Consonni - Page 7

Women's European Championships Road Race History The European Championships is one that the Dutch national team have a strong hold over. They've won 5 of...

Dwars Door de Westhoek takes place in the corner of Belgium, next to the French border, called Heuvelland. It’s the area most commonly associated with the Gent Wevelgem races. Starting and finishing in Boezinge, the riders are treated to 3 ascents of the Rodeberg before heading back into town.

The RideLondon Classique came into being after the 2012 Olympics that were held in London. Looking for a legacy event that would ensure cycling remained important after the Games, a men's and women's race in London were created.

The GP Eco-Struct has a history at the national level in Belgium but was raised to UCI level in 2020. After a pair of victories from Lorena Wiebes, the race moves up to 1.1 and starts to feel like an established, secure race now.

The Ceratizit Festival Elsy Jacobs is named after the 1958 World Champion from Luxembourg. One of the original stars of women's cycling, Elsy Jacobs was also the holder of the hour record from 1958 to 1972. The race was held for the first time in 2008, on the 10th anniversary of her death. Initially a one-day race, it expanded to a stage race in 2012.

It was a long time coming but the first women's Paris Roubaix finally took place in 2021. We'd been teased that Paris Roubaix Femmes was taking place after the COVID lockdown in 2020 but further measures derailed the race. It was the same story in the spring of 2021 but finally, in October 2021, we saw a women's peloton on the cobbles.

The women’s Brabantse Pijl sees the Spring Classics move eastwards. The Flandrian part of the calendar is over and we’re only a few days away from seeing more racing in the Ardennes region of Belgium. The race begins at Lennik in Flemish Brabant before heading south, skirting around the bottom of Brussels.

The 2nd edition of the women's Scheldeprijs saw no surprises as Lorena Wiebes took the win for Team DSM. The parcours looked nailed on...

The women's Scheldeprijs is a very new race, with only one edition taking place so far. So this history part will be quite short! A large break of 16 riders were given some distance, including some big names like Brennauer, Alice Barnes and Lisa Klein. The presence of the big names meant the break was always going to be closed down. A spell of crashes interrupted the flow of the race.

The Women's Dwars Door Vlaanderen has been a UCI race since 2017 and a lower level race for 5 years before then too. The race has evolved over the years from a largely flat race with 1 or 2 major climbs to last year's version which was a much tougher affair with 10 climbs