As spring takes hold across Europe, the women’s WorldTour moves into the peak of the Spring Classics, and behind Paris-Roubaix Femmes the Tour of Flanders represents the pinnacle of the season.
As usual, the race will treat us to ascents of the famed Koppenberg, Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg over the race’s 163km route.
Last year, Lotte Kopecky made history as the first Belgian back-to-back winner of the Tour of Flanders in a dominant display, but that certainly doesn’t make the race a foregone conclusion.
The field of this year’s 21st edition has a striking strength in depth, and so here are Cyclingnews’ key favourites in the women’s race.
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SD Worx arrives at the Tour of Flanders with a dream team that includes World Champion and two-time defending champion Lotte Kopecky and Tour de France winner Demi Vollering. The pair finished first and second in Oudenaarde last year.
Kopecky, also Belgium’s double national champion, is very much the centrepiece of the cobbled Classic, where crowds will undoubtedly line the steep hellingen, cobblestone sectors and finish line straightaway just to watch her compete in the nation’s most prized one-day race.
Back-to-back wins at Strade Bianche and Nokere Koerse, along with a pair of second places at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Trofeo Alfredo Binda, have proven that Kopecky is on track to reaching her peak form at the right time ahead of her targetted Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix.
Vollering is much more of a wildcard this year, having only raced at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (6th) and Strade Bianche (3rd), but she arrives fresh off of an altitude training camp and ready to compete at Dwars door Vlaanderen, Tour of Flanders followed by the Ardennes Classics, of which she won all three last year.
Together, Kopecky and Vollering form a tough-to-beat duo. The team also includes 2020 Tour of Flanders winner Chantal van den Broek-Blaak and European Champion Mischa Bredewold. With a team this powerful, the Tour of Flanders is SD Worx’s race to lose.
Marianne Vos’ sparkling career palmares, Spring Classics experience, and recent winning sprint at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, where she beat Lotte Kopecky in Ninvoe, make her one of the favourites for the Tour of…
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