Lorena Wiebes sprinted to victory at the end of a tough Lloyds Tour of Britain Women stage one in Cockermouth after a chaotic finale.

Her SD Worx-Protime team were active throughout Wednesday's opening stage, ensuring that their star woman was in the right place to win at the end. It was not the enormous margin of victory that Wiebes is normally used to, but it was still a dominant victory ahead of Chiara Consonni (Canyon-SRAM) and Josie Nelson (Picnic PostNL).

Multiple attacks in the last 40km of the day briefly looked to break what was left of the peloton up, but nothing stuck, with Wiebes being present at the end to take her eighth Tour of Britain stage. SD Worx were in control, with five riders in the bunch of 32 which made it to the line.

Having won the stage, Wiebes went into the green leader's jersey, four seconds ahead of Consonni, thanks to bonus seconds, with Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team L'IMAD) in third, a second further back, due to bonus seconds picked up earlier in the day.

"Lotte [Kopecky] brought Mischa [Bredewold] and me perfectly into the final corner with around 500 metres to go," Wiebes said post-race. "Mischa then kept the speed high, and with 200 metres remaining I was able to launch my sprint. It was executed really well.

"It’s a really nice way to start the Tour of Britain, especially compared to last year. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going over the next few days."

Her sports director Christian Kos said: "Perfect teamwork today, and we’re very happy with the result. A great start to the Tour of Britain."

How it happened

A flurry of attacks kickstarted the day, but the bunch was kept together for the early intermediate sprint, where bonus seconds were taken by Karlijn Swinkels and Lara Gillespie (UAE Team L’IMAD) and Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal).

An attack from Handsling Alba Development’s Arabella Rosalie Blackburn was followed by Audrey De Keersmaeker (Picnic PostNL) to establish the day’s break. Blackburn was caught with 56km to go, while De Keersmaeker remained out front.

With 36km to go on Parsonby Brow, the peloton approached De Keersmaeker but the group was strung out, potentially distancing some. The last rider in the breakaway was caught just over the top of the climb. Le Court-Pienaar was a regular presence at the front of the race, but Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) still refused to be dropped.

The attacks did not stop coming in the final 16km, with Pfeiffer Georgi (Picnic PostNL) and Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-Zuez) trading blows in an attempt to break the race up. Next was Kate Courtney (FDJ United SUEZ), but there was not quite enough in the course to cause defined selections.

A group of four escaped with 13km to go, formed of the SD Worx-Protime duo of Mischa Bredewold and Steffi Häberlin, with Aude Biannic (Movistar) and Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek). However, this was quickly shut down, with Liane Lippert (Movistar) and Le Court-Pienaar starting the next move. A group of around 10 briefly separated off the front but what was left of the peloton reeled them in once again, with 9.4km to go.

With 2km to go, what was left of the bunch was all together, read for a mass sprint in Cockermouth, with SD Worx in control on the descent into the town. Georgi was present to help her teammate Josie Nelson, but nothing could stop the SD Worx surge, with Wiebes predictably prevailing.

Results

Lloyds Tour of Britain Women 2026 stage one: Cockermouth > Cockermouth

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 4:03:09
2. Chiara Consonni (Ita) Canyon-SRAM
3. Josie Nelson (GBr) Picnic PostNL
4. Quinty Ton (Ned) Liv AlUla Jayco
5. Caroline Andersson (Swe) Liv AlUla Jayco
6. Letizia Borghesi (Ita) AG Insurance-Soudal
7. Karlijn Swinkels (Ned) UAE Team L'Imad
8. Liane Lippert (Ger) Movistar
9. Mischa Bredewold (Ned) SD Worx-Protime
10. Fleur Moors (Bel) Lidl-Trek, all at same time

General classification after stage one

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 4:02:59
2. Chiara Consonni (Ita) Canyon-SRAM, +4s
3. Karlijn Swinkels (Ned) UAE Team L'Imad, +5s
4. Josie Nelson (GBr) Picnic PostNL, +6s
5. Mischa Bredewold (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +7s
6. Kim Le Court-Pienaar (Mau) AG Insurance-Soudal, +8s
7. Quinty Ton (Ned) Liv AlUla Jayco, +10s
8. Caroline Andersson (Swe) Liv AlUla Jayco
9. Letizia Borghesi (Ita) AG Insurance-Soudal
10. Liane Lippert (Ger) Movistar, all at same time

After an emphatic victory on the opening stage, Lorena Wiebes took another win on stage two of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, as she dominated the bunch sprint to claim back-to-back wins and retain the maillot jaune as overall leader of the race.

The Dutch sprinter had to fight her way through to the front in the final few hundred metres, as she was left without a leadout, after her SD Worx-Protime team were forced to chase down a solo move from a resilient Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek), who was only caught inside the final kilometre.

“Our team worked really hard for it. The girls were chasing full gas in the final to bring back Riejanne Markus, so it was even more beautiful to finish it off in yellow,” Wiebes said in her interview after the stage.

“At one point we decided to put Lotte [Kopecky] in the chase, because we needed everyone,” she continued. “I also knew that it was up to me to find my own way and I found some good wheels. I could come out with around 200m to go and then I just launched my sprint.”

Once she emerged into clear air, Wiebes once again proved to be a level above the rest of the sprinters, with Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) finishing a distant second and third respectively.

When asked if she ever gets bored of winning so dominantly, Wiebes replied: “No, I think every sprint is quite exciting, because if you make a small mistake, the sprint is over and you cannot finish it off for the team. So for me, it’s exciting every time and a bit nervous sometimes to sprint.”

With some tougher climbs coming up on tomorrow’s stage, the maillot jaune could be up for grabs ahead of the time trial on stage 4. On whether she believes she can retain the jersey, Wiebes said: “I think tomorrow it will be really hard to keep it, but we will do our best.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

After a thrilling opening stage in Switzerland, the riders faced a 148km-long stage from Aigle to Geneva on stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes, as the race began to head towards the French border along the shores of Lake Geneva.

It was a slow start to the stage, with no early breakaway forming in the opening kilometres, which allowed riders from the peloton to contest the first two categorised climbs, with Marion Bunel (Visma-Lease a Bike), Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly), Maeva Squiban (UAE Team L’IMAD) and Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech) among those to claim points for the mountains classification.

A breakaway did eventually form with around 95km to go, with Eline Janssen (VolkerWessels), Carlotta Cipressi (Human Powered Health) and Yuliia Biriukova (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) getting themselves up the road, before being joined by Anouska Koster (Uno-X Mobility) and Ema Comte (Cofidis) shortly afterwards.

They were never allowed more than three minutes of an advantage by the peloton, as the general classification contenders’ teams kept them on a relatively tight leash throughout the day.

Biriukova won the intermediate sprint from the breakaway with 59km to go, whilst the maillot jaune Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) claimed maximum points from the peloton behind to increase her lead in the points classification, as she continued to go about defending her maillot vert from last year’s race.

The race then began to liven up as the riders approached the Côte de Bougy-Villars (0.9km at 10.4%) a few kilometres later, as teams looked to keep their leaders well-positioned in the bunch.

It was here that the breakaway began to fragment, with Cipressi and Biriukova dropped from the head of the race, whilst Janssen managed to hold on as Comte and Koster began to attack each other on the climb, with the latter taking the maximum points at the summit.

The Côte de Mont-sur-Rolle (2.3km at 6.5%) then followed shortly afterwards with 50km to go, with the peloton quickly closing the gap to the breakaway to around a minute as they began the climb. This then triggered a move from the peloton, as Célia Gery (FDJ United-SUEZ) went on the attack to bridge across to the three riders at the head of the race.

The French rider drew Nina Berton (EF Education-Oatly) with her, before Sarah Van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike), Sara Casasola (Fenix-Premier Tech) and Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) also bridged across to the move.

Koster then outsprinted Comte once again to take the maximum points, before the chasing group then joined the leading trio over the top of the climb to form an eight-rider breakaway at the head of the race, but they only had a handful of seconds over the peloton behind.

A lack of cooperation hindered their situation further, as they began to attack each other before they were inevitably caught by the bunch.

Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek) then immediately counterattacked and went solo with around 40km to go. The Dutch rider then proceeded to draw out an advantage of more than a minute on the peloton over the following 15km, before the bunch realised the threat she posed and began working to reel her in.

However, Markus’ abilities as a time trial specialist made it difficult for the sprinters’ teams to close the gap and she still had half a minute of an advantage over the peloton with 5km to go.

It was all hands to the pump for SD Worx-Protime, who were receiving little to no assistance from the other sprinters’ teams and had to call upon Anna van der Breggen and Lotte Kopecky to help bring the race back together for a sprint finish for Lorena Wiebes.

Once Kopecky had finished her final turn on the front, Wiebes was isolated and had to surf the wheels amongst the leadout trains to stay well-positioned in the bunch.

As they went under the flamme rouge, Markus still had a slender advantage over the charging peloton behind, but it was ultimately not enough for her to hang on, as she was caught with around 500m to go.

The peloton then swung around the final corner and the sprint was launched. Several sprinters went on the left side of the road, opening up a pocket of space on the right, which Wiebes immediately burst through with a surge of power

From there it was essentially a foregone conclusion, as she kicked again and powered to victory, finishing four bike lengths clear of Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) in second place.

RESULTS

TOUR DE FRANCE FEMMES STAGE TWO: AIGLE > GENEVA (148KM)

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 03:42:08
2. Elisa Balsamo (Ita) Lidl-Trek
3. Marianne Vos (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike
4. Shari Bossuyt (Bel) AG Insurance-Soudal
5. Letizia Paternoster (Ita) Liv AlUla Jayco
6. Josie Nelson (GBr) Picnic PostNL
7. Zoe Bäckstedt (GBr) Canyon-SRAM
8. Noemi Rüegg (Sui) EF Education-Oatly
9. Malwina Mul (Pol) Cofidis
10. Linda Riedmann (Ger) Lotto Intermarché, all at same time

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE TWO

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 07:10:59
2. Kim Le Court-Pienaar (Mau) AG Insurance-Soudal, +14s
3. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ United-Suez, +16s
4. Noemi Rüegg (Sui) EF Education-Oatly, +20s
5. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) UAE Team L'IMAD
6. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) EF Education-Oatly
7. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM
8. Puck Pieterse (Ned) Fenix-Premier Tech
9. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Fra) Visma-Lease a Bike
10. Marlen Reusser (Sui) Movistar, all at same time

Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) won the opening stage of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift with an explosive sprint, finishing ahead of Kim Le Court-Pienaar (AG Insurance-Soudal) in second and Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) in third.

The Dutchwoman managed to stay in contention, right towards the front, and among the GC riders on the final climb to the finish, the Côte Saint-François, which averaged 4.6% for 2.6km.

EF Education’s Noemi Rüegg was well-placed in the final sprint thanks to a lead-out from her teammate Cédrine Kerbaol, but had no answer to Wiebes’s acceleration, and faded behind Le Court-Pienaar, Vollering and Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech) to finish fifth.

“I almost cannot believe it,” said Wiebes at the finish when asked how she felt about winning the stage and earning the yellow jersey.

“The team, SD Worx-Protime, worked super-hard today. Anna [van der Breggen] came to the front with 1km to go, and then Demi attacked, and I needed to follow. It was a long sprint, but I’m super happy."

There was a tense fight among both the GC contenders and stage hunters on the final climb. AG Insurance-Soudal controlled the peloton for most of the slower slopes, before their leader Le Court attacked 1.5km from the finish.

Another move came from Célia Gery (FDJ United-Suez) a few hundred metres later, then her teammate Vollering around a corner with 800m to go, but Wiebes managed to hang on.

"I expected that there would be some attacks," Wiebes said. "I felt good, and thought, 'There is 1km to go, I need to hold on, I cannot drop back anymore. I lost [my way] a bit, as I think EF started on the right-hand side. I found my way, I started a bit early, but I knew I needed to go now."

Wiebes led a group of ten that finished on the same time, with Paula Blasi (UAE Team L'IMAD), Van der Breggen, and Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-Sram) all crossing the line in the trailing group eight seconds down.

“I’m really happy with the support from our team,” continued Wiebes. “That also gave my extra energy, and also the support from the staff. They fully believed in me, even after I had some doubts. I’m super-grateful for this.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

Warm weather and blue skies greeted the riders in Lausanne for the start of the fifth edition of the Tour de France Femmes.

There was plenty of interest to get into the day’s break, with Idoia Eraso (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi) and Maud Rijnbeek (VolkerWessels) the first riders to get a gap. They were soon joined by Nikola Nosková (Cofidis) and Océane Mahé (Ma Petite Entreprise) to form the day’s four-woman break.

Both Alison Jackson (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) and Kiara Lylyk (Mayenne Monbana My Pie) belatedly attempted to join them, but failed in their efforts, the latter being brought back into the peloton with 79km to go and the former 73km to go.

The break worked well together to build a big lead that, at its highest, reached six minutes. They remained clear of the race for both the first two climbs of the day, the category-three Côte de Châbles and Côte de Villars-le-Comte, where Mahé claimed maximum points to seal the polka-dot jersey for stage two.

It was on this latter climb that the pace increased in the peloton, with riders being shelled out of the back, most notably Franziska Koch, and an attack from Riejanne Markus (Lidl-Trek). There were splits towards the front of the peloton as they approached the summit, with a group of about fifteen riders reaching the top together with a lead of a few seconds, but everything came back together on the descent.

Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek) attacked out of the peloton on the descent, but the break still remained at the front of the race by the day’s third climb, the category-three Côte de Vulliens. Here, Nosková attacked at the top to take the Queen of the Mountains points, and pressed on to lead the race solo.

Nosková spent the next 15km on her own, before being caught by Eraso, Rijnbeek and Spratt 17km from the finish. They worked well together but were swallowed up by the peloton with just 6km to go.

There were multiple crashes throughout the day, including one for Marlen Reusser, who went down with her Movistar team-mate Arlenis Sierra at the front of the peloton on a decent 22km from the finish. They both managed to bridge back up 17km from the finish.

RESULTS

TOUR DE FRANCE FEMMES AVEC ZWIFT, STAGE ONE: LAUSANNE > LAUSANNE (138KM)

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 03:29:11
2. Kim Le Court-Pienaar (Mau) AG Insurance-Soudal
3. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ United-Suez
4. Puck Pieterse (Ned) Fenix-Premier Tech
5. Noemi Rüegg (Sui) EF Education-Oatly
6. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) UAE Team L'IMAD
7. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-Sram
8. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Fra) Visma-Lease a Bike
9. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) EF Education-Oatly
10. Marlen Reusser (Sui) Movistar, all same time

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE ONE

1. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 03:29:11
2. Kim Le Court-Pienaar (Mau) AG Insurance - Soudal, +4s
3. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ United-Suez, +6s
4. Puck Pieterse (Ned) Fenix-Premier Tech, +10s
5. Noemi Rüegg (Sui) EF Education-Oatly
6. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) UAE Team L'IMAD
7. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-Sram
8. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Fra) Visma-Lease a Bike
9. Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra) EF Education-Oatly
10. Marlen Reusser (Sui) Movistar, all at same time

Dutch sprint superstar, Lorena Wiebes heads into the Tour de France avec Zwift next week on the back of a dominant performance at the Tour de Pologne over the weekend.

The SD Worx-Protime rider won all the stages of the three day race and took the overall general classification by 20 seconds ahead of Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek), with Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) in third place.

Sunday's final stage into Lublin was touch and go, a two woman breakaway surviving deep into the final, SD Worx only bringing them back with 4.5km of the 101.3km stage to go. However, despite a challenge from UAE Team ADQ and Human Powered Health, the team held position on the wide roads until the final kilometre, Lotte Kopecky delivering Wiebes perfectly with 175m to go.

In Zamość on Friday's opening stage the weather proved the main obstacle, rain making for wet roads and a crash and splitting the SD Worx lead out in the closing kilometres, though Wiebes led home team mate Barbara Guarischi.

A solo breakaway rider was caught inside the final kilometre on Saturday too, Katherine Sarsikov (Team USA) caught with just over 8km to go. Other teams then tried unsuccessfully to disrupt the SD Worx lead out in the final, but the day concluded with another relatively straightforward win.

This was the 13th edition of the Tour de Pologne Women, which was a feature of the women's calendar between 2000 and 2008. There was a single edition in 2016, the race only returning in 2024, though this year it attracted its strongest start list to date, with eight WorldTour teams taking part, some using it as a Tour de France Femmes warm up.

The race was a who's who of women's sprinting royalty, Wiebes joined by Balsamo, Gillespie, Chiara Consonni (Canyon-SRAM) and Maggie Coles-Lyster (Human Powered Health) among others. Indeed, only Charlotte Kool (Fenix-Premier Tech) was missing.

Wiebes's performance extended her remarkable run of sprinting form, she has only been beaten in a bunch kick for the win once since the start of 2024. That loss was at this year's Ronde van Brugge, when Welsh woman, Carys Lloyd (Movistar) took the win, after Wiebes lost her leadout in the final kilometres.

The series of results and her proven form bode well for the upcoming Tour de France Femmes, which opens on Saturday, August 1st with a 137.8km stage starting and finishing in Lausanne.

Wiebes won the opening stage of the 2022 race, the first edition of the race's current format, wearing the yellow jersey for one day, but a repeat performance may not be so easy. The opening stage climbs more than 1,600m, concluding with a fourth category climb and if she is to wear yellow in Lausanne, she will need to survive into the closing 250m, where the road levels out.

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."

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

Lotte Kopecky has said 'the racing season only really starts with the Omloop Nieuwsblad" as she prepares to make her season debut at Opening Weekend.

The SD Worx-Protime rider, a former winner at Omloop, revealed her spring schedule on Thursday, which concludes with a first appearance since 2022 at the Vuelta España Femenina.

The former world champion will ride Strade Bianche, the Trofeo Alfredo Binda, Nokere Koerse, Milan-San Remo, Dwars door Vlaanderen, the Tour of Flanders, and then Paris-Roubaix Femmes.

A European champion on the track, she will then head to the UCI World Cup in Hong Kong in April, before appearing back on the road at Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes. She will then tackle the Vuelta in May.

"I've had a trouble-free winter. The signs are good, but this is the first real test. It's only in competition that you know how the level compares," Kopecky said in a press release.

"I'm really looking forward to starting the season. During training camp, I was counting down the days until I could race again. Maybe it's a bit old school, but for me, the racing season only really starts with the Omloop Nieuwsblad.

"Without wanting to detract from the Tour Down Under, UAE Tour or Valencia, for the average racing fan, this is the real start. At the Omloop, it's really all about the big prizes."

"I've always preferred the Classics period," she continued. "Even though I have other goals in the summer, I always think it's important to have a good spring. Just as you need a good winter to be good in the spring, a strong Classics campaign is often the basis for success in the summer. Then you're in the right flow."

Last year, Kopecky went all in on a GC bid for the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, that was derailed by knee and lower back pain, and she has ruled out a repeat. She still won the Tour of Flanders for a third time, but it was a mixed 2025; this year, she seems back on track.

"Compared to last year, I will be able to start my season feeling much better," Kopecky said. "It was a winter without too many incidents. I was able to do what I wanted: I completed some great training camps with lots of training hours. The tests were good, although that doesn't fully reflect the race rhythm. But the signs are positive and that gives me confidence to start the season.

"I don't really have one particular race that I absolutely want to win this season. I prefer to go into every race with an open mind. I want to see how the race unfolds, where opportunities arise and where I can force things. The advantage of our team is that we can often play different cards. If you don't necessarily start with the best legs, you don't have to worry because your teammates can finish it off for you."

The 2026 season is well underway, with two Women's WorldTour races already completed, the Tour Down Under and the UAE Tour.

As the racing switches to Europe, it's time to look at the teams, the key riders, and the races to watch across an engrossing season. Everything is building up to a fifth Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in August, but there is so much more before then.

Here is our team-by-team guide to the Women's WorldTour, and the moments of the season to anticipate.

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 5 February 2026. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

Teams

AG Insurance-Soudal
Belgium
2025 WorldTour wins: 5
Team leaders: Kim Le Court and Sarah Gigante
Team boss: Jurgen Foré
Raison d’être: Providing a solid platform for Le Court and Gigante to fly from

This was a winter of continuity for AG Insurance-Soudal, with two riders leaving and only one, Letizia Borghesi, joining. It means 2026 looks very similar to 2025, but with the hindsight of what happened last season, we can expect them to deliver more regularly.

Kim Le Court was far from an unknown, having won a stage of the Giro d’Italia Women in 2024, but last year was her breakout, with wins at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour of Britain Women and, the biggest, the Tour de France Femmes. Her teammate Sarah Gigante finished on the podium at the Giro and sixth at the Tour.

This pair will continue to lead the team, alongside Urška Žigart and Justine Ghekiere, both of whom have big results in them.

Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto
Germany
2025 WorldTour wins: 2
Team leader: Kasia Niewiadoma Phinney
Team boss: Ronny Lauke
Raison d’etre: Challenge again for the top step of the Tour de France Femmes

It was always going to be a big ask for Kasia Niewiadoma to defend her Tour de France Femmes title in 2025, especially with the return of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot at Visma-Lease a Bike and renewed hunger of Demi Vollering at FDJ-SUEZ, so to hold on to the final podium place in the end felt like a job well done. Never one to settle, the Polish rider and her team will be hoping to win back the yellow jersey this summer, but also pick up a few more victories along the way.

Although Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto won 15 times last season – their highest tally since 2019, and a marked improvement from six in 2024 – only two of those victories came on the WorldTour: one thanks to Chloé Dygert at the Tour Down Under, and the other signed by Zoe Bäckstedt at the Simac Ladies Tour.

The team will no doubt call on the two time trial sensations again in 2026. Already, Dygert has come out with fighting talk. “I’m sick of losing,” she said ahead of January’s Tour Down Under, “so this year, I’m really focusing on making sure it doesn’t happen much.” Unfortunately for the American, she left Australia with 12 stitches in her leg, and is now eyeing a period of recovery before the Classics.

