This weekend sees both the men's and women's road races at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Starting and finishing in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower at the Trocadero, both men's and women's courses head south-west out of the city to take on a demanding series of hills, before heading back for the bright lights of the city of love.
The men's and women's races, held on Saturday and Sunday respectively, will see much smaller fields than many competitors will be used to in the WorldTour, with just 95 women lining up on Sunday.
The teams are small too, with a maximum four riders as opposed to seven in Grand Tours such as the Tour de France Femmes. This means the race is going to that much harder to control, even for ultra-strong nations such as the Netherlands and Belgium, who will be fielding multiple current and former world champions between them.
The fact that there are no race radios will only add to the lack of predictability, and played a huge part in the result at Tokyo, won solo by Austria's Anna Kiesenhofer – she was followed in by Annemiek van Vleuten (Netherlands), who celebrated as she crossed the line, not knowing Kiesenhofer had already won.
Van Vleuten is now retired, but Kiesenhofer is back to defend her title at Paris. She is likely to meet a strong challenge from Belgium's Lotte Kopecky and Demi Vollering of the Netherlands.
A strong Great Britain team features Anna Henderson, who has already won time trial silver, plus 2012 road race silver medallist Lizzie Deignan and fast-finishing all-rounder Pfeiffer Georgi.
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Medal favourite Lotte Kopecky of Belgium
(Image credit: Getty Images / Luc Claessen)
Paris Olympic Games 2024 women's road race start list
Belgium
VANPACHTENBEKE Margot
VAN DE VELDE Julie
GHEKIERE Justine
KOPECKY Lotte
Netherlands
WIEBES Lorena
VAN DIJK Ellen
VOLLERING Demi
VOS Marianne
Italy
PERSICO Silvia
BALSAMO Elisa
CECCHINI Elena
LONGO BORGHINI Elisa
Switzerland
ZANETTI Linda
RÜEGG Noemi
CHABBEY Elise
GreatBritain
MORRIS Anna
HENDERSON Anna
GEORGI Pfeiffer
DEIGNAN Elizabeth
Poland
LACH Marta
NIEWIADOMA Katarzyna
SKALNIAK-SÓJKA Agnieszka
Australia
BROWN Grace
ROSEMAN-GANNON Ruby
HANSON Lauretta
France
LABOUS Juliette
CORDON-RAGOT Audrey
BERTEAU Victoire
After cutting his teeth on local and national newspapers, James began at Cycling Weekly as a sub-editor in 2000 when the current office was literally all fields.
Eventually becoming chief sub-editor, in 2016 he switched to the job of full-time writer, and covers news, racing and features.
A lifelong cyclist and cycling fan, James's racing days (and most of his fitness) are now behind him. But he still rides regularly, both on the road and on the gravelly stuff.
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