SD Worx-Protime have said that the UCI is not engaging in conversation with them over Lorena Wiebes' disqualification from the Giro d'Italia Women for having an underweight bike.

Speaking to Wielerflits this week, the team's manager Erwin Janssen said: "The UCI is simply not responding. No one is answering the phone. Only our lawyer has been able to reach someone higher up at the UCI."

After winning stage one of the Giro on Saturday, Wiebes was disqualified after her bike – a Specialized Tarmac SL8 equiped with Roval wheels and a SRAM Red groupset – was found by the UCI commissaires to weigh less than 6.8kg, the minimum weight requirement.

Later that evening, SD Worx-Protime released a statement raising “serious questions” of the UCI’s bike-weighing procedure.

Wiebes was disqualified under UCI article 2.12.007, rule 2.2, which refers to “use of a bicycle that does not comply with regulations”. UCI rule 1.3.019 stipulates the weight of a bicycle cannot be less than 6.8kg.

As a result of the ruling, the Giro d'Italia Women's organiser, RCS Sport, declared Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) the stage winner, and the Italian also pulled on the pink jersey.

Janssen reiterated this week that his team will take the UCI to court over the incident.

"We are going to hold the UCI liable and have hired a lawyer," he explained. "Besides seeking some form of vindication, this disqualification also has a huge financial impact.

"It is difficult to say how large the damage is in euros, but you have to think of the prize money from multiple missed stages, the missed UCI points, and agreements in sponsor contracts. We are currently in the process of calculating all of that... It is very likely that it will go to CAS (the Court for Arbitration in Sport)."

SD Worx-Protime raised questions over how the bike was weighed, claiming that there were issues in the process, and that they had weighed the bike separately, and that it passed the test. They alleged that it failed the test by just 20 grams.

"It is simply bizarre that we are being brushed off like this," Janssen said. "Cycling teams are expected to be professional through and through, while amateurs, semi-professionals, have to perform such bike measurements in a very unprofessional manner. I am simply astonished by everything that went wrong."

The UCI has not commented further on the disqualification when contacted, or released a statement. SD Worx-Protime have gone onto have a successful Giro, with Anna van der Breggen winning stage four's time trial, and holding the race lead ahead of stage five.

There are few things that shock me in cycling. I have seen it all, from the controversies to the triumphs, and yet Lorena Wiebes’ disqualification from the Giro d’Italia Women on Saturday did exactly that – it shocked me. Disqualification or relegation are nothing new in the sport, of course, but to be kicked out of a race for having an underweight bike is novel. My colleagues at Cyclingnews reckon it last happened in 2013, also at the women’s Giro, which would be why I don’t remember it, given I was 17.

Hence the general astonishment at Wiebes' being disqualified not just from stage one of the Giro, which she had won, but also the rest of the race. This is unusual. Her agent, André Boskamp, told Wielerflits that “she was a complete mess” when she returned home to the Netherlands, while SD Worx-Protime team manager Erwin Janssen told the Dutch press that legal action was being explored. This is unlikely to be the last we have heard about this.

There are two separate parts to the oddity of Wiebes being disqualified because her bike was a little bit lighter than it should be; her team said it was only 20 grams, although this has not been confirmed. The first is the concerns that the bike was not weighed properly, as alleged by SD Worx-Protime. Clearly, if there were discrepancies between measurements as much as the team say – 50g between different readings – then it feels ridiculous that something as big as disqualification was levied. Also, given that it is such a big punishment, it feels like it’s the kind of thing that one should be absolutely certain on, and this feels a bit muddy.

We haven’t heard from the UCI on how the decision was reached, but with it being the same – or very similar – to the bike that Wiebes has won on eight times this season, it does feel like it should leave the governing body embarrassed as much as the rider and her team. The frame and all the components are approved by the UCI, they’ve been checked and OKed before, so why was it different on Saturday?

Wiebes’ Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 is not just ridden by her, but by her whole team, plus FDJ-Suez United and AG Insurance-Soudal on the Women’s WorldTour, plus Soudal Quick-Step and Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe on the men’s WorldTour. The components might be different, and there has been a suggestion that it might have been through Wiebes using a SRAM Red AXS 1x drivetrain instead of 2x that extra weight was lost. However, we don’t regularly see riders being kicked out of races for having light bikes.

Of course, if the bike was truly under 6.8kg, then Wiebes and her team can have no qualms about her being kicked out of the race, those are the rules. It’s moot whether the weight gave her an advantage or not. But that doesn’t mean that those rules are right.

26 years after the rule was introduced, there has been no update; it is a fixed point in the sand. It is also the same weight for both male and female pro riders, there is no flexibility here for lighter athletes, which is what women tend to be. Everyone has to aim for the same weight limit, no matter their frame size. It’s something Ashleigh Moolman Pasio called out in an article for BikeRadar last year, but this situation has thrown it under the spotlight again.

Riders using smaller frames often have to weigh down their bike to make it past the UCI’s arbitrary threshold, which was introduced to create a level playing field between teams, but has ended up penalising smaller riders.

Once again, it feels like the UCI is slow to adapt and change, which creates odd situations like this, when the fastest woman in the world is kicked out of a race over a rule that most think is outdated. Having already had to U-turn over gearing limits by SRAM, might we see the bike industry push back again?

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com.

SD Worx-Protime have said they are “astonished” that their sprinter, Lorena Wiebes, was found to have been riding an underweight bike on stage one of the Giro d’Italia Women, and disqualified from the race.

The UCI commissaires ruled that Wiebes competed on a bike “non-conforming to minimum weight requirements” on Saturday's stage. According to SD Worx-Protime, her bike - A Specialized Tarmac SL8 equiped with Roval wheels and a SRAM Red groupset - was said to have weighed 6.78kg – 0.02kg under the UCI’s minimum weight requirement of 6.8kg.

The Dutchwoman initially won the bunch sprint into Ravenna, but was expelled from the race hours later, with the jury giving the victory, and the first pink jersey, to Lidl-Trek’s Elisa Balsamo, who crossed the line second.

Later on Saturday evening, SD Worx-Protime released a statement raising “serious questions” of the UCI’s bike-weighing procedure.

“Team SD Worx-Protime is astonished by the decision of the UCI commissaires' panel that Lorena Wiebes' bicycle did not comply with the minimum weight limit after the first stage of the Giro d'Italia Women,” the team said.

“Wiebes has ridden this bicycle on multiple occasions this season, always with the same setup. She achieved numerous victories on this bike. Moreover, earlier this year, the bicycle was weighed by UCI officials after several races in which Wiebes won sprint finishes convincingly.

“On each occasion, the bicycle's weight was found to be comfortably above the 6.8-kilogram limit. The team therefore does not understand how the very same bicycle could now suddenly be measured below the minimum weight requirement.”

SD Worx-Protime went on to say that Wiebes’s disqualification was an “exceptionally severe sanction”.

“In a flat sprint stage, unlike a mountain stage, a small reduction in weight provides virtually no advantage. This is certainly true for a rider like Wiebes, who won the sprint in Ravenna by three bicycle lengths,” the team said.

“Team SD Worx-Protime, a leading team in the women's peloton for the past fifteen years, has no explanation for why Wiebes' bicycle was found to be under the minimum weight on this occasion.”

Wiebes was disqualified under UCI article 2.12.007, rule 2.2, which refers to “use of a bicycle that does not comply with regulations”. UCI rule 1.3.019 stipulates the weight of a bicycle cannot be less than 6.8kg.

As a result of the ruling, the Giro d'Italia Women organiser, RCS, declared Balsamo the stage winner.

“Of course, it is not the way I want to win," Balsamo said, "but this is a decision of the jury. In any case, it’s an honour to wear the maglia rosa and I am looking forward to trying to defend it in tomorrow’s stage."

Update: After being declared the stage winner, Lorena Wiebes was later disqualified from the race for riding an underweight bike. The race commissaires then granted the stage victory to Lidl-Trek's Elisa Balsamo, who will wear the pink jersey on stage two.

Lorena Wiebes was already thinking about how she might win the pink jersey after she took another dominant sprint win in the first stage of the Giro d’Italia Women.

The SD Worx-Protime rider had clear air between her back wheel and second placed Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek).

Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) rounded out the podium in third place.

Wiebes now has six stage wins at the Italian tour on her palmarès.

She’ll wear the pink jersey on stage two to Caorle, where she’s believes she can doubling up at this year’s race.

Speaking to TNT Sports she said: “Hopefully tomorrow is another sprint it would be amazing to win in the maglia rosa.”

She was able to identify some improvements her SD Worx-Protime squad can make. “The team worked really hard all day to control the breakaway. It was a lot of chaos on the final circuit but we expected that,” she said.

“My final lead-out Babara Guarischi came a bit too early but I was able to find my way and was able to sprint. That was the most important thing today.”

Asked why she thought the final, sometimes tight and technical, circuit around Ravenna proved chaotic she said: “I think we did the most work before entering the circuit and it was also the GC teams that wanted to keep their GC leader safe from any crashes. We focused mainly on the last lap, keeping together and timing it well for the finish.”

The circuit at the end of a pan flat 139km held the potential for attacks but with too many teams with sprinters keen to keep things together none materialise within the final 50km.

Fenix-Premier Tech, Lidl-Trek, Movistar, SD Worx-Protime and Uno-X Mobility all took it in turns pulling the peloton around the laps of Ravenna.

As they rounded the final bends Millia Couzens (Fenix-Premier Tech) came to the front of the peloton in her effort to lead out team-mate Charlotte Kool, Wiebes’s former team-mate.

However, it was the Sd Worx-Protime rider who jumped onto the British Champion’s wheel and was able to use it to spring off the front of the pack in the finishing straight.

While Balsamo tried valiantly to match Wiebes’s speed she had already created a gap and pulling her back would prove impossible.

ResultGiro d’Italia Women: Stage 1, Cesenatico > Ravenna (139km)

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime in 3:18.22
2. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Lidl-Trek
3. Lara Gilespie (Ire) UAE Team ADQ
4. Chiara Consonni (Ita) Canyon-SRAM
5. Georgia Baker (Aus) Liv AlUla Jayco
6. Charlotte Kool (Ned) Fenix-Premier Tech
7. Linda Zanetti (Sui) Uno-X Mobility
8. Gladys Verhulst-Wild (Fra) AG insurance-Soudal
9. Célia Gery (Fra) FDJ United-Suez
10. Lily Williams (USA) Human Powered Health, all at same time

General Classification after stage 1

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime in 3:18.22
2. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Lidl-Trek, +0.04
3. Lara Gilespie (Ire) UAE Team ADQ, +0.06
4. Chiara Consonni (Ita) Canyon-SRAM, +0.10
5. Georgia Baker (Aus) Liv AlUla Jayco
6. Charlotte Kool (Ned) Fenix-Premier Tech
7. Linda Zanetti (Sui) Uno-X Mobility
8. Gladys Verhulst-Wild (Fra) AG insurance-Soudal
9. Célia Gery (Fra) FDJ United-Suez
10. Lily Williams (USA) Human Powered Health, all at same time

The Marly Grav gravel race enjoyed the most celebrated victors in its short history, with Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) winning the men's and women's races respectively.

He said he was simply there to have fun, but Van Aert's win was taken in impressive style – on the end of a 20km solo escapade. For Wiebes, who defended the title she took here last year and was wearing her world champion's jersey, her victory was won in a sprint from a small group.

Both the elite men and women contested the race over a hilly 150km course based on Valkenburg in the Netherlands, perhaps better known for hosting the denouement of the Amstel Gold WorldTour Classic.

Van Aert and Wiebes were not the only big names in their respective races and these were by no means soft victories. Van Aert's solo escape, for example, saw him ditch fellow escapees that included world champion Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) while Wiebes was facing Unbound 2023 winner Caroline Schiff (Canyon XC Racing) and, among the small group she won from, recent Traka and Sea Otter Classic podium finisher Nele Laing (Canyon X DT Swiss All Terrain).

Van Aert was there "without any specific expectations and mainly to enjoy himself" his team said afterwards. However, it became clear that the new Paris-Roubaix champion had good legs and after finding himself a select front group some way past the halfway mark, he opted to try a solo move.

Vermeersch attempted in vain to follow and Van Aert crossed the line with a 44-second advantage.

"It was a really tough race, but at the same time I enjoyed it," he said afterwards. "It was fun racing here. It’s a completely different kind of race to what I’m used to. It’s great to be able to compete in such a fair race and put my off-road skills to good use. I’ll definitely be taking part more often."

In a similar fashion, the women's race saw a select group of seven riders – later becoming five – form as the race went on. Beyond just her supreme sprinting ability, Wiebes was strong enough to cover numerous attacks and the race looked to be hers to lose. She won the eventual sprint with some ease, bettering second-placed Larissa Hartog (Canyon X DT Swiss All Terrain) by a clear bike length.

She said afterwards: “We had a strong group at the front and had to make our way through the field past riders from the other categories.

"It’s fantastic to win in the rainbow jersey in my own backyard. It was a tough race, but I really enjoyed the route and the atmosphere along the way,”

The UCI Gravel World Series continues this weekend with a double-header: Seven in Australia and The Gralloch in Scotland, both held on Saturday.

It's hard to believe, but we are now less than a week away from the Tour of Flanders, with only a further week after that until Paris-Roubaix. Together they mark the climax of the early-season Classics, although there will still be the Ardennes races to enjoy for those who prefer their Classics served with fewer cobbles and more hills.

For the riders, the training is well in the past now and their race skills are being sharpened at the coalface – at events such as the weekend's E3 Saxo Classic and In Flanders Fields (which used be called Gent-Wevelgem). Both are big races in their own right, offering up a major tick on any palmarès and, as we saw at the weekend, a bucketful of action for fans to enjoy. Let's reflect on a few scoops from that bucket.

Don't write off Wout van Aert

The Belgian has had a mercurial couple of seasons in which it has never been easy to predict which Wout van Aert we'll get on a given day. The imperious winner, the below-par also ran, or even the unlucky crash victim.

In Flanders Fields was a reminder that the Visma-Lease a Bike rider can still come up with the goods, and while he was nowhere near the podium in the final reckoning, his two-up breakaway stint with Mathieu van der Poel – a rider who was once considered his Classics nemesis but has since left him behind – proved he is still a contender.

The best evidence of this was Van der Poel doing his utmost to drop Van Aert on the Kemmelberg, and failing. In the end it was all in vain, but unlike the Dutch rider, for Van Aert it will be a confidence boost going into the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.

Lorena Wiebes comes back swinging

When Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) takes part in a bunch sprint, she tends to win – but not always, as young British rider Carys Lloyd (Movistar) demonstrated at the Ronde van Brugge last week. No doubt keen to show that her ninth place that day was a blip rather than a new trend, Wiebes came back and took things on in a different way to a sprint, attacking on the Kemmelberg and changing the race.

The smaller sprint wasn't as clear-cut as many Wiebes wins though; Lidl-Trek's Fleur Moors came up fast on her left and as the Dutch rider sat up to celebrate she was very nearly pipped on the line. But the win belonged to Wiebes and to make it even more impressive, she had spent a lot of time driving the break and covering the moves too.

Mathieu van der Poel is still untouchable

As the defending champion all eyes were on Mathieu van der Poel at the E3 Saxo Classic. In fact, the Alpecin-Premier Tech rider was looking for a third consecutive victory at the hilly Belgian race. His status as the clear favourite meant the Dutchman was a marked man, but it didn't stop him pulling off another lone victory, despite a hand injury from crashing at Milan-San Remo a week before.

He rode the race almost as a time trial, skipping from one chasing group to another until he was out front solo with 42km remaining. And his bloody-minded insistence on continuing to ride, even when the front chase group were only a few bike lengths behind him with a kilometre to go, is testament to his mental strength. The clear favourite for the Tour of Flanders, and, with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), the joint favourite at Roubaix.

Jasper Philipsen reminds us that he's more than a sprinter

After winning Milan-San Remo in 2024 and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne last year, Jasper Philipsen added another significant Classics victory to his palmares at In Flanders Fields. With eight classified bergs on the parcours, it's a win that emphasises the Belgian's all-round ability and serves as a reminder that he has more in his quiver than just a lightning-fast sprint.

Not that his sprint has disappeared – his win at In Flanders Fields was taken at the head of a 40-rider finish – but it certainly works well with his more rounded strengths. He will once again miss the Tour of Flanders, but is due to ride Paris-Roubaix, in which he has finished second twice and is capable, on the right day, of winning.

The big teams are finally back on top

A glance down the top-10 of the women's In Flanders Fields shows a striking pattern – with the possible exception of Fenix-Premier Tech, it's a who's who of major Classics teams. We'll include UAE Team ADQ in that, who have emerged as heavy hitters in the past year and are currently riding the top of the UCI rankings thanks to one fine performance after another this season.

More notable perhaps is the presence in second place of Lidl-Trek thanks to Fleur Moors – a great team who have taken a while to hit their stride this year. And then there are two riders each from FDJ United-SUEZ and SD Worx-Protime, with winner Lorena Wiebes asserting what many would consider SD Worx's rightful place at the top in the Classics.

An emphatic performance saw Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) win In Flanders Fields from the breakaway, as she split the race on the final ascent of the Kemmelberg and drew a small group clear, before sprinting to victory in the final few hundred metres.

Clearly keen to avoid a repeat of the Ronde Van Brugge earlier in the week, where she found herself boxed in and unable to launch her sprint, Wiebes took matters into her own hands and went away with a five-rider group to the finish.

She was forced to close down a late move from Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) with 4km to go whilst her other breakaway companions sat on her wheel, but she was equal to the challenge. She then led the group into the final sprint and launched with around 300m to go, holding the front all the way to the line to take the win.

“I felt during the race that I had good legs and the last time up the Kemmelberg, I thought why not pace it myself,” said Wiebes in her post-race interview. “I thought ‘I can still go a bit faster’, so why not? We were with a good group away and everybody did their turns. They started to attack with UAE in the last kilometres, but it was a difficult sprint at the end for me.”

Wiebes’ margin of victory was perhaps a bit narrower than she would have anticipated, as she sat up to celebrate before the line, which allowed Fleur Moors (Lidl-Trek) to close in behind her and throw her bike at the line in a desperate attempt to snatch the victory.