There have been no new signings at Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto over the winter, and only two outgoings: Tour stage winner Ricarda Bauernfiend has found a new home at Lidl-Trek, while former British champion Alice Towers has moved to EF Education-Oatly. The effervescent Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and budding climber Neve Bradbury remain among the most exciting riders in the team. Italian sprinter Chiara Consonni will be there for the flatter days.

EF Education-Oatly
USA
2025 WorldTour wins: 2
Team leader: Noemi Rüegg and Cédrine Kerbaol
Team boss: Esra Tromp
Raison d’être: Keeping the good vibes going at a young team full of talent

New to the Women’s WorldTour, EF Education-Oatly had the perfect start to their season, by winning the Tour Down Under for the second year in a row through Noemi Rüegg.

However, those were the team’s last WorldTour victories in 2025, so it is a low bar to clear for this season. In Rüegg and Cédrine Kerbaol they have two riders who were often at the front of races last year. The team stand out in pink, and also because they have the rainbow jersey, through Magdeleine Vallieres.

Kristen Faulkner, Olympic champion, will want more than her one win last year, while there has been an injection of youth to keep the American squad ticking over. No more Alison Jackson.

FDJ United-Suez
France
2025 WorldTour wins: 11
Team leader: Demi Vollering
Team boss: Stephen Delcourt
Raison d’être: To win the Tour de France Femmes and remain the world's top-ranked team

When the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was first announced, team manager Stephen Delcourt dreamed of winning it, building the team with that ambition in the front of his mind. Only six years ago the team was one of the also-ran squads, but since Évita Muzic won the closing stage of the 2020 Giro Rosa, their first WorldTour win, they’ve been on the rise. Last season they brought in defending Tour champion Demi Vollering hoping the yellow jersey ambition might be realised but, while she came close, second place was all the team could manage.

FDJ dominated the first half of last season. Vollering quickly repaid Delcourt's faith, blossoming into a fine leader, starting the year with victory in the four-day Comunitat Velenciana, then winning Strade Bianche, the Vuelta Femenina, Itzulia Women and the Volta Catalunya. They were far from a one-woman band; fellow new recruit Elise Chabbey and Ally Wollaston contributed multiple victories, helping the French team to top spot in the UCI rankings.

That said, they have fewer riders this year, but have recruited well, with German champion Frazinska Koch the pick of the new additions. A hugely versatile Classics rider and domestique, she will contribute widely, while Eva van Agt is a proven helper and Sofia Bertizzolo has been a target for the team for years now. It will be interesting to see how Scotswoman Lauren Dickson fares in only her third year in the sport. The signs are promising: she finished 17th on GC at the recent Tour Down Under, helping Wollaston to two stage wins and brilliant team performance.

Fenix-Premier Tech
Belgium
2025 WorldTour wins: 1
Team leader: Puck Pieterse
Team boss: Philip Roodhooft
Raison d'être: Big Classics victories

Fenix-Premier Tech are among the minority of Women's WorldTour teams to have more riders this year than last, starting 2026 with 19 of the permitted 22 riders. An interesting mix of cyclo-cross and Classics riders, they have never been prolific winners. Last season they took only five, though three of those were national championships.

When they do win, they win big, with stages in the Tour de France Femmes on the team palmarès. The hugely talented and versatile Puck Pieterse is always among the action, finishing in the top 10 in every one of last year's spring Classics and winning La Flèche Wallonne. Charlotte Kool joined the squad mid-season last year and should she regain her mojo will provide genuine winning potential in the sprints.

Lidl-Trek
Germany
2025 WorldTour wins: 5
Team leader: Elisa Balsamo and Niamh Fisher-Black
Team boss: Luca Guercilena
Raison d’être: Getting the big signings to deliver

There’s a lot of talent stockpiled at Lidl-Trek, and getting it to fire is the main goal of the team for 2026. Ellen van Dijk and Lizzie Deignan retiring could have unbalanced another team, but this one was prepared for this eventuality already, making the big changes ahead of 2025. As it is, the German squad’s signings this winter have largely been dealing with domestique reorganisation, and providing some experience to a developing roster.

Last season saw success through the year, although perhaps not quite at the level that was expected, with fewer WorldTour wins than 2024. However, there were stage victories at the Vuelta España Femenina and the Giro d’Italia Women, with Anna Henderson’s result in the latter perhaps spurring her on to more consistent success, and Elisa Balsamo won the Trofeo Alfredo Binda.

Niamh Fisher-Black and Riejanne Markus, both signed as general classification options, performed impressively at stage races, with Fisher-Black fifth at the Tour de France Femmes and sixth at the Vuelta. This year, they will aim to cement their places in the top five at WorldTour stage events, especially the Grand Tours. Fisher-Black has a lot of promise, and is still only 25, so one feels that there is a breakout performance still to come.

In the Classics, Balsamo has the abilities to overcome almost anyone, therefore just needs the race to fall in her favour, while she will be ably backed up by Clara Copponi, Emma Norsgaard, Shirin van Anrooij and Henderson, which has the makings of a pretty good collection of leaders for the chaos of one-day racing. The team still has four 20-year-olds, too, including Isabella Holmgren, who finished eight at last year’s Giro, so there is a lot of hope for the future.

Movistar
Spain
2025 WorldTour wins: 10
Team leader: Marlen Reusser
Team boss: Sebastián Unzué
Raison d’etre: Win regularly and develop young talent

Only four teams won more races than Movistar in 2025 – SD Worx-Protime, UAE Team ADQ, FDJ-SUEZ and Visma-Lease a Bike – putting the Spanish squad just outside of the realm of the super-teams. Of Movistar’s 10 victories at WorldTour level, seven came courtesy of the world time trial champion Marlen Reusser. And that doesn’t account for the Swiss rider’s status as one of the peloton’s best GC contenders; she finished runner-up at both the Vuelta Femenina and the Giro last year.

Movistar will also look to British prodigy Cat Ferguson for wins in 2026, one of a handful of talented teenagers in the squad. The youngest is Spaniard Paula Ostiz, the junior world and European road champion, who turned pro this year.

Picnic PostNL
Netherlands
2025 WorldTour wins: 1
Team leader: Pfeiffer Georgi
Team boss: Iwan Spekenbrink
Raison d’etre: A team in transition, with a host of young riders on board

Nine riders left Picnic PostNL over the winter, and eight came in, underlining how in transition this team is. Some of those who left will be missed badly: Charlotte Kool, Francesca Barale, Franzi Koch, Megan Jastrab and Nienke Vinke. It leaves a young, callow squad, which will hope to outperform low expectations.

They hit the ground running at the Tour Down Under, with two podiums and 12th place overall for Josie Nelson, but the Classics will be the place where the squad can really show their mettle. Pfeiffer Georgi had a quiet 2025, as she worked her way back from the concussion she suffered at the Tour de France Femmes a couple of years ago, and will be looking to show that she is still a contender.

SD Worx-Protime
Netherlands
2025 WorldTour wins: 27
Team leaders: Lotte Kopecky, Anna van der Breggen and Lorena Wiebes
Team boss: Erwin Janssen
Raison d’être: Retaking their number one ranking after a slight dip

This year represents a new challenge for the previously all-conquering SD Worx-Protime. Instead of coming into the season as the number one team, the one everyone wanted to beat, they are now number two, chasing FDJ United-SUEZ, and their former charge Vollering.

That’s not to say 2025 was a fallow year for the Dutch squad, with 48 wins across the year, including 25 wins for Lorena Wiebes, who appears unbeatable in sprints. Wiebes won through the year, from the UAE Tour onwards, taking two stage wins at both the Giro d’Italia Women and the Tour de France Femmes. Meanwhile, Lotte Kopecky won the Tour of Flanders, again, and Anna van der Breggen and Mischa Bredewold showed themselves in flashes.

However, Kopecky did have an off-year, due to knee and lower-back issues, and her tilt at Tour GC failed to materialise. Also, in the absence of Vollering, they only won one general classification title. This might be a continued trend, with a group of developing riders not quite there yet, although Van der Breggen did finish third at last year’s Vuelta España Femenina.

Expect Wiebes to keep winning, wherever she races, and Kopecky to go all in for the Classics, from Omloop Nieuwsblad onwards. Ultimately, SD Worx want to be the team that everyone watches in the peloton again, and be back to the space where they can bend races to their will. They do not have the same number of dominant riders as before, but they do have the right pieces for the right races. New signing Nienke Vinke could be the future for GC challenges, and Bredewold can continue to do her very good Vollering impression in hillier one-day races.

UAE Team ADQ
UAE
2025 WorldTour wins: 7
Team leader: Elisa Longo Borghini
Team boss: Yana Seel
Raison d'être: Defence of Elisa Longo Borghini's Giro title and a Tour de France Femmes podium finish

Building year on year, UAE Team ADQ are now among the most dangerous teams in the peloton. The addition of Elisa Longo Borghini last year has proved pivotal. Though they've only existed in their current form since 2022, the team dates all the way back to Nicole Cooke's Mcipollini-Giordana team of 2011. Last year's crop of 28 wins represented their most successful season, the winning shared among a remarkable 13 of their 19-woman roster.

2025 Tour de France Femmes revelation Maeva Squiban, along with Karlijn Swinkels, have already opened the team's account, winning in Mallorca last week. While they're one of the few teams to have increased the size of their roster, we can expect Longo Borghini to be most influential again.

Visma-Lease a Bike
Netherlands
2025 WorldTour wins: 7
Team leader: Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Marianne Vos
Team boss: Rutger Tijssen
Raison d'être: Another Tour de France title for Pauline Ferrand Prévot and big Classics wins for Marianne Vos

Even without Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's Tour de France Femmes victory, Visma-Lease a Bike had a great 2025, winning more races than in any of their four previous seasons while relying less on their big names. Martina Fidanza stepped up with three wins, and Ninke Veenhoven bagged two. The future lies with two young riders: the hugely talented Brit Imogen Wolff, who began winning before her 19th birthday, and Marion Bunel, who is already among the best climbers in the bunch aged only 21.

Ferrand-Prévot has a freakish ability to successfully target races, so another Tour de France win is possible. Meanwhile, Marianne Vos always bags at least one big win a year. Add in Canadian all-rounder Sarah Van Dam and Dutch rouleur Daniek Hengeveld and Visma have a recipe for success.

Uno-X Mobility, Liv AlUla Jayco and Human Powered Health

Uno-X Mobility won just one WorldTour race last year, a stage of the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas through Mie Bjørndal Ottestad, who won four more races for the team. This year, they are likely to continue their aggressive underdog strategy, which has brought them success in the past. In Katrine Aalerud, they have an experienced GC leader.

2025 ended well for Liv AlUla Jayco, who won two stages at the Tour of Chongming Island; they also won stage two of the Tour de France Femmes through Mavi García. This year, they will hope that they can return to the front of races more often, through Letizia Paternoster and Ruby Roseman-Gannon, among others.

Human Powered Health will aim to be more than just the 14th WorldTour team, with a ProTour or WorldTour victory surely among their plans. In Thalita de Jong and Kathrin Schweinberger, they have experienced riders who could surprise.

Races

Spring Classics

From Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (28 Feb) until Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes (26 April), the women's Spring Classics season follows an almost identical rhythm to that of the men's, with female 'siblings' having been introduced for nearly all of the original major men's races. The inauguration of Milan-San Remo Donne (21 March) last season – won by Lorena Wiebes – leaves E3 Saxo Classic as the only men's WorldTour race with no equivalent. Omloop and Opening Weekend is followed in March by Italy's Strade Bianche, San Remo, and a pair of new names: In Flanders Fields. From Middelkerke to Wevelgem (formerly the more succinct Gent-Wevelgem) and the Tour of Bruges (formerly Brugge-De Panne).

There is also the Trofeo Alfredo Binda (15 March), one of the oldest Classics on the women's calendar with more than 50 years of history.

As with the men, the women's Classics tends to centre around the Tour of Flanders (5 April) and Paris-Roubaix (12 April), but some of the stronger climbers will target the hilly Ardennes races – Amstel Gold (19 April), Flèche Wallonne (22 April) and Liège.

Vuelta España Femenina by carrefour.es – 3-10 May

With the women's season rejigged to free the Giro d'Italia Women from its annual clash with the men's Tour de France, there is now a decent gap between the three Grand Tours, opening up the possibility of seeing all of the world's best riders in all three. The season is packed, though, especially in May when the Vuelta is the first of three Spanish WorldTour stage races, and with teams having such small rosters it's more likely teams will need to be very choosy when selecting their squads.

In its short history as a stage race, the Vuelta Femenina has always attracted the pick of the stage racing bunch, and that is unlikely to change this season. Not many riders have confirmed their programmes beyond the Classics and the Tour de France Femmes so far, but last year's runner-up Marlen Reusser is down to ride, and don't be surprised defending champion Demi Vollering here either.

Tour de France Femmes – 1-9 August

The 2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift begins slowly with two flattish stages, before the temperature gradually rises. A series of hilly stages are punctuated by an individual time trial, before the pièce de resistance, Mont Ventoux. After Planche des Belles Filles, the Tourmalet, Alpe d’Huez and the Madeleine comes the Giant of Provence. The bald mountain will surely hint at the direction of the fifth yellow jersey, but there is still a hectic stage around Nice to come, like a turbo-charged final day of Paris-Nice. Four ascents of the Col d’Eze will sort out the wheat from the chaff.

Demi Vollering will be itching to take back the crown she lost in 2024, and prove that she really is the best rider in the world; FDJ United-SUEZ will also demand better from their star signing. However, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has proved that she will go to huge lengths to win, and will have the French public on her side. It should be a clash for the ages. From Switzerland to the Mediterranean, the action will not stop.

As we hit January, it is more than the time for pro cycling teams to release their new kits for 2026. For some, this is the best part of the year, before the reality of racing gets involved, when we can just imagine how good the jerseys will look on the road.

Rather than writing up each team individually, we thought it would work better if we collated them together, unless someone does something mad. When all the kits are out, we can do our usual arbitrary evaluation of them too, so do look out for that. In this guide, we will cover all the WorldTour teams, and notable other squads, but not all, otherwise it will get a bit overwhelming, apart from particular exceptions.

If you would rather find out which team riders will be appearing for next year, rather than what they will be wearing, you can find that on our comprehensive transfer guide for 2026 too.

Teams have also changed names – Israel-Premier Tech to NSN Cycling, Alpecin-Deceuninck to Alpecin-Premier Tech, and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale to Decathlon CMA CGM and more – so that will have an impact on the kits too.

While teams will have tried to keep the fresh designs under wraps, a few have leaked into the public domain. However, this list will only have confirmed designs. So far, those who are fans of garish outfits should be pleased.

So far, we are only certain of a few kits for next season, but more will appear in the coming weeks or days. We'll update this as we go!

Picnic PostNL

If I were to play spot the difference, I would be hard pushed with the 2026 Picnic PostNL kit. It remains navy and orange, with the 'Keep Challenging' stripes, and the name is the same too. There are a couple of new sponsors on there, and this is apparently different, but that's it.

As the press release says: "Clear and vibrant amongst the colourful peloton: fans, commentators and pundits alike won’t have to re-adjust for the 2026 campaign as they can expect to see the two orange stripes from those helicopter shots on even the foggiest of days."

Pinarello-Q36.5

It's a continuation of navy for the renamed Pinarello-Q36.5, but no white sleeves this year. Instead, this smart jersey is fully navy, with fancy gold accents. The bikes don't look bad either...

According to Q36.5's founder, Luigi Bergamo: "The new jersey design evolves the visual language we began developing last season to reflect the Italian values of premium, daring, design that we share with Pinarello.

"The result is a kit that allows our riders to feel, from the very first moment they pull on the kit, that they are part of something special and unique: the only team in the professional peloton founded and powered by Italian technical partners. We can’t wait to see this jersey (and our iconic Dottore bib shorts!) racing sharp at the front of the bunch."

Jayco AlUla and Liv AlUla Jayco

MAAP entered WorldTour cycling with their Jayco AlUla and Liv AlUla Jayco kits, and have stuck to their theme from 2025 with this purple – sorry, "Aurora" – jersey, paired with dark grey shorts.

The new addition is the flame motif, which stretches to the socks, which is a bit of fun.

MAAP's creative director, Misha Glisovic, said: "MAAP has always been driven to push the boundaries. It’s core to who we are and how we see our place in the sport. We want to use design to broaden the appeal of pro cycling, nudging the sport towards something more stylish and aspirational. Ultimately, we want to be true to our values at MAAP, and GreenEDGE shares this vision."

Human Powered Health

Women's WorldTour squad Human Powered Health have partnered with Verge Sport for their new kit. The new design keeps the orange/red/purple that we have become used to for the team, but in a new pattern, which is called 'Tailwind'. It's designed "to embody speed, motion, and momentum".

The press release says the jersey has a "rich, sweeping warm-to-cool colour gradient that represents Human Powered Health’s Pillars of Performance". It'll be paired with black shorts.

Lotto-Intermarché

The newly merged Lotto-Intemarché go with the red of Lotto for 2026. The kit is a dark-ish red, paired with black shorts, and there isn't really too much more to say about it. It's smart!

According to the statement: "In terms of colour, both main sponsors, Intermarché and Lotto, were already allies: their brand colours red and black dominate the design. The meaningful, subtle fingerprint pattern further strengthens the bold look."

Bahrain Victorious

Bahrain Victorious have been red, orange, purple, and white, but never blue. That changes in 2026, when the team, now riding Bianchi bikes, will be in navy blue with teal sleeves.

The press release reveals deeper meanings: "At the heart of the kit sits a deep navy, a colour that has been part of the team’s identity since its foundation. Subtly woven into the design is a faint “X” that crosses the jersey, the Roman numeral representing ten years in the sport.

"On the sleeves of the jersey, Bianchi’s iconic Celeste is distinctly featured, perfectly matching the shallow blue waters and teal tones that represent Bahrain’s two seas."

Visma-Lease a Bike

The men and women of Visma-Lease a Bike will continue in yellow for 2026, wearing a kit made by Nimbl, who are more known for their cycling shoes.

According to Francesco Matrone, graphic designer at Nimbl: "In a WorldTour context, design must be essential, intentional, and instantly recognizable. One of our key goals was to create a visual identity that's identifiable at speed and reflects performance and clarity. It must be unmistakably Visma-Lease a Bike. Every graphic element is functional, integrated, and designed to perform under pressure.”

EF Pro Cycling

EF Education–EasyPost and EF Education–Oatly will remain pink next year, but have switched kit suppliers from Rapha to Assos.

Assos says the 2026 kit reflects a "forward-looking mindset" with a "bold colour palette" that evolves EF Pro Cycling’s unmistakable visual identity while introducing "a new, almost other-worldly energy to the peloton."

The silver bits are fun, and pink is always good to me – I just wonder what's going to happen when the Giro d'Italia comes around.

Alpecin-Premier Tech and Fenix-Premier Tech

It's a brand new name for Alpecin-Premier Tech and Fenix-Premier Tech – no more Deceuninck – but not a completely new kit, with similar vibes for the WorldTour and Women's WorldTour teams. The men's team has a kit made by Kalas, which is the same blue as before, more or less, but with a bit more of a light grading across the chest.

The women's team, meanwhile, wear a kit made by Alé, which is pretty similar to the orange of 2025, and there doesn't seem to be the green and blue options from before.

Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto

Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto are usually found in a bold, colourful kit, and next season is no different. This is Luminous, designed by Mckenzie Sampson and made by Canyon. It takes a dark purple base and merges it with turquoise, pink, coral and red.

Sampson said: "I’ve always found Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto to be an aspiring light within the peloton. They’re a team that gives a unique platform to a diverse set of riders across the globe to get their big break in cycling. To visually illustrate that sense of light and hope, we wanted the kit design to be bold yet convey the right balance of contrasting light, unique patterns, and rich saturated moments of colour."

AG Insurance-Soudal

AG Insurance-Soudal have mostly the same kit as their brother team Soudal Quick-Step, just with different sponsors. There is a new logo, too: Datashift, a Belgian leader in data solutions and strategy.

It's a blue base, with green accents across, with a white band across the chest for AG Insurance.

Ineos Grenadiers

There was rumour and speculation that it might happen, but now it is official... Ineos Grenadiers will be wearing WHITE yes WHITE shorts next season. Well, it's technically 'light grey', but come on.

Orange is the main colour on the jersey for the first time, after various blues and reds, but it is the white that stands out. It's as striking, if not more so, as AG2R's famous brown shorts, and we wonder how the riders are feeling about it...

The press release says: "The design was created with a clear purpose: immediate recognition. The exclusive use of this orange ensures a striking presence in the peloton, while the white panels on the lower sections add balance and clarity, allowing the leading colour to shine with harmonious strength. The result is a sophisticated, functional and memorable kit."

Apparently: "Orange is the new uniqueness. Orange is the new icon." Read our opinion on it here.

Soudal Quick-Step

It's evolution not revolution for Soudal Quick-Step in 2026, who have a similar kit to this season, but green rather than white as the accent colour, along with the classic blue.

According to the team: "The new design incorporates a vivid electric-lime element, a deliberate move inspired by the Shine for Safety visibility campaign launched during this year’s Ardennes Classics."

There is a lot more green on the back, which will help them stand out, apparently. It's a nice wavy pattern. The kit is designed and made by Castelli.

FDJ United-SUEZ

If you're thinking "I've seen this kit before", you would be right. FDJ United-SUEZ will be wearing their 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift kit full-time next year. It's largely black, with an explosion of red and blue on the chest.

The press release says about the Gobik kit: "The jersey reflects the unseen hours of the sport: training sessions before dawn, rides in the rain, the fear and doubts of a jour sans. In contrast, a vivid halo of light rises on the chest, symbolising the inner spark that transforms sacrifice into brilliance at the moment of victory.

