The introduction of the Women’s WorldTour last season was meant to be a big step forward for the sport. The new series combined one-day racing with stage races for the first time and promised more and better coverage.
With the second edition of the series set kick off in a little over a month, Wiggle-High5 owner Rochelle Gilmore admits that there were, initially, some teething problems but she says that while there will be little structural change, increased interest and investment will push the sport forward again in 2017.
“Women’s cycling is still developing at a very fast rate, and I think that it will plateau in the next few years. But, for now, the investment that is being put into women’s cycling teams is making our sport more interesting for television, because the racing is more interesting,” Gilmore told Cyclingnews ahead of the Santos Women’s Tour last week.
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“I’m really excited about the WorldTour races… I think that 2017 is going to see women’s cycling taken to another level with regards to the quality of racing, the number of teams involved, the number of companies investing in women’s cycling and the sponsorship going into races and the interest of television companies when it comes to women’s cycling.”
A wider spread of the top talent is going to be another factor in the action that will take place in 2017, says Gilmore. There was a lot of movement in the transfer market over the winter, helped by the mass exodus from Rabo-Liv due to the uncertainty about their future. Olympic Champion Anna van der Breggen left the squad for Boels-Dolmans, while Pauline Ferrand Prevot was snapped up by Canyon-SRAM. They also lost Roxanne Knetemann, Thalita de Jong and Lucinda Brand. Other big moves were Ellen van Dijk’s from Boels-Dolmans to Team Sunweb, Kirsten Wild from Hitec Products to Cylance, and Chloe Hosking from Wiggle-High5 to Ale Cipollini.
“I really think that the racing is going to be different to what we’ve seen in the past,” Gilmore said. “Boels is the outstandingly strong team. However, because so many teams on the same level just below them, they won’t do it easily, even though they have all these big guns and, on paper, they have a super strong team. It won’t be easy because of the other teams. It’s not just one or two strong teams, there are another four or five teams that they’ll have to deal with. I think we’re going to see more exciting racing and more unpredictable racing.”
Back on track for Wiggle-High5 in 2017
Bronzini back for another year
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