Latest news with #womenscycling
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Reusser wins opening stage of Women's Giro
Marlen Reusser is a previous winner of two stages at the Tour de France [Getty Images] Switzerland's Marlen Reusser won stage one of the Women's Giro d'Italia to claim the first maglia rosa jersey. The Movistar rider topped the standings with a time of 17 minutes 22 seconds in a 14.2km individual time trial through Bergamo. Advertisement It is a first stage win at the Giro for 33-year-old Reusser on her third appearance at the Grand Tour. Belgium's Lotte Kopecky, last year's runner-up, was 12 seconds adrift in second with 2024 champion Elisa Longo Borghini of Italy also making it on to the podium. "Ever since the route was announced I was really excited that the Giro would start with a time trial, and now I'm over the moon," said Reusser. "I still can't quite believe I'll be wearing the maglia rosa - it's truly been an amazing day." Monday's second stage is the shortest road stage of the race - a 99km route from Clusone to Aprica.
Fox News
02-07-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
Trans athlete wins USA Cycling women's event as female opponents protest and speak out
A trans-identifying athlete won a women's cycling event that was officially sanctioned by USA Cycling on Tuesday, prompting female opponents to protest and speak out. The trans athlete, Kate Phillips, won first place at the Lyons Masters National Championships in Wisconsin on Tuesday. Phillips beat out veteran women's cyclist Julie Peterson for the gold, and Peterson then refused to take the podium at the medal ceremony in protest. "You could clearly see the power that he had," Peterson told Fox News Digital about Phillips. Peterson said she wasn't even aware that Phillips had registered for the event until she had already registered herself and even argued with officials about the situation. "If I had known, I wouldn't have spent thousands of dollars in travel and time off work to come and do a race," Peterson said. "I said, 'I don't want to race against a man,' and they quickly scolded me and said 'Oh, you can't call him a man,' and I'm like 'Well, he is a man,' so I was quickly scolded and corrected that it is a woman and I don't even know what to say." Veteran women's cyclist Debbie Milne competed in the Tuesday event, finishing in seventh place. Milne also spoke out against USA Cycling for allowing Phillips to compete. "To be fair to all humans, if we want to say him or her, he was born a biological male, that is a fact," Milne told Fox News Digital. "And that is the thing that makes it an unfair advantage. Whatever has happened after that is a whole different topic. "I've raced for 25 years in conditions that only women can understand. There's a lot that only a born female woman goes through because of the cycles that we have. Even that alone is something that a man-born biological male can never experience. There's nothing that can stimulate that, when you show up to the race and you are at the worst point of the monthly cycle and you know you're at a disadvantage." Milne also said she wasn't aware of the trans athlete's participation ahead of the race. "I totally did not expect this, to drive 13 hours, to come and do a national championship," Milne said. "I had no idea, I'd like to have known that's what the terms were if I came. But that wasn't even made known to me." Fellow veteran women's cyclist Kristina Gray, who did not compete against Phillips on Tuesday, wanted to speak out in support of her female peers because she said she's also had to compete against trans athletes in cycling as an Oregon native. "I have in my last 10 years of racing, I've had to race against biological males, I've been forced to be on the podium with many of them, more recently the last five years," Gray said. "In Oregon, every almost weekend, there is a biological male in our races, every weekend, practically." Fox News Digital has reached out to USA Cycling and Phillips for comment. The USA Cycling transgender eligibility policy allows for biological males to compete in the women's category under certain conditions: Several other Team USA national governing bodies have come under scrutiny for their transgender eligibility policies over the last year. USA Gymnastics removed its transgender eligibility policy this year, and is currently assessing it. "In May, USAG removed its policy to assess compliance with the current legal landscape," read a USA Gymnastics statement provided to Fox News Digital. USA Fencing announced in April that it is preparing to change its gender-eligibility policy, after a viral protest by women's fencer Stephanie Turner sparked mass backlash and federal intervention by protesting a trans opponent. The organization said it is preparing to amend its current policies that allow biological males to compete with women and girls in the event that it is "forced" to change them. USA Track and Field (USATF) official transgender eligibility policy now references the World Athletics guidelines on its official webpage. USATF previously referenced the International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s policy, as seen in an archive via Wayback Machine. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
SBS Australia
09-06-2025
- Sport
- SBS Australia
Unclipped with Grace Brown: Inside FDJ-Suez - A Former Teammate Reads the Race
This week, Grace Brown breaks down FDJ-Suez's dominance across two key races on the women's calendar. In Catalunya, they won every stage and the overall. In Britain, Ally Wollaston snatched GC victory by a single second in a rain-soaked finale. The execution was sharp, familiar, and unmistakably FDJ. Grace knows the team's DNA, and she reflects on the measured, instinctive, and ruthlessly well-timed style. Meanwhile in France, the Critérium du Dauphiné lit up early, with Tour favourites already trading blows - a clear sign July's battles have begun.