Demi Vollering won't be in this kit, given the Dutchwoman is European champion.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG

UAE Team Emirates-XRG rarely mix the colour palette up too much, and 2026 will be no different – it's largely white, with black and red trim, but it definitely has changed since last season.

The Pissei kit, handcrafted at the brand's Italian Custom Lab, has some fun geometric patterns on the stormach of the jersey, with black on the arms too. Don't expect to see Tadej Pogačar in this one, however, considering he is world champion.

Movistar

It's a second year in a row in white for Movistar, who have ditched the navy box across the chest for this cleaner offering. There is the classic M on the front, and some accents across the rest of the front.

Apparently: "Gobik sought a futuristic aesthetic, an evolution that projects innovation and performance on a white base. Technological textures, iridescent graphics and subtle transparencies were combined to create a striking design that reflects the identity and avant-garde spirit of the team." Avant-garde. Right.

Lidl-Trek

Lidl-Trek's kit is different. Definitely. There's less red on the front, more blue, and there's a new sponsor on the front, but it is, essentially, the same as last year. There's nothing wrong with that! It's a good kit! "Our favourite colours" is what the team said. Keep it simple. The men and women use the same kit, which is good.

The team say: "With a fresh twist on a fan-favorite design, Santini have delivered again with the 2026 Lidl-Trek kit. Pairing the ultimate fabrics with playful colours, the latest design delivers looks as well as performance."

Decathlon CMA CGM

Sadly, there's no exciting bumf to go with the new Decathlon CMA CGM kit, but with a new name comes a new colour - red. The brown shorts are sadly still in the dustbin of history, with new sponsors CMA CGM bringing the new colour. One sleeve is still teal (?) while the other is a lot darker, rather than the dark blue it was before.

Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe

Now, Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe's kit is yet to be officially announced, but seeing as all the riders in the plane stunt were wearing a new kit, let's assume this is the new one for 2026. It's a lot whiter than before, with royal blue sleeves, and less navy. It is similar to the special kit they used at the Tour de France this season.

SD Worx-Protime

SD Worx-Protime have veered away from the purple and pinks of recent years, and instead will race in this primary colour-heavy jersey which is called "New Dawn"

It's designed by Specialized, and is paired with black shorts. Notably, Lotte Kopecky will be racing in it, no longer being world, European, or Belgian champion, for once.

According to the press release: "The new jersey reflects the team’s and sponsors’ ongoing drive for innovation. Standing still is not an option – continuously reinventing ourselves in every aspect is a core value at SD Worx-Protime. The new design symbolises our rich history through the spark, now multiplied and displayed in various shades. This emphasises the team’s slogan: we spark success."

NSN Cycling

The team formerly known as Israel-Premier Tech have become NSN Cycling, and will be wearing a busy kit next season, with a base of sky blue and orange. The jury is out over whether this will be easy to notice or to lose in the peloton. They're also riding Scott bikes now.

If you want to know why it looks like this, the press release says: "It's designed by Stijn Dossche of stycle.design, is inspired by the Mediterranean city from which the team’s new identity has been forged.

"Its design blends geometry, colour blocks, and patterns reminiscent of contemporary Barcelona - a city that never stands still, where tradition meets modernity, where Mediterranean light becomes art, and movement becomes identity."

Just in time for the Tour de France Grand Départ in July, then – that's in Barça.

Groupama-FDJ United

Another new name, though less dramatic, is Groupama-FDJ United. The French stalwarts are slow to change their kits, normally, and the same is true next year. It's the fetching number they wore at this year's Tour, although it's now made by Bioracer rather than Alé. Essentially, it's royal blue with a red accent sleeve.

Cofidis

Cofidis are another French team barely changing their kit for 2026. The men's and women's teams, now both ProTeams, will use the same red and yellow jersey as this season, although the shades might have been slightly altered, and the sponsors have moved around a bit.

“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.

There’s a weightlessness about Lotte Kopecky as she plants herself into a wicker chair in the garden of her team hotel. Behind her, in the bay beside the Breton town of Vannes, boat masts sway gently in the wind. There’s little noise, save for the sound of water lapping against the hulls, and the faint joy of families playing on the small beach next door.

It’s a serene atmosphere, and with just two sleeps until the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, where Kopecky was expected to mount a GC bid, the world champion is calm, too. The pressure, she says, is off. The idea of winning the yellow jersey has been relinquished, at least for this year. And she is at peace with it.

“At this moment, I’m just trying to get the GC out of my head,” she tells Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. “The team is saying GC is, if we are really honest, quite a hard task. We just need to dare to say we let it go. We are here with a really strong team who can win a lot of stages, so I think it’s only fair to say that you just need to change cards and not put all the eggs in one basket.”

When Kopecky last rode the Tour, in 2023, she wore yellow for six days and finished second to her then SD Worx team-mate Demi Vollering. The following year, the Belgian placed runner-up at the Giro d’Italia Women, a result, she says, that was “confirmation” of her stage-racing credentials. “There were some thoughts and some possibilities.”

Already a bona fide Classics rider, this year’s Tour was set to be Kopecky’s breakthrough as a GC contender. But then the injuries took over. A persistent knee issue over the winter derailed the world champion's early-season training and, just two weeks ago, she abandoned the Giro with lower back pain.

Has she fully recovered for the Tour? “I hope so,” she laughs. “At the moment, it’s pretty good, but training and racing are two different things.

“I didn’t have the most easy season, let’s say. I had a really hard winter with the injury. Maybe [the back pain] is coming from the knee, having a little bit of a different position. I cannot say how it started. I just hope it disappears like it started.”

The doubt over her condition, and the hiccups in her preparation, mean Kopecky has now ruled out a targeted GC bid.

“You need to be fair with yourself and with your teammates,” she says. “I don’t want them to sacrifice or to ride everyday full gas for me, and I say after six days, ‘Sorry, but my back is hurting and I cannot do this.’ I also don’t want to disappoint them. It takes off a lot of pressure for me. I think, for this year, it’s the best thing to do.

“It is what it is now at the moment and I cannot change anything about it, so we’ll just try to make the best of it.”

What that involves is stage hunting, and as early as day one. The opening two stages in Brittany both finish on punchy, uphill drags – "they're perfect for me," Kopecky says. The focus will then turn to SD Worx-Protime's sprinter, Lorena Wiebes, who is primed for the flatter days three and four.

“We’re going to see day by day, but at this moment, I would be really happy to win a stage,” says Kopecky. “If I can, let’s say, win the first stage or the second one – we have to see – once the climbs are going up, for sure I’m really going to try to hang on and see where I can get. But that’s only on the fifth day. We have to wait. Let’s see.”

For now, Kopecky is relaxed and ready. Over her left shoulder, as Anna van der Breggen is about begin a television interview, the world champion dashes across and slaps her hands together in front of her team-mate's face.

The overall victory might be out of reach, but the playfulness is a sign it's time to have fun.

18 teams are set to participate in the second edition of the Tour of Britain Women in June, with 12 Women's WorldTour squads set to headline the start list, British Cycling announced on Thursday afternoon.

According to a release from the national governing body, 108 riders will take part in what is set to be the largest field in the event’s history. SD Worx-Protime - the team of last year’s winner, Lotte Kopecky - are one of the 12 WorldTour teams set to race, along with FDJ-Suez and a host of other major teams.

As well as SD Worx and FDJ-Suez, the other teams from the top level of women’s professional cycling on the startlist are AG Insurance-Soudal, Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, Ceratizit, Lidl-Trek, Movistar, Picnic PostNL, Visma-Lease a Bike, UAE Team ADQ and Uno-X Mobility. All five of the British registered UCI Continental teams - Smurfit Westrock, Hess Cycling, Das Hutchinson, Handsling Alba Development and CJ O'Shea Racing are set to compete, along with EF Education-Oatly, and a Great Britain squad.

After racing in the last two editions of the race, UAE Team ADQ's Elynor Bäckstedt said she would relish the opportunity to race in front of the British crowds once more: "The UK crowds are incredible, seeing all the kids come out from schools to watch are so special.

"For us as a team it’ll be super important, the course is varied so there is an opportunity for everyone and it will be a great race for us to do and showcase to the world what the UK has to offer."

Taking place between 5 and 8 June, the race will take place in northern England and Scotland, with the southernmost point on the course being North Yorkshire. The final stage will be held in Glasgow on a city centre circuit.

"We are delighted to be bringing some of the world’s best teams and riders to our communities this June as a part of the UCI Women's WorldTour and to showcase the very best of their character and terrain on what will be four challenging stages," Jonathan Day, managing director of British Cycling Events, previously said.

"On behalf of British Cycling Events I would like to pay thanks to our partners across the four stages for supporting the hosting and delivery of this summer's race and enabling us to bring another memorable and action packed four days of world class racing to their communities."

Former world champion Chantal van den Broek-Blaak has announced that she is expecting a second child, and has decided to end her professional cycling career.

The 35-year-old, the current Dutch road champion, was due to retire at the end of the season, having renewed her contract with SD Worx-Protime last October. She has now moved her retirement forward, effective immediately, due to a “wonderful surprise”.

“There is no more beautiful reason to say goodbye,” Van den Broek Blaak wrote on Instagram. “I had imagined my last season differently, give it one final push in the national jersey. But more than anything, I feel super happy and grateful for what’s ahead.”

Across her 17-year career, Van den Broek-Blaak’s crowning moment came when she won the UCI World Championships in Bergen, Norway in 2017 with a solo attack. Her palmarès also counts victories at the Tour of Flanders, Strade Bianche, Amstel Gold Race, Gent-Wevelgem and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, making her one of the most successful cyclists of all time.

In May 2023, the Dutchwoman gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Noa. She returned to the peloton at the start of last season, but said it was “not an easy year - especially mentally”.

“I had to get used to the role of motherhood combined with top-level sport,” she said in a statement shared by SD Worx-Protime. “I rode good races, but the stability was missing. Of course, capturing the Dutch title was a nice highlight, which showed that I could still compete for prizes at the highest level.

“I am now 35 years old and wanted to shine another year. At the training camp in December, I was already pedalling good values at the tests. I finally had the same feeling on the bike as before my pregnancy and was eager to show the red, white and blue.

“In early January, we found out that I was pregnant again. It felt strange at first, but I soon realised how lucky I am to have got pregnant again so easily. This is what life is really all about.”

Van den Broek-Blaak’s team manager, Erwin Janssen, paid tribute to the Dutchwoman’s career, saying that she was one of the “culture carriers” within SD Worx-Protime.

“We are very happy for Chantal that she is expecting her second child. We were still looking forward to a great final year for her on the bike, but the happiness of pregnancy is the most wonderful thing for her,” Janssen said.

“We look back with pride at all we have achieved with Chantal in those ten years with the team. She has been one of the best cyclists in the world for many years.”

Demi Vollering has played down talk of a rivalry with her old team, SD Worx-Protime, as she prepares to face them in her first races with FDJ-Suez.

The 28-year-old signed for the French squad last October, amid rumours of tension between her and co-leader Lotte Kopecky.

Speaking at a team press conference on Tuesday morning, Vollering said she will not be out for revenge when she meets her former teammates on the road.

“First of all, I don’t see it as a battle between the two teams. I think it’s a battle between the whole peloton,” she said. “I think a lot of teams are stepping up with strong riders, so it’s a very nice spread this coming season. I think we will have competitors in all kinds of teams in the peloton at the moment.

“It doesn’t feel for me like I want to take revenge on [SD Worx-Protime] or something, because I left there with good feelings. It’s not that I want to take revenge on them. Of course, we want to win from them, but that’s another thing.”

The Dutchwoman will begin her season this Thursday at the four-stage Setmana Ciclista Valenciana. There, she is expected to ride against SD Worx-Protime’s Anna van der Breggen, her former coach, who is returning to racing after three years of retirement.

Her first meeting with Kopecky is scheduled to be Milan-San Remo, the inaugural edition for women, on 22 March.

“All the public want a big fight,” said FDJ-Suez manager Stephen Delcourt about the prospect of facing SD Worx-Protime. “As Demi says, it’s not a fight between SD Worx and us, because if we think about that, for sure the two teams will lose a lot.

“Everyone says, ‘FDJ-Suez is a smart team. They’re a French team. They’re not a killer team.’ But we don’t want to kill the others, we just want to win and create something together.”

Riding for SD Worx-Protime last year, Vollering collected 15 wins – all at WorldTour level – including the overall at the Vuelta Femenina, Itzulia Women and the Tour de Suisse. She also won two stages of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, eventually missing out on retaining her yellow jersey by just four seconds.

Now, as she heads into her FDJ-Suez debut, Vollering said she feels “much more ready than what I felt last year”.

“This winter was way more relaxed, way more calm. Last winter, I had so many decisions I needed to make, so much stress I had in that period,” she said.

“I already feel very much at home in the team. It was of course really scary to join a new team with so many new people around me, but the first camps made it easy because I felt fast in my place. Everybody was really nice and it’s just a very relaxed atmosphere, nothing to prove.

"Of course, the Tour de France is always a very big goal of mine, and also the team now, of course. It's a really nice goal to work together towards, but there will be other goals also on the road already. First the other goals, and then of course, the big goal."

Specialized has announced a new partnership with women’s WorldTour team FDJ-Suez which will start in 2025.

With relationships with SD Worx-Protime and AG Insurance-Soudal in place, the American brand will now supply bikes to three teams on the WorldTour at the top level of women’s professional cycling.

The move also means that Dutch superstar Demi Vollering, winner of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2023, will also remain on S-Works bikes after moving to the French team from SD Worx in October.

According to a press release from Specialized, the likes of Vollering and Juliette Labous will “benefit from top-tier cycling technology as well as Specialized’s expertise and support in developing high-performance bikes” next year.

"We are extremely proud to enter into this collaboration with Specialized, an undisputed leader in the cycling world," said FDJ team boss Stephen Delcourt. "This partnership represents a tremendous opportunity for our team to reach new heights by combining our strengths and expertise to achieve our ambitious goals.

"This is a relationship built on trust, driven by innovation, and dedicated to supporting the ambitions of our athletes and the sport of cycling as a whole."

In October, the team announced the end of an eight-year partnership with bike brand Lapierre. The switch came as the men's team, Groupama-FDJ, swapped from Lapierre to Wilier after 22 years with the French manufacturer.

Specialized's Scott Jackson said: "FDJ-SUEZ immediately impressed us with their dynamic international approach to racing, bold vision for the future and rich history in French cycling.

"Together, we look forward to elevating the future of women’s sport, driving innovation, and sharing our passion to pedal the planet forward."

The acquisition of Vollering in the autumn represented a massive coup for FDJ after SD Worx boss Danny Stam revealed in March that the Dutchwoman’s contract would not be extended.

"This is a great day and a new step for the team. Demi is an immense champion and we can't wait to work on her development and see her compete in the team's blue white and red jersey," Delcourt said in October when the signing of Vollering was confirmed.

"With our sponsors, FDJ and SUEZ, as well as our historical partners, we have been working for several years to build a competitive world team on a healthy and stable foundation. Let's ride."

When American professional cyclists leave the European peloton, typically, they don’t find their way back across the pond.

The American professional scene may have its struggles, but it can also be comfortable in its modest scale for athletes looking to stay close to home and balance cycling with other professional pursuits — especially if the rider is good enough to make it to the European professional peloton in the first place.

But the women’s side of the sport in Europe is growing so rapidly that the demand for talent is growing, and teams are eager to welcome back experienced riders alongside new, developing, talent. Ruth Edwards, for instance, is a shining example of how this can be successful. The two-time national champion left the WorldTour in 2021 but, after racing the off-road circuit for two seasons, made her return to the European peloton in 2024 with Human Powered Health.

It was announced last week that the best criterium racer in America, Skylar Schneider, will follow suit. After three years away, Schneider will return to SD Worx-Protime in 2025.

“When I first came back to the States, I considered retiring from racing and going back to school full-time," Schneider told Cycling Weekly. "When Danny [Stam, SD-Worx Team Manager] and I made the decision not to renew my contract for 2021. It was bittersweet but I knew it was the right thing for me and for the team. I told him that I would reach out in the future if I was ready to come back."

That time has now come.

A reset to her bread and butter

In 2018, Schneider made her WorldTour debut as part of the SD-Worx (called Boels-Dolmans, at the time). She was 19 years old and coming off a massively successful junior career, which culminated in a silver medal at the 2016 Junior World Championships behind Elisa Balsamo.

But women’s pro racing was a much smaller scene, offering fewer opportunities for young riders than it does today. This was especially true at Boels-Dolmans, which, then as now, was the top team and home to many of the world's best riders. As a result, opportunities that might have been available to someone like Schneider on a smaller professional team were harder to come by.

That, paired with feeling homesick and carrying the stress of any professional cycling career, boiled up in 2020 to the point where Schneider had to hit the reset button without much consideration for what would come next.

“When I went to Europe the first time, I was really young and not quite ready to be living on my own so far away from home. The first year went alright as everything was new and exciting and I was performing well on the bike, but I grew to be very homesick," Schneider said.

Fortunately for her, the reset didn’t take long.

In 2021, Schneider returned to the United States and made her year all about having fun on the bike and going back to her roots in the American criterium scene.

She found a home and a living with the L39ion of Los Angeles team at the height of its strength. Fun quickly turned into winning reliably while off the bike, she found success in launching a bakery business.

Her performances led to a trip to Europe with USA Cycling, a cameo at the 2022 UCI Road World Championships, and, ultimately, to revisit her conversation with Danny Stam from two years prior.

"I wouldn't change anything about [my first WorldTour] experience as it prepared me to go back and do things differently," said Schneider. "In 2023 it became clear to me that I wanted to return so I sent a message to Danny, and he remembered our last conversation, and that was when we made the plan to bring me back in 2025.

"It was really a unique and dream scenario as it gave me a year to prepare to go back and it meant the best team in the world was holding a spot for me.”

From SD Worx’s perspective, the feeling of wanting to give it another go was mutual. In particular, Stam saw the success that Schneider found in the United States as an example of the success she is still capable of in Europe.

“Winning keeps winning, you have to have certain qualities for that,” Stam said in a team press release. “I think she can be of great value in the lead-out for Lorena Wiebes, but can also grow further. In terms of character, she fits the team and I am also convinced that physically she has the ‘engine’ to compete at the highest level.”

Maturing into a maturing sport

Now, at 26 years old, it seems as if Schneider and the Women’s WorldTour have both matured to the point where the Wisconsin all-rounder can return and convert on the talent that has promised so much for so long.

“I have very real expectations about how hard it's going to be to re-join the Women's WorldTour and how high the level has gotten,” Schneider acknowledged.

“Fortunately, I had the opportunity to attend SD Worx's February training camp this past winter to experience this firsthand. It was really interesting to see how much women's cycling has developed and how much more professional it has become since I left.”

Equally, she's aware that homesickness will still be a factor, but it's one she's ready to tackle.

“I'm very close with my family and since opening our business, I feel very connected to our community. Just like last time, being away from home will be hard. But, it's something that I'm prepared for this time and I'm hoping to have family and friends come visit me in Europe as much as they can,” she commented.

Schneider’s second chance in Europe is a rarity. Spots are hardly ever saved on the best teams in the world, and once a rider takes their foot off the gas pedal at 23, it takes a lot to get the intensity back. The key underpinning it all, though, is the understanding that it doesn’t come any easier, you just know it better.

“I'm keen for any opportunity to contribute to SD Worx's success and see myself being more of a domestique for this first year back. I can't wait to be a part of the lead-out train and would love to focus on developing into one of the fastest sprinters in the world. That's not going to happen right away but it's a nice goal to have for the next few years," she said.

“I know how incredible this opportunity is and with that comes some sacrifices, so I really want to make the most of it.”

Anna van der Breggen has announced that she will return to the professional peloton in 2025, three seasons after she retired as a rider.

The news was announced at a surprise press conference organised by her SD Worx-Protime team on Thursday afternoon.

The two-time world champion stepped off the bike and into the team car after the Leuven World Championships in 2021, becoming a directeur sportif for the team she had raced for since 2017.

"I find my job as a team leader beautiful and challenging, but I realise that I can still do this job in ten years' time," she said. "If I want to return as a cyclist, it's now or never. I am looking forward to it immensely."

"The motivation is great to get back on the bike after three years," she continued. "It's an exciting decision. If I didn't feel the motivation, I would never be able to do this. That was also the reason why I decided to stop in 2021 after the Tokyo Olympics. I had been doing the same thing for years and felt I was tired. I was able to win a lot of competitions, but physically and mentally it also takes a lot out of you. 

"After a three-year period where I looked at cycling from a different angle, I feel that the motivation and the will to cycle is completely back. I am excited to come back. To suffer on the bike again and to race with the team again. I realise now how much I love the game, the sport and the competition."

In a glittering career, the now 34-year-old won the Giro d'Italia Women on four occasions, and took victory in almost all of the major races, including a record seven victories at La Flèche Wallonne, seven in a row. She won the World Championships road race in 2018 and 2020, and the Olympic Games road race in Rio in 2016. She also won the time trial at the World Championships in 2020.

Since retiring, she has expertly guided SD Worx on their way to being the best team in the peloton, with huge victories for Demi Vollering, Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes. 

"My mindset will be different," Van der Breggen said. "I will be less focused on wins in certain races or on having clear goals. After this long break, I feel it is a privilege to be able to ride races and be a cyclist again. For me, it is no longer so much about ticking off races or victories, but more about enjoying the sport and the competition. 

"In the next six months, I will train a lot and work on my fitness. I am curious to see what level I can get back to. Of course I aim to become a better cyclist than in my previous period. Whether that succeeds always remains the question."

"Do I still want to be a winner?" she asked. "Of course I feel competition in me. I always want to win. However, that doesn't mean you always  can win. That's fine too, because that only makes the victories you have more beautiful. When you have to struggle to get somewhere, it just makes the rewards later more beautiful. In any case, for me it is a privilege to be a cyclist again soon in 2025."

