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.