BBC News
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Seeing is believing: How Deignan made women's cycling cool
To have the Lloyd's Tour of Britain Women back on the road after some troubled times is a blessing for women's two 19-year-old British riders competing in the event and making a significant impact on road cycling globally are explaining who inspired them to take up the a luxury hotel on the outskirts of Darlington, Imogen Wolff looks across at two-time Tour of Britain winner Lizzie Deignan, a little uncomfortably, to tell her that the speech she delivered following her momentous 2021 Paris-Roubaix win is the reason she is at a bike race at all. Alongside her is housemate Cat Ferguson – who leads the Tour of Britain after victory on the third stage and is the current junior road race world champion and rider for the World Tour Movistar team."You're gonna think I'm just saying it because she's sat next to me but it was genuinely Lizzie's speech after Roubaix," says Wolff, who competes for the Visma Lease a Bike team."There was like a tagline, 'the women have a space now and we're here to stay,' and it stuck with me."I was riding a bike but it didn't seem very cool, just loads of old blokes doing it. Then after Roubaix I thought 'this is the coolest thing ever.' I remember everything about the race… [you] sliding out on that corner; blood on the bar tape. It's still a running joke with my team-mates when we're reconning Roubaix, with me telling them 'this is the moment I fell in love with cycling'."Ferguson's first cycling memory recalls perhaps the other most significant moment in 36-year-old Deignan's career."It was the first [Olympic] medal, at the time I was six," says Ferguson. "That was my first memory of a big sporting event and I've always loved cycling and the Olympics since. I was watching it on telly on holiday.""Well, this is great for my ego!" retorts the soon-to-retire Deignan. "I didn't realise I made cycling cool."There's so many moments in my career girls wouldn't have been able to watch," she adds. "It's difficult to inspire people if they can't even get to see you. The [silver medal at the] Olympics was one of my first performances people could see [live] [as was] Roubaix."Most people talk to me now about winning Roubaix - it's famous for being tough and relentless. I was sliding all over place, but proved I was able to handle the bike, which blew out any underestimation of us." Perceptions and pressure Just as when she delivered that podium speech in Roubaix, of which she says "there was pressure on that interview", Deignan chooses her words carefully but effectively "underestimation" she refers to is any suggestion by others that women's sport somehow lacks the same punch or power as men' posts on social media have also had an impact all three agree - and that the impact has been largely positive."Social media's had a huge influence on women's sport," says Deignan, who has won many of the sport's biggest races, including the one-day Tour de France and Liege Bastogne Liege classic."If there's any inequality it's called out very quickly, and we are able to present ourselves to sponsors off our own backs; people can become their own brand in sport."It has its down side – [Cat and Imogen] are under more pressure than ever. People know everything you're doing and know how you're performing. But it is worth it as long as you learn how to manage expectation and pressure."Ferguson adds that "it doesn't feel like pressure yet"."It's all so new and exciting," she says. "Maybe we'll feel it more as we get older."But the pressure comes from all areas, including sometimes the top as she recalls an issue with world cycling's governing body."In my post-race interview in the London 2012 Olympics, I was asked to shake the hand of the UCI president [at the time Pat McQuaid] and I was a little bit annoyed. He was doing nothing for the female side of the sport and was getting away with it."I took that opportunity to speak up in the press conference. [As] the first medallist for GB, suddenly you become the headlines – it was quite daunting."I'm still happy I did it. It's the way I'd been brought up. It didn't seem like a big deal to me to shout about the inequality I was facing."But