"We had already noticed for some time that during stage races Anna increasingly started cycling a bit herself," Danny Stam, the team's manager, said. "We are happy to have another world-class cyclist in the team with her. We hope she can grow to that high level again. We are confident about that. If Anna has doubts about something, she won't do it. That certainly applies to this big step."

The news she is un-retiring comes after it was announced that Vollering, SD Worx's GC leader, and the defending Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift champion, will be leaving the team at the end of the season.

There were 109 riders on the start line of this year's Itzulia Women, all different people with different objectives. There were 20 different teams, all wanting to get something out of the WorldTour race, all with plans in place for a part of the three-day stage race.

And yet, for the third year running, the results make it look like 19 of those teams might as well not have bothered. There have been 12 opportunities to win across Itzulia Women's short history - nine stages, and three overall titles - and they have all been won by SD Worx-Protime.

Not only that, but six of those stages and two of those titles have been won by Demi Vollering, who did what she always does in the Basque Country on Sunday, winning once more. 

It is an incredible feat, even if it is, in reality, just three years. The data set might be small, but it also couldn't be more conclusive. 

"To win every stage til now, three years in a row, that’s incredible actually, three times is history I think," Vollering said. "We can be very proud of this. You never think that you can do something like this, but to do it again, to win all the stages here, that’s incredible.

"It says something about how strong a team we are, and also how much we like these kinds of races, to be always very active and take it in our own hands. I’m really proud to finish it off here."

Vollering's performance was one thing, but her younger teammate, Mischa Bredewold, also took two stage wins in two different situations, belying her 23 years. The first came in what was, effectively, a bunch sprint, while the second came after she bridged across to a late break in the day, comfortably out-powering her two companions.

On paper, the performance should worry the team's rivals. It comes after a dominant race from Vollering at the Vuelta Femenina, and the team looks well back on track after a mixed spring Classics campaign, during which time their Dutch leader didn't clinch a win.

It speaks of the best women's team being back on the perch, as they were last year with their staggering 62 wins. With more stage races looming, including the Giro d'Italia Women and the Tour de France Femmes, and with SD Worx back in their groove, more wins will surely come.

However, all is not over for SD Worx's rivals, like Canyon-SRAM, Lidl-Trek and FDJ-Suez. The squads can use the lessons they learned from the Classics to challenge them at stage races as well, to put them off their rhythm. If SD Worx are left to ride their own race, as they were so often in 2023, and at Itzulia, then it feels like wins might only go one way. If other teams take the fight to the Dutch squad, then races open up.

The fissure opened up by the announcement that Vollering is to leave SD Worx has not been totally repaired, even if things seem rosy for now. It should be noted that the Dutchwoman has only won this year in the absence of her world champion teammate, Lotte Kopecky; it might just be that there is only room for one in the 2024 iteration.

Vollering and Kopecky will be separated at the Giro and the Tour, with the former going to France and the latter to Italy, but this does also mean that SD Worx will not be wholly at 100%. All is not over for the other teams of the Women's WorldTour, far from it, even if their adventures in the Basque Country made it seem like it, for the third year in a row.

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 7 March 2024. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

It is an overcast afternoon in the medieval Belgian city of Ghent, and a racket is beginning to stir. Throngs of people have gathered in Kouter Square, usually a tranquil flower market, for the homecoming of their hero. Suddenly, a wooden cart appears. It trundles past the crowds, who turn to stare. On it, two rows of raucous men face each other, each turning their own set of pedals as they slosh their drinks and sing along. It is a beer bike, a staple stag do activity, and the revellers have just spotted someone important. 

They cannot believe their luck. There, in the square, is the new cycling world champion, Lotte Kopecky, greeting the masses on a specially organised fan day. “I was just standing there taking photos with fans,” she remembers. Until, all of a sudden, she was not. Summoned by chants of her name, a slur in unison to the tune of The White Stripes anthem ‘Seven Nation Army’, Kopecky did something none of the men expected: she vaulted over the metal barriers to join them. “It looked funny, so I ran to the bike and I jumped on it,” she laughs. “The guys really liked it. Afterwards, I got a lot of messages from them. They even asked me to come to the wedding. I couldn’t go, but it was a very funny moment.”

It is a side to the world champion that cycling fans might not recognise. On the road and track, the 28-year-old Belgian is a straight-faced assassin, admired for her pedal-thrashing panache that has earned her world titles, three national road race titles, Monument victories and six days in the yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes. And yet, for all the working hard, there is time to play hard, too. 

As she sits opposite Cycling Weekly, video-calling from a training camp in Spain, she emits a demeanour of professionalism, her hair in a ponytail and wearing a coral pink t-shirt. Aware that the 28-year-old has recently launched her own clothing brand, I ask what is behind the ‘LoKo’ concept. “People who know me know I’m sometimes a bit loco. It comes from my name. Lotte, Kopecky – Lo, Ko,” she explains. “I like to do, not extreme, but crazy things. That’s why the name of this brand just really suited me.” 

The beer bike incident would appear to support her claim. Had there not been a video of it, the stag party might have struggled to convince people of their encounter. But there Kopecky is, in high definition on Instagram, serenaded and swigging cola from a plastic cup, dressed in bib-shorts and a rainbow jersey. 

When she won those stripes in Glasgow last summer, the first Belgian woman in 50 years to become road world champion, she knew her life was about to change. She joked to the press that she would need to barricade her doors when she returned home to Flanders. There was a hint of seriousness in it, too. 

“Now, everybody is recognising me,” the SD Worx-Protime rider says. “It’s not that easy to go outside without getting recognised, or without people asking me for a selfie. Even when I’m riding on my bike, people ask me to stop to get a selfie. I’m like, ‘You can ride alongside me and take a photo, but I’m not going to stop for a selfie.’ It’s part of the job. At this moment, my life is so busy that I’m not at home much, so it’s OK.”

It is a phenomena that female cyclists have never really faced previously. When Kopecky was a child, her role models were men, with little coverage of women’s cycling on the television. “There was nothing,” she says bluntly. “The only races I watched were the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, but it was for men. When I was younger, I didn’t have any female examples. It was the time of Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara, and if there was one woman I knew, it was Marianne Vos. She was the only one who got a bit of attention. But that was it, actually.” 

Now, particularly in her native Belgium, Kopecky is a star. Such a star, in fact, that she has been credited with the ‘Kopecky Effect’, inspiring a whole generation to take up cycling. Last spring, it was revealed that the number of girls registering for a race licence in Flanders had quadrupled since 2020, a figure attributed largely to Kopecky, and one that will no doubt have increased after her glory at the World Championships in August. 

Still, for a woman in her 20s, being a role model to so many is a heavy responsibility. “In the beginning, it was not that easy for me,” she explains. “When I started, I was like, ‘I just want to ride my bike and that’s it.’ Now there’s so much more behind it. It’s nice to be an example for those young girls. If, in the future, we can have lots of Belgian girls, or even from other countries, who start riding a bike because of me, because of us, I think it’s only nice. I’m proud to have them watching and to inspire them.” 

As a child herself, Kopecky did “every kind of sport,” she recalls. She skied and played basketball, but the sport she did for the longest time was football, spending several years of her childhood as a striker for FC Schelle, the local team named after the town where she grew up. “I don’t remember that much anymore from my youth,” she says, “but when I hear my parents talking about it, it sounds like I was a pretty wild player. I liked to play with the boys and…” The Belgian karate chops her right hand into her left palm. “I just went full-on in games,” she adds with a smile. 

At nine years old, Kopecky discovered cycling, inspired by her older brother Seppe, one of her first role models in life. “Just by seeing him doing it, I was like, ‘Maybe I also want to try this’,” she says. “I really liked it. Back then, I just wanted to race, from weekend to weekend. In the week, I was not riding my bike. I got to love it more and more. In the end, it looks like it was the right decision.” Seppe Kopecky died suddenly and unexpectedly last March, aged just 29. Only a few days later, Lotte raced and won Nokere Koerse, commenting afterwards that she had “raced with two”. 

As she gained experience, Kopecky’s potential soon shone through. She enrolled as a teenager in the TopSport School in Gent, an institution reserved for Flanders’ most promising young athletes, and a feeder programme for the Olympics. There, lessons were entwined in the timetable with training sessions, each student receiving their own plan. 

It might come as a surprise that now, as a fully fledged professional in the world’s best team, Kopecky takes care of that timetabling herself. She does not have a coach, and since the beginning of 2023, has been constructing all of her own training plans, last season forging her own path to three world titles: one on the road and two on the track. “My normal day looks a bit like everybody’s normal day,” she says, playing down her hard work. “I make my own plans for races. I have the plan in my head and then discuss it with the team, looking at what we can do and what may be better not to do. It means I can make a plan and adjust it more easily based on how I feel at that moment, or that period.”

The independence, she explains, is serving her well. “If some trainings aren’t working out, it’s easier to say, ‘OK, I’m not doing it’, and also the other way around, like, ‘Today I can do a bit more’ or, ‘I have to do a little bit less.’ I don’t need to call my coach and say, ‘This is how I feel. This is what I want. This is how I see it.’ For me, it works, and I think, mentally, I like to have the control.” She pauses. “It’s nice to be able to have control over my own body.”

When planning out her season, Kopecky runs a tight ship. The only slot she had for this interview was first thing on a Saturday morning, between breakfast and training. Still, she makes sure to find time for pleasure among the business. Last month, in the days leading up to the UAE Tour, the Belgian turned to her bucket list and skydived over Dubai. 

“I like to do some adventurous thing as well,” she says, “sports with a lot of adrenaline. I saw it already before I went to the UAE that they had skydiving in Dubai, and I was like, ‘Maybe if we have time, we can go and do it.’ I did it together with my team-mate Barbara Guarischi. I was not scared. I wondered how I would feel when I jumped out the plane, and I smiled with excitement.”

In the days that followed, the Belgian went on to win the overall at the race, claiming a stage atop the mountain of Jebel Hafeet. It was a significant victory, her first on a summit finish, and one that cemented her place as the strongest all-round talent in the peloton. 

Asked for the secret to her versatility, Kopecky takes no time to stop and ponder. “I think it’s all about the power,” she replies. “I mean, I’m not the lightest rider. Compared to the climbers, I have a lot more weight to carry up the climbs. In that way, if I compare myself, I’m going to be surprised, but luckily there’s enough power. I think it’s also because, over the years, compared to before, I’ve been going more and more to Spain. You spend almost the whole winter climbing.” What this all means is that, today, she can sprint with the best, float over the cobbles, and scale climbs faster than the mountain goats. 

Winning, however, did not always come so easily. After claiming her first national road title five years ago, aged 23, she waited over a year for her breakthrough WorldTour victory. Mentions of her name multiplied in the Belgian press at the time as she was billed as the country’s next big hope. “Every week, you’re in the newspaper, or your head is on the TV,” she says. “I used to have more problems with it, maybe before Covid. People had some expectations. I was a good rider, but not the top rider, and they wanted me to win but I was not able to yet.” What made the difference? “Now, I’m really relaxed with these things. I think I’ve proved what kind of rider I am and what I’m capable of. I don’t put this pressure on myself anymore.” 

When everyone around her expects her to succeed, she shrugs her shoulders, and deals back a que será, será. She feels the same way about her next six months in the rainbow jersey. “I really want to try and enjoy it a lot,” she says. “I hope I can win as much as possible, but that will not be the easiest thing to do. After this year, if I never win the rainbow jersey again, I just want to be happy about my year and know that I enjoyed it - hopefully with a few nice victories and some nice finish line photos that I get to keep for the memories.”

It is an unexpectedly relaxed attitude from the world champion. She is, at the same time, devoted to racing her bike, and carefree in her take on life. Loco, as she might put it. How would her friends describe her? “You’re asking me to describe myself,” Kopecky laughs, quickly decoding the question. She then shifts to a more serious tone and obliges. “For me, the most important thing is that everyone feels respected,” she says. “I want to always feel respected. I also want to be a fun friend who they can make memories with. I think I’m an easygoing person. It doesn’t need to be too hard all the time.”

It’s a wonder, really, that for all SD Worx-Protime’s dominance in recent years, the team has never managed to master Paris-Roubaix Femmes. 

The first three editions of the race all ran away from the Dutch super-squad. In 2021, Lidl-Trek’s Lizzie Deignan shocked the field with a long-range solo. The following year, Elisa Longo Borghini did similar, before the breakaway had its day in 2023.

Now, on the eve of the fourth edition, SD Worx-Protime are hoping for "the necessary dose of luck" to reach the top step. 

"The last three years we weren’t so lucky in Paris-Roubaix," said Christine Majerus, the team’s experienced Luxembourger. "I hope the puzzle pieces all fall together for once. Hopefully 2024 will be the year we don’t make a single mistake."

This year, as in the previous two years, Lotte Kopecky will carry the SD Worx-Protime’s hopes. Second in 2022, the world champion spent the last two editions leading the chase behind the winning moves, frantically pedalling, just unable to tag the leaders in time. 

Kopecky and Majerus will be joined by Lorena Wiebes, Barbara Guarischi, Elena Cecchini and Femke Markus, who made the breakaway last year, but crashed with three quarters of a lap to go in the velodrome. "This is going to keep me awake for a long time," Markus said afterwards. 

It was a moment of bad luck. Having entered the finale in third, the Dutchwoman ended up finishing 19th, a victim of the slippery surface.  

This year, Majerus said, the team will try to “let the bike do the work and stay calm”.

"The secret to riding fast over the cobblestones depends largely on the right technique," she said. "It starts before the cobblestones, you have to position yourself well before each sector. In addition, of course, you need good legs. 

"The speed has to stay high and you have to ride as relaxed as possible, keeping the right cadence and looking far ahead. Let the bike do the work and stay calm. Anything you do out of stress or out of an emergency is guaranteed to lead to a crash."

After puncturing last time round, and crashing in 2021, the 37-year-old now hopes to be at the front of the action on Saturday. It’s her final chance for a high placing at Roubaix, with her retirement planned for after the Paris Olympics this August.

"The form is good. The first part of the Classics was super, so I hope I have those legs again," she said. "I hope that as a team we can pull the race our way, and that we still go into the last three or four cobbles sectors with three or four riders, so we can play the game."

After all, only SD Worx-Protime can turn the tide on their own luck. "Hopefully as a team we can add Paris-Roubaix to our list of honours this year," Majerus said. 

Demi Vollering, the reigning Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift champion, is set to leave her current team, SD Worx-Protime, according to a report in GCN. 

The 27-year-old is the top-ranked female cyclist by the UCI, and is out of contract at the end of this season.

Speaking to GCN, SD Worx-Protime manager Danny Stam said an extension is not on the cards. 

"It’s about budget," Stam said. Last month, the team penned a four-year extension with Lotte Kopecky, keeping the world champion in its ranks until 2028. 

"Everyone knows that Lotte has signed until 2028 and we've tried hard to keep the team. But for Demi, I don’t think that it’s an option for us," Stam said. "You need to make a choice, and at one moment things can go away but I think it’s clear that we can’t have two riders from that level in our team."

Asked to confirm whether Vollering will leave the team, Stam said that it was "definitely sure". 

At the start of this year, reports emerged that Vollering had been offered a €1 million contract to join UAE Team ADQ. "It's a lot of money," Stam told GCN last month. "She's one of the best riders at the moment, so of course we want to keep her, but not for €1 million."

In a statement posted on X, SD Worx-Protime team manager Erwin Janssen said he had made the Dutchwoman a "generous offer". 

"[We] indicated that this should be responded to before a certain date," Janssen said. "Vollering's management did not respond to this. Therefore, we assume that Vollering will leave the team at the end of the year." 

It is unknown at this stage what team the 27-year-old will ride for in 2025.

Last July, the Dutchwoman took the biggest victory of her career when she won the Tour de France Femmes, over three minutes ahead of her team-mate Kopecky. "We really make each other stronger," she said of her team. 

Vollering's yellow jersey triumph followed a stellar spring campaign in which she completed an Ardennes treble, winning the Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. 

She has only raced three times this season, and was competing at Dwars door Vlaanderen when reports of her departure broke.

Cycling Weekly has contacted SD-Worx Protime for further details.

Opening Weekend brought some enthralling action, as it always does, to kickstart the Classics season, and it was once again dominated by team Visma-Lease a Bike. 

In a gripping two days of racing, Jan Tratnik was a semi-surprise winner in the men's edition of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. The Slovenian saved the day for the Dutch super team with a late attack to secure the win in the closing stages of the race. 

Tratnik's teammate, Wout van Aert, took the honours at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne on Sunday after outsprinting fellow Belgian Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) to the line. 

Arguably, the biggest result of them all was Marianne Vos' return to winning ways in the women's edition of Omloop. The Dutchwoman secured her 259th career victory on the cobbles, her first win since having surgery on the iliac artery in her left leg last year. 

Here are five things we learned from Opening Weekend before the Classics season continues at Strade Bianche on Saturday. 

Elisa Longo Borghini has the legs for Classics success

The Italian national champion was one of the stand out performers in the women’s edition of Omloop and rightfully managed to secure a spot on the podium. 

As the race reached its finale, it was clear that Longo Borghini had the legs when it mattered and could still look to dictate the way the conclusion would go with some aggressive, attacking riding. Ultimately, it wasn’t to be, as an attack from the Lidl-Trek rider was thwarted by a group containing eventual winner, Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime), who reeled her back in as the finish line approached. 

But the Italian still had enough in the tank to secure third in the final sprint. Based on this impressive start, Longo Borghini could be set to return to the top spot of the podium in a major Classic in the weeks ahead. 

Matteo Jorgenson has added further Classics firepower to Visma-Lease a bike 

If his performance on Saturday is anything to go on, Matteo Jorgenson could be set to become the next Christophe Laporte at Visma-Lease a Bike and continue the team’s run of astute signings.

The American was outstanding for Visma, regularly at the sharp end of the race, and he completely decimated the lead group on the climbs in the latter half of the cobbled Classic, particularly the Wolvenberg. 

At one stage, he even looked like he might solo to victory himself were it not for the high class chasing group breathing down his neck. 

Laporte has had a huge impact since he joined Richard Plugge’s team, winning a Tour de France stage as well as Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen last year. If Jorgenson continues on with the form he displayed on Saturday, he could be in for his best year yet. 

Soudal Quick-Step still some way off Classics-winning form 

Soudal Quick-Step were once a force to be reckoned with in the Belgian Classics, although based on Saturday, the team still appears to be some way off winning form. 

After Jumbo-Visma (now Visma-Lease a Bike) decimated the field to win both races on Opening Weekend last year, a change was very much afoot in the Classics hierarchy. Based on Saturday in particular, Quick-Step seem to still be nowhere near returning to their former dominant selves. 

The best placed rider for the team was Yves Lampaert who came in 21st. Despite Patrick Lefevere’s latest outburst, much of the team’s hopes were placed on the shoulders of Julian Alaphilippe prior to the action getting underway. 

However, Alaphilippe was involved in a crash and didn’t finish the race. 

The team vastly improved on Sunday with newbie Luke Lamperti taking seventh at Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, but will it be down the Remco Evenepoel once again to save the team’s spring at Liège–Bastogne–Liège? 

Tom Pidcock on the right path to winning form  

Tom Pidcock was optimistic after his Opening Weekend performance, and rightly so. 

The British star was in the thick of the action for the majority of the day at Omloop but, in his own words, “ran out of legs” in the final moments. Nevertheless, there were some huge positives to take away from the weekend as Pidcock built for an attempt at defending his Strade Bianche title.

“You can’t be surprised at anything nowadays,” Pidcock said as he reflected on the race. “But when the race split at the start, you kind of hope in your mind that that's it, right there is going to be 25 guys racing the final.

“But then you come to the finish and there are two guys away that you hadn't seen all day. It's mad how it can play out and you don't give up in these races.”

“It was of course a hard day and the wind played a big part,” he added. “The race was open after 30-40 km. We spent the day in the wind. 

“I ran out of legs a little at the finish. I think I'm quite happy in the front and we did a good job as a team at the start of the race and got ourselves in the right position with four in front. We can build on that.”

SD Worx are beatable 

After their incredible dominance in the Classics last year, it was understandable that many envisaged SD Worx-Protime dominating Opening Weekend. 

The strength in depth, in terms of potential race winners, at the Dutch team is formidable and equal to that at Visma-Lease a Bike in the men’s WorldTour.

Last year, Kopecky got the ball rolling for her hugely successful year with victory at Omloop. But this time out, Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) had other ideas. 

No matter how much world champion Lotte Kopecky tried to get away in the closing stages of the action, her rivals were alert to it and managed to bring her back in each time. Expect SD Worx to come out swinging at Strade Bianche on Saturday as they look to get back to winning ways, but it appears that teams are ready to challenge the Dutch squad. Let's hope it continues.

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.”

The festive period is well and truly in the past and the new WorldTour season is already underway. 

Kicking things off once again is the Santos Tour Down Under which is currently taking place in Adelaide, Australia on Friday. With that in mind, all of us at Cycling Weekly have been pulling on our thinking caps and coming up with a list of predictions for the upcoming action. 

Unlike last year’s slightly more audacious predictions, in which our former news editor, Vern Pitt, made the call that Jonas Vingegaard won’t win a race, we've made an effort to rein in our imaginations this time round. 

If you have a particular view on how the 2024 season will pan out, or a prediction you'd like to share with us, feel free to email tom.thewlis@futurenet.com. 

Tadej Pogačar will win the Giro d'Italia - James Shrubsall

The Slovenian star knows exactly what it takes to hit top form in late spring – see Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2021 or last year's Amstel Gold Race for proof.

But he'll have more than the Ardennes Classics on his mind this April, as he gears up for what will be a first tilt at the Giro d'Italia, set to start in Veneria Reale, just outside Turin on May 4.

