The ladies’s U23 and elite highway race this 12 months will shut the 2023 Highway World Championships in Glasgow, offering the ultimate alternative to scoop up the rainbow bands for an additional 12 months and placing the highlight squarely again on girls’s biking simply two weeks after the finale of the Tour de France Femmes in Pau.
The 154.1km race route on Sunday, August 13, with 2,229m of vertical ascent, begins in Balloch, Loch Lomond, and makes its method over the Crow Highway climb and onto the 14.3km metropolis circuit for six laps in Glasgow.
The early Crow Highway climb will put stress on the sector, and the repetition of the pinchy climbs on the 14.3km metropolis circuit is prone to rule out some sprinters. Nevertheless, those that are helpful on the climbs ought to have the ability to cling agency. Nonetheless, the technical course additionally offers launching factors for the breaks, so there may be a variety of riders who may doubtlessly be chasing a spot on the rostrum.
After all, the energy of the Dutch staff, which incorporates defending champion Annemiek van Vleuten, Demi Vollering, Lorena Wiebes and Marianne Vos, is all the time a key issue too, however not essentially all the time an unattainable one to beat. The Italians will probably be preventing exhausting to do it once more, whereas the Belgians must also fancy their possibilities with Lotte Kopecky on a course like this.
As the main target switches from the battle for yellow to the rainbow chase, Cyclingnews takes a better have a look at among the key contenders for the elite and U23 girls’s highway race on the 2023 Glasgow World Championships.
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Contenders
After her efforts on the Tour de France Femmes, Lotte Kopecky is certain to be one of the watched riders within the peloton and brings the type of her life into Glasgow.
In France, just about no matter state of affairs was thrown at her, she was one of many strongest, be it in a quick end, hills, within the mountains and even throughout the race towards the clock. That type has additionally carried by onto the monitor in Glasgow, with Kopecky claiming one other world title within the Elimination Race, as she turned on her highly effective dash to seize the rainbow jersey.
Add that to her second place final 12 months, on a course that bore some similarities to Glasgow, given the early climbs and ending road circuit, and it’s no shock that Kopecky is a standout favorite.
She is lining up with a Belgian staff that does not have the identical lengthy record of standout contenders because the likes of the Dutch, however that comes with a bonus, Kopecky is the clear plan A, who will unquestionably be supported as the very best likelihood for the squad to take residence a rainbow jersey. The one query mark is how lengthy the 27-year-old can proceed to mine this highly effective vein of type.
It might have been the lengthy climb of the Col du Tourmalet that put Demi Vollering into yellow on the Tour de France Femmes, however it’s the Spring season that got here earlier than it that carries simply as a lot weight when measuring her possibilities of success in Glasgow.
The Dutch rider has undoubtedly earned her position because the Dutch staff chief in a roster so stacked with expertise that even the defending World Champion, Annemiek van Vleuten, cannot depend on a task as a protected rider.
Vollering’s path to the highest this season began with the Strade Bianche and Dwars door Vlaanderen wins and was made crystal clear along with her Ardennes Classics clear sweep. Then if any extra convincing was required, she delivered an emphatic victory on the Tour de France Femmes.
Vollering has for a while made it clear that within the altering of the guard in Dutch biking as Van Vleuten retires that she is the clear inheritor obvious. The Tour de France Femmes might have been her coronation, however maybe the rainbow jersey may ship the adorning crown that she’ll put on as a reminder of her elevated standing all year long forward.
Lorena Wiebes is the rider everybody will look to if it occurs to come back all the way down to a bunch or lowered group, as with eight wins to date this season, together with phases on the Giro d’Italia Donne and the Tour de France Femmes, there isn’t any query she is the dominant sprinter throughout the peloton. As such, she must be the clear candidate from the stacked Dutch staff within the case of a bunch dash.
There are just a few different elements in query, nevertheless. The primary is, has she totally recovered from the sickness that despatched her residence from the Tour de France Femmes forward of stage 5? The opposite is, what are the possibilities of it truly coming all the way down to a bunch end?
The races run to date on the course actually have not, with the junior girls’s, junior males’s and elite males’s highway races all ending with a solo victor, and it appears much more possible the elite girls’s race will too come all the way down to a solo or small group end, and in these situations, the Dutch staff produce other playing cards to play.
Sure, this can be a third contender for the Dutch staff, however it’s proving even difficult to go away it at that. For one, it’s a exhausting activity to go away out the reigning World Champion, significantly when that’s Annemiek van Vleuten, although she has made it clear that she’ll be working for others this 12 months, so we now have.
Nevertheless, significantly after the way in which the lads’s elite highway race performed out – received by the cyclocross-savvy Mathieu van der Poel – it appeared unattainable to look previous the equally versatile Marianne Vos.
The longest climbs of the race come early, making it unlikely that they would be the deciding issue, however although they could shed some riders, Vos is unlikely to be amongst these chucking up the sponge within the early choices as she has superior endurance.
Then on the subject of the 6 laps of the 14.3km ending circuit, with its quick however steep climb of Montrose St and a myriad of corners, the very good bike dealing with and race studying potential of the skilled Vos may properly be the issue that makes all of the distinction, significantly if there may be moist climate thrown in as properly.
Add to that her pace on the road, even when it comes all the way down to a lowered dash, and there appears each purpose that Vos might be in with a severe likelihood of as soon as once more claiming the highway race rainbow jersey she final donned ten years in the past.
It hasn’t been the simplest of seasons for the 2021 winner of the World Championships highway race, however judging by the Tour de France Femmes, the rider might be returning to type after a crash at Trip London Classique the place she fractured her jaw.
