Vote for the 2023 Women’s Cyclist of the Year!

Oy, busy times, these posts are moving slowly. But still! It’s very much high time to vote on our Women’s winners for 2023! Let’s get to the main event, our Rider of the Year.

The candidates are… who you would have expected.

• Lotte Kopecky: Just a massive step forward for the Belgian star, who may have been second in the rankings, but the quality of her victories is utterly compelling: Ronde van Vlaanderen, the Thüringen overall with stages, both Belgian RR and TT titles, a stage and second overall at the Tour de France, the road race World Championship… what a magical run for the 28-year-old whose previous best season was sixth, before she bumped her points by some 60% and landed second overall.

Photo by Luc Claessen/Getty Images

• Demi Vollering: Hmm, she finished second in de Ronde and the Vuelta, and… that’s about it. Vollering opened her account at Strade Bianche with a win, then Dwars, then she won the Ardennes Triple Crown (Amstel-Flèche-Liège), then a few near misses (or gifts to teammates), then the Tourmalet stage and overall Tour de France victory. And the Dutch championships, and Romandie, and others. About the only races she lost to a non-teammate would be the Vuelta, where Annemiek van Vleuten won but Vollering took the Lagos de Covadonga stage, and the road worlds, where her trade teammate scored the win. Nobody spent less time feeling disappointed this year.

Photo by Bas Czerwinski/Getty Images

• Annemiek van Vleuten: The 40-year-old Dutch Superduperstar glided gently into retirement with a season that almost anyone else would kill for: a Vuelta-Giro Donne Double, with her Giro win being essentially wire-to-wire (following stage 1 being neutralized by bad weather). She also won the Scandinavia Tour and three Giro stages, plus a steady stream of top finishes behind someone from SD Worx. She will go out on top, as arguably the best ever, at least among retirees.

Photo by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images

• Lorena Wiebes: Another major brick in…