The Italian Tour is part of a Giro d'Italia-Tour de France double that Tadej Pogačar has lined up for this summer. Should he manage to succeed in winning this highly sought-after pair, he will be the first rider to do so since Marco Pantani in 1998 and become only the eighth rider in history.

Predicting that Pogačar will manage this might be a step too far – it's certainly not impossible but would require so many stars to align that it would feel like little more than pub chat at this stage. But the Giro? I would be surprised not to see Pogačar wearing rosa in Rome.

This far out, the provisional start list for the race is skeletal to say the least. But on current best predictions there is only one rider who can beat Pogačar in a Grand Tour – a certain diminutive Dutchman who, as far as we know, won't be troubling him at the Giro d'Italia.

The UAE Team Emirates rider's biggest rival to be named so far is perhaps Geraint Thomas – second last year by just 14 seconds and who may feel he has unfinished business. Thomas, who will celebrate his 38th birthday on the race's final mountain stage, is unlikely to worry Pogačar though, and the Slovenian has pencilled in a cracking support team including Jay Vine and Rafał Majka, who has six Grand Tour top-10s of his own under his belt.

What's more, this being the Slovenian's debut ride at the bella corsa, he's likely to be super-motivated and confident. Not unbeatable, but not far off.

 SD Worx will be even more dominant - Tom Davidson

There’s an ominous feeling around SD Worx ahead of the new cycling season. It’s like waiting for a dam to burst. The water’s there, it’s building up, and as soon as it finds a crack, it’ll break through and destroy everything in its path. 

That was what happened last year, anyway. The Dutch squad were unstoppable, a torrent sweeping through the calendar, filling out podiums and toppling other riders’ dreams. 

The team managed a whopping 62 victories in 2023, mostly thanks to Demi Vollering, Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes. Now, there’s a feeling they’ll do it all again. 

After all, who will challenge them? Annemiek van Vleuten gave them the best run for their money last year, the Dutchwoman winning two of the major tours in the Vuelta Femenina and the Giro d’Italia Donne. But Van Vleuten has now retired, and I can’t see anyone else on the same level. 

Maybe this will be the year Lidl-Trek’s Gaia Realini makes her name. Or perhaps Juliette Labous will go on a winning spree for dsm-firmenich PostNL. Could Kasia Niewiadoma pip Vollering to the yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift?

For the neutral fan, a break in the dominance would probably be welcome. Don’t bet on it, though. If this season plays out how I expect it to, SD Worx could push the 70 mark for race wins.

Primož Roglič will win the Tour de France - Tom Thewlis

Once he had been left out of last year’s Tour de France squad, it seemed like it would only be a matter of time before Primož Roglič’s residency at Jumbo-Visma came to an end. The Slovenian was never going to sit on the sidelines and show a willingness to play second fiddle to Jonas Vingegaard. 

And why should he? Roglič is undoubtedly one of the best Grand Tour GC riders currently on the WorldTour and deserves the opportunity to have another shot at Tour glory. As is well documented, Roglič came agonisingly close to a maiden Tour win in 2020 before he was beaten in that time trial on the Planche des Belles Filles. 

Now he’s moved on to pastures new with Bora-Hansgrohe, and I think this summer will be when he finally exorcises the ghosts of 2020 and pulls on the yellow jersey in Paris for his first ever Tour win. 

Roglič’s Giro win last year seems to have filled him with an even bigger hunger for Grand Tour dominance. As well as the Giro, the 34-year-old won pretty much every stage race he started last season and is more than ready for another shot at the Tour. 

Considering the talents of his competitors - particularly Remco Evenepoel - some may say that age is against Roglič. However, that thought won’t even enter the Slovenian’s head. 

He is a Swiss army knife of a cyclist: he can time trial with the best, win the toughest of mountain stages and sweep up bonus seconds on seemingly innocuous uphill finishes. With the right selection of teammates behind him, Roglič will be a force to be reckoned with this summer and I believe he could well go all the way for his new team. 

Lizzie Deignan will win one of the Monuments - Michelle Arthurs-Brennan 

Lizzie Deignan didn’t win a race in 2023. Considering she welcomed her son in September 2022, I would suggest that anyone who finds her lack of snap in the year that followed surprising perhaps doesn’t have the greatest understanding of what’s involved in growing a baby, birthing that baby, and going on to be a parent (in her case, of two). 

That’s not to say that some riders can’t return to their best in a short space of time, but a quiet year and a fight back to full fitness is certainly understandable. Family chicken-pox and Covid probably didn’t help, either. 

Whilst Deignan did win the Women’s Tour overall in 2019 (the year after her daughter arrived, in September 2018), her next best result was seventh at Liège–Bastogne–Liège. A year later, in 2020, Deignan won Liège, and Paris-Roubaix the year after that. 

We’ve seen the Lidl-Trek rider return to the top step of the podium, and I believe we’ll see that again, given time. There were flashes of the former World Champion’s previous dominance at the likes of the Glasgow road race; Deignan eventually settled for sixth, but only after riding an attacking race and joining a late breakaway. 

Speaking at a Lidl-Trek training camp, the 35-year-old said: “I just need to win again. Last season was my first season where I didn't have a victory. And I would like to reverse that trend. I know I can. I think a strong winter behind me is all I needed.”

Deignan already has wins at Flanders, Liège and Paris-Roubaix - the three races of the five monuments in cycling which have women’s events. The Yorkshirewoman has won all three in the past, Flanders being the most distant (in 2016), so I’ll stick my neck out and put my bets on her targeting the race at the end of March for her first win of 2024. 

Soudal Quick-Step will have another Classics season to forget - Adam Becket

Since its inception, Soudal Quick-Step, in all its iterations, have dominated the Classics, winning eight of 21 editions of the Tour of Flanders. Out of the 21 times Quick-Step have raced Dwars door Vlaanderen, the team has only finished outside of the top 10 twice.

However, 2023 was the first time since 2013 that the Belgian team did not win any race that could ostensibly be called a Classic, or a semi-Classic, or a cobbled Monument. This trend of underperformance will not change this year, or it is unlikely to, anyway.

The team synonymous with March and April's one-day races is no longer built to challenge at the Classics, that's the truth, it is a Grand Tour machine for Remco Evenepoel, who Patrick Lefevere hopes will be the future of Belgian cycling and the team.

Many of its fans remain wedded to the cobbles of Flanders and northern France, though, as does Lefevere, so it might be another tough season of adjustment for the squad and those on its roadside. 

This isn't to say the likes of Yves Lampaert, or Kasper Asgreen are bad riders, they just haven't looked capable of matching Wout van Aert or Mathieu van der Poel in recent years. The team does not have one of those talents who are almost nailed on to win a Monument, even if they do have one who is capable of winning a Grand Tour.

Wout van Aert will win Paris-Roubaix - Tom Thewlis

If it wasn’t for a last minute puncture in the closing stages of the race, Wout van Aert may well have been able to mount more of a challenge at last year’s Paris-Roubaix, and could have pushed Mathieu van der Poel for the victory in the hallowed velodrome. 

Of course, hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I really believe the race would have been closer last year were it not for that late incident on the cobbletones. 

Van Aert is a former Monument winner, but the Belgian and his Visma-Lease a Bike team have long sought after a potential Roubaix or Tour of Flanders victory. With that in mind, Van Aert’s cyclo-cross schedule this winter was very reduced as he builds form to enable him to hit the ground running at the Spring Classics this year. 

It seems that his coaches are targeting a repeat of the first few weeks of the 2022 road season. Van Aert arrived mentally and physically fresh at Opening Weekend two years ago and that resulted in him soloing to an epic Omloop Het Nieuwsblad victory. 

The Belgian has just one cyclo-cross race left on his programme this winter as this year’s opening weekend draws near. 

"Last year, I found it mentally difficult to focus on the cyclo-cross season and then move on to the spring," said Van Aert previously on team. "[This year] I didn't want to leave anything to chance with the Spring Classics."

For a rider of his talents and physical capabilities, it feels like it's only a matter of time before Van Aert lands one of his most coveted prizes. I think his decision to reduce his cross programme this winter will pay off and he will take home the Roubaix title in April. 

In the end, the final stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was a formality. 

Demi Vollering (SD Worx), the standout winner of Saturday’s seventh stage, went from champion-elect to champion in Pau, placing second in the closing individual time trial, and sealing her yellow jersey by three minutes and three seconds.

Her face at the start of the day painted a picture of confidence. As she warmed up on her turbo trainer, yellow skinsuit hanging around her waist, she breathed calmly, focused and relaxed.

"I felt a bit too relaxed when I woke up," she told the press, including Cycling Weekly, in Pau. "[It was] almost already in the pocket, but of course I needed to still ride the time trial." 

As the race leader, the Dutchwoman was the last rider to tackle the 22.6km course, an out-and-back loop from the city's Place de Verdun. She began the day with an almost two-minute lead, but refused to treat it as a procession. 

"I told myself I had a goal to also do a good time trial here," she said, and under overcast skies, she ended up exceeding her expectations. 

Just 10 seconds separated Vollering's time in Pau from that of the stage winner, her team-mate and European champion Marlen Reusser, who stopped the clock at 29-15, averaging 46.359km/h. 

"I still can't believe it," Vollering said of her overall victory. "I think, in the coming days, I need to have some relaxation with my family, and some calmness also to realise what I've done.

"It's amazing what we did this week. We had a lot of ups, of course there were also some crazy downs, but mostly ups. I think we really showed how strong our team is and also how motivated we are to take the best out of the day and to really fight for stage wins. We really make each other stronger."

Of the eight stages on offer at this year's race, SD Worx won four, stamping their imprint as the WorldTour's presiding squad. 

The stage result on the final day told a story of SD Worx dominance, too. Behind Reusser and Vollering came Lotte Kopecky, 38 seconds down in third place. The Belgian champion's performance meant she jumped from fourth to second in the overall standings, overtaking third by a fraction of a second. 

Being on the podium, Kopecky explained, was a feat she had never imagined. 

"I surprised myself quite a lot," the green jersey winner said with a smile. "Especially yesterday [finishing sixth on the Tourmalet] actually, being one of the better sprinters, and also one of the better climbers, and also a good time trialist. 

"Before this Tour, I was not really aiming for GC, I was not thinking about this." 

Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-Sram), the winner of the polka dot jersey, rounded out the podium, while last year's champion, Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), finished fourth, 3-59 down on Vollering. The 40-year-old came 14th in the time trial, 1-41 off Reusser's pace. 

"Too bad about the last two days. I underperformed," Van Vleuten told the press. "I don't know what's going on, but I certainly wasn't okay the last two days." 

General classification: Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2023

1. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx, in 25-17-35
2. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SD Worx
3. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-Sram, both at 3-03
4. Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned) Movistar, at 3-59
5. Juliette Labous (Fra) dsm-firmenich, at 4-48
6. Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (Zaf) AG Insurance - Soudal Quick-Step, at 5-21
7. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Den) FDJ-Suez, at 9-09
8. Ane Santesteban (Esp) Jayco AlUla, at 9-36
9. Ricarda Bauernfeind (Ger) Canyon-Sram, at 9-56
10. Amanda Spratt (Aus) Lidl-Trek, at 10-14

Stage eight results: Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2023

1. Marlen Reusser (Sui) SD Worx, in 29-15
2. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx, at 10s
3. Lotte Kopecky (Bel) SD Worx, at 38s
4. Grace Brown (Aus) FDJ-Suez, at 40s
5. Riejanne Markus (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, at 50s
6. Juliette Labous (Fra) dsm-firmenich, at 1-17
7. Olivia Baril (Can) UAE Team ADQ, at 1-18
8. Vittoria Guazzini (Ita) FDJ-Suez, at 1-21
9. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-Sram, at 1-23
10. Lucinda Brand (Ned) Lidl-Trek, at 1-30

Demi Vollering attacks. There’s 150m to go, and one body in front of her - a target decked in the yellow and red of Uno-X. She grits her teeth. The road bends left, uphill to the finish in Rodez, and roaring into the air, Vollering goes round the outside. 

As she sits up to celebrate, there’s a realisation. “I crossed the line and I was like, ‘I’m not sure’,” she told Cycling Weekly afterwards. 

The race she thought she had won, stage four of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, had already been claimed by someone else. One minute and 11 seconds earlier, Yara Kastelijn of Fenix Deceuninck had taken her maiden road victory. Vollering took second. 

“I had no clue what was in front of me,” the SD Worx rider explained. “I caught up Anouska Koster [Uno-X], and she was the only one I could see, so I thought I had everybody. I didn’t know [Kastelijn] was still in front.

“I didn’t know if someone from the group was out [front], you know? So I thought I’d celebrate anyway and then we have at least the pictures. If I didn’t win, then we can always delete them. So let’s delete them,” she smiled. 

Vollering was, however, able to take a small victory in Rodez on Wednesday. She distanced her GC rival Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) to the line, and took six bonus seconds, eventually earning an eight-second advantage over her compatriot. 

“It’s really nice, of course, to already gain a little bit of time,” Vollering said. “It was really, really long, and I think that suits Annemiek better than me. It was hard and painful. I’m happy [with] how it went. I hoped I could do a little bit more in the end on the last climb, but I could not really make a difference anymore after such a long race.” 

Stage four marked the longest stage ever in women’s WorldTour history, stretching out over 177 rolling kilometres from the start in Cahors. 

“It was a really strange day,” Vollering said. "And also a hard, hard day. You could feel it in the bunch. It’s different for us, because we don’t always have such long races.” 

When she arrived back at her team bus, Vollering cut a disappointed figure. On the race’s longest day, she had tasted the euphoria of victory, before reality dragged her back to earth. Downhearted, she greeted her border collie, hugged her partner, and clambered onto the rollers for her warm-down. 

“I would have liked to win today,” she told the press, “because it’s a Tour stage, and it’s really special to win a Tour stage. I hope that one will still come.” 

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. 

Over the past few weeks, Lotte Kopecky has had a running joke with her best friend. 

“It started like three or four weeks ago,” she told the press after stage one of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. “We were joking that I would take on this final climb, and then do a solo for 10km."

Every day, Kopecky explained, she and her friend would wake up and send a text to the other’s phone. “We just said, ‘10 kilometres’,” she smiled, “with a yellow heart beside it.”

The joke, of course, came with a heavy dose of seriousness. Not only was there a possibility Kopecky would win, some said it was likely. The first stage suited the Belgian, with its punchy final climb and fast run-in to the line, and the bookmakers had her as the favourite for the first yellow jersey. 

They weren’t wrong. 

On Sunday in Clermont-Ferrand, Kopecky's texts became a reality. She broke loose over the third-category Côte de Durtol, and soloed to victory, having drawn out a 40-second gap on the descent. Taking nothing for granted, she waited until the very last moment to sit up, when she raised her fists in a cross, and brought them together to deliver a thunderous clap.

“Sport is an emotional thing,” the 27-year-old said afterwards. “When you cross the finish line, there’s so much pressure falling off your shoulders, and so much relief. This is the Tour de France, and winning this first stage, wearing yellow tomorrow, and being able to do this in one of the best women’s teams, for me is special.” 

Going into the stage, SD Worx had planned two cards to play. First they’d try with Kopecky over the climb, and if that strategy failed, they’d sprint with Lorena Wiebes. In the end, plan B was never needed. 

“When I saw [the climb] on VeloViewer a few months ago, I thought this first stage was for sprinters,” Kopecky explained. “But then the team director went for a recon of this race, and he texted me, ‘this first stage suits you very well.’ When we did the recon two days ago, I was really happy to see this final climb.” 

Kopecky's victory now sets a different tone for her to last year’s Tour de France Femmes, which grew evermore frustrating with each day's racing. Third on the first stage was followed by three further top 10s, with a win ultimately eluding her. 

“I just had the worst week on the bike,” she said. “But, just because last year didn’t go as I wanted, doesn’t mean this year would be the same. I really did not look back to last year, and I was convinced that my preparation this year had been better. 

“I just had to believe in the team and myself.” 

In Clermont-Ferrand, with the yellow jersey on the line, that belief was there. It had always been there, of course, whether she knew it or not. For in every text she sent to her friend, and every yellow heart that punctuated them, there was a belief that the jersey was destined to be hers. 

What were you doing on the 7 May? Back then, in the distant mists of time, was the last moment that SD Worx competed in a race and didn't win it. Then, it was La Vuelta Femenina, where Annemiek van Vleuten somehow, somehow, won the overall by nine seconds from Demi Vollering.

That was, until Monday afternoon, when, 43 days later, Eleonora Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) won stage three of the Tour de Suisse to bring the winning streak to an end on Monday afternoon. 

That meant 20 races competed in and won by the Dutch team, a frankly ludicrous run of form which saw victories for Lorena Wiebes (3) , Demi Vollering (5), Lotte Kopecky (4), Marlen Reusser (3), Kata Blanka Vas, Lonneke Uneken, Barbara Guarischi and Mischa Bredewold, plus a TTT win.

You run out of superlatives for a team which keeps winning like this, keeps monstering over everyone else. There have been three separate stage races this year where SD Worx has won every stage and the overall, which includes the six-stage Thüringen Ladies Tour. It is ridiculous. Even dominant cycling teams of the past - Jumbo-Visma, Quick-Step, Team Sky - didn't win everything. 

Cycling is not a sport conducive to streaks; there are too many factors at play, too many things that could go wrong or go right, too many riders competing for a single win. Often, teams are competing over different objectives at the same time, making it practically impossible for the same team to keep winning, at different races, in different countries, with different riders.

Take Jumbo-Visma, the best men's cycling team in the world, who at a point in May was competing at the Giro d'Italia, the 4 Jours de Dunkerque, and the Tour of Norway, at the same time of in quick succession. 

It might be slightly different in women's cycling, with less racing in total, and teams more able to pick and choose what they send riders to, but it is far from simple. In order for the 21-win streak to keep going, SD Worx had to win every stage of Itzulia Women and the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas, while Lotte Kopecky won the Veenendaal-Veenendaal Classic. "Just win, Lotte, and our streak will keep going."

Winning streaks are not unheard of in cycling, but they are unusual, reserved for true greats: Marianne Vos won eight races in a row in 2011, while Eddy Merckx managed five victories consecutively in 1972. Earlier this year, Tadej Pogačar managed five in a row, too. 

However, 21 in a row for a team does seem like a first. SD Worx's predecessor team, Boels-Dolmans, managed five in a row in 2018, while Faema might have won four in a row on a few occasions thanks to Merckx in the 1960s, but 21 is next level.

Even the team themselves consider the streak "bizarre". One wonders if the riders got tired of celebrating - probably not.

"If you look at our results, I can really only conclude myself that it is ridiculously good," Danny Stam, the team's sports manager, said before the Tour de Suisse. "We have had a bizarrely good spring. We never expected these performances ourselves."

"I can't exactly pinpoint a reason for this success either. We had a good preparation for the season in Spain, where we again worked a bit harder than previous years. Then we were quickly successful and managed to keep this flow in the team. Everyone drives each other to a higher level this way.

"Of course we are immensely proud of it. However, we also know that this series is going to stop somewhere. Every race you start again at zero."

SD Worx has somehow managed to build a team that can win in almost any situation: across stage races, one-day challenges and in sprints, and it is something that its rivals couldn't seem to stop. The Dutch team has won 35 times this season, 24 times more than FDJ Suez, who has won the second-most of any team. In fact, SD Worx has finished second in 16 races, five more times than FDJ has won. 

In Lorena Wiebes and Lotte Kopecky the team has two of the fastest, if not the two fastest, women in the peloton; in Marlen Reusser they have one of the best time triallists and all-round rouleurs, and in Demi Vollering they have the best climber/puncheur in the world of women's cycling right now. Add in the enviable cast of support riders, from Kata Blanka Vas to Christine Marjerus, and it is hard to beat the juggernaut.

It took a 21-year-old on stage three of the Tour de Suisse to finally derail the train. Gasparrini pounced on Reusser and Vollering's leadout work, powered past Arlenis Sierra (Movistar) to take the win in Ebnat-Kappel, the second of her career. It is hardly back to the drawing board for SD Worx - the team still lead the GC and points competitions - but it is a fresh start. 

The streak being over also seems like good news for those of us who hope for a competitive Tour de France Femmes, just over a month away. Let's see how many wins SD Worx rack up before then.

SD Worx has become so dominant that the team now can concern itself with how it wins, rather than just whether it is victorious or not.

On Sunday, on stage three of Itzulia Women, the Dutch super-team could have decided to try and leave the General Classification as it was going into the final stage: Demi Vollering (SD Worx) in first, with a healthy 56 seconds over her teammate Marlen Reusser in second, and 1-05 over Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), in third.

Vollering was in top form, with her streak of victories at Itzulia such that she seemed almost unbeatable in the Basque Country, despite a strong lineup for the Women's WorldTour race in the north of Spain.

The 26-year-old won every stage of the race and the overall, obviously, in 2022, and was heading to do the same in this year's race, with victories on stage one and two. Vollering has won nine times across 18 opportunities in 2023, so she is in good nick.

And yet, on Sunday, SD Worx decided to race from the front, not wait for other teams to attack, and turned the race upside down - but in doing so, replaced their woman in the lead with another of their riders, Marlen Reusser. Simple.

Vollering and Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), the world champion, were initially away together on the climb to Mendizorrotz, after the former attacked first, but were chased down by Niewiadoma, Reusser and Olivia Baril (UAE Team ADQ) 14km from the finish. Instead of sitting on and waiting for the inevitable sprint, Reusser was given the green light to attack.

The European time trial champion showed the power that led her to win Gent-Wevelgem earlier this year, putting 2-38 into the chasing group behind by the finish, which saw her win overall by 1-50 from Vollering. The latter, inevitably, won the sprint for second, SD Worx's seventh 1-2 of the season, with the general classification results being the eighth.

Other teams would have simply tried to have protected its GC lead, but not SD Worx. The team is so powerful that it can dictate which of its riders wins.

