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As spring takes maintain throughout Europe, the ladies’s WorldTour strikes into the height of the Spring Classics, and behind Paris-Roubaix Femmes the Tour of Flanders represents the head of the season.
As traditional, the race will deal with us to ascents of the famed Koppenberg, Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg over the race’s 163km route.
Final 12 months, Lotte Kopecky made historical past as the primary Belgian back-to-back winner of the Tour of Flanders in a dominant show, however that actually does not make the race a foregone conclusion.
The sector of this 12 months’s twenty first version has a hanging energy in depth, and so listed here are Cyclingnews’ key favourites within the girls’s race.
Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the Spring Classics- together with reporting, breaking information and evaluation from the Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders and extra. Discover out extra.
SD Worx arrives on the Tour of Flanders with a dream workforce that features World Champion and two-time defending champion Lotte Kopecky and Tour de France winner Demi Vollering. The pair completed first and second in Oudenaarde final 12 months.
Kopecky, additionally Belgium’s double nationwide champion, may be very a lot the centrepiece of the cobbled Traditional, the place crowds will undoubtedly line the steep hellingen, cobblestone sectors and end line straightaway simply to look at her compete within the nation’s most prized one-day race.
Again-to-back wins at Strade Bianche and Nokere Koerse, together with a pair of second locations at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Trofeo Alfredo Binda, have confirmed that Kopecky is on monitor to reaching her peak kind on the proper time forward of her targetted Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
Vollering is way more of a wildcard this 12 months, having solely raced at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (sixth) and Strade Bianche (third), however she arrives contemporary off of an altitude coaching camp and able to compete at Dwars door Vlaanderen, Tour of Flanders adopted by the Ardennes Classics, of which she gained all three final 12 months.
Collectively, Kopecky and Vollering kind a tough-to-beat duo. The workforce additionally consists of 2020 Tour of Flanders winner Chantal van den Broek-Blaak and European Champion Mischa Bredewold. With a workforce this highly effective, the Tour of Flanders is SD Worx’s race to lose.
Marianne Vos’ glowing profession palmares, Spring Classics expertise, and up to date profitable dash at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the place she beat Lotte Kopecky in Ninvoe, make her one of many favourites for the Tour of Flanders victory.
The multiple-time cross-discipline World Champion has gained many races throughout her profession; actually, there are only a few races that she hasn’t gained. Her final victory on the Tour of Flanders was again in 2013 when she beat Ellen van Dijk, Emma Johansson, and Elisa Longo Borghini in a breakaway dash in Oudenaarde.
Vos can be a significant participant throughout the cobbled Classics, and we are able to anticipate that her purpose is to peak by means of Dwars door Vlaanderen, Tour of Flanders, and Paris-Roubaix.
Fem van Empel has recovered from a massively profitable cyclocross marketing campaign, throughout which she gained a second consecutive world title, and is now turning her consideration to the Spring Classics, the place she provides Visma-Lease a Bike a possible second card to play on the Tour of Flanders.
Van Empel was anticipated to make her 2024 street season debut at Gent-Wevelgem, however she did not begin the race. The workforce mentioned she wasn’t fairly but prepared to start out the season, however she remains to be on the roster for Tour of Flanders. Though a podium on the largest one-day Classics of the season could be a tricky ask, Van Empel is one to look at nonetheless.
Lidl-Trek additionally traces up with a robust workforce that features the ‘two Elisas’: Elisa Longo Borghini and Elisa Balsamo. Of the pair, Longo Borghini will doubtless be the one to look at on the Tour of Flanders.
The Italian Champion gained the Tour of Flanders in 2015, and he or she completed third final 12 months behind Kopecky and Vollering in Oudenaarde. This 12 months, Longo Borghini has completed third at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, second at Strade Bianche and gained Trofeo Oro in Euro. Though she completed thirty third on the latest Gent-Wevelgem, her teammate Elisa Balsamo was second.
The pair work effectively collectively and assist each other on the various terrain of the Spring Classics. The flatter races have a tendency to higher go well with Balsamo, and the tougher terrain shifts the goal towards Longo Borghini.
Balsamo has had an impressive begin to this season with wins at Trofeo Alfredo Binda and Brugge-De Panne, and second locations at Ronde van Drenthe and Gent-Wevelgem.
The workforce even have a robust roster that features Lizzie Deignan, Lucinda Model, Shirin van Anrooij and Lauretta Hanson.
Kasia Niewiadoma, the gravel World Champion, is at all times a contender for the Spring Classics, and he or she has as soon as once more proven her early-season strengths with a seventh at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and fourth at Strade Bianche.
She was devastated by her lead to Siena, a testomony to how a lot she loves that Italian one-day race and what number of instances she has been so near victory: 4 instances on the rostrum and 9 instances within the prime 10.
On the Tour of Flanders, Niewiadoma has additionally completed within the prime 10 on six events. Her highest place was final 12 months, the place she completed fifth within the breakaway dash behind Kopecky, Vollering, Longo Borghini and Silvia Persico.
Canyon-SRAM additionally brings a powerful workforce with a number of choices, together with Chloé Dygert, Elisa Chabbey and Soraya Paladin. Dygert, the person time trial World Champion, returned to the Spring Classics after an early season harm at Brugge-De Panne, the place she completed a promising sixth place, and he or she was then thirty sixth at Gent-Wevelgem.
She competed in only one different Classics occasion throughout her four-year time period with Canyon-SRAM, driving on the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad in 2022. Nonetheless, she suffered from leg ache following that race after which spent 14 months recovering from quite a lot of well being points.
It will likely be fascinating to see her progress on the Tour of Flanders and because the season continues towards the Paris Olympics, the place she is going to give attention to each street and monitor.
