In 2024, SD Worx-Protime further tightened the iron grip they hold over the peloton. They were the favourites for almost every race they participated in, and more often than not succeeded. The formidable trio of Lorena Wiebes, Demi Vollering and Lotte Kopecky contributed alone over half a century of wins, comfortably more than the next best team.
Yet for all their success, the team didn’t have it all their own way. In fact, many of the biggest races of the year went to riders from different teams – Kasia Niewiadoma of Canyon//SRAM won the Tour de France Femmes; Elisa Longo Borghini of Lidl-Trek won the Giro d’Italia Women and Tour of Flanders; Grace Brown of FDJ-Suez and Australia won Liège-Bastogne-Liège and World and Olympic time trial gold: and Kristen Faulkner of EF-Oatly-Cannondale and USA was Olympic champion.
Other teams had to scramble in smaller races for their share of the spoils, but it was a competitive season throughout, with notable strength-in-depth in the Women’s WorldTour. Rouleur considers how satisfied each team will be with their 2024.
AG INSURANCE-SOUDAL TEAM – 7/10
Participating as a WorldTour team for the first time, AG Insurance-Soudal punched well above their weight in 2024, even with their star rider Ashleigh Moolman Pasio missing a fair chunk of it through injury. The highlight was Justine Ghekiere’s stage win at the Tour de France Femmes while wearing (and also winning) the polka-dot jersey, while new signing Sarah Gigante also starred with seventh overall at that race and overall victory at the Tour Down Under, and Kim Le Cort won a stage at the Giro.
CANYON//SRAM – 8/10
Canyon//SRAM might have only won six races in 2024, but that hardly matters when one of them was the yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes. That result from Kasia Niewiadoma has long been in the making for both her and the team, and she also brought them another victory at Flèche Wallonne, as well as coming agonisingly close at the Tour of Flanders. Elsewhere, 22-year-old Neve Bradbury broke through with podium finishes and stages wins at both the Giro d’Italia Women and Tour de Suisse, Chloe Dygert won two World and one Olympic medal, and Zoe Bäckstedt won her first professional race at the Simac Ladies Tour.
Kasia Niewiadoma in the yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes (Image by Tornanti.cc)
CERATIZIT-WNT PRO CYCLING TEAM – 6/10
The ten-year-old Ceratizit-WNT team’s first season in the WorldTour saw a healthy…