It certainly gave Wiebes quite the fright as she looked down to her left with her arms still aloft, with immediate flashbacks to the 2024 Amstel Gold Race, where a similar incident cost her the victory. It was not enough to deny her on this occasion though, as she beat Moors by a wheel length to take her fifth win of the season.

When asked if she could have done anything better in the race, Wiebes jokingly replied, “Maybe not give the DS a heart attack again. Maybe I celebrated a bit too early, but this time it was enough.”

It was certainly a different type of win from her victories at this race in 2024 and 2025, and an atypical display in general from the Dutch national champion, who became the first rider in history to win three-consecutive editions of this race, adding yet another record to her ever-growing list accolades.

“It’s nice to win out of a breakaway, that makes it more special to win it for the third time,” Wiebes concluded.

Getting straight back to winning ways after Thursday’s hiccup will certainly be a relief for the Dutch sprinter, who looks to be in good form ahead of her upcoming races, as she targets the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and the Amstel Gold Race over the next few weeks.

Results

In Flanders Fields Women 2026: Wevelgem > Wevelgem (135km)

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 3:31:21
2. Fleur Moors (Bel) Lidl-Trek
3. Karlijn Swinkels (Ned) UAE Team ADQ
4. Elise Chabbey (Swi) FDJ United-SUEZ, all at same time
5. Eleonora Gasparrini (Ita) UAE Team ADQ, +3s
6. Vittoria Guazzini (Ita) FDJ United-SUEZ, +17s
7. Charlotte Kool (Ned) Fenix-Premier Tech
8. Letizia Paternoster (Ita) Liv AlUla Jayco
9. Femke Markus (Ned) SD Worx-Protime
10. Lara Gillespie (Ire) UAE Team ADQ, all at same time

For a major one-day Classic with a hilly finale, Milan-San Remo offers a real opportunity for fast-finishing riders – and they often take it. That's true of the men's race and, as of last year, the women's race too – which, confusingly, is being called Milan-San Remo Donne or San Remo Women, depending on whether you consult the UCI or organiser RCS.

In what was a renaissance following a 20-year hiatus for the women's edition, sprint queen Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Pro Time) tracked the world's best climbers over the Cipressa, and then the Poggio, before beating them soundly on the Via Roma.

Just as the men's peloton finds itself scratching its head in the quest to beat Tadej Pogačar, the women, in a race like this at least, know they need to get creative if they are to vanquish an in-form Wiebes on Saturday. The 27-year-old Dutch rider has won four of the seven races she has started so far this season, and if she can get over the double punch of those two final climbs with the leaders, it's hard to see her being beaten in the flat run to the line.

There are other fast riders of course. Second last year, Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) was set to be one of Wiebes's biggest challengers as a fast finisher herself, but she is no longer riding having returned home to be with her father, who is ill. Others who look as though they could take on Wiebes on the 'Via Roma' include quick young Brit Cat Ferguson (Movistar), though she may find getting over the climbs with the favourites – including Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Pro Time), who were fourth and ninth last year – a stretch too far.

The women's race begins at 10.40 CET on Saturday. If you're interested in streaming it or finding it on TV, check out our How to Watch guide, which will be up on our site from 8am GMT on the morning of the race.

Milan-San Remo Donne 2026 start list

AG Insurance-Soudal
Kim Le Court-Pienaar
Justine Ghekiere
Mireia Benito
Letizia Borghesi
Alexandra Manly
Nicole Steigenga

Canyon-SRAM-zondacrypto
Chiara Consonni
Tiffany Cromwell
Rosa Maria Kloser
Kasia Niewiadoma
Soraya Paladin
Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka

EF Education-Oatly
Noemi Ruegg
Solbjork Minke Anderson
Henrietta Christie
Stina Kagevi
Cédrine Kerbaol
Alice Towers

FDJ United-SUEZ
Juliette Berthet
Célia Gery
Vittoria Guazzini
Eva Van Agt
Jade Wiel
Ally Wollaston

Human Powered Health
Thalita De Jong
Carlotta Cipressi
Katia Ragusa
Nina Buijsman
Titia Ryo
Marit Raaijmakers

Lidl-Trek
Elisa Balsamo
Margot Vanpachtenbeke
Ricarda Bauernfeind
Lucinda Brand
Niamh Fisher-Black
Riejanne Markus

Liv AlUla Jayco
Monica Trinca Colonel
Ruby Roseman-Gannon
Letizia Paternoster
Matilde Vitillo
Josie Talbot
Ella Wyllie

Movistar
Cat Ferguson
Arlenis Sierra
Francesca Barale
Olivia Baril
Aude Biannic
Sara Martin

Picnic PostNL
Pfeiffer Georgi
Audrey De Keersmaeker
Juliana Londono
Gaia Masetti
Rachele Barbieri
Josie Nelson

Visma-Lease a Bike
Femke De Vries
Daniek Hengeveld
Sarah Van Dam
Lieke Nooijen
Margaux Vigie
Rosita Reijnhout

UAE Team ADQ
Silvia Persico
Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini
Mavi Garcia
Brodie Chapman
Dominika Włodarczyk
Alena Amialiusik

Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi
Usoa Ostolaza
Alice Maria Arzuffi
Yuliia Biriukova
Arianna Fidanza
Vittoria Ruffilli
Debora Silvestri

Cofidis Women
Ema Comte
Victoire Berteau
Amalie Dideriksen
Spela Kern
Nikola Noskova
Nadia Quagliotto

Mayenne Monbana My Pie
Francesca Hall
Marine Allione
Karolina Perekitko
Kiara Lylyk
Alice Coutinho
Constance Valentin

Aromitalia Vaiano
Rasa Leleivyte
Maya Kingma
Eleonora La Bella
Argiro Milaki
Hanna Tserakh
Valentina Venerucci

Vini Fantini-BePink
Sofia Arici
Andrea Casagranda
Irene Cagnazzo
Fariba Hashimi
Sonia Rossetti
Gaia Segato

SD Worx-Pro Time
Barbara Guarischi
Lotte Kopecky
Blanka Vas
Lorena Wiebes
Linda Zanetti
Anouska Koster
Puck Pieterse

VolkerWessels Cycling
Anneke Dijkstra
Eline Jansen
Esmée Peperkamp
Maud Rijnbeek
Sabrina Stultiens
Bodine Vollering

St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93
Alison Jackson
Émilie Morier
Clara Emond
Heidi Franz
Caroline Wreszin
India Grangier

Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria
Anita Baima
Giulia Bisso
Lara Crestanello
Valeria Curnis
Chantal Pegolo
Valentina Zanzi

Mendelspeck E-Work
Camilla Bezzone
Eleonora Deotto
Nikol Dollaku
Giulia Giuliani
Ilaria Marinetto
Giorgia Serena

Top Girls Fassa Bortolo
Virginia Bortoli
Elisa De Vallier
Sara Luccon
Marta Pavesi
Chiara Reghini
Irma Siri

Saturday 28 February

Men’s
Distance: 207.2km
Start: 10:05 Finish: 14:50 (GMT)

Women’s
Distance: 137.2km
Start: 12:35 Finish: 16:20 (GMT)

Omloop Nieuwsblad is the start of the Classics, one part of Opening Weekend. It heralds the full-on racing season, and the cobbled one-day events which are to come.

The race forms part of a double-header across the weekend, with Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne following on the Sunday for the men, and Omloop van het Hageland for the women.

This is the 81st edition of the men's race, and the 21st of the women's, so it has some serious pedigree. Here's everything you need to know for the 2026 race.

Five things to watch out for

1. A sprinter’s race?

The men’s edition of Omloop last year finished in a sprint for the first time since 2021; it is the kind of race which seems to either have a solo winner or quite a large bunch in Ninove. With less of the relentless climbing that other Classics have, it could be a race which favours a rider like Biniam Girmay or Jasper Philipsen.

2. Dutch dominance

Five of the last seven women’s races have been won by the Netherlands; no particular surprise when you think of the Dutch dominance of women’s racing. If there’s a solo attack this year, you’d pin your hopes on Demi Vollering, while if it’s a sprint, Lorena Wiebes seems unbeatable. The record might well be extended.

3. British hopes

The list of top competitors for Omloop is peppered with Union Flags. Cat Ferguson, two-time victor this season already, is a serious contender in a selective sprint, while Tom Pidcock will be looking to beat his previous best result of fifth. That isn’t it though, with Anna Henderson, Matthew Brennan and Fred Wright all down to race.

4. Kuurne time

The younger sibling of Opening Weekend is Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, which takes place on the Sunday. It’sa 1.Pro race, so not all the big stars will turn out, but those that do will fight hard. It is the ultimate opportunity for someone to make up for a disappointing Saturday, if they have the legs. For the women, Omloop van het Hageland provides the same opportunity.

5. Classics narrative

Omloop is just five weeks out from the peak of the Classics season at the Tour of Flanders, followed a week later by Paris-Roubaix, and it might be Opening Weekend, but things that happen here have an impact throughout the rest of the season. If Mathieu van der Poel or Vollering win, then they will increase their favourite status. If there are surprise performances from unheralded riders, then they will be marked for the next few races. Anything could happen, and this is the start.

Focus on Muur van Gerrardsbergen

Omloop Nieuwsblad effectively runs as a mini-Tour of Flanders, but doesn’t include the Koppenberg, Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg triple. Instead, it uses the old Flanders one-two finish of the Muur van Gerrardsbergen followed by the Bosberg.

The race will be decided on these cobbled climbs, even if there is a lone attacker at this point. De Muur is an iconic climb, and might only be 6.8% over 910 metres, but always has a say in Omloop. Whoever is first to the chapel at the top might just win the race.

How to watch

How to watch

It is on TNT Sports in the UK and Ireland, accessible via a TV package or a Discovery+ subscription. In the US, it's on FloBikes. Check out our full how to watch guide for more.

Last year's podium

Last year’s podium

Men

1. Søren Wærenskjold (Nor) Uno-X Mobility
2. Paul Magnier (Fra) Soudal Quick-Step
3. Jasper Philipsen (Bel) Alpecin-Decuninck

Women

1. Lotte Claes (Bel) Lotto Intermarché
2. Aurela Nerlo (Pol) Winspace Orange Seal
3. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime

Riders to watch

Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling) ****

The double-Olympic mountain bike champion has never finished higher than fifth at Omloop, but will be a well-marked rider given his ability to attack from the front. If he gets a clear run from the Muur, he will be hard to drag back.

Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ) *****

Somehow, Vollering has never won Omloop. Last year, she was the best of the rest as a surprise breakaway made it to the finish. She will surely be attempting to make up for missed opportunities. Expect her to try and attack from far out and solo away.

Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) *****

The Dutch sprinter’s record is verging on outrageous. Wiebes essentially hasn’t lost a bunch sprint since 2024, and if it does come down to a large group in Ninove, betting against her would be like betting against it raining in the UK at the moment. Her SD Worx team will try and keep the race together.

Biniam Girmay (NSN Pro Cycling) ***

Four years on from his watershed Gent-Wevelgem victory, Girmay is back in winning form, and he always seemed suited to the tough racing of the Classics. In a new team, NSN will be all-in to back their Eritrean superstar. Expect Lewis Askey to do a lot of work for him.

Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) ****

The Belgian is no longer world champion, but that will not make her any less marked. Free from targeting GC at stage races, Kopecky is free to do what she is best at, winning one-day races. Expect fireworks.

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) *****

Making an appearance at Omloop for the first time is one of the best Classics riders of all time, Mathieu van der Poel. He is yet to race this season, but don't expect that to hold him back – he will be the hot favourite.

Startlist

Men's

*denotes unconfirmed team

Alpecin-Premier Tech
Edward Planckaert
Florian Sénéchal
Jasper Philipsen
Kaden Groves
Lennert Belmans
Mathieu van der Poel
Tobias Bayer

Bahrain Victorious
Alec Segaert
Attila Valter
Kamil Gradek
Matej Mohorič
Pau Miquel
Robert Stannard
Vlad Van Mechelen

Burgos Burpellet BH
Alexandre Mayer
César Macias
Clément Alléno
Daniel Cavia
Georgios Bouglas
Josh Burnett
Vojtěch Kmínek

Cofidis
Alex Kirsch
Alexis Renard
Dylan Teuns
Hugo Page
Jenthe Biermans
Piet Allegaert
Stanisław Aniołkowski

Decathlon CMA CGM
Oliver Naesen
Oscar Chamberlain
Rasmus Søjberg Pedersen
Sander De Pestel
Stan Dewulf
Stefan Bissegger
Tobias Lund Andresen

EF Education-EasyPost
Colby Simmons
Kasper Asgreen
Luke Lamperti
Marijn van den Berg
Mikkel Frølich Honoré
Noah Hobbs
Vincenzo Albanese

Flanders Baloise
Dylan Vandenstorme
Michiel Lambrecht
Milan Lanhove
Siebe Deweirdt
Victor Vercouillie
Vincent Van Hemelen
Ward Vanhoof

Groupama-FDJ United*
Axel Huens
Bastien Tronchon
Clément Russo
Cyril Barthe
Johan Jacobs
Thibaud Gruel
Valentin Madouas

Ineos Grenadiers
Artem Shmidt
Ben Swift
Ben Turner
Kim Heiduk
Magnus Sheffield
Michał Kwiatkowski
Samuel Watson

Jayco Alula
Amaury Capiot
Anders Foldager
Dries De Bondt
Dries De Pooter
Jelte Krijnsen
Kelland O'Brien
Robert Donaldson

Lidl-Trek
Albert Withen Philipsen
Edward Theuns
Mathias Vacek
Otto Vergaerde
Søren Kragh Andersen
Tim Torn Teutenberg
Toms Skujiņš

Lotto Intermarché
Arnaud De Lie
Cédric Beullens
Jenno Berckmoes
Luca Van Boven
Roel van Sintmaartensdijk
Sébastien Grignard
Vito Braet

Movistar
Carlos Canal
Filip Maciejuk
Iván García Cortina
Jon Barrenetxea
Manlio Moro
Orluis Aular
Roger Adrià

NSN Cycling
Biniam Girmay
Guillaume Boivin
Lewis Askey
Matis Louvel
Riley Sheehan
Ryan Mullen
Tom Van Asbroeck

Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling*
Aimé De Gendt
Brent Van Moer
Fred Wright
Frederik Frison
Kamil Małecki
Tom Pidcock
Xandro Meurisse

Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe
Arne Marit
Gianni Vermeersch
Jarrad Drizners
Jordi Meeus
Laurence Pithie
Mick van Dijke
Tim van Dijke

Soudal Quick-Step
Casper Pedersen
Dries van Gestel
Dylan van Baarle
Jasper Stuyven
Paul Magnier
Pepijn Reinderink
Yves Lampaert

Picnic PostNL
Frank van den Broek
Henri-François Renard-Haquin
John Degenkolb
Julius van den Berg
Sean Flynn
Timo de Jong
Timo Roosen

Visma-Lease a Bike
Axel Zingle
Christophe Laporte
Edoardo Affini
Matthew Brennan
Per Strand Hagenes
Pietro Mattio
Timo Kielich

TotalEnergies
Alexys Brunel
Anthony Turgis
Baptiste Vadic
Samuel Leroux
Sandy Dujardin
Thomas Bonnet
Thomas Gachignard

Tudor Pro Cycling*
Aivaras Mikutis
Luca Mozzato
Marco Haller
Matteo Trentin
Petr Kelemen
Rick Pluimers
Stefan Küng

UAE Team Emirates-XRG
Florian Vermeersch
Juan Sebastián Molano
Julius Johansen
Nils Politt
Rui Oliveira
Rune Herregodts
Tim Wellens

Unibet Rose Rockets
Joren Bloem
Karsten Larsen Feldmann
Lukáš Kubiš
Martijn Rasenberg
Matyáš Kopecký
Niklas Larsen
Tomáš Kopecký

Uno-X Mobility*
Carl-Frederik Bévort
Erik Nordsæter Resell
Jonas Abrahamsen
Markus Hoelgaard
Rasmus Tiller
Søren Wærenskjold
Sven Erik Bystrøm

XDS Astana*
Aaron Gate
Alberto Bettiol
Alessandro Romele
Arjen Livyns
Davide Ballerini
Lev Gonov
Mike Teunissen

Women's

*denotes unconfirmed team

AG Insurance - Soudal Team
Alana Castrique
Gladys Verhulst-Wild
Ilse Pluimers
Letizia Borghesi
Marthe Goossens
Shari Bossuyt

Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto
Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka
Anastasiya Kolesava
Chiara Consonni
Kasia Niewiadoma
Tiffany Cromwell
Zoe Bäckstedt

Citymesh Customm Pro Cycling Team*
Britt De Grave
Britt Knaven
Cleo Kiekens
Eline van Rooijen
Femke Van Goethem
Yonna van Dam

Cofidis
Kristýna Burlová
Malwina Mul
Marion Borras
Martina Alzini
Valentine Fortin
Victoire Berteau

EF Education-Oatly
Alexandra Volstad
Alexis Magner
Babette van der Wolf
Cédrine Kerbaol
Mirre Knaven
Nina Berton

FDJ United-SUEZ*
Demi Vollering
Elise Chabbey
Eva van Agt
Franziska Koch
Juliette Berthet
Vittoria Guazzini

Fenix-Premier Tech
Christina Schweinberger
Evy Kuijpers
Flora Perkins
Lotte Claes
Marthe Truyen
Millie Couzens

Human Powered Health
Daria Pikulik
Kathrin Schweinberger
Lily Williams
Maggie Coles-Lyster
Marta Jaskulska
Thalita de Jong

Laboral Kutxa Fundación Euskadi
Arianna Fidanza
Idoia Eraso
Irati Aranguren
Marjolein van 't Geloof
Naia Amondarain
Sara Fiorin

Lidl-Trek
Anna Henderson
Elisa Balsamo
Fleur Moors
Loes Adegeest
Margot Vanpachtenbeke
Shirin van Anrooij

Liv AlUla Jayco
Caroline Andersson
Jeanne Korevaar
Letizia Paternoster
Noa Jansen
Quinty Ton
Ruby Roseman-Gannon

Lotto Intermarché Ladies
Anna van Wersch
Katrijn De Clercq
Lani Wittervrongel
Lea Lin Teutenberg
Linda Riedmann
Marieke Meert

Ma Petite Entreprise*
Alison Avoine
Clémence Latimier
Ilona Rouat
Margot Marasco
Noémie Abgrall

Mayenne Monbana My Pie*
Allison Mrugal
Constance Valentin
Fiona Mangan
Justine Gegu
Kiara Lylyk
Natalie Quinn

Minimax Cycling Team*
Camilla Rånes Bye
Clara Lundmark
Émilie Fortin
Gwen Nothum
Katja Verkerk
Ursula Linden

Movistar
Arlenis Sierra
Aude Biannic
Carys Lloyd
Cat Ferguson
Liane Lippert
Sheyla Gutiérrez

Picnic PostNL
Audrey De Keersmaeker
Daniela Hezinová
Josie Nelson
Lucie Fityus
Mara Roldan
Mia Griffin

SD Worx-Protime
Anna van der Breggen
Elena Cecchini
Femke Markus
Lorena Wiebes
Lotte Kopecky
Mischa Bredewold

St Michel-Preference Home Auber93
Alicia Gonzalez
Alison Jackson
Caroline Wreszin
Clémence Chéreau
Elyne Roussel
India Grangier

UAE Team ADQ
Brodie Chapman
Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini
Elynor Bäckstedt
Karlijn Swinkels
Lara Gillespie
Megan Jastrab

Uno-X Mobility*
Alessia Vigilia
Ingvild Gåskjenn
Laura Tomasi
Linda Zanetti
Susanne Andersen
Teuntje Beekhuis

Visma-Lease a Bike*
Daniek Hengeveld
Imogen Wolff
Katharina Sadnik
Nienke Veenhoven
Rosita Reijnhout

VolkerWessels Cycling*
Amber van der Hulst
Anne Knijnenburg
Esmée Peperkamp
Maud Rijnbeek
Quinty Schoens
Sophie von Berswordt

With season's first tranche of competition already a memory, stage racing moved from Down Under to Europe and the Middle-East, with the Volta a la Communitat Valenciana and the UAE Tour Women – both featuring some of the peloton's biggest names. As we draw ever closer to the start of the European season's biggest races, with Opening Weekend taking place at the end of this month, we take a look at what these latest events have revealed.