Sunday's tactic was redolent of the method SD Worx used throughout the Classics season, sending one rider up the road in the knowledge that if they were brought back, they would still win the sprint. It proved so effective on the cobbles, so why not on hillier days too?

"I can't believe it and I'm really overwhelmed because when we discussed our team tactics today in the meeting we could just have stayed with one and two as it was," Reusser explained post-race. "We could try to defend it, but we said no, we want to race aggressively and be the ones that force the other teams to act."

"I asked Demi what if this tactic leads to a change in the GC and I win it instead she said that's fine for her and today you saw that she was the strongest and could stay with the attack. Then she waited for me and didn't ride and gave me the chance to put in this attack which we planned.

"That's a real champ and I'm so thankful for her to do that and I'm really grateful that I had good legs. I'm really satisfied with my performance and my climbing. It's so nice that we finish this tour with one and two in that way."

It helps that Reusser and Vollering are great friends, the pair spending time in the Sierra Nevada for a training block ahead of the Tour of Flanders, but this result also proves how SD Worx is operating on a different level from the other teams around it; it has so many options for a race like this. 19 wins in 33 race days this year beggars belief.

It might also prove invaluable to build this sort of camaraderie in a team; for Vollering to allow her record and the overall win to disappear in the aid of Reusser's victory shows how close the bond is at SD Worx. Come bigger goals like the Tour de France Femmes, that kind of camaraderie could be crucial.

For now, the Women's WorldTour moves onto another Spanish stage race, this one the Vuelta a Burgos, and it would take a brave person to bet against SD Worx coming out on top once again. The team is simply too good.

There was a moment, about three quarters of the way up the Mur de Huy on Wednesday's La Flèche Wallonne Féminine, where it looked like Demi Vollering had attacked too early.

The Dutch SD Worx rider, irrepressible so far this Spring, the winner of Strade Bianche, Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Amstel Gold Race, essentially rolled off the front of the bunch - perhaps more ground, considering the incline - and looked like she would simply glide off.

While others behind her gritted their teeth and weaved across the road, Vollering seemed to be on another course altogether. However, with 300m to go, Lianne Lippert (Movistar) arrived on her back wheel, and alarm bells must have started ringing in the SD Worx team car; incidentally, not for Vollering, as she was staring dead-ahead.

Was it too much, to attack right from the bottom of one of the fearsome final climbs in cycling? Was the Dutchwoman overconfident? Was Lippert really that close, or was it classic foreshortening from the camera?

In the end, it turned out it was the perfect attack, as Vollering simply kept to her pace, kept riding her own rhythm, and had enough time to look back, take off her sunglasses and celebrate at the top of the Mur. What looked like heartbreak at 300m to go soon turned to ease 150m later.

Lippert finished second, five seconds behind the winner, with 21-year-old Gaia Realini (Trek-Segafredo) clinching third, ahead of a fading Mavi García (Liv Racing TeqFind).

There was a shake of the head from Vollering, seemingly unable to comprehend what she had achieved, but she is currently the best rider in the world.

"Before the last time I tried to split the group, I just went at my own pace and I couldn’t believe there was a gap," the 26-year-old said in her post-race interview. "I saw it very late and the gap was pretty big and I was really surprised by that so I’m really happy."

Only one female rider ever has completed the Ardennes triple of Amstel, Flèche, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège across one brutal week: Anna van der Breggen. This unique record is helped by there only ever being seven opportunities for the triple to be claimed - the women's Liège only began in 2017 - thanks to the patriarchal nature of professional cycling, but it is still a record, an incredible achievement.

Only one other time has a rider won Amstel and then Flèche, Marta Cavalli (FDJ Suez) last year, so Vollering is already in an elite club, but she has the momentum and the ability to go one further, to make history.

Anna van der Breggen, the history-maker, is now in the SD Worx team car, and undoubtedly helped her protégé to time her attack to perfection on the Mur.

There have been 26 editions of the women's La Flèche Wallonne, and more than a quarter of those were won by Van der Breggen (seven, or 26.9%), so she knows what she is talking about. 

It was Anna van der Breggen's 33rd birthday on Tuesday, and there can hardly be a better birthday present than Vollering following in her wheel-tracks and making history.

What so impressed on Wednesday was the winner's calm on the Mur, keeping to her rhythm in the knowledge that that would bring her the win, perhaps this was done with insider knowledge from Van der Breggen. Despite the lack of explosivity, none of the star riders in the bunch like Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) or Ashleigh Moolman (AG Insurance-Soudal Quick-Step) could match it.

Also, different to all the other one-day races - 12 - that SD Worx has won this Spring, this was all on the individual to pull it off. At the Amstel Gold Race on Sunday, Vollering attacked in the knowledge that Lotte Kopecky was in the group behind, disrupting the chase. This time, the closest SD Worx rider was Niamh Fisher Black, who finished 30th, over a minute behind. Of course, the slow uphill sprint of Flèche is different to any other event, but it is worth noting. Vollering can go it alone.

It is worth taking a look at Vollering's results in their entirety this year. 17th at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (won by her teammate Kopecky), first at Strade Bianche and Dwars door Vlaanderen, second at the Tour of Flanders (won by her teammate Kopecky), second at Brabantse Pijl, first at the Amstel Gold Race and now first at La Flèche Wallonne.

That's six races in a row where the Dutchwoman has not finished lower than second, with four wins. If the Ardennes triple won't be conquered again now, then when will it? It is hard to look past her for Liège on Sunday.

At the beginning of the year Vollering said: "I'm developing a lot, and I feel like I'm getting stronger and stronger every year. I feel like I'm getting better tactically, and that I understand racing more every year. In this team I learn from the best, from Anna, from Chantal [van den Broek-Blaak], from Danny [Stam] and Lars [Boom], it's really helpful to be in such a great team with so much knowledge.

"What I need to work on is how to race. I need to be smart and think, not too much, but I have to race more on feeling, this is the right moment. It has to be something in you."

If Vollering is still improving, then her rivals should be scared. However, it feels like she is already in her golden era, and that something as big as the Ardennes triple is within sight. Just one more race, no pressure. She has won it before, in her breakout 2021 year, so why not? History beckons.

The Amstel Gold Race has thrilled in recent years, with photo finishes and victories coming seemingly out of nowhere - Mathieu van der Poel's stunning win in 2019 comes to mind. 

However, this year, both races went to type, with the two triumphant riders in the men's and women's races more or less the favourites at the beginning of the day. 

Demi Vollering proved that Paris-Roubaix and Brabantse Pijl were the exceptions to service-as-usual, which means an SD Worx win. Likewise, in his first race back since the Tour of Flanders - which he also won - Tadej Pogačar once again reaffirmed the obvious fact that he is the man to beat in every race he takes part in.

There were other conclusions to take from the first of the three Ardennes Classics, ahead of Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège this week. Those who are at the front in one are likely to be up there in the others, so there's a lot to learn. Ben Healy had his breakout performance in the men's Amstel Gold, while Tom Pidcock looked on his way back to his best on Sunday - but that best might still not be good enough to beat Pogačar.

In the women's race, SD Worx still look unbeatable, while Annemiek van Vleuten continues to look a bit off the pace, on terrain where she has been unbeatable before.

Tadej Pogačar takes Mathieu van der Poel's advice, attacks in the right place and wins. Next.

Tadej Pogačar has Mathieu van der Poel to thank for a bit of his win at the men’s Amstel Gold Race on Sunday. The UAE Team Emirates rider attacked on the Keutenberg after his Dutch rival reached out and told him to attack there.

Van der Poel did not race Amstel Gold after his victory at Paris-Roubaix at the weekend, but instead took the time to give Pogačar some advice. I'm sure his Alpecin-Deceuninck team, who raced on Sunday, are delighted that he's helping out the opposition.

“Mathieu van der Poel told me I should go on the Keutenberg. It is the hardest climb, and it suits me the most,” he said on Sunday. “He told me that three days ago, he sent me a message. I will thank him for the advice.”

In truth, Pogačar probably would have won anyway, such is his dominance in 2023. It was his 11th win of the season so far, which has taken in the Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior, the Ruta del Sol and Paris-Nice, and the Tour of Flanders. 

The biggest disappointments being fourth at Milan-San Remo and third at the E3 Saxo Classic is the sign of a pretty outrageous season.

The Slovenian will line up at La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday, a race which he has never finished above ninth, in a rare low for him. On this form, one could see him clinching that on the Muur de Huy before winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège for a second time next Sunday.

No one can figure out how to stop SD Worx

Same thing, different day. Once Demi Vollering and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) got into the select leading group at the women's Amstel Gold Race on Sunday, it seemed like it was all over for the other riders. 

The Dutch team used their tried and tested method once again, with Vollering attacking and Kopecky hanging back. This meant that the group hesitated in its chase, knowing all too well that should they bring Vollering back, Kopecky would sprint to victory; in fact, the Belgian sprinted to second place, after her teammate had already soloed to the win.

Essentially, despite the same thing happening at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Strade Bianche, Gent-Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen, and at the Tour of Flanders, SD Worx's rivals have not figured out how to fight back against it.

People ask "why don't they chase", but clearly the motivation goes out of the group once one SD Worx rider has gone clear and another is still in the chase. It must feel futile.

Perhaps this is just what happens when one team has the best riders in the world, but other squads should be able to use their strength in depth as well. 

If Movistar could get Lianne Lippert, Floortje Mackaij, Annemiek van Vleuten and Emma Norsgaard fit and on form, something could change. Likewise Trek -Segafredo with Elisa Longo Borghini, Shirin van Anrooij, Lizzie Deignan and Elisa Balsamo, but sadly these teams have not had the ability to race full-strength so far in 2023.

Ben Healy, breakout star of the Spring?

Now, the label of breakout star of the year might be a bit strong, but EF Education-EasyPost's Ben Healy is having a golden year so far. A first professional win at Coppi e Bartali was followed by a second at the GP Industria & Artigianato last month, so the Irishman was clearly already good. However, it is his form in the hillier Classics that have really caught the eye.

Second at Brabantse Pijl last week was a huge moment for the man from the West Midlands, but his second place at the Amstel Gold Race really laid a marker down for how good the 22-year-old could be. In his under-23 career he won stages at key development races like the Baby Giro and the Tour de l'Avenir, but in his second year at WorldTour level, he's really breaking through.

If he keeps this up, there's no reason that we won't see Healy winning a WorldTour race this year; perhaps not at the Ardennes this week, thanks to the form of Pogačar, but at stage of the Giro d'Italia is not too fanciful. 

Annemiek van Vleuten's prioritisation of the Grand Tours is becoming clear

By this time last year, Annemiek van Vleuten had won three races, with two more second places, and two more fourth places. The year before, she had similarly won two races. In 2023, however, the Dutchwoman has a best-finish of third, on a stage of Valenciana, and was yet again away from the front of the race at Amstel Gold on Sunday.

The explanation, given by the Movistar rider as much as anyone else, is that she has targeted her training more at mountains ahead of her final tilt at the Giro d'Italia Donne and the Tour de France Femmes this summer. This is why she does not have the same explosivity as in previous years, as she is better in longer efforts and not on punchier climbs.

The issue is, at this stage of the season, the women's peloton has not really tackled anything like a mountain, so one has to take Van Vleuten's method as gospel, and assume it will pay off later this year. Of course, in all likelihood, she will blow everyone away on the Col du Tourmalet in July, but it is still odd to see her behind the front of a race.

Just watch the 40-year-old win Liège-Bastogne-Liège on Sunday now, I guess, a race she has won twice before.

Tom Pidcock is back, but can he compete with the best of the best?

Tom Pidcock finished third at Amstel, in his best result since his stunning victory at Strade Bianche at the beginning of March, a race which feels like a lifetime ago now. The 23-year-old is clearly getting back to his best after he struggled with injuries after Tirreno-Adriatico, but is his best good enough to win against the best?

Tadej Pogačar, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel have set the benchmark this Spring, and it feels like Pidcock might be a rung below this; his victories to date have not really come against this hardest of opposition. Only Van der Poel was present at Strade Bianche, and seemed below his best, while at Brabantse Pijl last year, only Van Aert was there, and beaten on the line, while his Tour de France stage came from the breakaway.

As a result, it seems a fair question to ask as to whether the man from Leeds can beat a Pogačar or a Van der Poel when they are all on their best day. The Amstel Gold Race seemed to answer the Pogačar question, but then Pidcock is on his way back. We might know more by the end of Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

The centrepiece event of the Belgian Spring Classics takes place this weekend, and some of the biggest names in the men’s and women’s WorldTour are set to do battle once more. Taking place on Sunday, the 107th edition of the men’s Tour of Flanders is widely anticipated to be a scrap between the trio who largely stole the show at the recent E3 Saxo Classic.

'De Ronde' is undoubtedly one of the biggest one-day races on the planet, with swarms of cycling fans gathering on the race's iconic cobbled climbs, including the Oude Kwaremont, in their thousands to watch the riders take on the brutal course in Belgium. The men’s race is due to start in Brugge for the first time since 2016, before finishing on the outskirts of Oudenaarde 273 kilometres later.

First established in 2004, the women’s race starts and finishes in Oudenaarde and includes the same hellish climbs as the men’s edition. Lotte Kopecky captured the victory while wearing the Belgian national champions jersey last year, and the thousands of local fans lining the course will be screaming her name once more on Sunday.

Here’s Cycling Weekly’s five men and five women to watch when the racing gets going. 

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck)

With the way that Mathieu van der Poel has begun his spring campaign, it’s hard to bet against him completing the Flanders hat-trick on Sunday.

After his scintillating Milan-San Remo victory, Van der Poel lit up the E3 Saxo Classic in his final racing appearance before the Ronde and Roubaix. The flying Dutchman was as aggressive as always, rampaging up the Taaienberg in the first of a series of brutal attacks that drew Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogačar out into the open.

While Van Aert ended up snatching the win from his grasp, Van der Poel made him work for it, every second of the way, and will do exactly the same again when the Ronde gets underway on Sunday.

Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers)

After winning Strade Bianche in early March, Pidcock suffered slight misfortune when a crash at Tirreno-Adriatico left him with minor concussion.

The Yorkshireman was forced to sit out Milan-San Remo, although made his return to racing with a respectable 11th place at Dwars door Vlaanderen. Before his injury, Pidcock would have been widely expected to contend for the San Remo title, and on his day, is more than capable of matching the trio of Van Aert, Pogačar and Van der Poel.

Now that Pidcock has managed to get another race day under his belt ahead of his third appearance in Flanders on Sunday, the Ineos man will be full of optimism on his chances of competing with his aforementioned rivals. 

Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) 

Coming into the Ronde, Van Aert will be bursting with confidence after already getting one over on Van der Poel and Pogačar last week.

The Jumbo-Visma man could follow every single move from Van der Poel at E3, and was even able to put his long standing rival on the ropes on several occasions during the race. After losing out to the Dutchman in final sprints on previous occasions, beating his rival in last week's final dash to the line will have provided Van Aert with a timely feather in his cap ahead of the Flanders cobbles.

However, Van Aert’s biggest weapon will be his reliable, and fiercely loyal right hand man Christophe Laporte. Last weekend, Van Aert and Laporte memorably dominated Gent-Wevelgem before the Belgian handed his teammate the victory. As a result, Laporte will undoubtedly be right by his friend's side on Sunday, backing him all the way in the scrap for victory in the Monument. 

Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) 

Since he was outfoxed by Van der Poel in the closing stages of last year’s Ronde, Pogačar will be determined not to let lightning strike twice on Sunday.

The Slovenian was in the thick of the action at the E3 Classic, and was largely able to match each acceleration from Van der Poel and Van Aert, even making his own big attack on the Oude Kwaremont as he looked to stretch things.

Similarly to Jumbo-Visma, Pogačar’s team is full of solid Classics riders including the likes of Tim Wellens. Pogačar is also undoubtedly the best climber of the three favourites.

If he brings his climbing legs to the cobbles once again on Sunday, and the likes of Wellens are able to stick with him until the final phase of racing, then the two-time Tour de France winner may well add yet another Monument to his palmarès this weekend. 

Christophe Laporte (Jumbo-Visma)

After winning two-major Classics in a matter of days, Christophe Laporte firmly deserves his place in the top five overall contenders for Flanders.

Taking victory at both Gent-Wevelgem and Dwars door Vlaanderen in such quick succession is no mean feat, proving what many already knew; Laporte is yet another fearsome weapon in the Jumbo-Visma arsenal of talent.

Moving to the Dutch team from Cofidis has provided the Frenchman with an opportunity to really raise his level. He took an excellent stage victory at last summer’s Tour de France, and is a rider equally as formidable as the likes of Wout van Aert. As was well documented, the Frenchman was largely handed victory in Gent-Wevelgem by his Belgian teammate, although that shouldn’t take away from his own capabilities whatsoever.

After his Dwars victory, Laporte reiterated that he would be firmly in the service of Van Aert on Sunday. However, should things go wrong for Van Aert in some way, expect Laporte to be given the nod to push on and challenge at the sharp end of the action.

Demi Vollering (SD Worx) 

Coming into the Tour of Flanders, the strength in depth at SD Worx is somewhat terrifying. Vollering is one of four riders at the Dutch team potentially capable of winning, and showed she’s in strong form with victory at Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, the team’s strength was no more evident than when Vollering and Kopecky both found themselves together going into the last 500 metres of Strade Bianche. The duo sprinted for the line, with Vollering eventually coming out on top. The Dutchwoman has won two of the three one-day races she’s started this season, and on paper is her team’s most in-form rider.

Her best result in Flanders was fifth in 2021, but she certainly has the strength and power to do better this time around. The only barrier to Vollering winning Flanders could well come from within her own ranks.

Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma) 

Earlier this year, Marianne Vos underwent major pelvic artery surgery to correct a long-standing injury. However, that didn’t stop Vos on her return to racing action earlier this week.

In only her second race of the road season at Dwars door Vlaanderen, Vos was one of a select few who could compete with the SD Worx duo of Marlen Reusser and Vollering. When Vollering launched her final attack, Vos was the only rider who could match her, although her compatriot ultimately rode her off her wheel.

Nevertheless, third place was a highly respectable result for Vos and an impressive sign of her fitness given her recent surgery and recovery. The Jumbo-Visma rider won the Tour of Flanders back in 2013, although she then didn’t return until five years later.

With that said, and her form she showed this week, it feels like you certainly can’t count Vos out on Sunday.  

Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-Suez)

Earlier this week, Uttrup Ludwig showed she’s gradually building form ahead of the Ronde, putting in a big attack on the cobbles as part of the front group at Dwars door Vlaanderen.

Ultimately, it would come to nothing, but proved that the FDJ Suez rider definitely has the legs to make a difference. In early March, the Danish puncheur took a solid third place behind the SD Worx duo of Vollering and Kopecky. She’s yet to win in 2023, but comes into the Tour of Flanders with a solid team behind her.

Uttrup Ludwig has regularly been in contention in Flanders, finishing sixth last year. Her best placed finish was third in 2019. With the power of Grace Brown in support on Sunday, she could well hit the podium again this time around.

Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar)

It seems inevitable that whatever race Annemiek van Vleuten signs on for, she’s then instantly considered a favourite for the win. Although with her absolute domination last year, it really is no surprise.

Van Vleuten has won the Tour of Flanders on two previous occasions in 2011 and 2021, and has achieved four podium finishes in between her two victories. The Movistar rider had a difficult start to her current campaign, with an untimely mechanical ruling her out of contention. She made amends for her bad luck on Opening Weekend, going on to take fourth at Strade Bianche.

Since that race, Van Vleuten has been out of the spotlight, training at altitude ahead of her wider goals later in the year. However, despite her absence from other races this spring her rivals certainly won't underestimate her.

As she proved in 2022, Van Vleuten on her day is undoubtedly the best female bike racer in the world. If she turns up in her best shape on Sunday, it could well be game over the moment some of the trickier climbs begin.
 

Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx)

The reigning Tour of Flanders female champion returns for another stab at victory. If Kopecky is able to muster up a race-winning performance on Sunday, she will become only the second woman to ever win consecutive editions. Unsurprisingly, the only rider to win two editions in a row is Movistar’s Van Vleuten.

Kopecky is in lightning form, and has already won on the cobbles in 2023 at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. As well as her win on Opening Weekend, she won Nokere Koerse and took second behind teammate Demi Vollering at Strade Bianche.

The SD Worx rider has the power and tenacity to launch a move and make it stick on climbs like the Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg. Kopecky also possesses a powerful enough final turn of speed to win a reduced bunch sprint back in Oudenaarde. With that in mind, she’s our out-and-out favourite for the win.  
 

In just her third outing this year, Marlen Reusser (SD Worx) soloed through the wind and rain to claim a maiden Classics victory at Gent-Wevelgem.

The Swiss rider drifted off the front with 40km to go and drew on her time-trialling prowess to stay clear of the peloton. 

By the time she crested the final climb, Reusser’s advantage stood at over a minute, which she then doubled on the flat roads into Wevelgem. A wrong turn in the final 5km brought a moment of panic, but ultimately didn't dent the SD Worx rider's resounding victory. 

"I'm so tired, I think I'm not yet here with my head," she said after the race. 

Asked about her race-winning move, Reusser said: "I didn't attack. I thought maybe we could make a little bit of a selection, or a small group, and there was just nobody on my wheel. I thought, 'Let's try a bit!'

"With 1km to go, I was slowly getting more sure, but even at 400m, 300m, I was thinking maybe somebody will come, but I was thinking it was going to work out." 

The attritional conditions in West Flanders made for a crash-marred race, in which Reusser herself took a tumble early on. 

Megan Jastrab (Team DSM) sprinted to second from the peloton - a first Classics podium for the 21-year-old American - while Canyon-Sram's Maike van der Duin was awarded third place in a photo finish.

How it happened

Heading north out of Ypres, the peloton travelled towards the coastline on a tour of the First World War battlefields. The opening 100km of racing were set up to be relatively featureless, before the route dealt a string of seven challenging bergs. 

