Our Incomplete List of Badass Women WorldTour Cyclists to Watch This Year

Now that the 2023 racing season has begun in earnest, with the big races Paris-Roubaix looming on the horizon, and the stage races not too far behind, we’re seeing the women’s peloton mixing things up with team changes for some, retirement looming for others, and young racers truly coming into their own.

As we see year after year, the early races don’t mean much as riders slowly make their way back into the peloton. The early season is really the time for new riders to make their marks and stand out in the crowd.

Often, a few top favorites are MIA as they recover from injuries or surgeries—as is the case with GOAT Marianne Vos right now—and many will opt out of the early races, or at least, take them relatively easy in order to avoid peaking too early.

So we’ll be honest, some of these predictions might be a little wild. But of course, there are plenty of the usual suspects on the list as well, starting with...

Annemiek Van Vleuten - Movistar

The four-time World Champion and the winner of last year’s premier edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is one of the winningest cyclists in the world, and certainly the top woman in the road peloton today. She didn’t have the greatest finish at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the first race of the ‘classics’ season, but that could have been down to different team tactics that Movistar needs to learn to contend with from teams like SD Worx, or it could be that she’s trying a slow build into the season. She’s also announced that she’ll be retiring at the end of 2023, so she’s likely focusing on her team legacy as well as her own.

Lorena Wiebes - SD Worx

Wiebes finished second behind her teammate Lotte Kopecky in last weekend’s Omloop het Nieuwsblad, then turned around and took the win at Omloop van het Hageland the next day. The European Champion is in her first year of a three year contract with SD Worx, which should make for an interesting switch for the former DSM rider. And we have a soft spot for any road racer that hops into track races and cyclocross races in the off-season, which Wiebes did in the span of a single long weekend. While there’s always a risk of over-racing, the experience on the track and in the mud can often prove advantageous in road races when things get tricky (like wet or muddy cobbles at Roubaix!)… Just ask Marianne Vos.

Lotte Kopecky - SD Worx

That’s right, another SD Worx rider in the mix—though the fact that we have three on this list could eventually prove problematic for the team, since three riders who can all contend for stage or race wins can sometimes lead to dissent in the ranks and a lack of strong leadership. But with Kopecky’s huge nearly 20-kilometer solo at Omloop last weekend, her second place at World Championships, and her sprinting prowess shown at the Tour de France Femmes, and her second place at Paris Roubaix last year, it’s impossible to not include her here. Riding on the Omloop win, it’ll be interesting to see how she approaches the rest of the Classics.

Kasia Niewiadoma - Canyon // SRAM

Niewiadoma has said that she’s a classics rider—"I prefer training specifically for the classics, where aggressive short accelerations are key”—but she was critical in livening up the field in the Tour de France Femmes last season as well. She made waves with her third place overall finish, and the longtime Canyon // SRAM rider (she’s been on the team since 2018!) also made it into the top 10 at World Championships. Despite racing as a pro for nearly a decade, she’s only 28 years old, which means she’s arguably coming into her prime racing years, and we’re excited to see what she’ll do this season.

Demi Vollering - SD Worx

Vollering lit up the climbing stages at the Tour de France Femmes last season, taking the overall climbers jersey while also finishing second overall in the race—and coming in second on the final stage behind Van Vleuten in atruly remarkable, rewatchable conclusion to the race. SD Worx has a strong squad this season, but Vollering might be their stage race ace in the hole: We’ll see if the squad can race tactically and play their riders to their best strengths. Vollering won’t be able to help but light up climbing stages!

Veronica Ewers - Team EF

The only American on this list, we expect to see Ewers working her way towards the front of some races, particularly the stage races in the overall standings. The 28-year-old is only in her third year of pro racing—before cycling, she was more likely to be seen running the trails or hopping into a Spartan race. Then, in 2019, she started riding and quickly found success in the US. Last season, she finished fifth overall at Tour de Romandie Féminin and made it into the top 10 at the Tour de France Femmes with some smart, tactical racing including a fourth place finish on stage 4.

Charlotte Kool - Team DSM

When Wiebes was on Team DSM, Kool was her go-to leadout woman. Now, Kool is coming into her own since Wiebes moved to SD Worx, and this could be her season to really stand out in the peloton. The 23 year old took the sprinter’s jersey at the UAE Tour Women this season, winning stage 1 and 4 in sprints over Wiebes (who did take the sprint win on stage 2 just ahead of Kool). Watching the former teammates duke it out in sprint finishes should be fun to watch this season. The question for Kool will be if Team DSM has enough firepower to keep her at the front of the races.

