Women’s cycling looks to the future
In 2020, women’s cycling was a simple sport. There were many exciting races, and then Anna van der Breggen won. The paradox is that while the racing is generally more open than on the men’s side of the sport, the outcomes have followed certain patterns, and until now, either a rider or a team has been able to dominate their rivals. That’s not a bad thing - cycling fans engage positively with successful riders or teams, but as 2021 gets under way, the sport is showing signs of change. To be fair to Van der Breggen’s rivals, she didn’t have everything her own way through 2020, but most agree she was the rider of the year.
Between 2009 and 2014, Marianne Vos was the most successful rider in the world. Then the Boels-Dolmans team was equally dominant between 2015 and 2018. And in the last few years, overlapping with that period, Van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vleuten have swapped big wins between them.
But it is starting to look more congested at the top. 2020 was Van der Breggen’s year, and Van Vleuten also picked up some big wins, but Trek-Segafredo were able to thwart them on several occasions, leading to Lizzie Deignan’s wins in Plouay, La Course and Liège. And that trend looks set to continue in 2021.
It was an unusually fluid transfer market during the off season. Of the top 25 UCI ranked riders, seven moved teams for 2021, compared with four at the end of 2019, and three on the men’s side. While the demise of Équipe Paulé Ka threw a lot of riders into the market, conversely, Jumbo-Visma started up (albeit as a UCI team, not a WorldTour outfit), Movistar signed Van Vleuten and most teams reinforced. Though the women’s sport is still not awash with money, there are more strong teams than ever before, with nine teams in the WWT and several more strong UCI outfits, including Jumbo-Visma, Ceratizit-WNT, AR Monex Liv and Valcar, while North American Tibco and Rally will run ambitious European programmes.
The transfers will change the dynamic and the balance of power in the women’s races, though there is still something of a consolidation at the very top. Trek have kept their very strong team largely together, and they have brought in Chloe
Women’s cycling will be a slightly improved place in 2021, and with a women’s Tour de France coming in 2022, there is more to come
Hosking, one of the best sprinters and flat classics riders in the world, and Amalie Dideriksen, the 2016 world champion.
SD Worx also look even stronger in 2021 than they have in recent years. Van der Breggen leads, but they’ve added the consistent climber and eSports cycling world champion Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, and the up-and-coming Demi Vollering. In and around these two strong teams, BikeExchange have lost Van Vleuten, but Grace Brown and Amanda Spratt have been joined there by Teniel Campbell, and Van Vleuten’s arrival at Movistar suddenly makes them a force to be reckoned with.
But arguably the real progress in women’s cycling during the off season was the news that the French Cycling Federation (FFC) has started issuing professional licences to female riders, after lobbying by the Association Française des coureurs cyclistes (AFCC). Ex-professional racer Marion Clignet is the vice president, and she explained to Procycling that it was an important and overdue step in recognition for female athletes.
“Our first objective was to get recognition as professionals,” she said. “It’s important, for something as simple as showing you are a professional athlete when you go to sign for a house, or take out a loan. But it also changes a lot in the way the girls feel about themselves - you are being validated by your federation.”
Clignet said that the next step is opening up communication with other federations to ensure that all female athletes can be recognised as professionals. The AFCC is also working to encourage a system whereby the UCI teams have to provide guarantees similar to the WorldTour teams for bank guarantees and minimum salaries. “You have tonnes of UCI teams, and all of them have different structures. Some are spot on, others are not,” said Clignet.
Women’s cycling will be a slightly improved place in 2021, and with the inaugural Paris-Roubaix scheduled this year, and a women’s Tour de France coming in 2022, there is more to come. Cofidis recently announced that they would join the increasing number of men’s teams to also field a women’s team. The issuing of pro licences for women by the FFC is a positive, albeit belated step, which shows that while things are getting better, there is still a long way to go.