6 Minute Training Session Added for Lower Ranked Elite Women on Fort William Race Day
The UCI has today announced a new six-minute training session for the 6th-15th ranked Elite Women on the race day of a World Cup weekend. This new session will be "a single, non-stop run" for the riders not ranked high enough to train with the men.
Prior to this year, all women trained on the morning of race day before the junior races. However, as of Maribor, the top five ranked women could train in the men's session from 11 am to 12 noon, just before the Elite women's final.
The track can change massively between the practice session in the morning and women's finals in the afternoon, especially if the weather is changeable, which gave a clear advantage to those women allowed to train just before the race. The new session isn't a perfect solution but at least it means the lower ranked women will at least have a sighter run in race conditions.
The UCI is currently speaking with Myriam Nicole, as a representative of women riders, to find a more suitable solution going forwards and we could potentially see a different race day format by Leogang next weekend. We'll keep you updated on any changes going forwards.
Here's how the schedule now looks for the women on race day:
08:15-09:15 - Official training for all women
09:45-10:45 - World Cup Junior finals
10:50-10:56 - One non-stop training run for Elite Women ranked 6-15
11:00-12.00 - Training session for Elite Men qualified for finals and Elite Women ranked 1-5.
12:30 - World Cup Final
PRESS RELEASE: UCI
The Women’s rider representative Myriam Nicole has recently been in contact with the top-15 riders to discuss group training.
Due to the short notice there will be no change to the published training schedule: Women will train with Group B, and the top-5 Women can also train with Group A.
However, on Sunday there will also be an opportunity for the riders 6 - 15 to do a single non-stop run at 10:50am - 10:56am between the finish of the Men Junior race and the start
of official training for the ME riders who have qualified for the Final. Myriam will continue to liaise with the riders and the UCI to ensure any possible future changes to schedule will be communicated well in advance of the event.
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I do think they should limit the men the same way, to give everyone the same practice opportunity. For example 70% of the men, places 1-50 and 70% of the women 1-20 should all get to practice in that 11:00-12:00 time slot. It's a step in the right direction though!
At least in Maribor earlier this year, 15th (last) place in the women was 16.6s back off the women's winner, where as 62nd (last) place for the men was 18.8s back off the men's winner. So the depth of competition for the finals is roughly equal by this metric, but the "6-15" women are only getting 6 minutes instead of an hour.