1. Lorena Wiebes is still the rider to beat

If the Dutch sprint star had done anything other than win repeatedly at last week's UAE Tour Women, eyebrows would have been raised. In the event, the SD Worx-Pro Time rider did not disappoint, winning three out of four stages and only faltering (as expected) when the race tackled the storied Jebel Hafeet mountain-top finish on the final day – a stage won by Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ). As well as three stage wins, Wiebes made the points classification her own.

If any of the 26-year-old's rivals were hoping that she'd lost her touch over the winter, this sends the message that she certainly has not, and sets the tone for the forthcoming Classics season.

2. Zoe Bäckstedt is the rider to watch

The last race that Zoe Bäckstedt rode was the World Championships Under-23 time trial, which saw her finish her second full year as a top-tier pro with six victories – including the GC at the Baloise Tour in Belgium. At the UAE Tour – her first race of the season and Bäckstedt's debut in the event – suggests the Brit is ready to carry on where she left off, with a string of solid performances.

Still only 21, the Brit was second in the young rider classification, as well as taking third place on stage one behind Lorena Wiebes and Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ). She also took two further top-20 placings on stages.

3. Remco Evenepoel shows no sign of slowing down

A little way around the globe from where Lorena Wiebes was dominating one race, Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) was dominating another. With two stage wins from a possible five at the Volta a la Communitat Valenciana, and a 31-second GC victory over Grand Tour hitter João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), the Belgian took his victory tally for the year to six in just eight days' racing (the GC win does of course sit outside of those individual days).

"Day by day we get better," said Evenepoel after the race and, if that holds, we can expect to see more wins coming up at next week's UAE Tour, which is made up of at least 50% hilly days.

4. Most teams have a win – but a couple still have neither

It's only the beginning of February, and it has already been a fruitful year for the majority of WorldTour teams with 13 out of 18 men's teams and nine out of 14 women's teams registering victories so far.

However, that leaves five on each side still to record a win. They probably don't need to panic just yet – after all, it took Intermarché-Wanty until April to win last season. That said, Remco Evenepoel's lavish win tally is unlikely to ease the ire with which Soudal Quick-Step boss Patrick Lefevere regards his Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe counterpart Ralf Denk for poaching his best rider.

In addition, both Uno-X Mobility and Picnic PostNL's men's or women's teams have yet to score, so they will be looking to change that as soon as possible.

5. British pair bare their teeth behind Grand Tour star

The Vuelta CV Feminas showed multiple Grand Tour stage winner Liane Lippert (Movistar) heading in the right direction to claim more big wins this year, after time trialling away from the front group in the final three kilometres of the Spanish one-day race. Sprinting home seconds behind in the large group that followed Lippert in were her team-mate Cat Ferguson in third (another great result after her win in the Trofeo Llucmajor) and Anna Henderson (Lidl-Trek) in fifth, for what is her best result so far this short season.

Tightly gripping the drops of her handlebars, Lorena Wiebes thrashes down on the pedals, shoulders low, head dipped into the wind. The gantry comes into frame. She bows to look under her arm, sees no one, sits up, and punches the air. It’s a finish every cycling fan now recognises: the trademark conclusion to a Wiebes sprint. It could have been Gent-Wevelgem. It could have been stages three or four of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, or any of five stages of the Simac Ladies Tour. In 2025, Wiebes was so imperious she won 25 times – more than any other male or female pro – and usually in exactly this way. But as the season unfolded, it became clear her repertoire was expanding.

For a few years now, Wiebes has spoken of her desire to be dominant beyond the finishing straight. “I want to be more than just a sprinter,” she told the Dutch magazine Ride last month. But does the 26-year-old really have the performance characteristics to be more than a sprinter? Is it even a smart ambition? If you’re a sprinter who can beat just about anyone, why hedge your bets elsewhere?

To gain a deeper understanding of Wiebes, I turn to someone who knows her better than most: her agent of eight years, Andre Boskamp. Does he see her as more than a sprinter? “She is more than a sprinter,” he snaps back. “What she is doing is unbelievable.”

For Boskamp, it’s not just Wiebes’s tally of wins that is impressive, but the success she has had across disciplines. In 2025, she won the UCI Gravel World Championships, as well as omnium and scratch race world titles on the track, proving her versatility. “She’s very impulsive,” Boskamp adds. “She needs challenges – that’s Lorena.” It’s a phrase he’ll repeat again and again over the course of our conversation, stressing her uniqueness: “That’s Lorena.”

A former Dutch national coach in the 1980s, Boskamp met Wiebes when she was a teenager and among the world’s most promising junior talents. She’s one of around 130 cyclists the agent has represented, alongside Olympic speed skaters. In all his career, he says, he’s never met anyone more professional than Wiebes. How has she changed over the past eight years? “Mentally she’s become very, very, very, very strong,” Boskamp says. It’s what gives her the drive and determination to go after new goals. “She’s looking at what she can do to grow better and better. Actually, she’s going to the south of Holland, to Limburg, so she can train for hilly situations, and so on. That’s Lorena.”

Not content to rest on her sprinting laurels, Wiebes’s hill training has taken her to new heights. It’s likely what helped her climb the 6km Cipressa and 3.7km Poggio with ease to win the inaugural women’s Milan San-Remo this spring, a victory that kickstarted a triumphant streak through the Classic Brugge-De Panne and lumpy, cobbled Gent-Wevelgem – her milestone 100th win.

Wiebes’s climbing ability surfaced again in May, at the Vuelta a Burgos. On a 6% incline, she sprung off the wheel of Giro d’Italia winner Elisa Longo Borghini and outpunched her to claim the stage win. It hit home that she was one to watch outside of routine sprint finishes. The nature of the win may have seemed uncharacteristic from the Dutchwoman, but it really shouldn’t have. “Hilly stages are, for her, no problem anymore,” says Boskamp.

This is a rider who refuses to be a one-trick pony, a sprinter typecast to simply ride fast. “I need that challenge,” Wiebes told Ride. “I think that's what will keep me going in cycling for longer. If I were to focus solely on sprinting, I’d be done with it at some point.”

Does this explain her need to be more than a sprinter? Is it a way to stave off boredom? A decade ago, Kirsten Wild was in a similar position. Like Wiebes, Wild was the sprinter to beat; she’d regularly rack up double-figure win tallies, turning up to flat races such as the Tour of Qatar and Tour of Chongming Island and all but clean-sweeping the stages. Thanks to those victories, the now retired Dutchwoman is also part of the 100 club, having earned her centennial victory in 2018 at the age of 35. Did she ever feel greedy for wins? “No,” Wild says, and bursts into laughter. Did she ever find winning boring? “No,” she laughs again.

The difference, perhaps, is that Wild was always, in her words, “a bit of a doubter”. Even when she was the favourite, she never took winning for granted. “Maybe that was a strength, that I always doubted if I was good enough – so I had to go faster. I always had the motivation to go harder, faster.” She picks out a brace of victories as her favourites: Brugge-De Panne and Gent-Wevelgem in 2019, her 104th and 105th wins. Coincidentally – or perhaps not – the woman in second in both races was a 20-year-old Wiebes.

I ask Wild what she has made of her compatriot’s progress. “She’s more dominant than I ever was,” Wild says bluntly. Wiebes herself acknowledges that winning “seems like a normal thing” for her nowadays. Wild continues: “I was quite equal to [Ina-Yoko] Teutenberg, Marianne Vos and [Giorgia] Bronzini, so it was never certain that I was going to win. It was always one of us. I think Lorena is above everyone who’s sprinting right now.”

Wiebes’s rise to the top hasn’t been without its blips, though. At last summer’s Tour de France Femmes, which started in her native Netherlands, the SD Worx rider left empty-handed, second best in the sprints to DSM-Firmenich PostNL’s Charlotte Kool. Boskamp remembers his client feeling “very, very, very disappointed” afterwards. But she came back stronger to this year’s edition, and won comfortably twice. Now she is peerless in bunch sprints. It’s no surprise, then, that she’s looking to the track, gravel racing, cobbled Classics and punchy road finishes for excitement and jeopardy. She’s even raced cyclo-cross, placing as high as seventh in an event last October.

Wild retired in 2021 after 16 years as a pro. She won 109 road races, nine track world titles, and an Olympic bronze medal in the omnium. As Wiebes closes her eighth season, what is Wild’s advice to her for a long and successful career? “I loved what I did, and I think that’s one of the main things, maybe the most important. I kept challenging myself,” she says – a characteristic she knows Wiebes shares. “She’s doing gravel, the track, the road. She loves the sport, and I think that’s also her strength.”

As if to illustrate that fact, Boskamp reveals Wiebes recently spent a chunk of her winnings on a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van, into which she plans to bundle her bike to go on riding holidays. Cycling remains a joy before it’s a job for the Dutchwoman. As the wins keep totting up, and she morphs more into a multi-discipline all-rounder, the question will be posed: is she one of the greatest riders of all time? Is it a question, this legacy one, she dares to consider? “No, no, no. She’s not busy with that,” says Boskamp. “Maybe in the coming years her mind will change, but she’s not busy with that. Every race is new for her. Every race she’s focused.”

There’s still more to conquer, more challenges to take on. “Maybe she’ll try and take 30 victories next year,” Boskamp says. Wiebes herself has said she’ll target Amstel Gold – a race with over 20 hills and almost 2,000m elevation – while her agent is tipping her for victory at Paris-Roubaix. Both races are too great an endurance challenge for an ordinary sprinter – Wiebes is not that. As for her longer-term goals, “she’s looking to the Olympic Games and the World Championships [in Abu Dhabi] in 2028,” Boskamp says. Time will tell how dominant she will become, but there’s no shortage of ambition – that’s Lorena.

Destined to be the greatest?

After Wiebes’s haul this season, there are now only two female riders with more all-time UCI wins than the Dutchwoman: Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (148) and Marianne Vos (260). Wiebes’s 118 puts her a long way off top spot at the moment, but what would it take for her to reach it? Let’s run the numbers.

Vos has just finished her 20th season in road cycling, meaning she has averaged exactly 13 victories a year. Wiebes’s win rate, after only eight seasons, is 14.75 per year. If she carries on like this, she’ll reach 295 wins after her 20th season – 35 more than Vos.

Of course, it’s not as simple as that. Vos is still winning races – the 38-year-old won three this year and scored 11 top-threes – and has a lifetime contract with Visma-Lease a Bike, so could keep adding to her tally into her 40s. If we imagine, however, that Vos doesn’t win another bike race, then mark mid-August 2034 in your diary – that’s when we forecast Wiebes will surpass Vos’s 260 and become the outright record-holder. By that point, she’ll be 35 years old.

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 18 December 2025. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

Almost 300 men and women won an elite bike race in 2025, and that's only counting road events. Of those, it won't be a particular surprise that Tadej Pogačar topped the men's charts with 20 victories, and Lorena Wiebes the women's, with 25. It was Demi Vollering, however, who topped the UCI Women's WorldTour rankings.

None of this particularly matters in this latest list of our riders of the year.

We have already had Cycling Weekly's riders of the year, it's true, but that set of awards is British-focused, and decided by committee. This is a chance for our staff writers to go international, and make sure their favourites get their time in the limelight. There are no rules to this, beyond it should make sense, and repeats are allowed – although only one person chose Tadej Pogačar...

This is the second in a series of pieces where we have compiled thoughts from across the CW staff about 2025, and our favourite places to ride. Do let us know your thoughts!

Lorena Wiebes – Tom Davidson, senior news and features writer

Let me start this nomination with a simple fact: no rider, male or female, has won more races than Lorena Wiebes in 2025. The SD Worx-Protime rider claimed 25 road victories this season (Tadej Pogačar managed 20) – her best tally to date – and that’s not to mention the gravel world title and two track world titles she won, too.

To put it simply, Wiebes won everywhere. First race day of the season at the UAE Tour? Tick. Inaugural women’s Milan-San Remo? Tick. A stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift? Tick, plus another for good luck. For many riders, the tough thing can be keeping that consistency all the way through to the end of the year. How many of her last nine races did Wiebes win in 2025? Eight. Case closed.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot – Simon Richardson, magazine editor & Anne-Marije Rook, North American Editor

Simon:

Being by far the strongest rider in the peloton is a gift. Yes, that rider can rightly claim to be the best, but honestly, how impressive is it if you win everything at a canter because of the physical ability passed down through your parents' genes?

What’s truly impressive is targeting the biggest two races on the calendar and winning them. And that’s what Pauline Ferrand-Prévot did in 2025. She also did it on her comeback to the road after years focusing on mountain biking. Yes, yes, yes, she will have trained on the road a great deal, but her positioning and peloton prowess would have been more than a little rusty.

Add to that the fact she was a new member of an already established team and needed to get everyone on board with her plan, and you have an exceptional achievement that surpasses simple physical ability.

Anne-Marije:

I’m such a fan of her story arc. We often, and rightly, call Marianne Vos the G.O.A.T. of women’s cycling, but Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is right there alongside her.

The 33-year-old Française is a 15-time UCI Elite World Champion across road, cyclocross, gravel and multiple mountain bike disciplines. She’s also the reigning Olympic cross-country mountain bike champion. Few riders in the history of the sport can match that level of versatility, that sustained excellence or that trophy chest.

After conquering virtually everything there is to win off-road, Ferrand-Prévot signed a three-year deal with the Visma | Lease a Bike super team in 2024, with the stated goal of winning the Tour de France within two to three years. She didn’t need nearly that long. In her very first attempt, and after five years away from the road peloton, she went out and won the thing. And with dominance at that.

Her Tour victory was nothing short of sensational. As was her Paris-Roubaix win, proving her versatility.

Ben Healy - Aaron Borrill, tech writer

In a sport that often tends to get quite robotic in terms of how riders approach racing, Ben Healy has been nothing short of a pleasure to watch. An animator in its purest form, Ben attacks using his instincts, not his power meter, and it shows in the way he races with his heart on his sleeve.

He demonstrated this in spades at this year’s Tour de France, where he delivered a magnificent solo breakaway to win in Vire Normandie on stage six. He continued his fine run of form to finish third on stage 10 and snatch away the yellow jersey, becoming only the fourth Irish cyclist in history to don the coveted maillot jaune.

And then he did it all over again at the World Championships in Kigali, Rwanda, with a performance that earned him a bronze medal. Asked about what events are on his radar in the future at a team event in Girona last month, the Irishman told Cycling Weekly, “I’d like to try the Cape Epic, that looks like proper fun.”

Mathieu van der Poel – Adam Becket, news editor

There's something about Mathieu van der Poel that doesn't always sit right with me, it might be the Lamborghinis and the self-importance, but he is undeniably one of the best bike riders in the world, possibly ever. If it weren't for Pogačar, his season with victories at Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de France would be heralded.

It's hard to see how a rider like the Alpecin-Deceuninck man can be beaten at times; he can match Pogačar on the Poggio and then out-sprint him, too. His stage win in Boulougne-sur-Mer at the Tour was classic Van der Poel, and then he fought back into the yellow jersey again. When a race is him vs his Slovenian rival, you know it's a must watch.

Isaac del Toro - Jamie Williams, video manager

It’s close between Isaac del Toro and Oscar Onley. I’ve chosen the former because I think he’ll be the rider that takes over the baton from Pogacar as the world’s best GC rider. Del Toro made mistakes, mistakes his team probably should have helped him avoid, but he’s young and I think he’s learnt from them.

He also handled the loss of the Giro d'Italia admirably, how easy it would have been to cross the line and lose temper with the team, Carapaz or other riders in the heat of the moment. Stunning rides this year and his story is only just beginning.

Evie Richards - Hannah Bussey, tech writer

This one is easy: Evie Richards. She's the first-ever British rider to win the XCO World Championships, the first-ever to win the short track Worlds, and now, the most successful female rider in short track World Cup history, and she seems to have had an absolute blast while doing so.

She's one of the best role models for young girls entering the sport, being vocal about her firm belief that you can win on the bike without sacrificing your health and well-being.

She's clearly worked hard to strike a good balance between life and racing. You can see she genuinely loves it, and it comes through in her riding style. It's such infectious joy that you can't help but be delighted with every result she gets.

