such a low turnout isn’t a great look for women’s cycling. Looking ahead to Chongming Island and Guangxi, the turnout will be similar. There might be more riders on the start line, but a number of them will not be at the “WorldTour level.”
There are always elements outside of a team’s control. Riders get sick or walk into doors and break their noses. Had Canyon-SRAM been able to start seven riders perhaps Bäckstedt would have had a bit more support, but the team is doing the best they can with the cards they have.
For the men, WorldTeams are required to attend most WorldTour races, with a few exceptions. It might be time for the same rule to apply to women’s WorldTour racing. Teams would definitely need more riders to compete all season long (minus in Australia and China, like on the men’s side).
There are so many other factors that come into play here. Like: Are there enough riders for all WorldTeams to have a full roster of 20? In the changing landscape of women’s cycling high-level teams like Canyon-SRAM, SD Worx-Protime and Lidl-Trek are only garnering more attention from sponsors, but the same can’t be said of every team.
I don’t have the answer but in the future, it would be a shame to see a race like the Simac Ladies Tour take a hit because teams can’t field a full squad, or for teams to sit out of WorldTour races like we saw this spring with Visma-Lease a Bike.
A picture worth a couple of words
Teamwork to win the Simac Ladies Tour, in three photos.
Taylor Swift corner
Happy Fall Y’all.
Until next time!
That’s all from me. Thank you for reading, I’ll be back next week!
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