Women’s WorldTour racing resumes after the Spanish trio of races with the peloton heading to Britain for the RideLondon Classique and revamped Tour of Britain Women before closing back in on Grand Tour racing at the Giro in July and Tour in August.
Starting with RideLondon this Friday, May 24, it remains a three-day race as it has been since its post-COVID-19 pandemic resumption in and around Essex and London with a parcours best suited to the fastest sprinters.
It gives all teams a great opportunity to fully test the limits of their lead-out trains up the iconic Mall in London and will allow some of the faster riders to find their way onto the top step overall of a WorldTour stage race.
Both previous winners of the race in the three-day format we know will be present at the 2023 race; Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) and Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL). As former teammates at DSM, Kool used to be Wiebes’ last lead-out rider, such as in 2022 when she took the overall victory in London, so they know each other very well.
They’ve come to be close rivals in sprints for the past two seasons but we haven’t seen the battle much in 2024 due to illness for Kool so this race should provide at least two guaranteed opportunities on stages 1 and 3.
While Wiebes will be the heavy favourite for overall victory with Kool right behind her, there will be plenty of other top sprinters and punchy riders hoping to beat the top women’s team in the world, SD Worx-Protime.
Cyclingnews runs the ruler over the potential contenders ahead of Friday’s three-stage Women’s WorldTour race.
Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime)
While she’s added great versatility to her skills over the past two seasons, Lorena Wiebes has maintained her status as the top sprinter in the women’s pro peloton since joining SD Worx-Protime at the end of the 2022 season.
Her last race at the Vuelta a Burgos Féminas didn’t start with success when she was forced into evasive action from a crash in the opening stage sprint, which was won by Lotta Henttala (EF Education-Cannondale), but it didn’t take her long to bounce back. Wiebes dominated the stage 3 sprint with a clean run at the line, opening up quite the gap behind her.
SD Worx-Protime didn’t take part in the RideLondon Classique last year so Wiebes couldn't defend her title from 2022. In that edition, she won all three stages in dominant fashion riding for DSM and took the overall and points classifications with it.
She’ll have the added bonus of World Champion Lotte Kopecky acting as lead-out in her first return to the UK racing since she claimed the rainbow jersey in Glasgow. The Belgian has combined brilliantly with Wiebes in the past two seasons throughout the Classics and Tour de France Femmes. Should the hillier stage 2 Maldon finish be too tough for Wiebes, which is unlikely, Kopecky is more than capable and gives the Dutch squad another sprint option.
Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL)
2023 RideLondon winner Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) will offer up stiff competition to Wiebes’ status as favourite as a top sprinter in her own right. Kool stepped up from being her compatriot's last lead-out to DSM’s new leader in 2023 and burst into top form with wins at the UAE Tour and La Vuelta before taking on RideLondon and winning overall.
She couldn’t match Wiebes’ total domination of the race with the hat-trick of wins as a crash on stage 2 into Maldon saw Chloe Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) return to form with a victory, but as it was in the final 3km, Kool maintained her lead heading into the London stage.
Kool is yet to take a win in 2024 despite her great top speed as illness hampered the early portion of her schedule. But the RideLondon Classique will offer up the perfect place to get back in the wins against the very best competition.
She’ll similarly have a strong lead-out in the form of Pfeiffer Georgi, Franziska Koch, Daniek Hengeveld, Megan Jastrab and Rachele Barbieri.
Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ)
Chiara Consonni (UAE ADQ) arrives as one of the most consistent fast finishers in the women’s peloton to the RideLondon Classique, just off the back of two wins in recent weeks from the Gran Premio della Liberazione and GP Eco-Struct.
She’s having a good 2024 so far and hasn’t been too far off Wiebes at races such as the UAE Tour and Gent-Wevelgem, so with the right positioning, she could certainly challenge the dominant Dutchwoman to the line.
Alongside Consonni will be talented compatriot Eleanora Gasparrini, who was fourth overall at last year’s RideLondon and took home the youth classification after two impressive top-five finishes behind the faster, purer sprinters. Her punch was key to contesting the uphill Colchester finish and hillier day into the seaside town Maldon.
Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco)
Also looking to take on the likes of Wiebes and Kool will be another Italian on top form, Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco), coming back to racing after a very successful Classics campaign.
The 24-year-old showed great punch throughout the Belgian Classics, taking third at Dwars door Vlaanderen and ninth at the Tour of Flanders, showing she has much more to her game than just a good sprint.
Paternoster hasn’t competed at RideLondon since 2019, when it was still a one-day race where she was fifth as a young rider behind winner Wiebes. This time around, she’ll also have the experience of Georgia Baker alongside her in the finishes.
Baker’s presence gives Liv AlUla Jayco a double sprint option for all the finals and the Australian showed good form recently with a runner-up finish on stage 4 of La Vuelta Femenina.
Clara Copponi (Lidl-Trek)
Fresh off the back of a second-place finish behind Wiebes at the Vuelta a Burgos, Clara Copponi (Lidl-Trek) will be high on confidence coming into the RideLondon Classique as she leads Lidl-Trek in the sprints.
With top fast finisher Elisa Balsamo out of action due to a recent crash and successful surgery, the French rider, who signed for Lidl-Trek in 2024, is a great option. Her teammate Lizzie Deignan would be higher up this list on any other occasion as a former podium finisher at RideLondon from 2023 but she’s still on the way back to form and full use of her arm after breaking her elbow at the Tour of Flanders.
If Deignan is feeling good, however, she could definitely contest the win into Maldon and will support Copponi in the sprints on home roads. Copponi has also had success in Britain before having won a stage of the Women’s Tour in 2022, which started in Colchester, the finish location of stage 1 of this race.
