My Women's Cycling Tumblr

What a day!Crash on a decent,rearmech then snaps off on a climb,no spare bikes at back, finally get someone’s else bike n shoes to finish!

— Lucy Martin (@LUCYMARTIN05) July 5, 2012

WHAT ARE BRITISH CYCLING THINKING???

They’ve just announced the women’s team for the Olympic road races, and I suppose I should have guessed it would be a strange one, when they said they’d announce the women’s team before Nationals, and the men after, but here’s the 4 riders who’ll be competing in the Road Race:

Lizzie Armitstead, Lucy Martin and Emma Pooley (all AA Drink-Leontien.nl) and Nicole Cooke (Faren Honda) - Pooley and Armitstead will ride the ITT.

Those four riders are all super-strong, all great riders, and it’s going to be a world-class team, but there’s something that just doesn’t seem right - there’s no Sharon Laws!

What do we have to know from you what most people don’t know?

I really want to swim with killer whales one day. I don’t really know why it is just something I have always wanted to do. I think its from being a small child watching the film ‘free willy’ but I wouldn’t want to just go to seas world or something it would have to be in the wild!

Final question. What is your motto?

Enjoy the moment! I think it’s so important to be successful in anything, is to really enjoy what you are doing and although in sport you have to look ahead and plan it’s important to see what you have now and enjoy it as things can change so quickly.

“It’s still all up in the air to be honest” says Lucy to VeloUK after a turbo session on a day when the wind is causing havoc outside. “I haven’t heard anything official from Garmin so it’s a waiting game to see what will unfold.”

“I have spoken to AA Drinks and they are keen to take us four British girls but nothing is confirmed despite what I’ve read on websites. None of us can do anything really until we hear from Garmin because we all have contracts.”

“It’s a huge disappointment for the whole of Women’s cycling. For two of the biggest teams in the sport (HTC and Garmin) to go. And with me being so young in the sport, it’s not a great thing to look forward too.”

The future of the women’s Garmin-Cervélo team appears to be in doubt as reports in the Dutch media indicate that its budget has been severely cut. The team which numbered ten riders in 2011, including former World time trial champion Emma Pooley, Italian champion Noemi Cantele and British champion Lizzie Armitstead, is part of the same organisation as the men’s WorldTour team but it seems that there is no longer the budget to run both teams at the current level.

****

VeloNation contacted Pooley for comment on the rumours, but the British Olympic time trial silver medallist – who will be aiming for gold in her capital London next summer – appears to be in the dark as to what is going on.

“So far as I know, nothing has been confirmed, on or off the record,” she told us. “I don’t think it’s unrest in the women’s team so much as the management expressing doubts (at this point in the year, this close to the UCI deadline for registration!) as to whether they’ll support the team next year with enough money to go to races.

“I hope it’s just rumours and that Slipstream comes out and supports the women’s team fully, otherwise they’ve put us in a very poor situation really.”

There were indications this month that the women’s budget would be tight since none of them were flown in to the team’s gala presentation in Boulder, Colorado. This afternoon wielerrevue.nl has reported that the team’s budget has been slashed in half, and that riders had been advised that they could seek contracts elsewhere.

The Garmin-Cervélo women’s team will look very similar in 2012, and will again have a roster of ten riders. I had a chance to chat briefly with team sports director Theo Maucher over email, and he confirmed that nine riders from the current roster will continue on with the team for the coming season. They all signed two-year contracts at the beginning of the 2011 season.

The nine returning riders include: Lizzie Armitstead, Noemi Cantele, Jesse Daams, Sharon Laws, Lucy Martin, Emma Pooley, Alex Rhodes, Carla Ryan, and Iris Slappendel. Trine Schmidt did not receive a new contract from the team. Garmin-Cervélo is looking to sign one more rider for the coming season. “We will announce the new rider as soon as possible,” said Maucher.

Lizzie Armitstead crashed quite hard the other day. She was on the way back from the team car with bottles for her teammates when another rider crashed, fell in her line and took her to the ground.

She crashed on the bottles in her jersey and for some moments she could hardly breathe. With contusions on the chest she finished the stage in the grupetto.

Yesterday she took the start in Potenza Piceno despite her stiff right side. After 10km of racing she had to stop because she wasn’t able to go out of the saddle. The team lost a important teammate especially for the coming flat stages.

Today Lucy Martin’s hard crash into the barrier sent her to the hospital where it was confirmed she has a broken right hand and is out of the race. Another tough loss for the team.