The Ovo Energy Women's Tour is in town!

When you're based in the cycling mecca that is Staffordshire and near Stoke on Trent in particular it is easy to get complacent where pro cycling is concerned. We definitely seem to host our fair share of both high profile and high octane racing; having hosted a round of the Tour Series for a number of years and have had either or both The Women's Tour and The Tour of Britain pass through every year in the four years I've been here.

This year saw Stage 2 start and finish in Stoke, which was a real bonus. To add to this already exciting stage I was fortunate to be spending it in the car with Bo Handberg Madsen, DS of the Danish Team VeloCONCEPT Women and Brian Hogild, Mechanic. I love being able to get in the thick of the action, living and breathing the race moves with the team! That may sound a daft thing to say given the convoy is often some way back from the race but with the benefit of race radio, constant updates and communication between the riders and the DS it is actually pretty exciting. Stage 2 was perhaps set to be even more interesting following the unbelievable victory from a 50km solo attack by Polish rider Kasia Niewiadoma of WM3 Pro Cycling, who by all accounts had even surprised herself! Not only did she win the stage but also took the accolade of having created the first breakaway to stay away in the history of The Women's Tour. Unsurprisingly she had created a lot of media attention, although having had a string of excellent results throughout the Spring (plenty of strong 2nd and 3rd places), she was clearly coming into The Tour in very good form. With a teammate of the calibre of Marianne Vos no doubt she had been well prepared on what to expect.

Kasia Niewiadoma giving her account on her solo victory

The VeloCONCEPT women were somewhat depleted following crashes the day before, which had put out Doris Schweizer and Camilla Mollebro Pedersen with concussion, leaving Shani Bloch-Davidov, Christina Siggaard (who was 6th on GC) and Sara Penton to fight for team honours. Clearly she'd rather have been racing but it was lovely to chat to Doris about life on the team, her year to date, achievements and aspirations. Thanks for taking the time to answer my daft questions Doris!

The VeloCONCEPT mobile, race car 1

In comparison to the previous day Stage 2 was a pretty calm race. I deserted Herman who was in the second car going to the feed station about one third of the way in to the stage and was swept up by Bo in the race car. Bo quickly filled me in on what had been happening; a few attacks but nothing major! As with all good DS's Bo was excellent at communicating with the team over the radio - encouraging, motivating, passing on information, telling them when to push on and when to ease up and let others do the work. It really is a lesson in multi-tasking; not only do you need the skills of a rally driver, the co-ordination of a co-driver but also the capacity to provide insightful information on the radio as well as awareness of the riders and other race vehicles around you! I was exhausted just listening.

Bo multi-tasking - to the peloton for drinks

Stage 2 included some pretty grippy climbs, heading from Rocester to Cheadle, out to Ipstones (QoM 1) and up Gunn Hill (QoM 2) the climbing was relentless. The latter climbs served to really split the peloton apart with riders really struggling and many falling back into the race convoy. By Gunn Hill there were three groups on the road, we had riders in the second and third groups but with the first group having a sizeable lead at this stage in the day the instructions were not to drive the pace but to sit in and ride a high cadence to prepare for the following day.


Regular training roads for us

Stage 3 had some fairly significant climbs as well so the importance of conserving energy going into the middle day was at the forefront of the recovery strategy. The stage was won by Amy Pieters with Hannah Barnes in 2nd. Top placing for TVW was Sara in 39th; a great ride by all accounts considering the climbing.

Our riders were in groups 2 & 3 on the road, so we were hanging back

Another year and another Women's Tour stage come and gone. Many thanks to Bo and all the team at VeloCONCEPT women for making me feel so welcome and giving me an insight into their racing lives; it was much appreciated.


Sara & Christina (R) - new shoes definitely got christened!