Current Team Points: 8625 (02/10/11)
Current Team Position: 131/133
highest position: 36 on (28/02/11)
lowest position: 131 on (02/10/11)
Rider
| Emma Pooley | 35 | 3218 | 91.9 | Nicole Cooke | 30 | 1080 | 36.0 | www.nicolecooke.com | Grace Verbeke | 25 | 1471 | 58.84 | Ruth Corset | 12 | 560 | 28.0 | Rochelle Gilmore | 12 | 885 | 73.7 | www.rochellegilmore.com | Vicki Whitelaw | 12 | 440 | 36.67 | vickiwhitelaw.com | Tiffany Cromwell | 6 | 30 | 5 | www.tiffanyjane.com.au | Chloe Hosking | 4 | 841 | 210.5 | chloehosking.blogspot.com | Kirsty Broun | 4 | 0 | 0 | Carla Ryan | 4 | 50 | 12.5 | Bridie O’Donnell | 1 | 0 | 0 | www.bridie.com.au | Alexis Rhodes | 1 | 0 | 0 | Megan Dunn | 1 | 0 | 0 | Lisa Jacobs | 1 | 0 | 0 | ridehappy.blogspot.com | Lauren Kitchen | 1 | 50 | 50 | www.laurenkitchen.com |
Total:
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This is the sort of thing we’re up against:
Chamois Full of Bliss (DO NOT go the parent web site.)
Xmas Epic 2011 
The end of the year for our women’s VXE team. We finished a dissapointing 131 out of 133. I think this more reflects our bad management than the natural talent. At the UCI World Championships we gained a 3rd (Pooley, TT), 4th (Cooke, RR) and 6th (Hosking, RR).
Chloe Hosking was our “best value” rider for the year.
Our highest points Australian rider: “veteren” Rochelle Gilmore.
Below Gilmore in the World Championships Road Race, after recovering from a broken pelvis sustained earlier in the year at the Giro Donne. Tough as.
Just to show that our Women’s team can do as well as our Men’s team, we have slipped down the ranking and are now sitting at 125/133.
Rochelle Gilmore 8th at the Chongming World cup.
Chloe Hosking 1st in Tour of Chongming Stage 3.
Rider of the week, Chloe Hosking:
VXE women pick up points in the Ronde van Drenthe:
Verbeke 11th (90 pts)
Gilmore 5th (225 pts)
and a podium in the Ronde van Gelderland:
Gilmore 3rd (100 pts)
Unfortunately its not stopping our slide down the ladder. To make matters worse our top rider Emma Pooley has broken a collarbone. Out for a couple of weeks, meaning that she will miss defending her Flèche Wallone title.
“It was a stupid crash on a bike path,” said Pooley. “Someone pulled out in front of me while I was training, and I was pretty sure it was serious as soon as it happened,” she continued. “As I stood up I could feel the bones move in my left arm. Fortunately it happened right outside the hospital…”
VXE rider of the week: Grace Verbeke at the Drenthe with her handlebars reflected in her glasses.
The season is now in full swing but results are slow for VXE.
Ronde van Vlaanderen: Verbeke (7th, 175pts), Pooley (10th, 100pts), Corset (20th, 5pts)
Grand Prix de Dettignies: Gilmore (4th, 80pts)
We have slipped back into the pack and are now at 83th in a field of 132.
Big races coming up: Ronde van Drenthe(16/4) and La Flèche Wallonne Féminine(20/4)
Rider of the week: Rochelle Gilmore, here seen (centre) modelling some apres velo gear. Not only is this a “Pro-Jeans” shot.
But its also a “Pro-tattoo” shot, seen here on the back on Liz Hatch’s neck:
Meet our top rider: Emma Pooley, who yesterday won the Trofeo Alfredo Binda. One of the most prestigious and hardest one day races for women.
That is what they call “a clean road”. No one else in the picture. Soloed off the front for the last 70 km. Only 80 of the 160 starters finished due to the conditions.
5’2″, 50 kg, lives in Zürich & is doing a PhD in geomechanical engineering. Does it get any more Epic?
Week 4 and the Women’s cycling world is traversing the black hole that is March. There are no events. And the few that have occurred this month, have been in obscure European countries like France and Italy. In April the season will blossom.
In the XE women’s team we have a podium finish in the Trofeo Costa Etrusca: Grace Verbeke came in 2nd (145 pts), Nicole Cooke (5th: 60 pts) and Emma Pooley (20th: 10 pts) also score.
Meanwhile XE women’s Australian contingent are preparing in such races as the Oceanic Championships. A continental competition that is unfortunately unaccredited by the virtual people at podiumcafe.com. Not to worry. XE gets a 2nd place podium to Bridie O’Donnell.
Bridie became a pro-cyclist two years ago at age 35, leaving her day job of being a doctor, and now alternates every 6 months between Tuscany and Melbourne.
Here she is on the podium (left) sporting a number of XE’s LiveWrong and FIGJAM bracelets as well as attempting to shield the XE mascot from the glare of publicity by trying to leave it out of the photo.
Week 2 of the Womens season and XE got blot.
Not to worry, our big names are still wasting their time doing track at this stage of the season.
Cycling News has on International Womens Day featured XE’s Alexis Rhodes as one of the 5 top rides of 2011: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/international-womens-day-top-5-rides-of-2011
Alexis won the 2011 Australian Road Race championships. In 2005 she was in a training accident that killed team-mate Amy Gillett. She broke several bones in her back and suffered chest injuries; it was unclear whether or not she would live. Today when not riding for XE, she races with Garmin-Cervélo.
XE Rider of the week: Alexis Rhodes
Another great start for Xmas Epic!
Tiffany Cromwell, Grace Verbeke 8 & 9th in womens Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.
Ruth Corset 3rd & Vicki Whitelaw 8th on GC at end of Tour of NZ.
Will take time to get points in, Podium Cafe are doing it all by hand.
XE Rider of the week: Ruth Corset powering away on stage 4 TdNZ.