For the first half of the race, the pack kept any hopeful attackers on a tight leash. Pien Limpens (Parkhotel Valkenburg) and Malin Eriksen (Duolar-Chevalmeire) were both allowed a small gap, but were swiftly swallowed up by the bunch. 

No attacks came over the opening two climbs, before a crash on the cobbles forced Brugge-De Panne winner Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM) into a bike change. The former British road champion then fell victim to a pile-up with 44km to go, when a rider hit the ridge in the middle of the road and slid out through the peloton. 

On the first of two ascents of the Kemmelberg, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-Sram) whittled down the peloton, before both were caught by the bunch. 

With 40km remaining, Reusser then slipped off the front on the Baneberg, the penultimate climb, and drew out a one-minute gap into the foot of the Kemmelberg. Just a handful of kilometres later, the SD Worx rider had managed to stretch her advantage to over two minutes, tucking her elbows in to remain as aerodynamic as possible.  

A chasing group finally set sail with 15km remaining, but their efforts came too late. Reusser’s team-mate Christine Majerus (SD Worx) cleverly interfered, rolling and easing up to slow their advances. Into the final 5km, Reusser held so much of a gap, that even a brief wrong turn proved inconsequential. 

The victory marked the Swiss rider's first since claiming stage four of last year's Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and proved another tactical masterclass from SD Worx. The Dutch team have enjoyed a commanding start to the 2023 season, also winning Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Strade Bianche and the Ronde van Drenthe, all with different riders.

"If you know Marlen, you know she's capable of doing this," Kopecky told reporters after the race. Perhaps the peloton didn't know Reusser as well as they should have. 

Results

Gent-Wevelgem 2023 (162.5km)

1. Marlen Reusser (Sui) SD Worx, in 4-16-47
2. Megan Jastrab (USA) Team DSM
3. Maike van der Duin (Ned) Canyon-Sram
4. Karlijn Swinkels (Ned) Jumbo-Visma
5. Christina Schweinberger (Aut) Fenix-Deceuninck
6. Marta Bastianelli (Ita) UAE Team ADQ
7. Elinor Barker (GBr) Uno-X
8. Clara Copponi (Fra) FDJ Suez
9. Anna Henderson (GBr) Jumbo-Visma
10. Shari Bossuyt (Bel) Canyon-Sram, all at 2-42

In the maelstrom that followed Demi Vollering and Lotte Kopecky's internecine sprint at Strade Bianche on Saturday, it was easy to lose sight of SD Worx's dominance once again.

As Vollering won - just - ahead of her teammate, the discourse centred around the possibility of rifts within the team; it is not often that two teammates lock horns against each other, after all.

However, in all that intrigued, it was easy to miss that this was another SD Worx one-two, a week after Kopecky had won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad ahead of Lorena Wiebes. It means that in every WorldTour one-day race they have taken part in this year, they have finished one-two.

The third one-day event they have raced this season, incidentally, was Omloop van het Hageland, won by Wiebes. They look almost unbeatable.

This is not particularly surprising, as the super-team has been the number one ranked outfit on the Women’s WorldTour for four of the last five years. The Classics are its bread and butter, with three of the last five Omloops, the three last Strade Bianches, and three of the last five Tours of Flanders being won by the team.

What must be terrifying for the team's rivals is the idea that it is getting stronger, and that so many options are now on the table. 

This year, with Wiebes on the team, there is a whole new dimension to the squad. The best sprinter in the women's peloton being on SD Worx means that her presence in a chasing group disrupts everything, as other teams will be hesitant to bring back an attack, knowing the Dutchwoman would likely win the final sprint.

There was concern that Wiebes and Kopecky might be competing for the same sprints, but at present it looks like more of a help than a hindrance.

Combine the trio of Vollering, Kopecky and Wiebes with other options like Marlen Reusser, Christine Majerus and Elena Cecchini, and on paper it looks solid. The problem for other teams is that on the road it looks solid, too.

It helps SD Worx that the woman who would normally be best placed to challenge them, Annemiek van Vleuten, seems off-colour at the moment, finishing her first block of racing without a win, which does seem astonishing to those of us accustomed to the world champion's domination.

“At the moment we were at the top, Demi Vollering placed an attack and I hoped that someone from my team could join us, but unfortunately that didn't work and I couldn't answer that attack anymore, because I had just made an attack myself," Van Vleuten wrote on her website post Strade Bianche.

"She went at a very good time and I just couldn't go. Then you know it's going to be very difficult, especially when Kopecky and Vollering find each other."

However, Movistar are not so reliant on the Dutchwoman anymore, with the addition of Liane Lippert and Floortje Mackaij from Team DSM, looking like a shrewd bit of business, although they are yet to click. Emma Norsgaard's broken collarbone from Strade hampers the Spanish team, but there is promise there.

There are other contenders for the throne. Trek-Segafredo are full of winners and experienced riders, always fielding a line-up of several options, from Elisas Balsamo to Longo Borghini, via Amanda Spratt. They might not have quite fired in a Classic yet, but the potential is there; the Ronde van Drenthe and the Trofeo Alfredo Binda might provide the perfect launch pad for their one-day season.

FDJ Suez are also a team with promise, with Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig taking her best ever Strade Bianche finish on Saturday, and Grace Brown waiting in the wings, ready for her moment to spring off the front. Likewise, Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team ADQ have the potential, even if they haven't delivered yet.

The problem for all of these other squads, though, is the continuing smooth running of SD Worx, a team which seems to have an answer for every situation. Kopecky and Vollering's slight falling out at Strade Bianche might have provided a bump in the road, but surely the winning machine will keep rolling on.

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.”

The concept of a difficult second album might be a trope, but it is a useful one. When a band produces a much adored first record, following that up with a second incredibly hyped product is tricky, something that many artists have failed to do, from The Strokes to the Stone Roses. The pressure, the expectation is there to perform, to continue an inexorable rise. It seems almost human nature to expect more, continual improvement, that things can only get better.

In cycling, second season syndrome is an all too common event, with riders who have had breakout years struggling to back that; a series of blistering Classics races or a stand out Grand Tour one year does not necessarily guarantee future success, a career for the ages.

Demi Vollering beat the trope in 2022, successfully navigating her second season with SD Worx, the second where big things were expected of her. Wins at Itzulia Basque Country, Brabantse Pijl and a stage of the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas were paired with an impressive ride at the inaugural Tour de France Femmes, the nearest challenger to the seemingly unbeatable Annemiek van Vleuten, and the mountains’ jersey to boot.

Having got through year two, the Dutchwoman is ready to keep improving, and 2023 could be the year that she goes from the next big thing to the biggest thing now. At 26, she has time on her side, and she clearly has the talent, but Vollering also stresses that she is ready.

Speaking ahead of the SD Worx team launch at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp on Tuesday, the woman from South Holland said she still has many things to work on, but that she is better than ever.

“I'm developing a lot, and I feel like I'm getting stronger and stronger every year,” Vollering says. “I feel like I'm getting better tactically, and that I understand racing more every year. In this team I learn from the best, from Anna, from Chantal, from Danny and Lars, it's really helpful to be in such a great team with so much knowledge.

“What I need to work on is how to race. I need to be smart and think, not too much, but I have to race more on feeling, this is the right moment. It has to be something in you. I also want to work on my engine, and that's only something you get through training hours. That's also something I can still grow in. I can invest a lot in my sprint, in uphill, there are so many parts I can still grow in, to make me a complete rider.”

There is an obstacle in Vollering's way that bears mentioning, however: Annemiek van Vleuten. 

The 40-year-old won the Tour de France Femmes, the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta and the Giro d'Italia Donne in 2022, and the World Championship road race too. She is not just Vollering's biggest rival, but the Leviathan that towers over all of women's road racing. She firmly beat Vollering, 14 years her junior, last year, and is still the woman to beat.

Van Vleuten is known for her intense training methods, bashing out lengthy rides across the season, never seeming to stop.

Asked if she finds this intimidating, Vollering says: "Sometimes it goes into my head, like do I need to train as much as she does."

"But I'm so much younger, and I'm quite new in cycling also," she continues. "If I start to train as much as her, I've skipped a few years. That's my strength, that I can be really good with less training hours, because my body needs less. She needs to train so much more, because she's older and she has so many years of racing already. 

"Every year she [Van Vleuten] needs to give her body a little bit extra training. For me, if I do a little bit more every year, then it's good every year. I need to pay attention that I don't train too much, as I don't want to go over my limit. You always stretch for the edges, so you're trying to go and deep and hard as possible, but you've got to make sure not to go over the limit."

Despite not making sure she doesn't go over her limit, Vollering is convinced that she can challenge the world champion.

"If I look at my own training, I know I grow so much every year, and at the Tour de France I set new records, because I was my best self there," she explains. "I really believe that I am good, and also I'm getting better, and I'm getting better faster than she does at the moment. 

"Of course she's older, so it's more difficult for her to gain more. I really believe it's possible to beat her, but I try more to focus on my own race, and get everything out of myself, and then I hope I'm strong enough to beat her."

To that end, Vollering ended her off-season earlier than ever this year, something she thinks might bear fruit later this year.

"This year I was very early on my bike, we went to a training camp in California in November, and after that, I stayed a bit on my road bike, training again," she says. "Normally, I only really start in December. So this year I was way earlier than normal, but I feel good with it, and I'm really motivated. It's not hard for me to sit on the bike for a lot of time."

The Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent has lain dormant for 11 years, undergoing renovation so it is better fit for the future, showing off some of the finest works of art from the low countries.

It's a fitting place for the presentation of SD Worx, the best women's team in the WorldTour, one with probably the three best riders from the low countries (Vollering, Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes) that aren't called Annemiek van Vleuten. 

After 2022 was her first year as the inarguable leader of the team, Vollering is prepared more than ever to lead the squad across races, with the help of Kopecky and Wiebes.

"Last year was different for me, because the year before I had Anna [van der Breggen] in the team," she says. "Everyone looked at Anna, and now it's already different, because they start to look at me now. I think I managed to deal with it pretty well, but for this coming season I know how to deal with it, it's not new anymore, so that's really nice to think about. Now I won't lose any energy through that."

She is still only 26, only in her third year at WorldTour level, and so thinks she still has a long way to go. SD Worx seems like the perfect place to grow.

"I don't feel new, but because it's only my third year here, I can still improve so many things," Vollering says. "I'm still learning, and that's good. I'm already at a really good level but there's still a really big gap, so many things to improve. If I see someone like Christine [Majerus], she's now in her 10th year at the team, and I can learn so much from her. It's really interesting for me to see this happening. 

"Every year you get older and wiser, I hope at least, which makes a big difference. Last year I was doubting a bit maybe, and I already feel a lot more secure in the team."

Vollering aims to start her season at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad at the end of February, before riding the Ardennes Classics, a block in Spain, and then ultimately the Tour de France Femmes and then the World Championships.

Until then, she will be training away, strong with the belief that she is still getting better, edging closer to being the pre-eminent Dutch racer in a crowded field.

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."

Quantifying a rider's impact on their team comes down to several factors. Did they pick up some victories themselves? Were they constantly on the attack in a Grand Tour like the Tour de France getting TV time for the sponsors? Or maybe they picked up victory in a monument. 

These were all questions that we asked ourselves when looking back on the campaign just gone. 

So many riders made a difference. 

Some achieved huge victories at the first time of asking, others went above and beyond and helped their new teammates to do the same. Others also finally achieved their stage race potential that they had been promising for so long. 

Here are our top nine signings that made an impact in the men's and women's WorldTour in 2022. 

GRACE BROWN

Aussie Grace Brown has had a stunning year with new team FDJ-Suez-Futuroscope after spending two years with her native Mitchelton-Scott squad. 

The 30-year-old’s success was all year long, and started with her taking the honours in the women’s time trial at the Australian National Championships, as well as finishing second in the road race. After that, Brown achieved seventh at the Tour of Flanders and then finished second at Liège–Bastogne–Liège in April. 

Her scintillating form continued as she finished second overall to Elisa Longo Borghini at the Women’s Tour before winning gold in the women’s time trial at the Commonwealth Games. 

Brown then took a stage win at the Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta in August, before finishing second in the time trial at the World Championships in her native Australia. 

Some season indeed. 

JAI HINDLEY

Australian Jai Hindley may seem like an obvious choice, although after winning the Giro d’Italia in his debut season with Bora-Hansgrohe you simply have to include him. 

Hindley finished second at the rearranged Giro in 2020 by literally seconds to Ineos Grenadiers’ Tao Geohagen Hart, and was then forced to withdraw from the 2021 edition on stage 13. Clearly feeling he had a score to settle at the Italian Grand Tour, Hindley returned in the colours of his new German team Bora-Hansgrohe with a vengeance. 

Coming into the Giro, the Aussie had finished fifth at Tirreno-Adriatico. Once the Giro was underway, his sparkling form was then clear for all to see when he outsprinted all of the other favourites to take an impressive stage win on the iconic Blockhaus mountain. 

After being teed up by teammate Lennard Kämna, Hindley then snatched the Maglia Rosa, or pink jersey, from the shoulders of Richard Carapaz with a daring late attack on the Marmolada pass on the penultimate stage to ensure he’d lift the Giro trophy in Verona the following day.

CHRISTOPHE LAPORTE 

After consistently flying under the radar at Cofidis, Frenchman Christophe Laporte really took next level after signing for Jumbo-Visma. 

Laporte was instrumental in Jumbo-Visma’s dominance at Paris-Nice, crossing the line first in the team's spectacular 1-2-3 on the opening stage. He then ensured that team leaders Wout van Aert and Primož Roglič were kept out of trouble for the rest of the week, with the latter taking the overall win. He then set up his teammate Van Aert for victory at the E3 Saxo Bank Classic, before finishing in second place again at Gent-Wevelgem. 

The former Cofidis man went on to play a huge part in his team's sensational Tour de France victory from Jonas Vingegaard, helping to keep the team's leader safe through the flatter stages as well as occasionally being present in the mountains. 

Laporte was rewarded by being given his own chance to shine on stage 19, capping a superb three weeks for Jumbo as he spoiled the party for the sprinters, taking the stage 19 victory in Cahors. The Frenchman then won a silver medal in the road race at the World Championships in September. 

Marlen Reusser

SD Worx know how to conduct a shrewd bit of business, and in signing Marlen Reusser they got one of the pre-eminent rouleurs of the women's peloton. Despite only being on the Women's WorldTour for a year, the Swiss rider was hot property, and played a crucial role for the Dutch super team throughout the year. 

As well as being a top ally for her starrier teammates, Reusser won one stage four of the inaugural Tour de France Femmes, one of only two riders that won a stage who weren't Dutch. The fact she did it in such a storming way over the gravel sectors, finishing the day off with a 23.1km solo attack shows how valuable she was and is to her team.

Reusser went on to win the time trial at the European Championships and then help her team to mixed relay gold at the World Championships. One feels there's more to come from the Swiss time trial specialist.

MARC SOLER

Marc Soler enjoyed a brilliant debut season with UAE Team Emirates, in which he played a significant role in keeping Tadej Pogačar in contention at the Tour de France. 

Many questioned Soler’s move from Movistar to his new team, although the Spaniard vindicated his transfer from his old stomping ground with a memorable stage win in UAE colours at the Vuelta a España. 

Furthermore, Soler was consistently on the attack throughout the entire three weeks, and went close to stage victories on other occasions. Ultimately he was rewarded for his efforts with the prize for the most combative rider. 

Soler’s climbing brilliance also helped to ensure a third overall for his young fellow Spanish teammate, Juan Ayuso. 

LOTTE KOPECKY

27-year-old Lotte Kopecky had an incredible year since making the switch from Liv Racing to SD Worx. 

Last year was special for Kopecky, as she took victories in both the female road race and time trial at the Belgian National Championships as well as Le Samyn. She also came second at the women's edition of Gent-Wevelgem. 

However, moving to SD Worx saw Kopecky well and truly take her performances to the next level. This year the Belgian retained her title as Belgian time trial champion, before she then took a stunning win at the Tour of Flanders, something which cemented her position as a home favourite.

Prior to that Kopecky, had already won the female edition of Strade Bianche and the rest of the spring saw her finish second to Eliso Longo Borghini at Paris Roubaix. 

Later in the year, Kopecky won an outstanding silver medal in the road race at the World Championships in Australia. She will be one to watch once again next spring when the Classics come back around. 

TIESJ BENOOT

Tiesj Benoot was part of the new signing double-act at Jumbo-Visma, playing an equally as starring role as his fellow new signing Laporte in their new team's success this campaign. 

Bringing in Benoot along with Laporte was a shrewd bit of business by the Jumbo top brass, and the 28-year-old delivered. 

The former Strade Bianche winner finished second at Dwars door Vlaanderen in the Spring, before finishing third at the Amstel Gold race. Not quite the coveted classics wins that he may have hoped for, but solid results nonetheless. 

Later on in the Spring, the all-rounder played a huge role in ensuring that Wout van Aert took the win at the E3 Saxo Bank Classic, but it was the Tour de France where he really shone. 

On the final climb of stage four before the run into Calais, both Benoot and Laporte moved to the front of the peloton and put in a stinging two-up attack that launched teammate Van Aert to a stunning stage victory in the yellow jersey. 

ELISA BALSAMO

Trek-Segafredo’s Elisa Balsamo had yet another fantastic year on both the road and track.

The 24-year-old Italian joined her fellow countrywoman, Elisa Longo Borghini, at Trek this year and didn’t look back. On the road Balsamo took the victory in the women’s Italian national championships. She was also on fire throughout the spring, winning the female edition of Gent-Wevelgem, a race she had finished fourth at the year before.

As well as that, Balsamo also took two stage wins at the Giro Donne and finished eighth in the Amstel Gold Race.

On the track Balsamo was part of the victorious Italian team pursuit squad at the Track World Championships. 

MAGNUS SHEFFIELD

Young American Magnus Sheffield was riding for Rally Cycling in 2021 but was offered a dream move to Ineos Grenadiers for 2022.

A big step up, but one which the 20-year-old American certainly relished. In his debut season with Ineos, Sheffield won Brabantse Pijl at the first time of asking, and was consistently in the thick of the action during some of the early spring classics. 

As well as his big win in Belgium, Sheffield also took a resounding victory on stage three of the Vuelta a Andalucia and finished a highly respectable second in the men’s time trial at the US national championships.

The Ineos man will certainly be one to watch in 2023.

SD Worx rider Chantal van den Broek-Blaak tested positive for a banned diuretic during the World University Championships in 2008. However, the positive test result was reportedly lost which meant that the Dutchwoman was never sanctioned for it. 

According to a report by Dutch newspaper AD, the Dutch rider returned a positive test for Furosmide, a drug used to treat fluid build-up due to heart, liver and kidney problems, after finishing second amongst an all Dutch top five at the event in Nijmegen 14 years ago. She was never sanctioned or banned for the test result. 

Furosemide is prohibited both in and out of competition by the World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA], and was then too.

Listed as a potential masking agent, meaning that it could be used to hide the presence of other drugs in the body, a potential positive test for the substance now would carry a four-year ban from competition. It can also be used to lose weight. Back in 2008 it carried a regular two-year ban-barring an approved therapeutic use exemption [TUE]. 

What became of the positive test is unknown, although the statute of limitations for any sanctions has now passed meaning that Van den Broek-Blaak cannot now be punished if sufficient evidence was produced. 

According to AD, the status and whereabouts of her test appears to now be a mystery, with neither the UCI or International University Sports Federation [FISU] having any record of the positive test in their organisational archives. 

However, despite no records of the result being found, organiser of the World University Championships Henk Kuiper allegedly told AD that the Dutchwoman would lose the silver medal she achieved that year. 

"My conclusion is that we were right to hand it over to FISU in 2008 and it's extraordinary that only the result of the relevant competition would be deleted," Vincent Egbers, the chair of the Dutch Anti-Doping Authority, told the newspaper.

"It's not easy to check whether the UCI or Dutch Cycling Union (KNWU) were informed at the time. It was certainly not the custom at the time.

"The procedure has now been amended and stricter rules now apply – the association and international federation are now informed by us and we follow positive cases closely."

At the time Van den Broek-Blaak was racing for the now-defunct AA Drink team and told AD that she did not want to discuss a case that happened 14 years ago. 

"I don't want to discuss a case that happened 14 years ago which had nothing to do with doping. I want to emphasise again that I have never used doping during my career, and that I can look at myself in the mirror," she said.

She added that after allegedly explaining her circumstances to authorities at the time, they decided not to sanction her. 

Meanwhile van den Broek-Blaak’s current team SD Worx told Cyclingnews that they were “never aware” of the incident from 2008. 

"Team SD Worx has talked with its cyclist Chantal van den Broek-Blaak about the incident concerning a positive test on the drug Furosemide in 2008. This incident happened seven years before she started riding for our team. The team was never aware of this incident,” the team said. 

"Chantal van den Broek-Blaak has stated to the team that this case has nothing to do with doping. She explained her story to the parties and authorities involved at the time. They subsequently decided not to suspend her. Furthermore, the rider emphasised to the team that she has never used doping throughout her career.

"Within the team, there is an absolute zero tolerance towards the use of doping and banned substances. There have never been any cases of doping within the team since the founding of the team."

Tomorrow morning on BBC One, it's the clash of the Antipodes/North Africa as the irresistible force of Tunisia meet the unmovable object of Australia, in a clash that's gonna go down in history as one of the many football matches that are happening this weekend. Meanwhile, there are old scores to be settled at the Al Janoub Stadium, scores like 1-0 and 2-2 that have happened in previous years.

This might be almost a complete ripoff of a Mitchell and Webb sketch from ages ago, but it is useful to show the overwhelming nature of a World Cup that is overtaking seemingly everything else right now, even cycling. Ridiculous. 