If, like me, you have a cycling-fledgling in the family, you would do well also to join the Evie Richards fan club; you'll become a happier person if you do.

Tadej Pogačar - James Shrubsall, senior news and features writer

It's obvious – perhaps a little too obvious in fact. But tasked with picking a rider of the year it's difficult to go with anyone other than Tadej Pogačar. There is little need for me to list his victories here – countless words and many, many stories have been written about them. We've even seen the first tentative strains of what might be termed 'Pogačar Fatigue' from fans (and by his own admission, he's been pretty tired himself).

But as suspense has begun to dwindle when Pogačar is around, the feeling has been growing in inverse proportion that we are seeing history being made in front of our eyes.

If you're feeling a bit jaded with it all (many aren't), know this: in 20 years' time your young clubmates will have to watch you become all wistful as you recount the Slovenian's endeavours. Enjoy this moment.

Wout van Aert - Matt Ischt-Barnard, ecomm and tech writer

Wout van Aert's incredible return to form after arguably an up-and-down 2024 season, in which any brilliance was overshadowed by injury, was fantastic to watch.

Top five finishes across the Classics season quietened any speculation about his ability to still race at the top, before he won stage nine of the Giro d'Italia to put it completely to bed.

However, it was that final ascent and, ultimately, descent of Montmartre climb on stage 21 of the Tour de France that showed just what class he still is, and I hope an omen for the year ahead. A race with Van Aert at the front is never a boring one.

Wout is back, and I hope dearly that he can add another monument to his 2020 San Remo in 2026.

Zoe Bäckstedt - Meg Elliot, news and features writer

This might be cheating because Zoe Bäckstedt is also one of Cycling Weekly’s riders of the year, but I got the chance to interview her for our mag - and our chat only affirmed her place in the top spot, for me.

This year’s success followed an already glittering career, as she added a ninth rainbow jersey to her growing collection. At January's UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships, she collected rainbow jerseys in the mixed team relay and the under-23 race. She then went on to win five of the six time trials she competed in, scooping up a national and under-23 world title.

But in her final race of the season, Bäckstedt won gold at the UCI World Championships in Rwanda as the fastest under-23 woman in the time trial. Yet, the attribute that most sung out during our interview was her genuine love of bikes - whether she’s cycling off road or on, she’s just happy to be there, riding at her best.

Dutch cycling star Lorena Wiebes walked away unscathed after being hit by a car while riding her electric bike, she announced on social media last night.

She posted an image on her Instagram story of her damaged, silver and pink ebike – with flat handlebars, no less – with a message to the driver, who did not stop.

"For the person who hit me and didn't stop… Luckily I'm quite OK but this could be way worse, especially because I got hit from the back.

"Thanks to the two persons who stopped to check that I'm OK," the SD Worx-Protime rider added. At the bottom of the image, she concluded: "More frustrating if you see how many cyclists get killed by cars."

The bike, which looked to be unbranded and also features flat pedals, was held up by a kickstand in her story image. The damage was minimal, with a slightly taco'd rear wheel with the tubeless skinwall tyre hanging off.

While she did not add any further information, as a rider who rarely saddles up for cyclo-cross events during the winter it would appear Wiebes was simply taking it easy before training for the new season begins in earnest.

It was the second accident in short succession for the gravel world champion, who took part in the recent Track World Championship in Santiago, Chile. She took home two gold medals – in the omnium and the scratch race – but also a number of bruises, sustained after a crash in the Madison.

Crashes aside, it has been a successful season pretty much from start to finish for the 26-year-old, who continues to excel beyond the realm of pure sprinting, with some fine results in punchy one-day races. This was demonstrated by wins in Milan-San Remo, Gent-Wevelgem and the Classic Brugge-De Panne, which she followed up by third place in Paris-Roubaix Frmmes. She now has over 100 career victories.

She has also excelled in the off-road world too, with a win in the Dutch Marly Grav race – part of the UCI Gravel World Series – and more recently taking that UCI Gravel World Championships win, also on home turf in Maastricht.

Elsewhere she also won the points classifications at both the Giro d'Italia Women and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.

Great Britain were twice beaten by the Netherlands to gold on the opening day of the UCI Track World Championships in Santiago, Chile.

The Netherlands were defending champions in the men's team sprint events, and retained their rainbow jersey in that, while the women's team sprint final was a mirror image, as GB were edged out.

In the women's sprint, the Dutch team of Kimberly Kalee, Hetty van de Wouw and Steffie van der Peet beat the British trio, Emma Finucane, Iona Moir and Rhianna Parris-Smith, by three hundredths of a second. Australia beat Poland by two seconds in the bronze final to take third.

While Finucane was part of the three which won Olympic and world titles last year, she was joined by two debutants; it was Finucane's sixth world medal at 22.

"I'm so proud of these two," Finucane said. "It's their first world championships and to go out there in the gold medal ride-off, be composed, feel the pressure - we couldn't have asked for more."

Straight after, in the men's team sprint final, the Dutch team of Jeffery Hoogland, Harrie Lavreysen and Roy van den Berg beat the British trio of Matt Richardson, Joe Truman and Harry Ledingham-Horn by three hundredths of a second again. In a repeat of the women's event, Australia were third, beating France in the bronze final.

Lavreysen is now a 17-time world champion. The Dutch three were Olympic champions last summer, while this is a new lineup for GB at this level. Hoogland is an 11-time world champion, while Van den Berg has six rainbow jerseys.

"Coming away with a silver medal is bittersweet for me," Richardson said post-race. This is his first Worlds since switching his nation to GB from Australia.

"My first medal at a world championships in a GB skinsuit is going to feel amazing," he continued. I wish it was the top step, but I can't come away too mad about that.

"We're a fresh line-up, so each time we step on the track we're learning a little bit about each other."

Truman added: "It's the closest we've ever been to the Dutch and it's a really positive first step in the cycle [to LA 2028]."

The other final of the opening day was the women's scratch race, where Lorena Wiebes defended her title, out-sprinting Amalie Dideriksen (Denmmark) and Prudence Fowler (New Zealand).

In qualifying for the men's team pursuit, Denmark went fastest, and qualified for the first round alongside Australia, GB, New Zealand, the United States, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland.

In qualifying for the women's team pursuit, Italy qualified fastest, followed by GB, Germany, Australia, Belgium, Japan, Switzerland and Poland.

The town of Maastricht was the epicentre for all things gravel this weekend, as riders of all age categories and nationalities descended on the southernmost city in the Netherlands for the 2025 UCI Gravel World Championships. With a route comprising a mix of tarmac, steep climbs, gravel bike path, and forest trails, the tech on offer was naturally going to be diverse and experimental, and we saw some intriguing setups across both the pro men's and women's fields.

As expected, aerodynamics played a massive role in this year's addition, and owing to the non-technical terrain on offer, riders played around with tyre width and tread patterns in an effort to save as much weight and watts as possible.

Let's take a look at the bikes and trends that dominated the weekend's racing.

Florian Vermeersch's Colnago G4-X PIGR

After finishing runner-up in the past two editions of the UCI Gravel World Championships, Belgian Florian Vermeersch finally secured his rainbow bands in a hard-fought day in the breakaway.

The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider had access to a Colnago G4-X gravel bike, adorned in a stunning off-the-shelf 'PIGR' metallic-green paint job. The components were all team issue and cannot be specified on the Colnago website. This includes the Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupset, pictured here in 54/40T, 11-34T configuration with 170mm cranks - the gearing of which afforded the 81kg Vermeersch enough of a bailout for some of the steeper pitches.

The handlebars and rolling stock were handled by Enve, including the 4.5 SES wheels wrapped in 40mm Continental Terra Speed TR tan wall tyres. The build is finished off with a Fizik Argo Adaptive R1 saddle.

Tom Pidcock's Pinarello Dogma F GR

Florian Vermeersch might have secured the rainbow bands, but it was Tom Pidcock's Pinarello Dogma F GR that stole the show. While some of our readers will rightfully question why Tom was on a Pinarello instead of a team-issue Scott Addict gravel bike, it's due to an ongoing three-year deal he has with the Italian bike brand. (The primary financial backer and holding company owner behind Q36.5, Ivan Glasenberg, also happens to own a controlling interest in Pinarello, which could see the team switch bikes in the coming seasons). Anyway, back to Tom's Pinarello Dogma F GR...

While we didn't notice any hidden tech bits on his Dogma F GR, we were drawn to the bike's incredible use of colour and contrast. The striking red and gold paintwork stood out amid the muted and earthy colours dominating the peloton, as did the unique full tan tyres. These unreleased Vittoria Terreno T30 35mm tyres are made entirely from 92% recycled materials and feature a completely new construction, while retaining the Terreno's trademark fast-rolling centre tread and knobbed shoulder line. Why so narrow? Well, not only does Pidcock possess one of the best skillsets in the peloton, the route wasn't very technical and, as an aero-focussed bike, only has tyre clearance provision for 45mm front/42mm rear. The anodised-green Vittoria Multiway valves also suggest Pidcock was using AirLiner inserts.

The balance of his build comprised an SRAM Red XPLR AXS groupset outfitted with the 10-46T cassette and a single 50T chainring. A Wolf Tooth chain guide was fitted to prevent chain drops. Like most of the field, he opted to use Shimano Dura-Ace road pedals as opposed to MTB/gravel-specific SPD-style options.

Marianne Vos' Cervelo Aspero-5

We love the modified Cervelo Aspero-5 Marianne Vos used on the weekend. It represents what got us all into racing in the first place and shows gravel racing is still in a state of experimentation - something we hope stays around for a while still.

Marianne's Aspero-5 caught our attention initially for what looked like a mismatched tyre sidewall. Closer inspection revealed something more intriguing: a gravel/road tyre mullet setup comprising a 45mm Vittoria Terrano T70 front tyre and 40mm Corsa Pro Control at the rear - another nod to the course's lack of technical terrain.

Another standout tech highlight, but something we've seen employed before by the Dutch rider, was the self-inflating/deflating Gravaa Kaps system hubs, laced to Reserve wheels. These special hubs allow the rider to adjust pressure on the fly, nullifying the effects of corrugated surfaces and reducing puncture risk entirely. Like Pidcock, Vos elected an SRAM Red XPLR AXS 1x setup, but paired a smaller 48T ring to the 10-46T cassette.

Lorena Wiebes' Specialized S-Works Crux

Lorena Wiebes held off a charging Marianne Vos to clinch elite women's race at the UCI Gravel World Championships, aboard a Specialized S-Works Crux. Perhaps the most straightforward setup in the field, Lorena's race bike was built for pure speed, and she admitted she's not the most tech-savvy rider in the gravel bunch, citing road racing tech as more of her forte.

Lorena's S-Works Crux is far from an off-the-shelf option, as it features a custom, silver camo-like pattern. The silver forms a reflective base, and then black is added on top, which is then moved around under cling film to achieve the desired effect. It looks superb and stands out among some of the more ordinary-looking bikes in the women's pro field.

One of the trends at this year's race was the propensity for narrower tyres, something which goes against the current grain of riders using rubber as wide as 2.1in. As a result, Weibes elected to wrap her Roval Terra CLX II in 40mm Specialized Pathfinder Pro 2Bliss Ready tyres complete with 'transparent' tan wall.

Other than that, her bike was fairly standard, utilising Tacx Deva bottle cages, a Specialized S-Works Power saddle, the newly released Roval Alpinist Cockpit II bar arrangement, and SRAM Red XPLR AXS groupset.

Matej Mohorič's Merida Silex prototype

Matej Mohorič is no stranger to starting UCI Gravel World Championships aboard unreleased Merida gravel bikes. The Slovenian won the 2023 edition using the second-generation Merida Silex, a week before it was unveiled to the press in Scandiano, Italy. In a similar move, Mohorič entered this year's race in the hope of repeating his heroics of two years ago on a prototype Merida Silex gravel bike.

The new bike was painted in a custom, multi-coloured design with green accents referencing his national jersey. From what we can see, the new Silex features a beefier headtube, fork, and downtube, while the seat-tube junction ditches the previously kinked angling for a new, smoothed-off profile.

Mohorič elected to use a complete, road groupset - in this case, a sponsor-specific 2x Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 chainset, likely in a 54/40T, 11-34T gearing configuration. Component supplier Vision provided the Metron integrated cockpit and what appears to be unmarked prototype gravel wheels.

Third last year when Marianne Vos took the title, Lorena Wiebes outsprinted her Dutch compatriot to win the fourth edition of the UCI Gravel Worlds Championships at Maastricht in the Netherlands. Italy's Silvia Persico took the bronze medal.

In a race dominated by home riders, Shirin van Anrooij looked like she would claim a solo victory after attacking with 13km remaining from the seven-rider lead group that contained five Dutchwomen. Van Anrooij pushed her lead out to 20 seconds, but her advantage was gradually reduced approaching the finish.

With a kilometre left, Van Anrooij's cushion was still 10 seconds. But after first Julia Kopecky (Czech Republic) and then Yara Kastelijn (Netherlands) upped the pace, Wiebes launched the sprint with 200 metres remaining, swept by the faltering Van Anrooij, then held off the final thrust by defending champion Vos.

Vastly outnumbered by orange Dutch jerseys for the second half of the 131km race, Persico fully deserved her bronze medal, with Kastelijn fourth. It was impossible, though, not to feel disappointed for Van Anrooij, who rolled across the line in fifth when she’d seemed so close to her first world title at elite level.

Right from the start, Dutch riders dominated proceedings, setting the pace, marking any rider who wasn’t kitted out in orange. Wiebes signalled her intentions at the halfway mark, when she lifted the pace on the front of the large lead group, Persico tracking her, splits appearing behind them.

With 60km remaining, Wiebes was one of five riders who went clear alongside compatriots Femke Gerritse, Maud Rijnbeek and Vos, Germany’s Romy Kasper the odd one out. A chase group of 15 formed behind as the leaders pushed their advantage out to almost a minute.

With 40km to go, seven of those chasers began a more determined pursuit. No fewer than five of them were Dutch – Femke De Vries, Larissa Hartog, Van Anrooij, Kastelijn and Femke Markus – with Persico and Kopecky also in there.

With 23km left, Vos attacked and Wiebes was the only rider to respond, although the sprint specialist struggled to hold her compatriot’s pace. On the climb that followed, Wiebes rode up alongside Vos, which prompted another acceleration by the defending champion.

Behind this pair, the remains of the lead group was swept up by the chase group, Persico jumping clear with 19km remaining. The Italian then impressed by bridging up to the two leaders, followed soon after by Van Anrooij, Kastelijn, Markus, Hartog, De Vries and Kopecky.

On the next climb, with 15km left, Kastelijn and then Vos upped the pace. Wiebes and, soon after, Persico, bridged up to the two leaders, Van Anrooij and Kopecky joining them too.

With 13km to the finish, Van Anrooij bolted away on a short road section. Her departure left the five riders behind looking at each other until Vos and then Kopecky took up the chase. With 10km to go, Van Anrooij’s advantage had reached 20 seconds.

Despite Kopecky’s pace-setting efforts on behalf of her SD Worx-Protime teammate Wiebes, Van Anrooij maintained her cushion until 6km out, when it gradually began to dwindle. With 3km left it was down to 14 seconds, but Kopecky, still leading the pursuit, was visibly wilting.

The Czech, though, still had something left. When, with 2km to the finish, Kastelijn had jumped by her and taken the rest of the group with her, Kopecky looked finished. But she not only managed to get back on, but also started to lead the chase behind Van Anrooij again.

She reduced the gap to 10 seconds with a kilometre to the finish, her effort bringing Van Anrooij within range of the speedy Wiebes and Vos. Two hundred metres out, Wiebes made her move, Vos the only one able to stay in her slipstream.

Van Anrooij was rapidly overhauled by the two Dutch rivals, Wiebes having enough speed and strength left to fend off Vos for the title, her celebrations including a long hug with Kopecky, who had done so much to set up her success.

RESULTS

2025 WOMEN’S WORLD GRAVEL CHAMPIONSHIP:
BEEK - MAASTRICHT (131km)

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) in 3:58:16
2. Marianne Vos (Ned), at st
3. Silvia Persico (Ita), +2s
4. Yara Kastelijn (Ned), +4s
5. Shirin van Anrooij (Ned), +10s
6. Julia Kopecky (Cze), +19s
7. Femke Markus (Ned), +43s
8. Femke De Vries (Ned), at st
9. Larissa Hartog (Ned), +1:36
10. Romy Kasper (Ger), +1:38

“That’s how we roll!” shouts Mischa Bredewold into her sports director’s face at the SD Worx-Protime bus in Poitiers. A handful of minutes have passed since her team-mate, Lorena Wiebes, thrashed everyone in the sprint on stage four of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. The victory made it two in two days for the squad, and back-to-back wins for the Dutchwoman. Bredewold and the rest of the squad could not stop smiling. Everything was right in the world.

This time last year, however, the same scene cast a different mood. The best sprinter in the world, Wiebes left the Tour winless, an outcome nobody had predicted. She'd come into the race from winning five out of six stages at the Baloise Ladies Tour. What had gone wrong?

“I just wanted to win so bad that it didn’t work out,” Wiebes now recalls. It’s an easier memory to discuss now, as she sits in another winner’s press conference, back on the top step at the Tour. “I think the thing last year was, of course, the pressure that I also put on myself,” she says.

So, this time round, she decided to flip her approach entirely. No longer would she fixate on getting her arms in the air. She'd still try her hardest in the sprints, but if she didn’t cross the line first, she’d just shrug, smile, and whistle away.

It’s a hard shift to make for a rider who has now collected over 100 victories. But, true to her word, it’s what she did on stage two, when she finished second to Liv AlUla Jayco's Mavi García. “I think for people it’s strange that maybe I’m not frustrated,” she said, non-plussed, at the time. “Everything I achieve here is extra for the season.”

Extra? At the biggest race in the world? Surely there’s more jeopardy than that? “The most important thing was to keep on thinking the season is still good, even if you don’t win in the Tour de France,” Wiebes says.

It’s all part of a “free mindset” that has liberated her at this year’s race. “Now, it’s all fallen into place,” she smiles. “It’s different when you put just the pressure on yourself. Of course, we have some pressure from the team, but it doesn’t feel like you have a lot of pressure from the team.”

