Aviva Womens Tour 2015 – Riders to watch

On Sunday 21st June, at 10.45am, a major cycle race – The Aviva Women’s Tour – starts it’s fifth and final stage in Marlow. You probably know this – we’ve mentioned it enough!

If you want full details of timings, the course, and pretty much everything you would need to know, check out our previous article. In this feature we mention a handful of names to look out for.  Cycle race aficionados will be aware of the impressive range of international starts taking part – we are focusing mostly on the British contingent for the more casual race fans who might be attending tomorrow!

Big British names

Even if not interested in cycling, you may well have heard of the following, due to their Gold medal winning performances at London 2012 !

Laura Trott OBE (Matrix Fitness Pro Cycling)

2 Olympic Golds, 5 World Championships and the most successful rider in European track racing with 7 wins. Laura is currently the British road race champion, signified by the red,white and blue stripes on her top. Twitter : @LauraTrott31

 

Dani King MBE (Wiggle Honda)

Olympic Gold and 3 world championships in the Team Pursuit event. For the keen cyclists out there using Strava, Dani is uploading her ride for each day of the tour: www.strava.com/pros/3263919   Twitter: @DaniKing1   

Dame Sarah Storey (Pearl Izumi Sports Tours International)

 

Multiple gold medal winner at the Paralympic Games in both cycling and swimming (she switched to cycling in 2005) and three times British (able bodied) national track cycling champion.  appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours. Rides for the team she created with her husband. Twitter: @DameSarahStorey

Joanna Rowsell

Olympic Gold medallist unfortunate had to pull out after stage 2. The official word: “Joanna has suffered a cut left eyeball, possibly from grit flicking up off the road, and also has an infection in her left arm following a wasp sting during stage 1”. Blimey.

Lizzie armitstead

Current leader of the UCI World Cup, who won stage 1 of the Tour, but crashed AFTER the finish line, causing her to have to drop out of the rest of the race.

Upcoming Brits to watch

Both the riders mentioned here are at time of writing in the Top 10 General Classification ranking in the tour – with Top 4 finishes on Stage 3.

Hannah Barnes (United healthcare)

Aged 22, Hananh has a host of junior and senior titles under her belt, and in 2014 represented England in the Commonwealth Games. Likely to be challenging on sprints, including stage finish sprints. Twitter: @bannahharnes

 

Lucy Garner (Liv Plantur)

By the end of Stage 3, where she came 3rd, Lucy was classified as both “Best Young Rider” ,and “Best British Rider”. So, that’s pretty good then! 🙂  Twitter: @Lucygarner94

Also keep an eye out for

Marianne Vos

 

The winer of last year’s race, but sadly out this year due to injury. She is however co-presenting the ITV4 coverage, so should be in town. Hailing from the Netherlands, she is an absolute legend of the sport  – Olympic golds, World Championships in road racing, track cyling, cyclocross – just too many to list! Twitter: @marianne_vos

Top Team?

We are of course entirely impartial, but if we were going to pick a team based on the location of their official press photo-call… it would Wiggle Honda 🙂