If you want to be distracted from such delights as the Netherlands vs Ecuador, or indeed Poland vs Saudi Arabia, games that will obviously be special, then Tweets of the Week is here to remind you that cycling exists.

Of course, it's the off season for road cycling, and nothing really seems to be happening apart from endless Mark Cavendish or Nairo Quintana rumours. Even the doping scandals are a bit dull. However, here are some choice social media cuts for you to enjoy. And remember, cyclo-cross and track cycling are exciting, even if they don't seem like it sometimes. Try something new!

Or watch the football, I'm not your boss.

1. Fabian Cancellara has a spare PlayStation 5 that he wants to sell to you, or something. I dunno, I haven't won that many Monuments, but I would probably just take it back to the shop. According to his Instagram, his Twitter was hacked. If I were a hacker, I would probably employ a better scam

2. If you had been waiting to get into cyclo-cross, maybe watch this video of Tom Pidcock battling through the field last weekend to almost claim victory. It really is like Mario or something

3. Or if cyclo-cross isn't your thing, maybe you should try track cycling? At the Six Days of Ghent, there's even stripping involved, for some reason

4. There are some road names that are not particularly worthy, but it does seem to make sense for Annemiek van Vleuten to have her own bike path. Who wants to go?

5. Iljo Keisse was apparently crowned Emperor of Ghent last weekend, although he does look more like someone who has just been to Burger King

6. Onto the World Cup. Geraint Thomas's podcast recording with Aaron Ramsey does not have appeared to help the Wales team, maybe they need the Ineos rider in there somewhere

7. The World Cup in Qatar has helpfully shown that everything in cycling is not that bad, after all...

8. Lotto Soudal got into the World Cup spirit, including, confusingly, Caleb Ewan. Mate, Australia are in this competition too, you know that, right?

9. Tom Dumoulin has retired from cycling and has gone full gap year, heading to Nepal to find himself. Let's hope he comes back with a new perspective on life

10. SD Worx went to California to train, and visit Specialized, and it just seems like they had the best time ever? I'm jealous

11. I don't think ice hockey is big in the Netherlands, but here are some of the top female riders in the world, mostly Dutch, watching it anyway

12. And finally, Wout van Aert appears to be targeting the Michael Bublé market with this album

A number of Specialized bikes belonging to SD Worx have been stolen, the Dutch team has announced. 

In an appeal posted on Twitter, the team wrote: “Team SD Worx is the victim of a brutal burglary. 

“Please be on the lookout for our TT-bikes, road-bikes and Roubaix-bikes, which has been stolen.”

It is unknown at this moment what the value of the stolen bikes is or where they were taken from. 

When approached for further details, a spokesperson from SD Worx said a police investigation has been opened and the team will not provide any information while it is ongoing.

“Due to the police investigation, we can currently not provide any further details,” the SD Worx spokesperson told Cycling Weekly. “The police did ask us to release photos of the stolen bikes. Once someone sees them being offered, the alarm could then be raised. In the past, they have already been able to solve bicycle thefts that way.” 

The team released four images of bikes, but did not clarify how many have been stolen. 

This is not the first time professional athletes have had their bikes taken. At last year’s Track World Championships, the Italian team pursuit squad had their golden bikes, worth €30,000 each, stolen from their hotel car park in Lille. 

The golden Pinarellos were part of a 22-bike haul that was recovered in Romania days later. 20 people were arrested as part of a police operation that included drugs raids on properties in the east of the country. 

On Tuesday, Team SD Worx flew to San Francisco, California for an off-season training camp. 

The team finished top of the UCI rankings in 2022, thanks to Lotte Kopecky’s victories at Strade Bianche and the Tour of Flanders, as well as Demi Vollering’s impressive second place at the Tour de France Femmes.  

Both Kopecky and Vollering also finished in the top five-ranked riders in the world, behind Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo). Wiebes will join the Dutch squad in 2023, having signed a three-year contract in August. 

Amy Pieters is now able to walk without help, ten months on from the serious training crash which left her in a lengthy coma.

In an update published on her website on Tuesday morning, it was revealed that she is now able to take steps unaided, and has also cycled on a side-by-side tandem.

However, the statement also revealed that there have been struggles, such as an epileptic seizure, and that while she can say lone words occasionally, Pieters can still not talk.

The update says: "With a little help, she gets up from her chair and takes her own steps. She walks for short moments when supported. This is what we like to see... We must have patience and hope. We are convinced that Amy will show us some very beautiful things."

The Dutch rider crashed after a collision during a national track team training ride on December 23 in Calpe, Spain. She lost consciousness following the fall, and was taken via air ambulance to a hospital in Alicante. 

She underwent surgery to relieve pressure on her brain, before being placed in an induced coma, which was later extended. Doctors then transferred Pieters to a hospital in the Netherlands in January, where she remained under supervision for months.

During that time, she went through neurological rehabilitation treatment. During her road career she won the Tour of Flanders twice, four stages of the Women's Tour, and the European road race, among 17 victories.

Earlier this year, a fundraising campaign was launched to support Pieters. The program, called "Amy Pieters: Champion of hearts", was set up "to offer Amy as many opportunities as possible to get the most out of herself".

People are still encouraged to donate: "Treatments that Amy can undergo, both in the Netherlands and abroad, are not all reimbursed. Modifications and tools are very expensive. Yet, with your help, we want to offer Amy as many opportunities as possible to get the most out of herself."

The latest statement reads: "Amy has taken her first steps! Amy has been in therapy for a while at the Daan Theeuwes Centerin Woerden, the Netherlands. Various exercises and training sessions are given that Amy participates in. Amy has already been able to cycle along on a side-by-side tandem.

"Lately, it’s been a little more difficult to motivate Amy with physical exercises. Talking is not yet possible, which makes it difficult to explain herself. Not being able to explain or express herself is sometimes a bit difficult for her and also for us. Fortunately, she can be motivated by playing a game. We take it for granted that she chooses her own moment. And that moment comes because suddenly she is standing!

"With a little help, she gets up from her chair and takes her own steps. She walks for short moments when supported. This is what we like to see.

"Amy sets the pace. There are days when she doesn’t want to show this again, and then there comes another day when she wants to stand, starts walking, and immediately makes a serious effort.

"What she shows then is the conviction that Amy will be able to walk again! Amy’s tiny steps are already turning into real steps. What a progression!

"We now hear more and more soft sounds from her. Then we’re glad to hear from her. Sometimes we suddenly hear a small word clearly escape from her mouth. She does not repeat this yet, but it’s so nice and hopeful to hear her familiar voice in this spontaneously uttered word.

"However, there are also moments of panic. Everything seems to be going a little better and then suddenly we are again confronted with the facts. Amy had a epileptic seizure. Ambulance at the door and panic everywhere. The last time Amy had a epileptic seizure, she had a massive relapse. Probably by acting well and quickly and letting her sleep for a long time, Amy has no further serious consequences, apart from a considerable fatigue. Thank god.

"We must have patience and hope. We are convinced that Amy will show us some very beautiful things.

"We can’t thank the people often enough who help Amy. This also applies to her fellow rehabilitators, who continue to motivate each other positively. This strengthens everyone. But also thanks to the volunteers, therapists, doctors, friends, acquaintances, family and everyone who gives Amy a warm heart."

Donations can be made at AmyPieters.nl.

Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio won the mountain stage at the Tour of Romandie on Saturday, bagging the first WorldTour victory of her career.

In what was a surprise win, the 36-year-old South African out-classed Annemiek van Vleuten on the climb to the Thyon 2000 ski resort at the end of the Swiss race’s second stage.

The two women had been alone for the final 3.5km of the 104.5km stage which began in Sion, in the valley below the finish resort. Riding on her 40th birthday, Van Vleuten attacked repeatedly in characteristic style, but though the Movistar rider dropped everyone else, she could not shake Moolman-Pasio.

“I just had the focus that I’m not going to let the wheel go,” she told the post race press conference. “I’ve had a lot of bad luck this year and was looking for the opportunity to see where I stand, and as we went on and on and on I thought I had good legs.”

The moment she made the conclusive attack was redolent of a similar move during stage three of the Tour de France Femmes aves Zwift. There, with Van Vleuten clearly suffering on the hilly run into Epernay, the South African looked across into her rival’s eyes, saw weakness and attacked. On Saturday in Switzerland, as Van Vleuten realised her stinging moves were not enough to distance Moolman-Pasio the latter looked and saw the same thing.

“I did and it was really quite satisfying. Usually when she gets out of the saddle she just drops everyone, but this time she was out of her saddle and all over the bike, and I just stayed in the saddle riding next to her, I kept breathing down her neck, like saying ‘I’m right here, this isn’t that hard you know,’ and that was super satisfying. 

“Then at that one moment when she actually sat down and it was like ‘huh!’ I could feel ‘now I’ve really annoyed her and she’s got nothing left,’ and that was the moment.

That moment came with 2.5 of the 17.3km climb remaining, and over the ensuing minutes Moolman-Pasio managed to put 26 seconds seconds into the Dutchwoman, time bonuses meaning she will begin the third and final stage with an overall advantage of 30 seconds.

Not only was the victory one of personal fortitude and race craft, it was a triumph of strength in small numbers. SDWorx arrived at the season’s final WorldTour race with just four as opposed to the normal six riders. However, that quartet were among the the best climbers in the sport and set up the win with aplomb.

With a two woman breakaway up the road, the pressure came on the day’s second classified climb at Suen, 57km into the 104.5km stage. With the break caught and the bunch whittled down to 20, three women attacked, including Moolman-Pasio’s Swiss team mate Marlen Reusser.

“She really set things up because she put in a great attack before the last climb and that put the pressure on other teams to chase,” she explained. “Of course Annemiek had a team mate with Marlen, but she dropped back.”

While Moolman-Pasio is one of the sports preeminent climbers and has an enviable palmarès, Saturday was her first top tier victory, either WorldTour or World Cup. Early in her long career there were insufficient races that really suited her, and as mountains have become more prevalent she has been forced into the shadow of others. 

She has often played second fiddle to Van Vleuten, notably finishing a close second to the Dutch rider on Monte Zoncolan in the 2018 Giro Rosa. Then at last year’s Giro she finally won a mountain top finish, though the race had been relegated to ProSeries that year.

“This is my 13th season and finally at the end of the 2022 I get my first WorldTour victory,” she said with equal hints of bitterness, relief and joy.

At 147.6km, Sunday’s final stage between Fribourg and Geneva might be the race’s longest but it does not provide too many opportunities for anyone to overhaul Moolman-Pasio’s general classification lead.

“Of course we are very motivated to keep the leader’s jersey and to win the tour overall, it’s only one more day we are a very strong team, unfortunately a very small team, but already my team mates demonstrated how strong they are and I’m very happy to have them on my team tomorrow to help me win the jersey.”

If GC victory should come it will be a second WorldTour win in two days. You wait 13 year then two come along at once. 

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."

The roar that greeted Lotte Kopecky's victory at the Tour of Flanders felt momentous. Women's cycling in Belgium is not small, obviously it still has a voice in the bike-mad country, but it certainly does not have the same heft of the powerhouse in the Netherlands to the north. Beyond Kopecky and Julie De Wilde, who finished second at Dwars door Vlaanderen, there are not stocks of talent.

It was probably a louder cheer than the one Mathieu van der Poel received for winning his second Ronde, and it certainly felt like it meant more. Kopecky, in the Belgian tricolor, stormed to victory in front of the woman widely touted as the best cyclist in the world, Annemiek van Vleuten. This could be the catalyst for an age of growth in women's cycling in the country.

It was the culmination of a dream that has been formed for a long time, although it was only made concrete when she finished fifth in the same race aged 21 in 2017.

"As a small girl I didn't know what I was capable of," Kopecky told the media post-victory. "It was only in 2017 when I came fifth in the Tour of Flanders that I thought that I could one day win this race. It has been quite a long time in my head already."

Not only post-victory, but after endless podium shenanigans, multiple interviews on Belgian TV in multiple locations. The rider from Rumst in the province of Antwerp must only just be realising how she is now one of the stars of Belgian sport.

"In Belgium it is the biggest race there is," Kopecky said. "For a Belgian to win it in the jersey is something really special. It was a big goal in the beginning of the season, and it's always nice when a plan comes together."

It was not her first big success of the season, that came at Strade Bianche last month, where she also bested Van Vleuten. On Sunday, the 26-year old proved once again that SD Worx were right to sign her, and that she is one of the biggest talents in the world right now.

"SD Worx has a big role in my victories," Kopecky explained. "Before I was alone in the final a lot of times. It's really hard to compete against such a strong team with many riders in the front of the race. Now they are my teammates, and I can work together with them."

In her one season with Liv Racing, the Belgian did win seven races, and was widely touted as the coming thing when she was at Lotto-Soudal, but it is the move to the Dutch super team that has elevated her to the next step.

Speaking ahead of the season, Kopecky had said: "I want to win as many races as possible." Now she is.

She also realises that her win is bigger than just her, and it might help the next generation of Belgian cyclists.

"After Strade I got got contacted by a lot of young girls," Kopecky said. "But maybe after this win I hope that young girls can dream of winning this race or even just riding it. I hope this will get a lot of young riders on their bikes."

The fact this is the second time she has beaten Van Vleuten in the final of a big race this season is not lost on Kopecky: "It's really nice to beat Annemiek, but I also have a lot of respect for her. On the climbs, she is the better one, she's the one to follow. It's really good for me and for my confidence."

While bigger things and more success await the Belgian, for now she just wants to drink in the victory and then move on to her future goals.

"I think I want to enjoy this, then afterwards see what's next on the program," she said.

On Sunday's evidence, there might be a lot more enjoyment to come.

It is probably too early to say what the best transfer of the year was, the racing has not even started yet for the women's peloton. Yet Lotte Kopecky's move to SD Worx has the hallmark of being the best piece of business.

The Belgian champion admits herself that she does not enjoy moving teams, despite this being her third team in three years. With a three-year contract in her jersey pocket, she thinks she can show herself "100%" in her new kit.

Kopecky might not have won too many top races in her career so far, only two Women's WorldTour events, but is one of the coming forces in women's cycling. She was fourth at the Olympic road race last year, and won eight races, four for her squad Liv Racing. It won only eight races during 2021.

With her move to SD Worx, she will not be the sole leader at a team for the first time, something she sees as a positive.

Speaking to the media at her team's launch, she said that she didn't think she would have to change her mindset to fit in, "cos in the end I want to win as many races as possible".

"I think that for me, there was always a kind of pressure that I would finish it off," Kopecky explained. "I was there a lot in the in the final of races, but to finish off the race was quite hard for me, because I didn't always have the team around me. With this team, you know that you will not be there alone in the final, and that they can help you. But that you also have to help them. 

"I think the strength of this team is that they want each other to win the race, I think that's necessary in order for you to win races yourself. It's like don't be selfish. Yeah, I wish them the best of luck to win the race, then I'm sure that this will come for myself as well."

The "big difference" that the Belgian puncheur will have this year is a "very strong team" around her, she argued.

"I'm not the only person who can win the race. I think that's a very big difference. I dream of winning the Tour of Flanders. But it's not like sure that I will win it this year. I want to win it once in my career. 

"Big towards Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix this year. The only thing I can hope for is that everything falls in its place, and I'm there when I have to be."

Her best result at Flanders was third in 2020, where she finished behind her new teammates Amy Pieters and Chantal van den Broek-Blaak. She suggested that her illustrious teammates would now be working on her behalf.

Asked about the fact this would be her third year with a different team, Kopecky said that "it's not easy".

"I don't like it, to switch teams, honestly. I stayed five years with Lotto, because I really felt good in that team, [there was] a lot of confidence from the team, a lot of opportunities to develop myself."

She explained that she was happy to be at SD Worx, because so many riders stay there for much of their career, and are succesful for a long period. Anna van der Breggen was there for five years, this is Van den Broek-Blaak's eighth year with the team, and has signed for three more, Christine Majerus has been there since 2014.

"I think if you see all the riders, or most of the riders, they don't leave the team anymore. They stay here until the end of their careers. So it must be really good here. The atmosphere is good.

"That really convinced me to sign for three years, because if I want to do good here, then I have to be completely myself and be able to show my strengths, but also my weaknesses. When you're in a team for at least three years, then it's easier to show yourself 100%."

Demi Vollering, one of SD Worx's other stars, who will be with the team until at least 2024, said that herself and Kopecky were similar riders, and that the team can use this. Kopecky agreed.

"I think that's somewhere an advantage that we we are quite similar," she said. "And that I'm not the only fast rider within the team. So it's not that when we're in the final that everybody immediately will think that I'm the sprinter, because Demi is also fast.

"I mean, we can do other things, we can play within the team, and I think that's a very big advantage."

The strengths of the team go beyond the riders, with Van der Breggen joining as a directeur sportif for this year. The team have been at the top of the sport for many years now, and Kopecky knows she now has good support to make it work.

"It will not be the team on the bike only," she said. "I think also with Danny [Stam] in the car, with Anna in the car, with Lars [Boom], that we also have a really good team behind the team. They are all very smart riders and very smart sport directors."

For a Flandrienne, it is a bit of an adjustment at the team: "because they are Dutch, you know, they are very direct". However, Kopecky seems at home, and ready to win big races and help her competitive team too. She might be the woman to beat in the classics.

For another rider, filling the gargantuan gap left by the retirement of Anna van der Breggen at SD Worx would be a big ask. Not so for Demi Vollering.

Filling the shoes of Van der Breggen, twice world champion, four-time Giro d'Italia Donne winner, seems to be natural for the Dutchwoman. This year, she is aiming to be the first winner of the Tour de France Femmes.

Asked how she was dealing with filling the void left by her former teammate, the 25-year old said that she did not feel too much pressure, and saw comparisons between her and the seven-time Flèche Wallonne winner as a "big compliment".

"I don't feel so much pressure," Vollering told the media at SD-Worx's press day on Wednesday. "I see this a big compliment that people see me as the new Anna. But on the other hand, I think I'm a different person and do things differently on my way. 

"I really want to become like her of course, because she's a great person. She always was a great rider. So if I can be a little bit like her then it will be really nice, but I don't feel much pressure."

2022 is a big year for the women's peloton. The inaugural Tour de France Femmes will be the first time the current bunch will be challenging for a yellow jersey, save for veterans such as Marianne Vos who raced the Grande Boucle Féminine Internationale before it ceased to be following the 2009 edition. 

Vollering was clear that she was aiming for the top of the general classification, that it is something she really wants.

It will demand a step up from the Dutch rider, who has only won one stage race before, the 2021's Women's Tour, which featured nothing like the parcours she will face in the east of France in July.

However, Vollering thinks she is ready to tackle it. Having moved to Switzerland in the off-season, she lives close to the mountains which will feature in the final two stages, especially La Planche des Belles Filles.

"I think we are all super excited for the Tour," she explained. "I already really like the last two stages. It's really hard, I think, really brutal, but I'm looking forward to the last two, already a lot... It is only 50km from our home in Switzerland to La Planche des Belles Filles so I know that area a bit.

"I really like hard races and those last two stages are really really hard. And I like climbing a lot. I think I can do great there. I showed it already in Spain and also in the Giro that I can manage pretty good on the longer climbs. 

"So if I train this year a little bit more for that, then I hope that I can be even better also on the longer climbs. It's also still a little bit new for me because we don't have many races with such long uphills, but I always like it."

2021 was Vollering's first year at WorldTour level, and she slotted in comfortably, winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège and La Course; if she has continued to improve, then it is not too much of a stretch to see her pulling on the yellow jersey.

The competition will be fierce at the race, with riders including Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope) all having their eyes on their first maillot jaune. Van Vleuten in particular will be the marked woman, with her multiple WorldTour stage race wins and all-round talent.

Asked how she was aiming to tackle her competitiors, Vollering laughed “it is still a secret, of course". She continued: "But we have a really strong team and that is an advantage. In the end, it’s just … we need to ride as fast as we can. I hope that I can be a little bit stronger than Annemiek. I don’t know, we still need to find out how we will do that. I’m looking forward to the battles.”

The first Tour Femmes is more than just an opportunity to win for the Dutchwoman, however. She explained that it is really important for the future of the sport.

"I'm really looking forward to that race because I think it's it's special," Vollering said. "The Tour is important for women's cycling... I think we can inspire a lot of women cyclists by showing us in the Tour and showing really nice races. I think it's really important that there is a Tour again. 

"For the next generation, it's important that we get more riders into the women's peloton. So I think it's really good that we have a Tour, with such media [attention] on it."

Asked what it would mean for her to pull on the famous jersey, she explained: "If I win the yellow jersey, I would really like to inspire young girls to step on a bike and ride or race, go outside, for me, that is important to motivate and inspire people to go outside and enjoy nature, ride their bikes. 

"Eventually, I hope that more young girls step into bike racing. I hope I can do this by winning the yellow jersey, to inspire a lot of people, and that I can show that cycling is a beautiful sport. That, for me, is important."

Vollering is the perfect ambassador for the sport, an excellent cyclist who is at home on all terrain and who is willing to grow. SD Worx seems like a great home for her, and she has just signed a three-year contract extension with the Dutch team, which they hope will cement their position at the top of women's cycling.

Alongside her, the team's roster includes such stars as Lotte Kopecky, Chantal van den Broek-Blaak, and Ashleigh Moolman Pasio. This is where SD-Worx's strength comes from, Vollering said.

"It's always so cool from our team, that everybody can win," she explained. "It doesn't matter who from the team it is, the only thing that matters is that it is our team that wins. I think you'll see that."

Kopecky joined from Liv Racing for this year, and Vollering thinks that they can find a good balance when racing together, especially in the classics, which will be her first target this year, especially those in the Ardennes.

"I think we will find a natural and a good balance," she said. "I think we are maybe a little bit the same type of rider. So I think we can have a lot of advantages from this. If I'm out in a race and Lotte can say 'no Demi is out, so I do nothing'. And I can say in the front, 'I also do nothing because Lotte is behind me.'"