Back at the SD Worx-Protime bus, beneath a canopy of leafy trees, the ambiance was like a garden party. Anna van der Breggen, the GC leader, squeezed in to join her team-mate Blanka Vas in an ice bath fit for one person. The pair splashed Lotte Kopecky, who warmed down on the rollers beside them. In return, the world champion flashed back a grin, and threatened to squirt them with her water bottle.

Between high-fives, the team’s sports director, Danny Stam, found a moment of seriousness to reflect on the stage. The lead-out, he said, hadn't “completely worked out”. But the celebrations showed it didn’t matter. “It was planned that Anna should make the lead-out from the bottom, more or less, and then Lotte should take over,” he said.

Instead, Van der Breggen came back to do another turn, and Wiebes found herself isolated on the finishing straight. “I knew it was up to me to find the final position and be able to sprint,” she said. Guided by her free mindset, she blasted along the barrier and clear of Visma-Lease a Bike's Marianne Vos. She flexed her muscles across the line. The victories were flowing again.

“I think, ‘til now, it’s a great season,” Wiebes said – in 38 race days, she has won 16 times. “[20]22 was already a really nice season with the win on the Champs-Élysées, and getting the yellow jersey for a day. But then I think the level of the other wins were not as high as this year. Winning Milan-San Remo was also a big one. I can say I think this is my best season ‘til now.”

With the sprint stages now passed at the Tour de France Femmes, Wiebes can toast a job well done. There will be no winless edition in 2025.

The gap was never very big. Tearing solo into Quimper on stage two of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, Mavi García’s lead was only around 25 seconds at its largest, falling below 10 in the final drag up to the finishing straight. The road then flattened out, and her charge would surely be up. The peloton could see her, after all.

300m, 200m, 100m, but still the catch didn’t come. Sprinting out the saddle, a blur of white in her European champion’s kit, Lorena Wiebes burst across the line. She arrived three seconds too late.

It was, you might expect, another sour day for her SD Worx-Protime team. After missing out on the finale on day one, they’d missed the boat on stage two. But in a vast car park beyond the finish line, the mood by the team bus was one of smiles and high-fives.

“I think for people it’s strange that maybe I’m not super frustrated,” a smiling Wiebes told Cycling Weekly. “I was kind of free today to see how far I could come. We are never sure, and that’s why we didn’t really take the initiative to close the gap, [if we do that] then we waste energy for nothing. It was a bit of a gamble, but today, Mavi was stronger.”

With a steep kicker in the final kilometre, the course risked being too tough for a sprinter like Wiebes. Her plan, she said, was to “hang on” until the climbing stopped. When she made it up with the main group, the rest of the teams then felt the onus to chase fell to those with fast finishers.

“We were looking at Visma-Lease a Bike going for Marianne Vos in yellow, SD Worx with Wiebes,” explained Kasia Niewiadoma, last year’s Tour winner. “None of the teams were committed to bring [García] back. It was kind of like a stop-and-go pace.”

From Wiebes’s point of view, though, “the peloton could also do more”.

“If you doubt in the last 500m, and nobody is really pulling anymore – because probably they see me,” the SD Worx-Protime rider laughed, “then it’s also the fault of the peloton. That’s why I also think we as a team could not have done it.”

“You still hope that [García] maybe doesn’t have the legs anymore or something, but then I saw she would make it, and I was like, ‘Ok, it is what it is.’”

SD Worx-Protime manager Danny Stam watched the finale from the team car. What did he make of his team's second place? “Nice, nice,” he said. “We tried and we weren’t there. A finish like this is not a given case that it’s for a sprinter.

“When you come second, then you can say, ‘Ok, did you underestimate?’ But we just didn’t have the people to close it. Lotte [Kopecky] was dropped before, she came back, and then she directly started chasing.”

In the end, of course, the history books remember the winners. The coming stages three and four will bring flatter finishes, and Wiebes’s near miss could soon be forgotten in the swell of victory. For now, though, that joy lies with García, the bravest rider on the day, and now the oldest stage winner in Tour de France history.

“I didn’t expect to arrive,” the 41-year-old said an hour after her win, still astonished to have held off the pack. “I can’t believe it. I don’t know, I need more time. It’s been a long time since I felt this emotion.”

Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) came into the 2025 Tour of Britain Women with an ambition to win the overall classification. However, crashes and bad luck meant that the European champion had to fight back to save her race by winning the final stage on Glasgow Green.

With the GC battle fought out in the intermediate sprints between Ally Wollaston (FDJ-Suez) and Cat Ferguson (Movistar), Wiebes stayed out of trouble before launching a monstrous sprint on the final lap of the race to extend her record as the rider with most wins in Tour of Britain Women history.

Wiebes crashed and fell out of overall contention on stage two, suffering an injury to her hand which made her uncomfortable on the bike in the final two stages. The initial disappointment had initially left Wiebes unsure if she would continue the race as it made its way north through Scotland, but the Dutchwoman rallied.

The team also lost lead-out rider Barbara Guarischi in a big crash on the third stage, but confirmed afterwards that her injuries were not as bad as first feared.

Wiebes and the team were pleased to put the bad luck behind them in Glasgow, taking a characteristically dominant bunch sprint win.

“We really went into the stage to finish it in a good way,” Wiebes told Cycling Weekly after the final stage. “It's been pretty much ups and downs. Luckily, the crash from yesterday didn't do too much damage for myself. I was feeling a bit better than yesterday on the bike… I felt pretty strong at the end and I'm happy that the sprint power was still there.”

“The team kept me really good in the front the whole race. In the intermediate sprints it's important to be more in the front, because they always open gaps in the peloton,” she added.

Wiebes questioned the decision by the UCI commissaires on the previous day not to neutralise the race after the crash that took out Guarischi also brought down around 15 other riders. She thought that it would have been safer for the race to have been paused at that time to allow enough medical personnel to be available for the remainder of the day.

“I think it was a mistake from the commissaires to not neutralise the race after the big crash," she said. "I mean, if only three riders can get through and multiple riders are screaming on the ground in pain, I don't think it's good to continue the race like this.”

“It's better to neutralise and then start again. Also, I think it took some time before the doctor was back in the peloton. There we also lost Barbara and she was pretty much important also for today's stage.”

Sport Director Christian Kos was delighted with his team’s show of resilience on the final day.

“It was necessary to go out with a bang because we didn't have the most lucky week with Lorena hitting two times the deck, a hard crash for Barbara Guarischi yesterday, so this is a nice lift up of the spirit.”

Despite the bad luck knocking Wiebes out of GC contention, Kos thinks that the experience at the Tour of Britain Women will serve her well as she looks to contend in hilly stage races going forward.

“If I look at the season, she's going over the hills really strong and she's improving every time I see her so it's not impossible. When we were looking at the stages we had the feeling it was not impossible to go for it.”

“Day one we were a little bit left out of teammates around us and also as a sprinter being the only one in the break then at least she had good legs, but then our luck changed a little bit, she crashed two days in a row putting us completely out of GC but without the bad luck I still believe she could have fought for the GC here.”

A serial winner on the road, it might be time to get used to seeing Lorena Wiebes winning inside the velodrome, too.

The Dutchwoman competed in, and won, her first international track event at the UCI Track World Championships on Wednesday evening, holding off three-time Olympic champion Jennifer Valente (USA) in the scratch race.

The victory brought a career-first rainbow jersey for Wiebes, across all disciplines, as she plots a path towards the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

Is she thinking about racing track at the next Games? “Yes that’s possible,” she told Cycling Weekly.

Although best known for her road sprinting exploits, the 25-year-old has won nine national track titles, three of which came in the scratch race. The event is not in the Olympic programme, but comes within the four-part Omnium, alongside the tempo, elimination and points races.

“The Omnium event is completely different to only the scratch race,” Wiebes said. “We have to see what’s coming these next couple of years. Maybe I first need to ride a full Omnium to fully decide what I want.

“I don’t really like the elimination race. That’s a big thing,” she laughed. “I have four years to get used to it, so we will see what the future brings. It’s somewhere on my mind.”

The Dutchwoman hovered near the back of the pack for most of her Track Worlds debut in Ballerup, Denmark. When the bell rang to signal the final lap of the 40-lap race, she darted to the front, putting three bike lengths into her rivals. She then bowed and shook her head in disbelief as she came across the line victorious.

“I expected that somebody will pass me still in the last lap, so that was surprising,” Wiebes said. “We did race scenarios during training, and we knew that if I was leading with one lap to go, it will be ideal for me. But it was really also instinct.

“I said to the coach before, ‘We need to do it through instinct, and not think too much, because anything can happen.’ I found a good wheel, and I felt with one and a half laps to go, I needed to start moving up more to the front. It worked out perfectly.”

Wiebes was only down for one event at this year's Track Worlds, meaning she now leaves with a 100% record. Her brief appearance, she explained, came because of proximity to her last road race, the Simac Ladies Tour, where she won three stages and the points classification.

“It was so close after Simac that you can have only a few days of rest, only spinning the legs. For me, it’s quite an ideal preparation. I didn’t have to do any training anymore, just keep the shape and continue to the next event,” she said.

Can we expect to see her racing more on the track in the future, as her SD Worx-Protime teammate Lotte Kopecky does? “We have to see if it’s possible with the road programme, of course. I’d like to show this jersey in some scratch races next year,” she said. “It’s possible, but you have to find a good balance for it.”

Lorena Wiebes powered to victory on stage three of the Tour of Britain Women, outsprinting Charlotte Kool in Warrington.

The SD-Worx Protime rider was the comfortable winner, with the time to sit up and celebrate as she pipped her dsm-firmenich PostNL rival to the line.

Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) finished in the peloton behind, ensuring she continues in the race lead. The world champion gave the final turn in Wiebes leadout to ensure that she had the perfect place to sprint from. Georgia Baker (Liv AlUla Jayco) finished in third. 

One more stage, a lumpy day to Leigh, awaits. 

"The team did a really good job today," Wiebes said post-stage. "Elena [Cecchini] and Chantal [van den Broek-Blaak] were chasing all day. The pressure was on from the team car, so we had to finish it off today. In the leadout, it was a really great job, it was a fast one. I'm happy to win. 

"We were in the middle in the run-in, and we had to fight for our position. Christine [Majerus] took the last corner first, as we planned. Then Barbara [Guarischi] took over, then Lotte, and it was only 200m to go. I started my sprint then.

"It's really a team effort, and that makes this sport really nice. It's good to finish it off when the team work hard for it. We like to work for each other, we went for Lotte on GC here, and then worked for me too.

Wiebes has now won four stages in England this year, after she won every stage and the overall at RideLondon last month; she clearly likes the roads.

"In '22 it was also quite successful," she said. "It's nice racing here. The roads are a bit different, I don't know why, but it feels different here. A lot of bumps in the road. I like it here, and it goes good."

How it happened

There was always going to be a fierce battle to get into the breakaway on stage three, with many of the Continental teams seeing it as their last opportunity to make an impact on the race.

As a result, attacks came from the gun. In the fast start, Alice McWilliam (Hess) suffered an unfortunate crash, which forced her out of the race.

With 103km to go, Jo Tindley (Pro-Noctis–200° Coffee-Hargreaves Contracting) attacked, joined by Madelaine Leech (Lifeplus Wahoo). This pair would form the day's  decisive move. 

Among those attempting to also make the break were Caoimhe O'Brien (DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK), and Amelia Tyler (Alba Development Road Team), but the duo's attempt fixxled out with 96km to go.

The next to chase the two leaders was Lucy Lee (DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK), as Tindley and Leech's advantage stretched to well beyond a minute. With 86km to go, Tindley and Leech had two minutes, with Lee a further 41 seconds behind this.

SD Worx-Protime and dsm-firmenich PostNL maintained the small gap, keeping the break in check, ensuring that it would be a sprint finish in Warrington. However, at times, the advantage did grow to almost four minutes.

Leech won the third-category sprint for points atop Pexhill, before Caitlin Dimbleby (Alba Development Road Team) forged off the front of the peloton, in an attempt to catch Lee, then the duo out front.

The Lifeplus Wahoo rider in the break, Leech, then suffered a mechanical after her front mech was broken riding over a pothole. A bike change ensured that she was unable to continue at the front of the race. 

With 41km to go, Tindley still had two minutes on the peloton, with the trio remaining in between her and the peloton.

Leech, Dimbleby and Lee were caught with 29km to go, while Tindley was still out front. She was not caught until 12km to go. Valerie Demey (VolkerWessels) attempted to attack, but was not allowed any room by the SD Worx-led peloton.

Into the final 5km, and it looked well-set for a leadout for Lorena Wiebes by SD Worx, and so it proved, with Christine Majerus leading into the final corner, setting up things perfectly for the Dutchwoman. 

Wiebes opened up her sprint with 200m to go, and eased off the front, out-powering Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNl) and Georgia Baker (Liv AlUla Jayco).

Results

Tour of Britain Women 2024 stage three: Warrington > Warrington (106.8km)

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 2:44:42
2. Charlotte Kool (Ned) dsm-firmenich PostNL
3. Georgia Baker (Aus) Liv AlUla Jayco
4. Rachele Barbieri (Ita) dsm-firmenich PostNL
5. Flora Perkins (GBr) Great Britain
6. Marjolein van 't Geloof (Ned) Hess
7. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SD Worx-Protime
8. Letizia Paternoster (Ita) Liv ALUla Jayco
9. Roxane Fournier (Fra) St Michel-Mavic-Auber93
10. Alicia González (Esp) Lifeplus Wahoo, all at same time

General Classification after stage three

1. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SD Worx-Protime, in 10:25:49
2. Anna Henderson (GBr) Great Britain, +17s
3. Letizia Paternoster (Ita) Liv ALUla Jayco, +34s
4. Pfeiffer Georgi (GBr) dsm-firmenich PostNL, +38s
5. Eline Jansen (Ned) Volker Wessels, +43s
6. Lizzie Deignan (GBr) Great Britain Cycling team, +43s
7. Christine Majerus (Ned) SD Worx-Protime
8. Victorie Guilman (Fra) St Michel-Mavic-Auber 93, all at same time
9. Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Aus) Liv ALUla Jayco, +3:00
10. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx, +4:19

Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) returned to the top step of the Ford RideLondon Classique on Sunday, winner of all three stages and the general classification.

The Dutchwoman repeated the feat she previously achieved in 2022, taking a clean sweep at the race held across Essex and London. She won in Colchester on Friday, Maldon on Saturday, and on The Mall on Sunday, delivered each time to the line by her world champion teammate, Lotte Kopecky, and unrivalled in the bunch sprint. 

Wiebes's compatriot Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich Post NL) finished second overall, 25 seconds down accounting for bonus seconds. Kopecky rounded out the podium in third. 

"Riding through the centre of London was special. I enjoyed it," Wiebes said afterwards. "It was nice that we finished one and three in the general classification. It's fantastic that we proved unbeatable in this RideLondon." 

After winning an uphill sprint convincingly on day one, the SD Worx-Protime rider made no secret of her ambition to claim all three stages. 

"I had my sights set on the hat-trick," she said. "It is always difficult to repeat performances and a hat-trick is even more difficult to achieve. It helps when you have such strong teammates around you. I want to thank them for everything they have done for me." 

Claiming victory on the Mall, in particular, proved a memorable moment for the Dutchwoman. When she won the race in 2022, the event coincided with the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, meaning the iconic sprint finish was moved from outside Buckingham Palace to the shadows of the Houses of Parliament. 

On the Mall on Sunday, both Wiebes and her teammate Kopecky said they were "proud" of how their team raced this time round. 

"It was a collectively strong performance from the team," Kopecky said. "What I especially like is how we can trust each other. That is the key to success. Sometimes your instinct says otherwise, but you should always trust and follow your lead-out. By drawing confidence from each other, you can finish it off in such hectic sprints. I am happy with Lorena Wiebes's hat-trick."

Having won all three bunch sprints, Wiebes also earned victory in the points classification at the race. 

The mountains classification was won by Uno-X's Rebecca Koerner, who collected points in a breakaway on stage one. The best young rider at the race was 22-year-old Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ), who finished eighth overall. 

Lorena Wiebes had the perfect opportunity to win the Amstel Gold Race. The hilly Classic is usually the domain of better climbers than the SD Worx-Protime sprinter. On Sunday, thanks to a shortened race, the Dutchwoman had her chance to take victory at her home event.

She thought she had won it, sticking with the reduced group and timing her powerful sprint to perfection, to triumph in Berg en Terblijt. Well, she would have done, had she not sat up before the line to celebrate, which gave Marianne Vos the opportunity to nip in front of her with a well-timed bike throw.

In that instant, Wiebes’ dreams were ruined. She later posted on Instagram that she felt like an “idiot sandwich”, a reference to a Gordon Ramsay meme. She might never have an opportunity to win the race again. That might have been it.

There was a simple solution to all of this: to not sit up before the line and celebrate. As Cycling Weekly’s Dr Hutch put it on X, there is no rule saying that a rider has to put their arms in the air to celebrate.

To celebrate before the line is an act of hubris. Of course, it is the act of someone who has put everything into the almost-certain win, an outpouring of joy, but there is no reason it needs to happen before the line. The photographers are set well back because of the speed that riders come in at, so there is ample time to celebrate: why do it before a race has actually been decided?

Riders seem to be caught out by this overzealous reaction pretty regularly.  In February, Tobias Halland Johannessen celebrated way too early at the Classic Var, and paid the price as Lenny Martinez pipped him to the line. Wout van Aert did it at Critérium du Dauphiné, and was beaten by David Gaudu of all people. Famously, Julian Alaphilippe did it at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2021, beaten by Primož Roglič; Sunday wasn’t even Vos’ first time beating someone indulging in a celebration - she did it to Lucy Kennedy back in 2019 as well.

It happens all too often. It must drive directeur sportifs mad, but the solution is plain for all to see - just stop celebrating before the line. You rarely see a footballer celebrating before the ball has crossed the threshold, or a cricketer running off before the umpire has actually given a batter out, and yet it persists in cycling.

Celebrations are good - we don’t want riders just pressing stop on their computers - but why is there this obsession with putting arms in the air before the line has actually been crossed? Perhaps the element of risk makes for a better photograph, but that’s a poor reason to lose a bike race.

