|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Road World Cup 2009
World Cup Coverage >> 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 WCN quicklink >> La Flèche Wallonne Féminine Preview Round 3 - Ronde van Drenthe Round 2- Ronde van Vlaanderen Round 1- Trofeo Binda
On this page >> 2009 La Fleche Wallone Preview 2008 Fleche review Previous Winners |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Preview - La Flèche Wallonne Féminine The fourth stage of the 2009 World Cup series is set to be a tough finale. After successive podium finishes, Emma Johansson (Red Sun Cycling) sits with 160 points ahead of Marianne Vos (DSB) with 117 points. In third place after a string of victories over the early season, is Ina Yoko Teutenberg (Team Columbia Highroad Women). Run in conjunction with the mens event, the women cover one less lap than the men. The climb up the Mur de Huy will test the best riders in the world and past winners are expected to feature in the 2009 finish. Vos will be looking to repeat her 2008 victory and expect to see, riders like Kirstin Armstrong and Claudia Hausler (Cervelo Test Team), Trixi Worrack and Eva Lutz (Equipe Nurnberger Versicherung) in the mix. Nicole Cooke (Vision 1 Racing) should never be underestimated in this event either. Although the early season races have not seen great form apart with exception of the 4th in Flanders from Cooke, she has traditionally performed well in Belgium, being only one of two riders who have won the event three times.. Hopefully, making a return after breaking her collarbone in March, is the 2008 World Cup champion Judith Arndt (Team Columbia Highroad Women. Arndt hit an opening car door in a training ride before the start of the season and has been recovering over the last 6 weeks. Arndt will be looking to make up time in the World Cup series so will be one to watch.
Click here for full 2008 Fleche coverage Marianne
Vos (DSB Bank) made the most of a strong finish on the Mur de Huy to take
round 5 of the World Cup at Fleche Wallone. The Dutch,
multiple-discipline, World Champion and reigning World Cup Champion timed
her effort to perfection and was able to take time to take a victory
salute at the finish. The
warm, dry day which the riders enjoyed for the race complemented a
parcours which heated up in the latter stages. The climbs were mainly in
the second half of the course. As expected, the race stayed together until
the efforts of the brutal ascents. With narrow roads and steep hills, to
remain competitive, riders needed to maintain their position near to the
front of the peloton. Although
attempts by Team USA and Cervélo-Lifeforce riders were jumped on as soon
as they began to look dangerous, the most promising move of the race came
from three-times former winner, Fabiana Luperini (Menikini Selle Italia).
She attacked on the Cote de Boisseau and accelerated away to a comfortable
lead. Her maximum gap on the bunch was just over one minute, but the bunch
were aware of the potential danger and had pulled her back to within site
by the time they climbed the penultimate cote just after Ben-Ahin. The
penultimate climb of the day proved to be the launching pad for the
finale. As they climbed the lower slopes, Nicole Cooke (Great Britain)
attacked and caused the race to split. With Cooke were Marta Bastianelli
(Italy) and Judith Arndt (High Road), as well as Marianne Vos, Amber Neben
Team Flexpoint) and other contenders.
Previous Winners - La Flèche Wallonne Féminine
Want to contact WomensCycling.net? The
WomensCycling.net email address is
To contact the webmaster, the
address is : Type this address into the "To" line of a new email message in your email programme. The WomensCycling.net email address is displayed as a graphic in order to reduce the amount of 'spam' email received from programmes which 'crawl' the internet for sites with addresses displayed in text and then overwhelm that address with junk, or even forge the address in junk messages that they generate and send to others. Sorry for any inconvenience this approach causes you.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright
WomensCycling.net 2004 - 2009 © |