Silvia Persico - UAE Team ADQ

Persico was one of the young riders to watch last season, with a fifth place overall at the Tour de France Femmes and a third place finish at Road Worlds as well as Cyclocross Worlds… Which naturally leaves us with hints of a Vos-in-the-making. The UAE Team ADQ has some serious firepower to work with Persico, including Marta Bastianelli—at least until July when she is set to retire, which could lead to some shakeups for the team and potentially put Persico in a more leadership-oriented role. (Note: If she wasn’t retiring mid-season, Bastianelli would certainly be on this list thanks to some fantastic early season results including a third place at Omloop and a win at Le Samyn des Dames.)

Elisa Longo Borghini - Trek Segafredo

As far as women who’ve been in the mix for a long time, you can’t have this list without mentioning Elisa Longo Borghini, who most recently took the overall win at the UAE Tour and a top 10 at Omloop. Her early season results are obviously stellar, but beyond that, she’s simply a perpetual force to be reckoned with in the peloton. She doesn’t get as much airtime as a Van Vleuten or Vos, but she is always right up there. She finished in the top 10—often top 5—in nearly every stage race last season, and won Paris Roubaix. That puts her in the rare position of being a rider who can both do well in a one-day while also crushing the longer stage races.

Gaia Realini - Trek Segafredo

…And new to Trek Segafredo and possibly a major boon to Longo Boghini this season is Realini, a fantastic climber and perhaps the ideal wing woman for Longo Boghini. The 21 year old is still able to race in the U23 classification, but is a woman to watch regardless of age. She finished second in the GC at the UAE Tour right behind her teammate, only seven seconds down. This is her first season in the Women’s World Tour and she’s already shown her chops: Does Longo Borghini have an eventual successor? Time will tell.

Ashleigh Moolman Pasio - AG Insurance–Soudal–Quick-Step

New year, new team for Moolman-Pasio. The South African often flies just a little under the radar as one of the riders to watch, especially on a team like SD Worx where she was only one of the several riders on the squad capable of a stage win or leadership role. She had more than a dozen top 10 finishes last season and a GC win at the Tour de Romandie Féminin, and her new team could be the change she needed, since she’s now the obvious leader. This season, she finished second in the Setmana Ciclista-Volta Comunitat Valenciana Fèmines in Spain, her first time out with the new team, so it’s clear that despite the relative youth in the program, she’s in good company.

Marianne Vos - Jumbo-Visma

Arguably THE most winning cyclist in the world in multiple disciplines, Vos continues to be the GOAT, and she captured nearly every sprint stage at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift last season. Vos unfortunately spent much of cyclocross season injured, and wasn’t able to defend her World Championship title this year. She still has treatments scheduled to deal with her pelvic artery, and it’s unlikely she’ll be on top of her game in the very early season. But will she recover in time to go for some sprint wins in the classics and at the Tour? We would literally never bet against her.

Most interesting storylines to watch:

Van Vleuten vs. the World

Some recent think pieces on women’s cycling make a valid point: Women’s cycling is not simply ‘who can possibly beat Annemiek Van Vleuten, and when are they going to get around to it?’ But at the same time… well, it’s a fair question. At least, sort of—as we saw last weekend at Omloop and even by her own admission, she never expects to easily take a win, and there are plenty of instances where she doesn’t. Furthermore, with her retirement looming, perhaps we are seeing her start to pass the torch to teammates on Movistar, and this season may actually see her drop back a bit in order to actively try to push teammates to the front of the pack as she works to prepare her team for her imminent departure.

Wiebes vs. Kool for team domination

As we mentioned above, watching Kool outsprint her former team captain and come into her own at the UAE Tour was fascinating—and we’re excited to see how it continues to play out between Wiebes as a new SD Worx racer and Kool heading up DSM’s sprint squad. Both riders are still quite young in their careers—they’re both 23—so there’s plenty of time for a fantastic rivalry to build up and we are here for it.

The Canyon // SRAM squad

While there’s no drama specifically coming from the Canyon // SRAM crew thus far, they have multiple riders in our list, which can often lead to a bit of ‘who’s the team leader and who’s going for the wins?’ This might sound like a good problem to have, but when there are a lot of strong riders in play, it can be hard to stay organized as a team. Last season, they were a strong team with major ‘overall team’ results including the team overall wins at the Tour de France Femmes and the Women’s Tour, but didn’t have the single racer results that a Team DSM or Movistar did, so they’ll likely be trying to bring some riders onto that top step of the podium. But can they do that without sacrificing the overall team element of their success?

You Might Also Like

• The Right Chain Lube Can Save You Thousands

• Everything You Need to Start E-Bike Commuting

• 7 Things You Should Do After Every Rainy Ride