Apparently, Wiebes did not know Vos was there, she thought she had enough time. But in a bunch sprint situation, surely you can never truly be sure that you are alone? Just keep going until the line.

Riders who make this mistake always vow to never make it again, but it was an unnecessary mistake in the first place, an unforced error, one that could be career defining. People like Van Aert and Wiebes will win again, but others will never be in the position to taste another victory.

Unless you have the time to look around, check with the team car, bet your life on the knowledge that you are alone in the lead, just keep your arms on your bars until the line has been crossed. Then go wild, do what you want, but don’t leave it up to chance.

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com.

In a neck-and-neck bunch sprint, Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) dashed to victory at Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday, adding to her ever-growing palmarès. 

The Dutchwoman beat former world champion Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) with a lunge over the line, taking her 76th career win by the width of her tyre.

A few tense minutes followed, both riders huddling in their teams, as the commissaires ruled on the photo finish. For the second year running, after Marlen Reusser's heroics in 2023, SD Worx-Protime launched into celebration. 

Afterwards, Wiebes said she was "really happy to finally win" Gent-Wevelgem, a race she has started six time, and failed to finish in the previous two editions.

"It took a few years," the sprinter smiled. "The team did an amazing job. We made the race hard, but in the end it was anyway a bunch sprint." 

The peloton splintered at points over the 171.2km course, with a handful of riders trying their luck on the run-in to Wevelgem. With 500m to go, world champion Lotte Kopecky wound up the lead-out for her team-mate Wiebes, unleashing her with the gantry in sight. 

"I was really happy with the legs and really happy with the lead-out from Lotte," Wiebes said. Balsamo, the in-form rider, having won the Trofeo Alfredo Binda and the Classic Brugge-De Panne, darted up the inside, but couldn't edge past the Dutchwoman. 

How it happened

Echelons ripped through the peloton as it crossed the fields of West Flanders early on Sunday afternoon. By the time the group reached the first of seven punchy climbs, though, the race had come back together. 

Kopecky, characteristically, was one of the most active riders over the steep, cobbled hellingen. The world champion led into the foot of the final ascent, the Kemmelberg, towing her team-mate Wiebes over its 20% crest. Pfeiffer Georgi (dsm-firmenich PostNL), dressed in the British champion bands, tagged along as an invited guest, in what looked to be the decisive move.

The pace, however, was not high enough for the trio to stay clear on the road into Wevelgem. A small chasing group containing Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) quickly caught up, before the peloton reeled all the leaders back in. 

Into the final 25km, Movistar did their best to foil a bunch sprint. Emma Norsgaard tried a flyer, lasting 5km out front, before Floortje Mackaij too went on the attack. The pair then repeated their moves, yo-yoing off the front in the finale, but nothing stuck; SD Worx-Protime and Lidl-Trek patrolled the bunch.

With 2.5km to go, Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) put in a last-gasp dig for victory. The Australian, a formidable time triallist, leapt clear of the bunch and led solo under the flamme rouge. Could she disrupt the inevitable sprint? The answer, it transpired, was no. 

Brown was caught with 500m to go, victim of a finely-tuned SD Worx-Protime train that delivered Wiebes to triumph across the line. It was a common race ending for cycling fans, and a sight at which the Dutch super-team will never grow tired. 

Results

Gent-Wevelgem 2024: Ypres > Wevelgem (171.2km)

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 4:16:19
2. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Lidl-Trek
3. Chiara Consonni (Ita) UAE Team ADQ
4. Charlotte Kool (Ned) dsm-firmenich PostNL
5. Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Ita) Uno-X
6. Arlenis Sierra (Cub) Movistar
7. Puck Pieterese (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck
8. Thalita De Jong (Ned) Lotto Dstny
9. Christina Schweinberger (Aut) Fenix-Deceuninck
10. Maggie Coles-Lyster (Can) Roland, all at same time

SD Worx-Protime, the team of Demi Vollering, Lorena Wiebes and Lotte Kopecky, will return to the Ford RideLondon Classique in 2024. 

The Dutch team has not participated in the event since 2022 and, according to the race director, their return will “inspire excellence among future generations of young cyclists” in Britain. 

Speaking to Cycling Weekly, RideLondon’s Scott Sunderland said SD Worx’s return will instantly elevate the level of competition in the women’s WorldTour event. 

He said: “SD Worx-Protime has shown again and again that they are the team to beat on the pro-circuit and they have started the season in domineering fashion. 

“The bar it takes to win has just gone up, but we know that there are a host of teams who come to the Classique with a sole purpose – to win. 

“I expect the quality of the racing to be enhanced by the quality of this elite field – all of whom want to be part of the Classique’s story.” 

At the end of last year, former Tour of Britain race director Mick Bennett told Cycling Weekly that Brexit had meant large numbers of teams had skipped events in Britain due to logistical issues associated with the UK leaving the EU. 

Sunderland told CW that teams are finding ways to navigate potential travel issues around getting to Britain and that many teams see RideLondon as key preparation for major races later on in the season. 

“The Women’s WorldTour calendar is very congested and that is ultimately a challenge we have had to navigate,” he explained. “Attending the Classique means significantly more travel for teams, but they recognise the benefits of doing so. With La Vuelta Femenina moving from September to May in 2023, we found ourselves stuck between two major stage races. 

“But the teams have adjusted and they want the Classique to be part of their programme. They see this as a major preparatory race for what is to come in the summer months, as well as a prestigious standalone event.”

As well as SD Worx, major Women’s WorldTour squads Lidl-Trek, Canyon-SRAM, UAE Team ADQ and dsm-firmenich PostNL will also be present. 

Like other race organisers in the UK, Sunderland explained that getting RideLondon on requires a mammoth effort each year. However, buoyed by additional support, he explained that the intention is for the race to continue to grow in the years ahead. 

He said: “We are in the fourth year of a ten-year agreement with the Mayor of London and Transport for London to run Ford RideLondon and growing the event and getting the best teams to attend the Classique is part of that project. We aren’t going anywhere, and we want to get bigger.

“Organising a race in the UK is not easy, but it is made possible with great partners and stakeholders. We have shown it can be done. Teams recognise that this is a well-run race with high safety standards and many return year after year, for a multitude of reasons.”

After the collapse of former race organiser, SweetSpot, British Cycling recently announced that it would look to stage a women’s Tour of Britain which will occupy the former UCI calendar spot held by the SweetSpot run Women’s Tour in 2024. 

At the time, BC CEO Jon Dutton told the media that the national governing body would not rule out collaboration with other UK race organisers, including those behind RideLondon, to make the Tour of Britain for women happen. 

He said: “Ride London is a fantastic race and London Marathon Events have done an absolutely incredible job. 

“We are very open to how we move forward in delivering sustainable cycling events. That might mean collaboration, it might mean co-creation, we're completely open to that, our focus is on ensuring we do everything we can in 2024 but then it’s about growth from 25 onwards. So we're really open to that in the future.”

There was controversy after stage three of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, when SD Worx were accused of not working to bring back a solo rider, and then cashing in on other teams’ work to win the sprint. 

Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx) snatched victory in Montignac-Lascaux, winning from the bunch after a well-timed lead-out from team-mate and yellow-jersey-wearer Lotte Kopecky. 

After the race, in which escapee Julie van de Velde (Fenix-Deceuninck) was reeled in with 200m to go, dsm-firmenich’s Pfeiffer Georgi said SD Worx initially refused to help claw back the gap. 

“SD [Worx] started riding, but very quickly stopped,” the British national champion told a GCN+ camera crew. “We had full confidence in Charlotte [Kool] so we took it up. I spoke to them, they said they weren’t going to ride, so we took it on ourselves. We backed our sprinters, so we rode. In the end it didn’t work out.”

Speaking in her winner's press conference, Wiebes did not deny the allegations. 

“It was not up to us,” she told the media, including Cycling Weekly. “We also need the riders for the next day, so we cannot let them fully ride so they can’t do something for GC anymore.” 

The Dutchwoman stressed that the team’s main goal had been to protect the yellow jersey, and guarantee that GC hopeful Demi Vollering arrived at the line safely. 

“Sometimes you have to gamble,” Wiebes continued. “We’ve got so many victories this year, I also think that other teams want to have something. I know also the style of racing from DSM from last year.

“I know if they have a plan, they will go fully for the plan. I had the feeling the plan was to sprint with Charlotte. I know they always trust the sprint, so they will chase the break.”

The knowledge Wiebes acquired from her former team paid dividends for her in the finale. She finished first, Kopecky third, while Kool crossed the line in seventh. 

“Sometimes you have to eat from another rider’s plate first, before you take from your own,” Wiebes smiled. 

As the writer John Lyly once wrote, all is fair in love and war. 

It was the result many expected in the morning —a sprint win for Lorena Wiebes of SD Worx but it wasn't’ the way those same people would likely have predicted.

The European Champion did win in a bunch sprint while her rival Charlotte Kool (DSM-firmenich) got boxed in but the peloton came perilously close to losing it.

After a flurry of attacks in the early stage, Julie van de Velde (Fenix-Deceuninck) went away solo. The time trialist was kept on a short leash initially but then built a gap of two minutes.

But when the bunch, inside the final 30km, began to up the pace Van de Velde was equal to it and held them off until deep inside the final kilometer.

She was only caught with 400m to go as the sprint started to open up. Wiebes came off teammate and yellow jersey-wearer Lotte Kopecky’s wheel while Marianne Vos swooped to the other side of the road. From there it was a drag race to the line and Wiebes emerged victorious.

Van de Velde finished down in 36th place.

Asked if she was now the best sprinter in the World, stage winner Wiebes said: “I hope so but every race is a new race so you never know. Lotte did such a good job in the lead out I suffered in her wheel but she brought me to the front perfectly.”

Wiebes described the sprint: The break still wasn’t done with 1km to go, I took the final corner well and the whole time I stayed with Lotte. The plan was that she would go and deliver me well and that's exactly what she did. I think it was Marianne Vos that started the sprint and luckily I caught her.

She added that her team “always believed” they’d contest the win in the sprint but that it was ”not really up to” SD Worx to chase and that why they left most of the work to DSM-firmenich.

She added: “It’s a great start for the team with two wins and the yellow jersey.”

Tomorrow’s stage will be a tougher test with  five categorised climbs three of which are placed close to the finish.

A perfectly timed solo attack from Pfeiffer Georgi claimed the win at Brugge-Da Panne after the race split apart in the crosswinds of Belgium.

The Cycling Weekly columnist was one of two DSM riders in a front group of six when she launched her attack with just under seven kilometres to go.

Team-mate Megan Jastrab had softened up the group before Georgi flew off the front.

Georgi had been recovering from whiplash and suspected concussion in the weeks beforehand, but the only sickness on display on the Belgian road was a serious case of second group syndrome as the chasers, with top sprinters Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx) and Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) among them, failed to cooperate almost as soon as Georgi attacked.

By the line her margin of victory for her first ever WorldTour win was over one minute. 

Behind her Balsamo came around Wiebes to claim the second spot on the podium.

Speaking after the finish Georgi was her typically modest self, she said: “We came in with a plan to race aggressively and the whole team did that so Ii was finishing off a great team effort.”

On her decisive attack she added: “We knew we couldn’t come to the finish with any of the sprinters so we knew we’d attack. Megan [Jastrab] tried first and set me up and then she just blocked from behind. I just went as hard as I could.

“My legs were feeling pretty tired at that point and the DS really shouting in my ear really helped.”

Georgi brushed off the suggestion she would now be one of the favourites for Gent-Wevelgem at the weekend saying the DSM squad would likely ride for Charlotte Kool.

How it happened

The windswept landscape was marginally kinder to the women’s peloton than it had been for the men yesterday but still there was drama. With 119km of the163km total race distance still to go a group of ten riders crashed including veteran MArat Bastianelli (UAE ADQ) who was riding her last race before retirement.

The race had to be stopped for a few minutes as they were blocking the road.

Then just a few kilometres later eight riders crashed including Brit Lizzie holder (UAE ADQ) but this time the race ploughed on.

At 61km to go the pace was high and the race took a 90 degree turn and the crosswinds whipping across the Belgian fields began to splinter the bunch as Megan Jastrab (DMS) pushed hard.

It was in the same location that the men’s race split apart too.

A front group comprising Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo), Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx), Alice Barnes (Human Powered Helath), Shari Bossuyt (Canyon-SRAM), Maike van der Duin (Canyon-SRAM), Jule De Wilde (Fenix-Deceuninick), Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninick), Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM), Megan Jastrab (DSM), Amalie Dideriksen (Uno-X) formed. They held a fairly scant lead for some time but eventually it stretched out to 1.30 by the time there was 30km left to race and it was clear that the winner would come from this group.

But with 11.5km to go, as the pace went up and a split in the front  group emerged both Barnes and De Wilde crashed after Barnes touched wheels with the rider in front of her and De Wilde was unable to avoid Barnes prone figure, ruling them out of the finale.

Meanwhile, Schweinberger and Van der Duin were distanced from the six leaders.

DSM tired to work a one-two attack with Jastrab trying to gap the group at 7km to go before being swiftly brought to heel. 

Georgi immediately counter attacked and built a gap of around five seconds swiftly. The impetus of the group, which contained several of the best sprinters in the world dissolved almost as quickly.

She grimaced her way to the line alone.

Under a palm tree in Al Mirfa, Lorena Wiebes sipped from a can of peach ice tea. She smiled as photographers huddled in front of her - a scene she got used to last season - and her new SD Worx team-mates filed through for high fives. 

It might have come a day later than she’d hoped, but the European champion was back to winning ways. 

The finale of the second day at the UAE Tour Women was similar to the first, but this time, the roles were reversed. Swinging right onto the finishing straight, Team DSM’s Charlotte Kool dashed for the line, only for her former team-mate to round her with 50m to go. The stage win, and the red leader's jersey, went to Wiebes. 

“Today, my sprint felt much better,” she said after the race. “I had more power in my legs and I think I showed it.

“Our team did a great job to put me in the perfect position, and I’m happy to finish it off for them,” the sprinter continued. “It was a hard stage, crosswinds from the beginning, and we were strong today.”

At the start in Al Dhafra fort, race banners flapped violently in the wind. But neither the threat of echelons, nor the disappointment of the day before could dampen Wiebes's spirits. “Today’s a new chance,” she said, repeating the phrase again moments later. "We will go again for it." 

When the splits happened, straight from the flag drop, the SD Worx sprinter found herself in the first of three packs on the road, together with a handful of her team-mates. The group ploughed through the desert dunes, shifting through turns as sand whipped across the asphalt beneath them. 

Soon, however, the race came back together, courtesy of a headwind en route to the coast. Then came a final right-hand turn and the sprint to the line. 

“We were early with the lead-out, but I think it was actually good,” Wiebes explained. “I felt I still had power in the final, and I was really focused on it. Maybe also a bit of extra motivation, because yesterday the team did such a great lead-out, and then of course I was disappointed not to finish it off.

“Today I did.”

To those onlooking, beating Kool seemed like an act of revenge. Wiebes stressed it wasn't. “I would not say revenge,” she said. “I think it was again a nice battle.” 

Indeed, in her former team-mate, Wiebes appears to have met her match, or at least someone close to it. It may have only been two days, but already there are signs of a rivalry forming. 

Wiebes believes so, too. “I think this year, we’ll have a lot of nice battles together,” she said. “I think that makes me also stronger again to really fight.”  

For now, though, her attention is on the UAE Tour's final flat stage this Sunday. It might turn out to be a best of three, with a second victory, and bragging rights, up for grabs in Abu Dhabi. 

Lorena Wiebes might no longer be the best sprinter in the world. At least, not according to her anyway. 

On the eve of her SD Worx debut at the UAE Tour Women, the European champion took part in a press conference at the Abu Dhabi Cycling Club, where she was introduced as “without doubt” the fastest sprinter on the planet. 

For Wiebes, though, things aren't so certain. 

“When I start a race and it can be a sprint, I always want to win,” she told Cycling Weekly after the panel. “It’s a new season, my winter was good, but you never know how the winters of other riders were. And you don’t know if other riders got faster.

“I have to prove that I’m again the best sprinter.”

The 23-year-old is likely to have three opportunities to show her dominance in the UAE, with all but one of the four stages expected to finish in a bunch sprint. To help her to the line, Wiebes will rely on the services of her new lead-out woman, Barbara Guarischi, who was brought in specially to commandeer her team's sprint train. 

“We did lead-out training on training camp, and it felt good,” Wiebes said. “The good thing about [having] three stages that can be a sprint is that you can change things in the lead-out, and that will be important for the spring classics.” 

One rider Wiebes will have to be wary of this week is Charlotte Kool, her compatriot and former understudy during her time at Team DSM. 

Asked who else she thinks might rival her in the sprints, the Dutchwoman highlighted there are "a lot of teams with fast riders", before identifying UAE Team ADQ duo Marta Bastianelli and Chiara Consonni, as well as Movistar's Emma Norsgaard. 

Still, having claimed a remarkable 23 victories in 2022, Wiebes remains the big favourite to take the race lead on Thursday's opening stage in Dubai. Some might say the wide, marble-smooth roads are primed for her, but despite last year's form, the SD Worx rider isn't taking anything for granted.

“It’s a new season, everyone is starting from zero," she said, before adding, somewhat ominously: "We will see who's the best tomorrow." 

Few sprinters can claim to have truly dominant seasons. Of course, someone always tops the pile of most wins, but in the vagaries of bunch finishes, it is rare for one rider to pile up great seasons. If we take the measure of 20 wins in one season, in the last decade only Alexander Kristoff in 2015 (20) and Peter Sagan in 2013 (22) have managed to clear this hurdle in men’s cycling. Only one woman has managed to do it in that time period: Marianne Vos, in 2013 (22) and 2014 (21). That was until her compatriot Lorena Wiebes came along in 2022. 

Of course, the pair are very different riders at opposite ends of their careers – there are 12 years between them – but these two Dutch riders are the two most dominant riders in the modern era. 

Sure, Annemiek van Vleuten, Anna van der Breggen and Lizzie Deignan might claim to be more the all-round riders of the last decade, and with good reason, but none of these have had such an authoritative season, numerically speaking, as Wiebes did last year. At just 23, in her second full year at WorldTour level, every time Wiebes lined up for a bunch sprint she was expected to win. How she handled that was never more evident than at the RideLondon Classique last May, where on three consecutive days she blasted away the opposition, making world champion Elisa Balsamo and rival Emma Norsgaard mere bystanders. 