A part of a powerful Italian staff, she may, relying on the day and the way the race performs out, slip into a number one or assist position. Slotting again into the peloton with a fifth in France, within the dash on stage 3 to Montignac-Lascaux, bodes properly for a powerful displaying both method.
She won’t have Elisa Longo Borghini to supply a robust lead out like she did when she took the rainbow jersey in Leuven, however she’ll be racing alongside Chiara Consonni, who additionally made her robust type clear in Montignac-Lascaux with a end in fourth place simply forward of Balsamo after which adopted up with a sixth place on stage 6.
Silvia Persico shot to prominence on the highway in 2022 when she climbed onto the rostrum on the Tour de France Femmes on each a comparatively flat and climbing stage, plus completed fifth total. She then went onto additionally end third on the World Championships in Wollongong, as soon as once more delivering a quick end from amongst a lowered group. Persico additionally stepped onto a stage podium at this 12 months’s Tour de France Femmes and completed eighth total on the Giro d’Italia Donne.
Although, there’s one thing past highway type which may level to her potential to be a powerful contender within the race that can shut the 2023 World Championships, and that is her background in a wholly totally different self-discipline.
2022 wasn’t only a breakthrough season on the highway for Persico but additionally in cyclocross, with the Italian rider coming third on the World Championships in Fayetteville. These bike-handling abilities learnt within the muddy self-discipline may show to be an important benefit on the technical corner-heavy ending circuit, making her one other highly effective card for Italy.
Grace Brown could also be largely targeted on the time trial, however that does not imply she must be counted out of the operating within the highway race, as it’s the kind of course the place an assault cannot be dominated out. And, after all, if a rider will get that hole, precisely what’s required to carry it’s these well-honed time trial abilities.
The Australians, too, can afford to roll the cube because the staff has quite a few playing cards to play, with Amanda Spratt an apparent one for the early longer climbs, Brodie Chapman holding early assault potential and Alex Manly, Sarah Roy and Ruby Roseman-Gannon maybe offering some choices for a quick end.
Liane Lippert broke by along with her first Ladies’s WorldTour win in 2020 on the Cadel Evans Nice Ocean Highway Race, and whereas it might have been a while until she took her second high tier victory, she in the end did it on the largest of races.
After twice stepping onto the stage podium on the Giro d’Italia Donne, Lippert then stepped as much as the highest step on the Tour de France Femmes, profitable stage 2 to Mauriac.
The rider appears to be heading into the race with among the type of her life, the arrogance of a victory on one of many largest phases in biking. Plus, the close to miss of fourth at Wollongong final 12 months may properly have added a bit of additional motivation to make it to these podium steps in 2023.
Chloé Dygert has already climbed to the highest step of the rostrum at this 12 months’s mixed Biking World Championship taking the primary title up for grabs on the monitor, and whereas on the time of writing, the time trial on the highway had not but taken place, that’s after all all the time a self-discipline wherein she excels too.
It is a heavy schedule on the way in which to the highway race, however with a break between the Giro d’Italia Donne and Glasgow – whereas a lot of her rivals had been racing the Tour de France Femmes – hopes will probably be excessive that she will preserve the momentum proper by from the primary to last elite rainbow jersey awarded on the occasion.
This season has delivered each signal that she has now put the horrible crash of the 2020 Highway World Championships behind her and is returning to a formidable peak, with the 26-year-old having hit the rostrum at the least twice at each stage race she has lined up for and likewise taken the time trial/highway race double on the USA Biking Professional Highway Nationwide Championships. It is a efficiency that delivers each purpose to imagine that she may make the USA an element within the highway race.
Kasia Niewiadoma left little doubt about her stage on the Tour de France Femmes when she powered away up the Col du Tourmalet and held agency for a second place atop the climb, although the rider behind making an attempt to shut the hole was the highly effective type of Annemiek van Vleuten.
Glasgow would not supply ascents on the dimensions, however it’s a course which presents loads of alternative for the peloton to be damaged aside.
Niewiadoma is a rider that’s not afraid to roll the cube and can discover loads of alternatives to race aggressively on the highway from Loch Lomond to the ultimate end line in George Sq., Glasgow.
Outsiders and U23 riders
There are many different riders that made it to the contenders shortlist, that we simply could not fairly slot in. They embody Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, who put her formidable type on show on the Tour de France Femmes, with the South African delivering three top-five finishes throughout different phases.
Then there may be stage 6 winner Emma Norsgaard and her Danish teammate Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, who has been within the high ten on the occasion for the final three years. Marlen Reusser will flip from a extremely worthwhile SD Worx teammate for Vollering and Kopecky right into a fierce rival as she slips on the pink of her Swiss staff jersey, and Lizzie Deignan will probably be holding the hopes of the house crowd together with nationwide champion Pfeiffer Georgi, who had a robust run of spring outcomes. Then there may be New Zealand’s Niamh Fisher-Black, who will probably be stepping out of the U23 class the place she final 12 months received the title.
She’ll have teammates that will probably be chasing these U23 rainbow bands for New Zealand as an alternative, with the pace of Ally Wollaston and the climbing energy of Ella Wyllie set to supply energy throughout differing sections of the course. Anna Shackley will present a powerful U23 prospect for Nice Britain, however Blanka Vas is prone to be one of the highly effective rivals she should counter, with the Hungarian prone to deal with the technical course properly along with her cyclocross fuelled bike dealing with talent and naturally, she has the ending pace that was unleashed to take out stage 8 of the Giro d’Italia Donne layered on high of that as properly.