Uttrup Ludwig extends with Cervelo Bigla, Van Vleuten wins, Mitchelton to Plouay, Niewiadoma queen of the mountain
Image 1 of 6
Ruth Winder (Sunweb) in the pink leader's jersey at the Giro Rosa(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Lauretta Hanson (UnitedHealthcare) and Lauren Stephens (TIBCO) congratulate each other on the podium(Image credit: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Cervelo Bigla) on the attack(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Annemiek van Vleuten at the start of the day(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
New race leader Amanda Spratt in ochre(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Kasia Niewiadoma leads the mountain classification(Image credit: Tim de Waele)
A month after being unveiled, the new Trek women's team continues to take shape with the announcement that Ruth Winder and Lauretta Hanson have signed with the squad. Winder and Hanson join Lizzie Deignan and Elisa Longo Borghini in the team, and directeur sportifs Ina Yoko Teutenberg and Giorgia Bronzini.
Winder, who spent much of her career on the UnitedHealthcare team, joins Trek after a season with the Sunweb set-up. This season has been 25-year-old's first full year racing in Europe. In July she won a stage of the Giro Rosa and with it spent a day in the coveted maglia rosa.
"I'm really excited to be joining the new Trek program! As soon as I heard about the team, I was interested, and after talking with Trek, it sounded like a great fit," Winder said.
"I feel fully ready to take that into next year with what's going to be a really strong team. Along with Lizzie (Deignan), I was actually born in Yorkshire, and I am really looking to the 2019 World Championships there. The upcoming year is full of goals to get there, and I'm excited to see what we will achieve."
The 23-year-old Hanson has also come through the UnitedHealthcare set-up, having ridden with them for the past two seasons. She has previously taken the youth classification at the Santos Women's Tour and claimed her first major victory this season in the time trial at the Tour de Feminin - O cenu Ceského Švýcarska.
"Trek has put together a program with fantastic support and a world-class roster filled with experience and strength. I have idolized a lot of these women throughout my career, and I am looking forward to racing alongside them, and under their guidance," Hanson said.
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
The 22-year-old Uttrup Ludwig has been the Danish-registered squad since the 2017 season and has grown into a promising climber in that time. She enjoyed a run of top 10 finishes at the start of this season at the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana, Strade Bianche and the Trofeo Alfredo Binda. The latter part of her spring was hampered by a tooth problem but she returned to win the Danish national time trial championship and went on to finish sixth overall at the Giro Rosa and fourth at La Course.
"I'm extremely excited about the extension," she said. "I've learnt so much the past two years on this team. And now I have a unique possibility to continue my development and taking more responsibility. This challenge is exactly what I believe will make me grow even more as a rider and I feel I'm ready for this. I'm so motivated and happy to get this opportunity. This is such a special project driven by passionate and competent people."
Team manager Thomas Campana expressed his pleasure at keeping the young Uttrup Ludwig on-board.
"It's a great pleasure to receive her decision and her trust," Campana said. "To choose our project as the one to continue to build her future is really a testament to our structure we've built. She's worked really hard on the team to get to the top of women's cycling. When it comes to long-term development, we like looking at things in a holistic way. Even at such a young age, Cecilie has been able to understand that and is very impressive in the way she plans her career for the future. We're looking forward to continuing this momentum the next few years."
Van Vleuten, racing in the orange of the Dutch team, escaped the peloton along with Malgorzata Jasinska (Movistar) with just over 30 kilometres remaining. The duo pushed clear of the bunch and had almost two minutes of an advantage at one stage. Van Vleuten and Jasinska came into the final metres together with the Dutchwoman edging out the Polish champion by a small margin on the line.
"I actually came [to the race] mainly because I liked riding it here, but I wanted to see what I could do anyway. I already knew that I was in good shape, but [Jasinska] made it difficult for me in the sprint because she forced me to lead," said Van Vleuten.
It would be more than a minute before the peloton crossed the line with Lorena Wiebes (Parkhotel Valkenburg) winning the gallop for third place.
Mitchelton-Scott will look to Amanda Spratt and Sarah Roy this weekend as they look to take victory at the GP de Plouay. Spratt and Roy will be joined by Jessica Allen, Janelle Crooks and Alexandra Manly. The Australian squad will send just five, rather than the maximum of six, with Georgia Williams not named in the final line-up.
The 2018 season has been a strong one for Spratt with victory at the Santos Women's Tour and Emakumeen Bira, as well as podium places at Amstel Gold, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and the Giro Rosa. Roy has also enjoyed a good year, winning Gooik-Garaardsbergen-Gooik and a stage of the Ovo Energy Women's Tour. She finished third in last year's GP de Plouay, winning the sprint behind Lizzie Deignan and Pauline-Ferrand-Prevot.
"I've been eyeing GP Plouay all season so I'm really keen to head back there this week and we have a small but fierce team. Alex Manly and Jess Allen are riding really strong and will be able to set the team up well for a good day," Roy said in a team press release. "A great option for us is with Amanda Spratt as she is having the greatest season and I'm sure the other teams wish she wasn't on the start line.
"I do like this race, it's been a bit of a benchmark race for me throughout my career because in the beginning it was too hard for me and now I'm a genuine contender. The roads can be challenging especially with the steep narrow pincher a few km before the finish, the uphill drag that follows directly is nasty and the remaining twisting roads always makes it hard but fun."
Mitchelton-Scott for GP de Plouay: Amanda Spratt, Sarah Roy, Jessica Allen, Janelle Crooks and Alexandra Manly.
Niewiadoma takes mountains jersey in Norway
The Ladies Tour of Norway didn't go to plan for the Canyon-SRAM team but there was some consolation for them with Kasia Niewiadoma taking home the mountains classification.
Niewiadoma, who also finished fifth in the overall classification, took hold of the mountains jersey on the opening day of action after taking maximum points on the only climb of the day. She would repeat the feat on stage 2, before going against former teammate, and stage winner, Marianne Vos (Waowdeals) in the sprint for victory. She would add a further four points to her total on the final stage after taking the first of two climbs, securing the jersey by four points over Margarita Victoria Garcia.
"We didn't have the best start into the tour and that was not really satisfying," said team manager Ronny Lauke. "We were able to turn it around on the second stage and I was very happy with that. We couldn't achieve the top goal which was to win that stage, but the attitude and the commitment from the team was extremely good.
"A podium on the second stage with Kasia was a great result. At the end of the tour we've managed to keep the QOM jersey and we can be happy with the result. I think it will be a great confidence builder for Kasia and it's great how the team worked for that."