It must have become repetitive, this constant winning. “For me as a person, I’m never really excited after I win, that has never been it,” Wiebes explains to CW in late October. “I think I’m more introverted. Any time I’m happy with a win and the help of the team. It gets a bit more normal, though. It sounds a bit strange, but at one point this season I felt the pressure was on, because for a long time I hadn’t lost a sprint, so I thought I had to win… 

“I think I can cope with the pressure naturally. If I lose, I’m already looking to the next race. I don’t feel it during the race, but maybe a bit before. I think this year the most pressure was during the Tour de France, but I think it mostly came from myself because I wanted to get the yellow jersey there. 

“This year [2022] went way better than I expected. I achieved almost all my goals we were talking about before we started. It was a great season, and I’m already motivated for next year. To race more, to be stronger.”

Tour immortality

The bonus to her monumental year was becoming the first stage winner at the inaugural Tour de France Femmes, therefore being the first rider to don the new yellow jersey, and immortalising herself in the process. It was an odd sight, with Wiebes being joined on the podium by a friend’s baby, but it was historic. However, it was, she says, hard to appreciate at the time. 

“At the moment [you win] you don’t realise that it is so special and important for women’s cycling, because the next day you just have to race,” she says. “Then I had the crash, and I was disappointed I didn’t finish the race, but afterwards I realised what a nice experience it was, with so many spectators at the side of the road. I’m already looking forward to this year; I don’t know if I will ride it, but to see it, follow it. 

“It was a bit hard to enjoy my day in yellow because it was so chaotic in the race, but it was a really good experience, and at the end Juliette [Labous] did a really good GC. So it was a good race for the whole team.” 

There was another stage win, in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, on stage five, but it was to be her last act in the race as she crashed out on stage seven. By that point her dream of winning green had also gone, to the woman who preceded her dominance, Vos. 

However, 2023 is a fresh year, and if she gets there, she wants to target the green jersey, as well as stage wins. It is not hard to see her becoming the record holder for stages, as Vos is at the Giro Donne, before her career is over in well over a decade’s time. 

“Everyone wants to finish the race, and I also want to be on the podium with the green jersey… it would be really nice to ride there again,” she says. 

“I think there are some chances for me this year. [We know] already that it won’t be starting or finishing in Paris, which I was a little disappointed about, but I hope there are as many spectators as last year.”

New start

2023 is a big year for Wiebes. After two and a half years at DSM she is moving on, having signed a three-year deal with SD Worx, the preeminent squad in women’s cycling. She will no long be the unchallenged team leader, but instead one of several leaders. 

The Dutch squad might not have won as many races as she did last year (19, to her 22), but the collection of stars they have is envied across the peloton. She will no longer be the protected rider in most races, something she is willing to concede, but will be another card to play alongside Demi Vollering, Lotte Kopecky and Marlen Reusser.

However, joining the team has been a long-term goal for her: “From the moment I thought I could be a professional, I wanted to be at that team, even when it was Boels Dolmans,” she says. 

“It’s a smaller team [than DSM, with its men’s team], but it is big, and there are more top riders. It will be different for me, and we can’t ride for a sprint every time. Th at’s fine, because I think I can develop myself in a new way. 

“Looking from the outside, the last couple of years, the team has seemed like a family. They have a lot of fun with each other. It gives me a lot of motivation to see how Demi and Lotte are riding there. I want to help them also in the harder races.” 

Her first meeting with the team came in California, where the 2023 squad assembled to train, visit Specialized’s headquarters and watch an ice hockey match. It certainly does seem like that family Wiebes wants, something she experienced at Parkhotel Valkenburg too, her first squad. They also seem to work for each other very well, despite the evident talent and egos. 

“Lotte and I will race for victories, but we have to work for each other too, which is fine,” she explains. “In harder races, I know she can fi nish it off , and I hope she believes in my ability to finish it off too. With [Barbara] Guarischi coming in for the sprint train, you can also see that they’re thinking of me. She’s really good as the last lead-out person as she’s not afraid.” 

There are some who worry that Wiebes and Kopecky will be looking for the same opportunities, but they are varied enough that they should have differing objectives; the former could not win Strade Bianche or the Tour of Flanders in the mould of the latter, and the latter could not win the first stage of the Tour de France Femmes like the former. 

“I don’t know Lotte, so we will see at the first team camps, but I think it will be fi ne,” she says. “I’ve never heard anything bad about her. I think all the riders fi t in the team, and that’s what they look at.” 

As for the future, Wiebes is not the finished article yet: “I know I can still grow, and I think that’s the most important thing. Just like Annemiek [van Vleuten], who is still saying she is better every year. I want to grow in hillier races, and I think I have found a good team for it.”

SD Worx team-mates Lorena Wiebes and Lotte Kopecky are prepared to forgo their own victory opportunities to support each other this season. 

Speaking ahead of the Dutch squad's media presentation on Tuesday, the duo said they believe they can combine their racing skills, despite concerns their ambitions might clash. 

“SD Worx is really a team that gives every rider a chance,” said new signing Wiebes, who joined this year from Team DSM on a three-year contract. “I had a good training camp and Lotte and I were good together. 

“I think it will not be a problem next year. If she has a goal like Paris-Roubaix, I will fully support her, and the other way round. She will fully support me in my bigger goals.”

Wiebes and Kopecky met eight times in bunch sprints last year, with the Dutchwoman prevailing on every occasion. Since meeting at the team's training camp, the pair have discussed their ambitions for 2023, and have struck an accord with which races they'll target.   

Kopecky's big objective this year will be the early season Classics, notably the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Amstel Gold Race. Wiebes, on the other hand, hopes to win Gent-Wevelgem and continue her indomitable sprint form in stage races. 

“I am aware that Lorena, at the moment, is the fastest sprinter in the peloton,” said Kopecky. “It would be not fair to say she’s not. But I also know in sprints I can do very well. I think our programmes will not clash too much, and we will make sure that it will not happen too much.”

For the Belgian time trial champion, Wiebes’s arrival brings a new opportunity, a chance to take on more of a wild card role within the team. 

“I will not be the rider anymore who will have to wait until the sprints,” she said. “This will give me more of a free role and more chances to attack. That’s the style of racing I like the most, so I have no problem with that.

“For me, being an aggressive rider, if it doesn’t work out, we still have Lorena to finish. As long as we win as a team, then I think the team will be happy. For sure it will give me less stress towards races and [I can] be more relaxed.” 

Now, with the new season underway, there’s an expectation within SD Worx that the two riders will join forces and ignite the peloton. 

"Hopefully it's going to make for some really attractive racing," said directeur sportif Anna van der Breggen. 

“They are really different,” the two-time road world champion added, alluding to Wiebes’s strength as a pure sprinter and Kopecky’s punchier style. “It’s not like I always want to put them in separate races. They can both win the race, yes, but they can also help each other.

“As long as you get along well with each other and you are prepared to fight for your team-mates, it will never be a problem."

With the new WorldTour season just weeks away, riders throughout Europe will be getting set to travel to Australia for the Tour Down Under. 

The transfer window has well and truly quietened down, well apart from if your name is Mark Cavendish, and multiple teams have pulled off excellent pieces of business as they look to strengthen their ranks ready for the challenges ahead.

Here are our top five signings across the men’s and women’s WorldTours to look out for this year.

RICHARD CARAPAZ

Signing a rider of the calibre of Richard Carapaz marks a huge statement of intent from the Jonathan Vaughters managed EF Education-EasyPost team. 

The Ecuadorean is a former Grand Tour winner, having won the Giro d’Italia in 2019, and has since consistently shined at all of the three Grand Tours throughout the past few years. Carapaz took three hugely impressive stage wins at last year's Vuelta a Espana, as well as the mountains classification jersey, really appearing to be back in the sort of form that saw him taste Giro success.

He may have failed to win another Grand Tour since his 2019 exploits, although he has finished on the podium at the Tour de France as well as the Vuelta on two other occasions.  Not only that, the 29-year-old won the Tour de Suisse in 2021 as well as the Gold Medal in the men’s Olympic road race in Tokyo therefore making him a huge coup for his new American employers. 

As the route favours climbers this year, all eyes will be on Carapaz at the Tour as he looks to land EF Education-EasyPost their biggest Grand Tour result yet. 

LORENA WIEBES

After a hugely successful spell with Team DSM, Wiebes has moved onto pastures new with SD Worx for 2023. 

The Dutch sprinter managed an astonishing 23 victories in the last calendar year, therefore making her on paper one of the biggest coups ahead of the new season. This included two stage wins at the inaugural Tour de France Femmes as well as the European Championships road race.

Wiebes holds the crown as the undisputed queen of the sprints in the women’s WorldTour peloton, however that was also thanks to DSM’s phenomenal sprint train featuring the likes of Pfeiffer Georgi and Charlotte Kool. 

In her new set up, Wiebes will have to occasionally take a back seat at some of the races where she’s seen so much success. With a GC rider like Demi Vollering on the team too, as well as a one day superstar in the form of Lotte Kopecky, Wiebes may find herself having to rely solely on Barbara Guarischi for a sprint train in the months ahead.

Still, Wiebes is the type of sprinter who will be more than capable of holding her own in the most chaotic of sprint finishes. The best of the rest amongst the women’s WorldTour sprinters will have to be well and truly on their guard to avoid the Dutchwoman cleaning up once more this season. 

JAN HIRT

Czech rider Jan Hirt is a signing that flew somewhat under the radar when he joined Soudal-QuickStep during the off-season. 

However, Hirt marks a phenomenal acquisition for the Belgian team for 2023, particularly with star man and current World Champion Remco Evenepoel gunning for glory at the Giro d’Italia. Hirt is a seriously underrated climber, who can more than hold his own when the going gets steep. A sixth place finish at this year's Giro along with a stage win tells you everything you need to know about Evenepoel’s new teammate. 

Hirt also finished inside the top 20 at the 2017 Giro, where he finished 12th overall. In the years that followed in the colours of Astana Qazaqstan, Hirt achieved fifth overall at the 2019 Tour de Suisse and seventh at the Tour of the Alps. 

If Soudal-QuickStep want to ensure that Evenepoel brings home the Giro title this May, then Hirt is an essential inclusion in their team selection in order to help Evenepoel ensure that he can get the job done.  

SILVIA PERSICO 

After a sensational breakout year with Valcar-Travel and Service, Italian Silvia Persico will line up for UAE ADQ on the WorldTour this season.

The standout Italian netted bronze medals at both the road and cyclo-cross world championships in 2022, and a fifth overall at the Tour de France Femmes for good measure. As if that wasn’t enough, Persico also added a stage victory at Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta to ensure that a move to a new team wouldn’t be far away. 

Her results speak for themselves, and will ensure that Persico is a heavily marked woman at races like the Tour in the coming months in her new colours. 

When she joined UAE ADQ, team manager Rubens Bertogliati said that Persico was brought in solely as a potential leader.

“Silvia Persico is our key added value to the 2023 new squad. In recent months she has further demonstrated that she fully deserves her place in this team and that she can aim to be the leader of our team in the races that best suit her characteristics,” he said.

After the backing from her new employers, expect to see Persico at the sharp end of the racing action this season as she looks to land yet more impressive accolades and repay the faith shown in her by UAE ADQ. 

DYLAN VAN BAARLE

In signing Dutchman Dylan van Baarle, Jumbo-Visma have brought in a highly experienced classics rider who will add extensive firepower to their already fearsome arsenal of talent this season. 

Acquiring his services also severely weakens Van Baarle’s former team Ineos Grenadiers in a one-day race setting. In 2022, the Dutchman landed a sensational Paris-Roubaix victory for Ineos which was undoubtedly his biggest career win to date. 

Jumbo-Visma management have already outlined Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders as big targets for their Belgian star Wout van Aert this season, and bringing in riders like Van Baarle will help Van Aert reach that goal of landing a major monument in 2023. 

As well as that, signing Van Baarle adds significant Tour de France and Grand Tour know-how to the team, and he will be a key ally to Jonas Vingegaard as he looks to defend the title in July. The Dane will be able to rely on Van Baarle’s knowledge and experience to negotiate him through the difficulties of attempting to win a second consecutive edition of the race. 

With the amount of talent filling the ranks at Jumbo, you can almost certainly expect to see the Dutchman being given leadership responsibilities at a one day race this spring. Furthermore if a tilt at victory through Van Aert doesn’t quite pay off, Jumbo now has a man who's been there, done that and got the t-shirt and would be more than capable of monument victory once again. Money well spent indeed.

Who doesn’t love a sprint finish? There’s really nothing quite like them. Filled to bursting point with adrenaline and drama, they’ve got it all. 

The build up and hysteria all starts as the peloton flies into the final kilometres, with teams assembling their lead out trains ready to launch their chosen fast man or woman for a bid at glory. If a breakaway is still ahead then that’s even better for tension. 

In 2022 we saw some brilliant victories from the fast men and women of the sport, and the occasional day when a stage set to be one for them was snatched from their grasp at the last second. Christophe Laporte in Cahors at the Tour de France anyone? 

Some sprinters can go it alone, and outmuscle their rivals single handedly in order to land the prize of a Grand Tour stage win, or a Milan-San Remo title, others wait in the wings, kept safe by their teammates before flying out of the traps like a possessed greyhound when the line is in sight. 

Or if you’re Laporte, you can simply pop up out of nowhere and spoil the party right at the last minute. 

Here are the top six sprinters in 2022 as chosen by us. 

JASPER PHILIPSEN

Belgian rider Jasper Philipsen very nearly took a hat trick of stage wins at the Tour this year. 

The Belgian was constantly in the mix in the opening sprint stages, but then unfortunately spent a few days as the brunt of all the jokes, as he mistakenly celebrated what he thought was a win on stage four, not realising that a rampant Wout van Aert had crossed the line from the breakaway before him. 

However, Philipsen was able to see the funny side and would eventually have the last laugh in France. The Belgian won stage 15 before taking a prestigious victory in the unofficial sprinters world championships on the Champs-Élysées on the final day of the Tour. 

Earlier on in the year he won two stages and the points competition at the UAE Tour. Philipsen will be one to watch in 2023 and will be right in the mix at some of the biggest races. 

ELISA BALSAMO

There was a week in March where Elisa Balsamo seemed unbeatable. In her world champion's rainbow jersey, the Trek-Segafredo rider won the Trofeo Alfredo Binda, the Exterioo Classic Brugge-De Panne and then Gent-Wevelgem. A special trio, all Women's WorldTour races.

It didn't last, and Lorena Wiebes (more of whom later) appeared to have the beating of the Italian in tight bunch sprints, but Balsamo still won nine races, including her first two Giro d'Italia stages and one at the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta too. 

Also, she might have lost her rainbow stripes, but she did win the Italian National Championships, meaning she still won't be in a regulation Trek jersey. 

ARNAUD DEMARE

The Groupama-FDJ rider had a sensational year in 2022, capped with a second points jersey victory at the Giro d’Italia. 

On his way to doubling up in the Maglia Ciclamino, the jersey the best sprinter wears at the Giro, Arnaud Démare snagged a hat trick of stage wins on the road in Italy in May. It’s safe to say that with a second sprinters jersey, the Frenchman has been one of the best sprinters at the Giro of the past three years. In 2020, Démare also won the maglia ciclamino, taking four stage victories in the process. 

As well as his achievements at the Giro this year, the Frenchman also won Paris-Tours as well as the points jersey at the Tour de Pologne. 

10th placed finishes at Milan-San Remo and Gent-Wevelgem also added to a solid campaign and set of results for Démare. 

FABIO JAKOBSEN

Fabio Jakobsen has had quite the journey over the last three years. 

The Dutchman being back on his bike and racing in 2022 was already an achievement in itself. In 2020, Jakobsen suffered potentially life threatening injuries after a high speed crash at the Tour de Pologne and there were question marks over whether he would be able to return to racing again. 

Fortunately, he bounced back from his horrific injuries in 2021 to win the points jersey and three stages at the Vuelta a España, but this year, he arguably went one better. 

Jakobsen made the headlines before the Tour de France had even begun this year, as he was selected ahead of Mark Cavendish to lead the charge for Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl at the French Grand Tour. But he certainly delivered. 

Jakobsen won stage two of the race in Denmark to cap an amazing eighteen months for the 26-year-old. On top of that, the Dutchman also became European road champion, outsprinting Arnaud Démare and Tim Merlier at the championships in Munich, Germany in August.

LORENA WIEBES

Dutch rider Wiebes continued her journey to the top which has seen her land a dream move from Team DSM to SD Worx for 2023. 

Wiebes took two stage wins at the inaugural Tour de France Femmes this year, and held both the yellow and green jerseys after victory on the opening day. 

Before heading to France, the Dutchwoman took a hat trick of stages as well as the points jersey at the Women’s Tour and won the RideLondon Classique. 

She would then go onto become European female road champion after victory in Munich and also took wins at Ronde van Drenthe and Scheldeprijs. 

MADS PEDERSEN

Former world champion Pedersen has allegedly promised to get the number 13 tattooed on his back if he wins stage 13 at the Giro next year. 

The Danish rider has set himself a bit of a precedent in 2022, winning stage 13 at both the Tour and Vuelta as well as two other stages at the Spanish Grand Tour. You wouldn’t bet against him going all out for that slightly strange goal at the Giro either. 

As well as his Grand Tour success this year, the Dane also landed top ten results at Milan-San Remo, Gent-Wevelgem and the Tour of Flanders. Expect Pedersen to be right up there at the sharp end in San-Remo again next Spring to get the ball rolling on another successful campaign. 

Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) won the general classification at the Simac Ladies Tour on Sunday, having held the yellow leader’s jersey from the opening stage. 

The 23-year-old, who became the European road champion in Munich last month, finished outside of a podium place just once at the six-day Dutch race, winning the first two stages to claim her 18th and 19th victories of the season. 

Two runners-up spots then followed for the Team DSM rider. On stage three, Wiebes crossed the line behind her teammate Charlotte Kool, who took a maiden WorldTour win in Gennep. The following day, Dutch road champion Riejanne Markus (Jumbo-Visma) broke Team DSM's streak of dominance at the race, soloing to victory inside the final 6km and forcing Wiebes to settle for second in a bunch sprint. 

