The ultimate showdown
April 18 th 2024 - 15:25
Kasia Niewiadoma, Elisa Longo Borghini, Marianne Vos… The world’s best classic experts will face off on Sunday 21 April in the 8th edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes before they turn to stage races.
Chasing her first win of the year, the reigning champion in Liège Demi Vollering (also a winner in 2021) will partner up with the world champion Lotte Kopecky, a newcomer with high ambitions.
The 24-team peloton is filled with stars in the making who will be determined to finish the Classics campaign on a high note.
From Australia to the Ardennes, the Classics campaign has been particularly exciting. And now it's time for this spring's biggest stars to storm the Cité Ardente with the 8th edition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes, a thrilling grand finale on the Belgian hills. The 2023 edition crowned an Oranje Queen, Demi Vollering, who mastered the slopes in the Netherlands and in the Ardennes to score a hat-trick of victories before claiming the Yellow Jersey in the summer. But the 2024 vintage sees a wide variety of champions shine. Whose turn will it be in the streets of Liège? Still looking for a first success this year, Vollering came close on Wednesday, on the Mur de Huy, where she was 2nd of La Flèche Wallonne Femmes. In a race that has been historically favourable to the Dutch (6 wins out of 7 editions, Great Britain's Lizzie Deignan being the only exception), she leads an always impressive SD Worx-Protime collective... With the addition of Belgian icon Lotte Kopecky, gearing for a maiden participation in the Liège Monument two weeks after imposing her rainbow panache in Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift. The Vollering-Kopecky duo will have to contend with other powerful teams, in particular Canyon//SRAM Racing, led by Kasia Niewiadoma. The Polish champ has already finished in the top 10 four times in Liège. Her victory on the Mur de Huy illustrates her recent progress and fuels high ambitions. And she will be joined by two riders who showed their strength last year in the finale, Elise Chabbey (5th) and Soraya Paladin (9th). When it comes to strength in numbers, the Lidl-Trek powerhouse rarely disappoints. Elisa Longo Borghini has been especially prominent this spring, winning the Tour of Flanders with the invaluable support of Shirin van Anrooij (3rd). Last year in Liège, her association with Gaia Realini worked wonders: 2nd place for the Italian star, 7th for her young disciple. The three women will be in action again on Sunday. Among this spring's other stars, Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike) is making her return to Liège (6th in 2021, her last participation) in the wake of her victory in the Amstel Gold Race. She will be joined by the very young Rosita Reijnhout (20 years old since 8 April), who won the very first UCI Women's WorldTour one-day event of the year, the Deakin University Road Race, in Australia. Success breeds new triumphs... But more hungry champions aim for the win. FDJ-Suez has several cards to play with Évita Muzic (4th in La Flèche on Wednesday), Marta Cavalli and Amber Kraak. In Belgium, the AG Insurance-Soudal Team project continues to grow around Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, as well as Sarah Gigante, Justine Ghekiere, Julie Van de Velde... Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) is a special talent. And a host of other stars are preparing to showcase their skills as they head to Liège!
24 TEAMS, THE MAIN CONTENDERS
Australia
Liv-AlUla-Jayco: Mavi Garcia (Esp), Ingvild Gaskjenn (Nor)
Belgium
AG Insurance-Soudal Team: Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (Rsa), Sarah Gigante (Aus)
Fenix-Deceuninck: Pauliena Rooijakkers (Ned), Yara Kastelijn (Ned)
Lotto Dstny Ladies: Thalita de Jong (Ned)
France
Arkéa-B&B Hotels Women: Océane Mahé (Fra)
Cofidis Women Team: Julie Bego (Fra)
FDJ-Suez: Évita Music (Fra), Marta Cavalli (Ita), Amber Kraak (Ned)
St Michel-Mavic-Auber93: Marion Bunel (Fra)
Germany
Canyon//SRAM Racing: Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol), Elise Chabbey (Sui)
Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team: Cédrine Kerbaol (Fra)
Great Britain
Lifeplus Wahoo: Heidi Franz (Usa)
The Netherlands
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL: Juliette Labous (Fra)
Team SD Worx-Protime: Demi Vollering (Ned), Lotte Kopecky (Bel)
Team Visma | Lease a Bike: Marianne Vos (Ned), Riejanne Markus (Ned)
VolkerWessels Women’s Pro Cycling Team: Margot Vanpachtenbeke (Bel)
Norway
Team Coop-Repsol: India Grangier (Fra)
Uno-X Mobility: Katrine Aalerud (Nor)
Spain
Movistar Team: Olivia Baril (Esp)
Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi: Ane Santesteban (Esp)
Switzerland
Roland: Anna Kiesenhofer (Aut)
The UAE
UAE Team ADQ: Silvia Persico (Ita), Erica Magnaldi (Ita)
The USA
EF Education-Cannondale: Kristen Faulkner (Usa)
Human Powered Health: Ruth Edwards (Usa)
Lidl-Trek: Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita), Gaia Realini (Ita), Shirin van Anrooij (Ned)