{"id":176853,"date":"2020-02-07T12:25:28","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T12:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=176853"},"modified":"2020-02-07T12:25:28","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T12:25:28","slug":"what-were-looking-forward-to-in-pro-womens-cycling-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/02\/07\/what-were-looking-forward-to-in-pro-womens-cycling-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"What We\u2019re Looking Forward to in Pro Women\u2019s Cycling 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The season is already underway and with women\u2019s cycling set to continue coming into its own in 2020, there is plenty to get excited about. At this critical stage of the sport\u2019s development, each new year presents huge opportunities and exhilarating first-time events. With new regulations taking hold for the first time, this year the UCI Women\u2019s World Tour comprises 21 events spread across 10 countries. What started last month in Australia will wrap up 9 months from now in China, and we\u2019re sure to see some thrilling action as riders compete for both individual wins as well as the overall title. With more sponsor support and an ever-growing fan base, the momentum around women\u2019s cycling is only going to build as the year progresses. Here are some of the things we\u2019re most looking forward to as we watch the season unfold.<\/strong><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>New UCI regulations in practice<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>With UCI WorldTour licences\u00a0having been awarded to 8 teams for 2020-2023 \u2013 Ale BTC Ljubljana, Canyon\/\/SRAM Racing, CCC-LIV, FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope, Movistar Team Women, Team Sunweb, Trek-Segafredo, Mitchelon Scott \u2013 we should witness some serious changes. In addition to better conditions for the riders, the new regulations also mean that organisers of UCI Women\u2019s WorldTour and UCI ProSeries events will be required to abide by improved organisational standards, particularly with regard to television production (more on that below). For road racing, it also means that the position of a UCI Women\u2019s WorldTour Technical Adviser was created to improve the safety and quality of racing at the Women\u2019s WorldTour road racing events. With more support for the riders themselves and a renewed commitment to ensuring that the courses and infrastructure are up to par, we can only expect the racing to get better.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_176858\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-176858\" style=\"width: 1250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-176858\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/02\/Women-Cycling-profimedia-0495886492.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1250\" height=\"833\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-176858\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2020 Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0Zac Williams\/SWpix.com \/ Shutterstock Editorial \/ Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><strong>Fiercer competition than ever before<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Likewise, the battle to dominate the women\u2019s peloton is only going to heat up as more athletes look to the sport as a viable option. The number of racing licenses for women granted by the Royal Dutch Cycling Union (KNWU) rose by 19 per cent between 2014 and 2019 and the number of female cyclists with licenses from British Cycling increased from 3,000 in 2008 to almost 20,000 in 2018. The pool for junior riders also continues to grow. As women\u2019s cycling establishes itself as a smart choice for aspiring professional athletes, you can be sure that 2020 will bring some breakthrough performances from emerging young cyclists eager to make their mark.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The biggest year yet for Annemiek van Vleuten<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>That being said, the influx of young talent certainly doesn\u2019t negate the fact that 2020 is also poised to be a year of career best for some of the sport\u2019s established veterans. Annemiek van Vleuten, the current road World Champion, has already covered a staggering 2,636 km this year in training and is clearly motivated to take all the momentum she generated in 2019 and carry it into this season. Next month, the 37-year-old will no doubt be eyeing up a defence of her Strade Bianche title as well as the Ardennes classics in April, so expect to see her looking to claim a top spot in the standings early on.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-controller-wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Training in Colombia \ud83d\udc47\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddf4. Today two times Alto de la L\u00ednea (3200m). Tomorrow I will leave Casa du V\u00e9lo and travel by bike to Manizales. I look forward to catch up with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/carbike86?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@carbike86<\/a> but it is hard to leave this beautiful quiet place. The place to be for cyclists. Will be back! \ud83e\udd17 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/M38KrMpHBM\">pic.twitter.com\/M38KrMpHBM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Annemiek van Vleuten (@AvVleuten) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AvVleuten\/status\/1223796993996263425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 2, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async data-src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<h2><strong>More races on Television<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>As reported by the UCI, no fewer than 147 million viewers watched the Women\u2019s World Tour on TV in 2018, with the races having produced a total of 1,430 hours of television. With numbers like that, it is safe to say that there is definitely an upward trend in media awareness and focus on women\u2019s cycling. The new regulations now stipulate that race organizers must facilitate at least 45 minutes of live broadcasting for World Tour races \u2013 in order to maintain their accreditation on the UCI\u2019s premier calendar. Although there has been some grumbling about how this new reality can be challenging for some races, it is important to remember that there are always growing pains if real progress is going to be made. And where there\u2019s a will, there\u2019s a way \u2013 as demonstrated by the initial resistant of La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne and Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge\u00a0women\u2019s race, which will now be televised live in 2020.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Watching Olympic dreams come true<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The\u00a0cycling at the 2020 Summer Olympics\u00a0will be held in\u00a0Tokyo, with the road cycling events taking place from the 25th to 29th of July. The Olympic road race is one of the most-watched events of the whole production, giving the wider sporting world an elusive chance to see the best women cyclists in the world go head-to-head for the honour that every athlete dreams of. Although there was some warranted criticism over the number of participants for the road races (130 for men, 67 for women), it\u2019s a point worth considering that not every country can field four or five elite athletes and that it\u2019s important for the sport to grow stronger not just bigger. Nevertheless, with so much growth taking place, let\u2019s hope that we see gender parity in numbers within one or two Olympic cycles.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_176859\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-176859\" style=\"width: 1250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-176859\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/02\/profimedia-0493306289.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1250\" height=\"833\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-176859\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2020 Women&#8217;s Tour Down Under\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0Zac Williams\/SWpix.com \/ Shutterstock Editorial \/ Profimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As we continue on into the exciting season ahead, it seems fair to say that women\u2019s pro cycling is being transformed. As more and more fans discover the excitement of women\u2019s bike racing, a dynamic calendar of traditional races and new events is starting to come together. More investment is being created organically through increased media focus and various opportunities for growth across all facets of the sport are developing each year. A new generation of young riders are being inspired to become part of the action and there\u2019s no doubt that the future of the women\u2019s professional cycling will continue to garner attention as new races and new personalities emerge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The season is already underway and with women\u2019s cycling set to continue coming into its own in 2020, there is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":176857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[334],"tags":[477,3888,2708],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-176853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-socialising-and-culture","tag-annemiek-van-vleuten","tag-uci-proseries","tag-uci-womens-worldtour","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What We\u2019re Looking Forward to in Pro Women\u2019s Cycling 2020 - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The season is already underway and with women\u2019s cycling set to continue coming into its own in 2020, there is plenty to get excited about. 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