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Women’s professional cycling has flourished in recent years, as has Annemiek van Vleuten who just keeps adding the most prestigious of victories to the list of results that she has accumulated over 16 years of professional racing.
The news that RCS Sport will take over the Giro d’Italia Donne and that it also plans to bring back a women’s version of Milan-San Remo and launch a women’s Il Lombardia, is welcomed by the World Champion.
Van Vleuten couldn’t be more pleased with the growth in the sport, but even though they may be wins she will never gets to chase, given her own career is winding down toward retirement at the end of this year, is advocating for more.
Speaking to Cyclingnews, Van Vleuten gave her views on RCS Sport’s new focus on women’s cycling and what a women’s Milan-San Remo should look like.
“The main thing is that RCS, at first, was not interested in women’s cycling, apparently, and Strade Bianche was the only thing they organised. Now, it’s super nice to see that there are developments in women’s cycling and that more organisers are getting interested,” Van Vleuten told Cyclingnews.
“When you come from a situation where we had to beg, sometimes, for organisers to put on women’s races for us or to put our races in prime time, and now it’s a different situation, where organisers are now interested, and one or two are fighting with all organisations to take over a race. I think, yeah, that’s good.”
Although there was speculation it could happen this year, Paolo Bellino, CEO of RCS Sport, has told Bici Pro (opens in new tab) that relaunching a women’s version of Milan-San Remo is a significant project for the company and could take place in 2024.
“We’re working on it and hope to include it in next year’s calendar. That’s our goal,” Bellino said. “We imagine it’ll be held on the same day [as the men’s race] but on a different route, probably from Arenzano to San Remo. I think it’d be a great race.”
It should be crazy long, like the same as the men’s race is long, and the same final
Van Vleuten on a women’s Milan-San Remo
The distance between Arenzano and San Remo along the Ligurian Sea is roughly 120km. No route details have been released, and it was unclear if the women’s route would cover the decisive late-race climbs over the Cipressa and Poggio, but Bellino noted that it would include the Tre Capi.
Van Vleuten stressed that she would like to see a women’s version of Milan-San Remo going beyond the stipulated 170km limit set by the UCI. She…
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