Stage five offered an individual time trial - just the second of this year's women's WorldTour calendar. In the French national bands, Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Trek-Segafredo) clocked the fastest time, holding an average speed of over 42km/h around the 17.8km course in Sittard-Geleen. Wiebes took a commendable fifth place, finishing 21 seconds down on the Frenchwoman.  

With just six seconds separating Wiebes and Cordon-Ragot in the overall standings, the final stage was set up for a thrilling finale. On a punchy circuit in Arnhem, Mischa Bredewold (Parkhotel Valkenburg) broke free with 6km to go and dug deep to hold on for her first win of the season. Wiebes rolled home for third on the day, five seconds ahead of Cordon-Ragot to seal the overall win and secure the yellow jersey. 

With this victory, Wiebes took her second general classification win of the year, having dominated the RideLondon Classique in May, where she won all three stages. 

The 23-year-old is set to leave her current team at the end of the season, joining SD Worx in 2023 on a three-year contract. When the signing was announced in August, Wiebes said in a statement: “I look back with pride on an instructive and very successful time with Team DSM. I will try to make it a successful remaining term of this season.”

One month on, Wiebes has stayed true to her word. 

Lorena Wiebes of the Netherlands timed her bike throw to perfection to take European Championship gold narrowly ahead of Elisa Balsamo of Italy on Sunday.

The Dutch sprinter was forced to wait for confirmation of her victory, as the women's road race in Munich went to a photo finish after 130km of hard riding.

It looked like the Italian leadout train had just edged out the Dutch equivalent, with Balsamo expertly lead out by Rachele Barbieri into the finish. With Wiebes forced to go alone, she launched her sprint with just over 200 metres to go, and clung on to beat Balsamo on the line by a tyre's width.

Barbieri finished in third behind the pair, with Lisa Brennauer of Germany narrowly missing out on a podium place in her last professional road race.

Balsamo against Wiebes was what was expected ahead of the race, and this is how it ended, with the two pre-eminent sprinters in the peloton showing why they are thought of in that way. 

The result means that the Netherlands have both of the European road race titles in their grasp, after Fabio Jakobsen won the men's race last weekend.

In the six editions of the European Championships road race, the Dutch have won five of them, proof if it was ever needed that they are the dominant force in women's cycling.

It was a fairly controlled race, with the Netherlands firmly taking hold of the peloton from far out, ensuring it would finish in a sprint. Defending champion Ellen van Dijk, in particular, was on the front for multiple kilometres heading into the day's denouement, bringing the three riders who were out in front back.

It was then Italy who took control, and for a moment it looked like the Dutch had mistimed their effort, as the women in white and orange faded from the front as those in blue surged forwards.

Wiebes was forced to freelance in the final kilometre, and was dropped off onto the wheel of Balsamo, her main competitor. She then launched her sprint first, going from rather far out, but managed to hold on to power to victory, holding off Balsamo by centimetres. 

In July, star sprinter Lorena Wiebes made history when she won the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift opening stage and becoming the first woman in 33 years to wear an official Tour de France yellow jersey. 

The 24-year-old continued to make news that day for bringing a mysterious baby with her up on the podium, and then for rumours that she might be leaving her trusty Team DSM leadout in favor of a big salary offer from SD Worx, despite being under contract with the black-and-blue team through 2023. 

With a proven leadout train and by routinely pushing more than 1200 watts in the finale of a road race, the Dutchwoman has become the most feared sprinter in the peloton. This year alone, she's already netted 17 sprint victories, including two in the eight-day Tour de France Femmes.

It's no surprise then that other teams are keen to have this star finisher on their squad, and  it's now come to light that a special clause in her DSM contract, allowed Wiebes to entertain offers should they be more lucrative than her current contract.

This is not the first time Wiebes has left a team before her contract has expired. After her breakout season in 2019, Parkhotel Valkenburg secured her services until the end of 2021, but after a legal wrangle, they released the sprint star to DSM halfway through 2020.

Team DSM's press officer Emily Brammeier confirmed the rumours and contract loophole to Cycling Weekly at the time, but because the UCI rules dictate that a change of teams between two calendar years can not be announced until August 1, SD Worx and Wiebes herself had to remain silent on the matter.

"Of course we can’t confirm the new team, but what we can say is that Lorena is a good rider with a phenomenal sprint. We would have loved to continue working with her, but she got an offer she didn't want to pass up and we respect that," Brammeier said. 

Today, however, SD Worx released a statement officially announcing the signing of the sprinter, who is set to stay with the team through the end of 2025 and will be part of the team's goal to remain the number one ranked team.

"In the flat sprints our current team lacks speed. We want to compete for victory in all areas," said Team manager Erwin Janssen of Team SD Worx.

"Lorena is a pure sprint star. When it comes to pure speed, she is by far the best," added Team SD Worx sports manager Danny Stam. 

"The large number of victories this season says something about her qualities," continues Stam. "Although we mainly focus on the tougher races and as a team like to make the race, it is also nice when you have a big chance in the sprint. With Demi Vollering, Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes we have three world-class riders for the coming years who each excel in their own field."

Belgian Kopecky, the team's current sprinter has been a real asset for the Dutch team, netting high-profile wins at events like Tour of Flanders and Strade Bianche. 

In 2023, Stam plans on playing his two sprint cards based on their differenced. Kopecky is able to survive the toughest races and still produce a sprint whereas no one in the women's peloton has been able to beat Wiebes in a flat, all-out sprint. 

"With Wiebes we go for the real bunch sprints, while Kopecky is played off in the somewhat tougher races. I also see in Wiebes the talent to develop further. The strength of our team has always been that we have several top riders at the start. In addition, there are more and more races on the calendar in women's cycling. That also means that we will be riding a double programme more often and will have to invest in that," said Stam.

Wiebes shared that she would have liked to have stayed with her DSM team, a squad that has in many ways been developed around her,  but that the offer from SD Worx carries too many 'opportunities' to ignore. 

"For years I have dreamed of being part of the world's best UCI women's team with several world-class riders who  I can pull myself up by," Wiebes stated. "I look back with pride on an instructive and very successful time with Team DSM. I will try to make it a successful remaining term of this season."

After just one day day in the yellow jersey Lorena Wiebes was understandably disappointed to lose the overall lead of the Tour de France Femmes. 

The DSM rider finished fifth on the race’s second stage, some 29 seconds behind the day’s winner, Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) who took the yellow jersey from her. Wiebes and her DSM team were distanced after a late intermediate sprint which came on the finish line, at the top of a short but sharp climb in the town of Provins, east of Paris.

Over the top Trek-Segafredo ripped the race to pieces, forcing a six woman group of the front from which Vos was able to take advantage.

“The day didn’t start very good because I has a small crash in the neutral, and we were all under control until the intermediate sprint,” Wiebes said after warming down on a stunning yellow sparkle Scott bike.

“It was a really smart move from Trek to go directly after the intermediate sprint and I was a bit too tired to react, I needed some recovery. We tried to close it directly afterwards, but they worked really good together on the front.”

The final kilometre was entirely uphill, and while it was not too steep, with a maximum of only 5.5%, it was always going to be a challenge for a sprinter like Wiebes. She though, was confident of being able to win the stage and did win the uphill bunch kick to finish sixth.

The day was a nervous one, marred by crashes which took out a number of riders including one of the pre-race favourites, Marta Cavalli (FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope). Other than the loss of the overall lead, DSM came through the day unscathed, chatting together while warming down, but Wiebes blamed the wind.

“Everyone was nervous because of the cross winds and everyone wants to be in position and most of time then crashes happen. Nobody gives each other space of course because everyone who wants to be in the front.”

Tuesday’s third stage is unlikely to see such conditions, and the 133.6km from the centre of Reims through the Champagne vineyards to Epernay is likely to be defined by four classified climbs, three of which come in the second half of the race. 

The finish is the same the one on which Julian Alaphilippe (Quickstep Alpha Vinyl) won, taking yellow in the 2019 men’s Tour de France, and, with Wiebes’s own yellow now gone attention will turn away from her.

“More important is the GC for Juliette [Labous] so if they don’t take too much energy we’ll also go for green, but I think tomorrow will fit Liane [Lippert] really good.”

During Sunday’s opening stage rumours emerged in the Dutch media that Wiebes is set to leave DSM at the end of the season and is set to join SDWorx. While the team would not confirm her destination they admitted she would be leaving, while Wiebes herself regretted the way the news emerged.

“I think the timing was not the best because of course, I wanted to tell i the girls personally, and I had not time during the race,” she said. “That's not the best moment but we are professional riders and we keep on achieving our goals for the rest of the season, and we make it a great season.

“This team really brought me up as a rider and my development went really fast. I'm happy to be in this team and why I said we make it a great year.”

Sunday’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift opening stage win confirmed Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) as the undisputed sprint queen of the women’s peloton. The 24-year-old's Champs Élysées victory was her 16th of the year, and she has beaten all comers, with her team providing her the best drilled lead-out in the peloton.

But according to rumours published by Dutch website AD.nl, she will leave the team for SD Worx when the season is over. This, despite being under contract with DSM until the end of the 2024 season. According to the AD article, her current contract includes a clause which allows her to leave if she Is given a significantly better offer. The SD Worx offer, it appears, was simply too lucrative to decline. 

Though no numbers were published, the article alleges Wiebes is set to become the best paid rider in the peloton.

It would not be the first time the Dutchwoman has left a team before her contract has expired. After her breakout 2019 season, Parkhotel Valkenburg secured her services until the end of 2021, but after a legal wrangle, they released the sprint star to DSM halfway through 2020.

In just a few years, Wiebes has developed into the women’s peloton's most potent sprinter. Just look at her performance at RideLondon Classique, where she won all three stages in dominant fashion. Her Champs Élysées victory only confirmed her status as the world’s fastest finisher.

Her secret, it seems, is increased strength training.

“Through the whole season I did some strength training and I think that's improved my sprint pretty good,” Wiebes told reporters in her post-race press conference. “And every ride I'm motivated to get the highest watts possible.” 

Pretty good indeed. According to her Strava entry for Sunday’s Paris win, her maximum power hit 1211 watts in her winning sprint.

Not bad for a rider who weighs only 60kg. And it’s no fluke either, scoring similar figures to win four stages at the Baloise Ladies Tour earlier this month.

Indeed, according to Strava, to win the fourth stage there she hit 1267 watts.

Whatever Wiebes says there is more to it than pure power. Despite a mix-up in the pitch darkness of the tunnel leading into the last kilometres of the Paris circuit,  Wiebes was still perfectly positioned by her DSM team for Sunday's finale.

“The lead out was chaos, but I stayed on Pfeiffer Georgi’s wheel and Charlotte Kool was still behind me,” she explained. “Our plan was to swap positions after the tunnel, but there was so much chaos that I just stayed on Pfeiffer's wheel and she put me in a perfect position.”

DSM were nowhere to be seen as the race entered it's final kilometre, but when they swung right onto the Champs Élysées for the final sprint, there they were there. Once placed in just the right position by her teammate and former British road champion Georgi, Wiebes used her knowledge of her rivals to the best advantage.

“Marianne started her sprint really early but I expected it and I had another gear and accelerated one more time to the finish line.” 

Wiebes had been dreaming of victory and taking the yellow jersey since the route was revealed last October, and such was her winning form all year she began the day as odds-on favourite and the pressure was on for her to perform.

“I was fine with the pressure because I put the most pressure on myself when I knew the parcours,” she continued. “I was quite relaxed before to start, we did everything as normal but I started to become a bit more nervous towards the final.

“It was a really special moment that my family was here, I didn't know that they would come so close and they were able to to get there.”

Monday’s second flat stage between Meaux and Provins gives the Wiebes a second stage winning opportunity and the chance to extend her lead in both the general and points classifications.

“The stage win is really important, but after that the GC is important for Juliette [Labous], so if it's not taking too much energy we will go also for green, but we will not put crazy amounts of energy in it.”

It all started with a bet. Team DSM soigneur Teun Goedhart was convinced their star sprinter, Lorena Wiebes, would be the first wearer of the yellow women’s Tour de France jersey in 33 years.  The course along the Champs-Élysées was made for the sprinters, and couldn’t be more perfect for Wiebes and her DSM leadout train.

Eyeing the stage, Wiebes was well-aware she was entering as an outright stage favorite and she, too, knew it was hers to lose. She even painted her nails in the colors of the two jersey that she said matter most: green and yellow. 

The black-and-blue jerseys of the DSM riders were nowhere to be seen all race long. Staying out of the wind and safe from any crashes. But as the race rounded the final righthand bend on the cobbles, there they were, delivering their sprinter near the front in the perfect position, near Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma). 

The legendary Dutchwoman starting her sprint early, and Wiebes was forced to counter. As she accelerated over the top of her compatriot, Vos had run out of steam and out of time. Wiebes won by half a bike length.

At the finish, Goedhart and his partner, Wiebes’ former Parkhotel Valkenburg teammate Esther van Veen found their friend quickly. Apparently, they’d been ready. 

“I didn’t realize they could get so close,” Wiebes said in the post-race press conference. But there was no getting out from under the bet. 

And so, Wiebes was zipped in her yellow jersey, and baby Noortje was trusted into her arms. 

“No, no it is not mine,” a smiling Wiebes reassured. “It would not be possible for me to race. It was just a bet.” 

The second stage between Meaux and Provins features another flat profile and could very well end in another sprint, and an opportunity for Wiebes to not only hold on to the yellow jersey, but perhaps even go for a second stage win. There is, however,  a bit of an uphill to the line, which could shake things up.  

Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) won the opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes, sprinting her way into the yellow jersey.

With Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) starting her sprint early, Wiebes was forced to counter, eventually coming over the top in the closing metres taking the win a bike length ahead of her Dutch compatriot. Lotte Kopecky (SDWorx) was third.  

It was another patient performance from Team DSM who were nowhere to be seen as the front of the race passed under the one kilometre marker. But as the race rounded the final right hand bend the team positioned their rider perfectly. 

Vos’ Jumbo-Visma team mate, Anna Henderson was her final lead out, while Wiebes waited slightly further back, out of the wind. Then, as Henderson began to wane Wiebes was able to react the moment Vos started her sprint. 

The win came at the end of a chaotic stage 81.7km stage. The opening day of such a hyped and significant race, held in what can only be described as an iconic location, was never likely to be uneventful, and the day was an entertaining one of repeated attacks and small breakaways.

Monday’s second stage between Meaux and Provins is another flat one, and could well be another bunch kick, though a kick up to the line may bring a different outcome to Sunday’s opening day. 

How it happened

After a long wait a Tour de France for women was finally back. While there were earlier attempts at a women’s Tour, organisers of the men’s race ran an event for women between 1984 and ’89. When that disappeared other organisations tried to carry the race on, but it finally ran out of steam in 2009.

In 2014 ASO gave the world some hope with the one day La Course by Le Tour de France, which itself graduated from criterium race around the Paris circuit the men grace on stage 21, to other dates and parts of France.

But now a genuine Tour de France for women is back, though it’s only eight stages and doesn’t tour round France, remaining in the north-east. And we were back in Paris for stage one, a race difficult to differentiate from the first three editions of La Course. 

Though the stage started at the Eiffel Tower, as opposed to Place de la Concorde where La Course used to, the opening leg was neutralised, the race only starting on the finish line on the Champs Elysées and riding 11 laps of the central Paris circuit, making for a total of 81.6km, as opposed to to 89km in 2014.

That did not make the race any less significant though, with any rider or team with a whisper of a chance of that first yellow jersey desperate to win it. And fittingly there were attacks from the gun, EF Education-Tibco-SVB the first to up the pace, though it was Arkea who were the first to get a gap with Amandine Fouquenet, though she was back in the bunch long before the end of the first lap.

On the second circuit Human Powered Health’s Dutch climber Nina Buijsman got away, though she was caught by seven others, making too large a group at the front for such a short race. The peloton, and specifically the DSM team of pre-race favourite Lorena Wiebes were in no mood to allow them any space and they were caught before the end of the lap.

The race was never likely to be a passive one and soon afterwards Ceratizit-WNT’s French rider, Laura Asencio attacked and built a slim margin, but was in turn caught after a couple of kilometres.

And so began a pattern, an individual or small group would get away, build lead of around 30 seconds before being closed down, the lure of intermediate sprints and a two mountains classification points causing teams to shut the gaps.

Vos won the first intermediate and Kopecky the second, with Femke Markus (Parkhotel Valkenburg) surviving from a group of three to triumphantly secure the mountains jersey.

But even with less than 20km to go the race did not settle, Gladys Verhulst (Le Col-Wahoo) attacked over the top of Markus’s success and quickly built a lead of 35 seconds. Behind Movistar were first to steady the ship, other teams coming to help when the French rider’s lead exceeded 40 seconds.

As the final lap began DSM made their presence felt at the front of the peloton, and with other sprinters’ team the gap began to evaporate and Verhulst was caught just under two kilometres from the line. 

Meanwhile, with the leader caught DSM disappeared from the front only returning to take the win.

ResultTour de France Femmes avec Zwift, stage one: Paris Eiffel Tower - Paris Champs Elysées (81.6km)

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) DSM in 1-54
2. Marianne Vos (Ned) Jumbo-Visma 
3. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SDWorx
4. Rachele Barbieri (Ita) Liv-XSTRA
5. Emma Bjerg (Den) Movistar
6. Maike van der Duin
7. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
8. Simone Boilard (Can) Sit Michel-Auber93
9. Tamara Dronova (n/a) Roland-Cogeas-Edelweiss
10. Vittoria Guazzini (Ita) FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope all at same time 

General classification after stage one 

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) DSM in 1-53-50
2. Marianne Vos (Ned) Jumbo-Visma at 04 sec
3. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SDWorx at 06 sec
4. Rachele Barbieri (Ita) Liv-XSTRA at 10 sec
5. Emma Bjerg (Den) Movistar
6. Maike van der Duin
7. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo
8. Simone Boilard (Can) Sit Michel-Auber93
9. Tamara Dronova (n/a) Roland-Cogeas-Edelweiss
10. Vittoria Guazzini (Ita) FDJ-SUEZ-Futuroscope all at same time