{"id":692884,"date":"2026-07-15T11:38:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692884\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T11:38:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T11:38:26","slug":"wheel-talk-newsletter-the-power-of-kate-courtney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/692884\/","title":{"rendered":"Wheel Talk Newsletter: The power of Kate Courtney"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wheel<\/p>\n

News & Racing<\/a><\/p>\n

FDJ United-Suez isn’t just a little team from France anymore…<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of FDJ United-Suez<\/p>\n

\"Abby<\/p>\n

We’re still sitting in this weird gap where there’s no women’s top-level racing and only the Tour de France Hommes on TV, but all that ends this week with the Baloise Ladies Tour. In the meantime, FDJ United-Suez dropped news big enough to keep us fed this week and into the start of the Tour de France Femmes…<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"<\/p>\n

Abby Mickey | Senior Editor<\/p>\n

Racing continues…<\/p>\n

From last week: At the Baloise Ladies Tour from July 15 to 19.<\/p>\n

Prologue (15th July): Ijzendijke-Ijzendijke (3.9 km)<\/p>\n

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Stage 1 (16th July): Oostende-Knokke-Heist (112.5 km)<\/p>\n

\"upload<\/p>\n

Stage 2 (17th July): Zulte-Zulte (130.4 km)<\/p>\n

\"upload<\/p>\n

Stage 3a ITT (18th July): Maaseik-Maaseik (8.4 km) <\/p>\n

\"upload<\/p>\n

Stage 3b (18th July): Maaseik-Maaseik (104.8 km) <\/p>\n

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Stage 4 (19th July): Mechelen-Mechelen (111.4 km)<\/p>\n

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As you can see from the course profiles, the who’s who of sprinters will likely be in attendance, including last year’s winner and new British road champion Zoe B\u00e4ckstedt. <\/p>\n

The start list isn’t out yet, but I expect we will also see Shari Bossuyt’s new Belgian champ jersey on display, as well as the likes of Charlotte Kool, Clara Copponi, and Chiara Consonni. <\/p>\n

Not all WorldTour teams are set to race; the peloton will be mostly Continental teams, which will make for a nice “who should we be watching for in the future” game. <\/p>\n

The start list will be available here<\/a>, probably early next week. <\/p>\n

Wheel Talk podcast<\/p>\n

I am super excited to share this week’s episode! After announcing her pregnancy and the end of her 2026 season, I spoke with Elise Chabbey about finding out she was pregnant days before the Giro d’Italia and how she processed the sudden change of plan. <\/p>\n

Let’s discuss<\/p>\n

The significance of Kate Courtney joining the WorldTour. <\/p>\n

This post is for paying subscribers only
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Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n

\n \ud83d\udc4dYep
\n \ud83d\udc4eNope\n <\/p>\n

\n News & Racing<\/a>
\n women’s cycling<\/a>
\n Wheel Talk Newsletter<\/a>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"News & Racing FDJ United-Suez isn’t just a little team from France anymore… Photo courtesy of FDJ United-Suez…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-692884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}