After the various Individual Time Trials (and you can see all the video I’ve found from those) it was time for a huge number of women’s Road Race Nationals…. If you find videos I’ve missed, as always, please let me know in the comments, or on twitter!
The prize for the most accessible road race goes to France, where the fantastic France 3 showed the women’s road race live – such luxury! The coverage is available for a week, on Pluzz (if you can’t see that in non-France countries, try watching with Hola or Tunnelbear). Big thanks to the wonderful Clo, who runs the Velonova women’s cycling site, who found this. And here’s (an unebeddable) clip from Cyclism’Actu, with the finish and post-race comments from the incredible Pauline Ferrand-Prévot – and another one here:
More Cyclism’Actu post-race interview video with Ferrand-Prévot, with 2nd placed Mélodie LeSueur and Fanny Riberot in 3rd.
That was the first road race victory for Rabobank-Liv, and over in the Netherlands, it was all about that team. Here’s a collection of videos and audios from NOS Sport (UPDATE! See ConfusedSpider telling us about the interview in the comments!) and more video from RaboSportTV
Such a dramatic finish between team-mates Lucinda Brand and Iris Slappendel, and Lucinda did not look happy that Iris won…. but here’s the post-race report on Lucinda’s blog (or via google translate) once she’d regained her equilibrium. And here’s Iris’ blog (and via translate).
More videos from the Netherlands:
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She’d already won the ITT in Canada, so Leah Kirchmann was over the moon to win the road race as well:
Then she went on to win the Crit Champs – the first Canadian to win the triple! WOW! :-)
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Here’s a little video of Specialized-lululemon‘s Lisa Breannauer winning the German National Champs ahead of team-mate Trixi Worrack, and Martina Zwick – another rider winning the double of road race and ITT.
No video from Sweden (boo!), where Emma Johansson won yet another ITT-road race double but the conditions looked very, very bad – here’s the ORICA-AIS race report, and this photo of her win.
New Swedish champion!
Great solo ride of @emmaprocyclist ! http://t.co/ymdwiakX3G—
Martin Vestby (@MartinVestby) June 28, 2014
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So Saturday was mostly a day of doubles, with Mayuko Hagiwara winning RR and ITT in Japan, Tatiana Antoshina in Russia, & other doubles from Christine Majerus in Luxembourg, Alena Amialiusik in Belarus and probably many more! So what would Sunday bring for the ‘big’ races?
I was in Great Britain, and it was a marvellous day! I’ll be slowly putting up my photos on my flickr, but here’s my favourite so far.
Here’s Wiggle Honda‘s video (and yes, that is me interviewing Wiggle boss Rochelle Gilmore at the end – listen to it here, and to my interview with Dani King)
There are more videos on BBC Sport – race report and interview with the delighted winner, Laura Trott (if you can’t watch, try with Hola and Tunnelbear again)
UPDATE! And here’s the full half hour video highlights from ITV4, on the ITV Player – it’s available for one month, and again, if you can’t see it because you’re not in UK, advice above!
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Another huge race was in Italy, probably the hardest to win after the Netherlands – and Elena Cecchini won ahead of Valentina Scandolara and Maria Giuilia Confalonieri, in horrible weather. Video!
And more video of Cecchini talking to GazzettaTV after the race
and because BiciTV is really great, here’s the Junior Nationals being won by Sofia Bertizzolo
If you want to know what it was like behind the scenes, read Chloe Hosking’s excellent blog, all about playing soigneur for her Hitec team-mate Elisa Longo Borghini.
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My huge thanks to the wonderful Marijn de Vries, who sent me this video of Jolien d’Hoore‘s win in Belgium. And thanks too to the wonderful Babelia, who sent me this one of Anna Ramírez winning in Spain:
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I’ll be putting up any more videos that I find in the next few days…. as always, please share any videos, blogs and photos I’ve missed!
