The Women's Cycling Grand Prix is set to become the new German flagship race on the cycling calendar. The course was designed by Lisa Brennauer, who is the sporting director of the cycling race in Stuttgart. We spoke to Brennauer after the successful premiere.
Lisa Brennauer - about the person
- Born8 June 1988 in Kempten
- Place of residenceDurach near Kempten
- Size1.68 metres
- Weightt: 63 kilogrammes
- Marital statusin a relationship with Sebastian Nittke
Teams
- 2009 Equipe Nürnberger 2010-2011 Hitec Products
- 2012-2017 Specialised-Lululemon / Velocio-SRAM / Canyon/SRAM
- 2018 Wiggle High5
- 2019-2022 WNT rotor / Ceratizit-WNT
Most important successes
Olympic champion with the track foursome in 2021, 30 medals at world and European championships, including 13 gold; 14 times German champion; 8 stage wins, including twice in the Tour of Thuringia; 25 stage wins; second in Ghent-Wevelgem 2016; second in the Tour of Flanders 2021; fourth in Paris-Roubaix 2021
Interview with Lisa Brennauer
TOUR: How would you summarise the premiere of the Women's Cycling Grand Prix in terms of spectator interest, media presence and feedback from the teams?
Brennauer: There was a lot of interest from the media. There were many reports in the run-up and I also gave many interviews myself. The live broadcast on SWR television and the stream on Sportschau.de were great. As I was unfortunately unable to be there, I was particularly pleased about the race broadcast, which was a great building block in terms of visibility. It was nice to see how many spectators attended the event and the great atmosphere could even be felt behind the screen. Overall, I have to say that I was very pleased with how much media interest there was and still is. I received messages from several riders after the race about how great the competition was organised and that they would like to come back to Stuttgart for further events. The winner's interview with Elena Pirrone, who mentioned exactly that again, shows what a great perspective the race has.
Women's Cycling Grand Prix in the World Tour?
TOUR: Is there a long-term perspective for the women's race?
BrennauerAlbrecht Röder and his team emphasised the long-term nature of their plans from the outset. It was and is important to everyone to build something that has a future with the goal of the World Tour.
TOUR: You get the impression that the Tour de France Femmes draws all the attention to itself. Is that also a threat to other races?
BrennauerThe Tour has a special position in cycling as a whole. However, I wouldn't see that as a threat. Women's cycling benefits from the media attention of the Tour, it's a great opportunity for teams to present themselves and their sponsors. Personally, I think that this also has a positive effect on other events. The fact that the race calendar is currently growing faster than the teams and structures around it and that teams therefore have to plan very well and select where they ride is perhaps a bigger issue at the moment.
TOUR: You gave birth to your son the night before the Women's Cycling Grand Prix - that sounds like a precision landing. Was that a coincidence or was it the moment when you, as the sporting director, realised that everything was settled and your job was done?
BrennauerI would of course have loved to have been there at the competition weekend in Stuttgart. I would have liked to round off my work on site, but that was missing. Our son was born way after the due date. So while you think you can plan something like this from the outside, there are completely different things going on inside.
TOUR: How many cycling-related romper suits did Konstantin receive as a gift?
Brennauer: Only two so far and we thought that was quite funny. And he's even been given his first little cycling jersey by Skoda.
Kristian Bauer
Editor