One of many peloton’s most versatile riders, Pfeiffer Georgi, is each Charlotte Kool’s trusted lead-out within the sprints and Workforce dsm-firmenich PostNL’s most precious card to play within the Spring Classics.
She had a breakthrough season final 12 months, profitable Traditional Brugge-De Panne, the British Nationwide Championships for the second time in her profession, and Binche-Chimay-Binche.
She’s had a powerful begin to this season, too, taking third at Omloop van het Hageland and fifth at Trofeo Alfredo Binda.
On the Tour of Flanders, Georgi is powerful sufficient to each ignite a profitable breakaway and be a part of the profitable entrance group. A quick finisher in her personal proper, look ahead to the British Champion to be among the many late-race contenders into Oudenaarde.
Multi-discipline rider Puck Pieterse wasn’t truly anticipating to be racing the Tour of Flanders when she began her street block, however given how effectively it has gone, extending just a bit to incorporate the cobbled Traditional grew to become an irresistible proposition.
The rider, who can be concentrating on the Olympic Video games on the mountain bike, did simply a few UCI street races final season. Even then, she got here away with a fifth at Strade Bianche.
This 12 months, nevertheless, she has ramped it up one other stage. The Dutch rider’s barely prolonged block has included six races, 5 prime tens, and two podiums. On condition that run, there may be each motive for the rider, who will give attention to the mountain bike after Dwars door Vlaanderen and Tour of Flanders, to hold excessive hopes for Sunday.
“With the way it’s going now, after all, you must dream of the very best, and I feel we’ve got a very good workforce,” she advised Cyclingnews. “We labored very well collectively right here at Gent-Wevelgem, so I feel even profitable is feasible.”
The Ronde is a race the place Arlenis Sierra has completed within the prime ten prior to now two editions, and her begin to the season signifies that the Cuban Movistar rider is heading into the race with some strong kind.
The 31-year-old’s block of Spanish racing yielded two second locations, and he or she has additionally taken a powerful fifth at Nokere Koerse and sixth at Gent Wevelgem. She has but to assert a win this season or at one of many huge Ladies’s WorldTour Classics by means of her profession, so she is probably extra of a protracted shot than a favorite. Nonetheless, notably on condition that she obtained fourth in 2022, the rostrum appears a risk.
Sierra can also be not the one choice at Movistar, which remains to be in search of its first Ladies’s WorldTour win of the season. Emma Norsgaard has been ramping up towards the spring and has up to now delivered some promising outcomes.
The 24-year-old’s marketing campaign began with an eleventh at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and fifth at Omloop van het Hageland and in addition included seventh place at Nokere Koerse and Brugge-De Panne.
Final 12 months, Silvia Persico was only one spot off the rostrum on the Tour of Flanders after coming in for a dash behind winner Kopecky with a gaggle of seven. Then she was one of many riders her rivals within the group have been watching intently because the quick end approached.
Little question the 26-year-old can be decided, if the chance arises once more, to go at the least one higher this time. The 2023 De Brabantse Pijl winner is dialling again her GC ambitions this 12 months, given her Olympic focus, and concentrating on one-day occasions and phases as an alternative, so this might assist her ship on the Ronde.
Thus far this month her greatest outcomes are an eighth at Trofeo Oro and Trofeo Alfredo Binda. Dwars door Vlaanderen may additionally present one other indication of whether or not she is able to ramp it up one other stage on the Tour of Flanders.
There are additionally different choices for the workforce, with Chiara Consonni having confirmed a robust pressure in March, stepping as much as the rostrum first at Drentse Acht van Westerveld with a second after which most lately at Gent-Wevelgem with a 3rd.
On prime of that, there was a fourth at Brugge De Panne, so the rider clearly is delivering the pace wanted to make a mark on the finish of a protracted, arduous day of racing.
The previous cyclocross world champion has shifted into her new workforce, Lotto Dstny Girls, and instantly began with a slew of outcomes inside the highest ten; actually, Thalita de Jong’s worst results of the 12 months up to now is fifteenth.
The 30-year-old’s outcomes additionally embrace second locations at GP Oetingen and on a stage of the Tour de Normandie, plus claimed the factors classification. At her newest race, Gent Wevelgem, it was an eighth.
De Jong can be driving her fifth Tour of Flanders in 2024, however it’s been three years since she final lined up. She hasn’t completed within the prime 40 on the race earlier than, however this season, because the senior member of the Belgian squad, she appears to be flourishing, so something appears doable.
Ruby Roseman-Gannon had a transparent goal on the spring Classics and would have been a key contender for the workforce at Tour of Flanders, however after a tough crash at Nokere Koerse, she was left driving by means of the road in eleventh place with enormous streaks of blood working down each legs.
The Australian champion hasn’t raced since and posted on Instagram over the weekend that “I’m nonetheless unable to journey and due to this fact I’ll miss the remainder of the Flemish classics.”
Nonetheless, the workforce has different choices, one apparent one being Letizia Paternoster. She is nice on brief explosive climbs and brings her track-honed flip of pace to the dash.
The Italian has proven her energy this month with a fourth at Ronde van Drenthe, and he or she additionally has historical past by means of this patch. The rider hit the rostrum of Gent-Wevelgem in 2019, and when she joined the Australian squad final season, she delivered a trio of prime tens final 12 months, coming sixth at Omloop van het Hageland, ninth at Ronde van Drenthe and tenth at Nokere Koerse.
Her Tour of Flanders debut additionally got here in 2023, although it was an 81st place end, nevertheless with one other 12 months of expertise beneath the belt and Roseman-Gannon injured hopes are more likely to be a lot greater this 12 months.
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