The climactic weekend of the World Championships begins on Saturday with the Elite Women’s Road Race, a race packed with all the peloton’s stars that is invariably among the top highlights of the season.
For four years between 2017-2021, this was an event where the Dutch were untouchable, not only winning gold on each occasion, but also silver as well in 2019 and 2020.
But the race looks a little more open now, especially since the emergence of Italy as a rival force, and the retirement of two-time winner Anna van der Breggen. Now multiple riders look more than capable of winning, and not just the Dutch.
ANNEMIEK VAN VLEUTEN – NETHERLANDS
With her victories at the Giro Donne, Tour de France Femmes and La Vuelta, this has been the summer of Van Vleuten, and for most of that time she has appeared an unstoppable force that nobody knows how to contain.
But has the 39-year-old’s engine finally run out of steam for the year? She was out of sorts in the time trial last weekend, and had no explanation for her surprisingly low finish of seventh besides simply not having the legs, suggesting that fatigue might be catching up on her. Alternatively, that might simply be an off day, and the peloton should still brace itself for her trademark committed attacks — perhaps, if she’s in the mood, as early as on the Mount Keira ascent over 100km from the finish, in a similar long-range ploy as she pulled off three years for her previous Worlds road race win in Yorkshire. Image: Pauline Ballet/SWpix
Update: Annemiek van Vleuten crashed in the Team Relay Event on Wednesday, and she has been taken to hospital for examinations, this could mean she won’t start the road race on the weekend, and even if she still does, recovering from a a crash could impact her form.
ELISA BALSAMO – ITALY
Since winning the Worlds last year in Leuven, Balsamo has continued to blossom as a rider, proving that victory was no fluke by building upon it to become a fully accomplished elite rider, winning nine races in the rainbow stripes including the classics Gent-Wevelgem and Trofeo Alfredo Binda, and stages at Giro Donne and La Vuelta.
Most of the time anyone has found themselves sprinting against Balsamo at the end of a hard race, she has had the beating of them — but the question at Wollongong is whether the race will be decided by a sprint? The parcours looks more selective than it did twelve months ago, meaning a repeat of 20-or-so riders making it to the finish…