I realise now it's not as easy for everyone to do that, confrontation isn't comfortable for everybody.""The work Lizzie has done in the sport enabled me and Imogen to have careers," concurs Ferguson. "Ultimately to get paid when we are 18, [when] I don't think it was possible for Lizzie to do that when she was 18."There's also so much more legislation in cycling, such as maternity pay and it's down to Lizzie." Switching off There's little doubt Deignan lived and breathed the bike, coaching herself and using and an "evidence-based" approach to ensure she never left a stone one of the most important factors of preparation appears to have little to do with being an athlete."I hear [Lizzie] speak a lot about being a person off the bike, like not being a cyclist," says Wolff. "I don't think a lot of people speak about it - people think to be really pro you have to sleep, eat, train… repeat, so it's nice to know that different personalities have a different way of working that can be successful, and you don't have to be this one mould.""I tried knitting, once," she adds, rolling her eyes. "I was so bored.""I've got loads of interests," adds Wolff. "Guitar, baking sourdough, learning Dutch [to help communicate with her team-mates]. "But I'm not very good at [sticking with] hobbies when I'm not very good at them, so I don't find the first bit very… interesting.""I'm still trying to find a hobby," adds Ferguson, who reminds the room that like Wolff she has only just finished school, and that newly acquired free time is yet to be filled. Seeing is believing "[Lizzie's] not just a rider, she's a really lovely, interesting, intelligent person," adds Ferguson. "You can tell through watching her race she's made women's cycling more than a sport and made people want to race."Everybody needs an inspiration to achieve. Deignan may have been first on the scene for Wolff and Ferguson but many in the sport act as inspiration before her, including Beryl Burton and Nicole Cooke."A Little bit like [Wolff] I always thought cycling was, not boring… but an old bloke's sport," says Deignan. "[Then] seeing Victoria Pendleton, she was entertainment and she was this glamorous, impressive powerful woman, and as a teenage girl I thought 'oh wow this could be a good sport and I could fit in."You can't be what you can't see, and she was somebody I identified with."I just hope going forwards you demand quality at every turn," concludes Deignan to Wolff and Ferguson. "You have it now, but keep pushing for it. You're both incredibly talented and hard-working."You deserve it."
BBC News
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Cycling: Tour of Britain Women 2025 – How to watch and follow on BBC Sport
This summer, BBC Sport is bringing even more women's sport to audiences, having secured the rights to show the Tour of Britain Women. The event runs from 5-8 June and will see a record number of 18 teams compete across four stages; starting in the Tees Valley and concluding in Glasgow. BBC Sport will stream every stage live across all four days on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app, bringing the race to fans wherever they are. Highlights, clips and key moments will also be shared across BBC Sport's social channels throughout the event. CF Read more: Women's Sport takes centre stage across the BBC in summer 2025 How to watch the Cycling: Tour of Britain Women 2025 Stage One Thursday 5 June 12pm-2.20pm iPlayer; BBC Sport Website/app, Red Button Follow live coverage from the first day of the Tour of Britain Women Cycling race, taking place from Dalby Forest to Redcar. Stage Two Friday 6 June 12pm-2.40pm iPlayer; BBC Sport Website/app, Red Button Follow live coverage from the second day of the Tour of Britain Women 2025 cycling race, taking place from Hartlepool to Saltburn-by-the-Sea. Stage Three Saturday 7 June 12pm-3.20pm iPlayer; BBC Sport Website/app, Red Button Follow live coverage from the third day of the Tour of Britain Women 2025 cycling race, taking place in Kelso. Stage Four Sunday 8 June 9.50am-12.30pm iPlayer; BBC Sport Website/app, Red Button Follow live coverage from the fourth and final day of the Tour of Britain Women 2025 cycling race, taking place in Glasgow City Centre. Follow for more
