It was a Gent-Wevelgem Women that broke the mould, with a solo winner in 2023 for the first time since 2016. Back then it was Chantal van der Broek who spoiled the chances for the sprinters and this year it was again an SD Worx rider who went solo, with Marlen Reusser launching at 40 kilometres to go.
The wet weather, crashes and lack of impetus in the early chase gave Reusser an advantage that couldn’t be hauled back, even when the adept time trialist took a wrong turn on the run into the line.
The switch in the balance of the course when the steeper Ossuaire side of the Kemmelberg and the De Moeren sector, famous for its peloton-splitting high winds, were added to the race in 2022 may have taken a year to re-write the story in favour of the attackers but perhaps now the peloton will be a little more reluctant to let the break go next year.
It was a race that didn’t follow the script, with a solo winner, new generation continuing to make their presence felt on the podium, weather delivering havoc and sadly the crashes that came with it. It was a race that’s outcomes will reverberate through to all important spring events to come so we now takes a look at the conclusions from a paradigm shifting edition of Gent Wevelgem Women.
SD Work primed to defend Flanders title
The Spring Classics and one-day races are in full swing, with the two most iconic events still on tap at Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
SD Work has shown itself to be the team to beat this spring, winning Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Omloop van het Hageland, Strade Bianche, Ronde van Drenthe and Gent-Wevelgem, along with numerous other podium performances.
More impressively, they have won with a range of riders – Lotte Kopecky, Demi Vollering, Lorena Wiebes and Marlen Reusser – and in various race scenarios from bunch sprints to breakaways and with solo victories. This team has shown once again that they can do it all.
There have been a few upsets for SD Worx, with Shirin van Anrooij (Trek-Segafredo) winning Trofeo Alfredo Binda and Pfeiffer Georgi (Team DSM) winning Classic Brugge-De Panne, but on the whole, SD Work has a fleet of riders who can win on any given day and in nearly any race situation.
Reusseur’s 45km solo performance to net the win at Gent-Wevelgem is the perfect example of how this team operates, using their numbers to outplay their rivals. The team still had a full complement of six riders when the…
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