Key points:
- The 4th edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift calls 24 teams of 6 riders to battle through the Hell of the North on Saturday 6 April.
- Defending champion Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale) leads the attackers willing to turn the race upside down.
- The bigger guns, led by Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx-Protime), Marianne Vos (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) and Lidl-Trek’s collective strength, will aim to control the chaos over 29.2km of cobblestones.
The first three editions of Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift crowned three very different winners, through opposite scenarios. What will the winner of the fourth edition invent in order to succeed Elizabeth Deignan (2021), Elisa Longo Borghini (2022) and Alison Jackson (2023) ? A star studded peloton is gearing in Denain ahead of Saturday’s battles over the cobbles leading to the André-Pétrieux velodrome where dreams come true.
Icons such as Marianne Vos (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) and the UCI World Champion Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx-Protime) are among the bigger names yet to raise aloft the iconic winner’s cobble at the end of the Hell of the North. The Dutch queen and her Belgian successor are cut for the myth, as highlighted by their places of 2nd in Roubaix (in 2021 for Vos, 2022 for Kopecky), but the triumph has escaped them so far, may it be due to tactics or bad luck.
In 2024, Kopecky heads a power duo alongside Lorena Wiebes (who keeps impressing with her progress in the Classics, underlined by her victory in Gent-Wevelgem) while Vos remains Visma | Lease a Bike’s main (and sole?) reference. Recent weeks have shown how strong they head into Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift…
Strong enough to tame the cobblestones as well as their rivals? The terrain is well known, with 17 sections (adding up to 29.2km of cobbles) to overcome. And the opposition is impressive as well.
After they won and placed two riders on the podiums of the first two editions of Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift, Lidl-Trek comes with strength in numbers again. Lucinda Brand came 3rd in the velodrome in 2022. Ellen van Dijk is firing on all cylinders since she returned to competition early March, after giving birth. And although Elisa Balsamo hasn’t been successful in her first attempts in the Hell of the North, she proved in recent weeks she’s back to her very best with back to back victories in Cittiglio and De Panne.
Her compatriot Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) is on an impressive roll as well but victory eludes her at the moment… Anyone coming to the velodrome with her should be wary of her speed and her stellar past as a track rider. Fast women such as Charlotte Kool (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Emma Norsgaard (Movistar Team) can also count on their sprints, while rising talents such as Pfeiffer Georgi (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon//Sram Racing) have the skills to animate the race.
After all, attacking often pays its dividends in Roubaix. Last year, six riders from the early breakaway narrowly resisted the peloton, and most of them will be back this week-end, in the wake of Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale): Katia Ragusa (Human Powered Health), Marthe Truyen (Fenix-Deceuninck), Marion Borras (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93) and Marta Lach (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team). How will they turn the race upside down this time?
24 TEAMS, THE MAIN CONTENDERS
Australia
Liv-AlUla-Jayco: Amber Pate (Aus), Letizia Paternoster (Ita)
Belgium
AG Insurance-Soudal Team: Kim Le Court (Mri), Ilse Pluimers (Ned)
Fenix-Deceuninck: Christina Schweinberger (Aut), Marthe Trugen (Bel)
France
Arkéa-B&B Hotels Women: Emilia Fahlin (Swe)
Cofidis Women Team: Victoire Berteau (Fra)
FDJ-Suez: Grace Brown (Aus), Amber Kraak (Ned)
St Michel-Mavic-Auber93: Marion Borras (Fra), Roxane Fournier (Fra)
Team Komugi-Grand Est: Chloé Charpentier (Fra)
Winspace: Constance Valentin (Fra)
Germany
Canyon//Sram Racing: Zoe Bäckstedt (Gbr), Elise Chabbey (Sui)
Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team: Nina Berton (Lux), Marta Lach (Pol)
Great Britain
Lifeplus Wahoo: Eluned King (Gbr)
The Netherlands
Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL: Pfeiffer Georgi (Gbr), Charlotte Kool (Ned)
Team SD Worx-Protime: Lotte Kopecky (Bel), Lorena Wiebes (Ned)
Team Visma | Lease a Bike: Marianne Vos (Ned)
VolkerWessels Women’s Pro Cycling Team: Anneke Dijkstra (Ned)
Norway
Team Coop-Repsol: April Tacey (GBR)
Uno-X Mobility: Anniina Ahtosalo (Fin), Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Ita)
Spain
Movistar Team: Emma Norsgaard Bjerg (Den), Arlenis Sierra (Cub)
Switzerland
Roland: Maggie Coles-Lyster (Can)
The UAE
UAE Team ADQ: Chiara Consonni (Ita)
The USA
EF Education-Cannondale: Alison Jackson (Can)
Human Powered Health: Audrey Cordon-Ragot (Fra), Katia Ragusa (Ita)
Lidl-Trek: Elisa Balsamo (Ita), Lucinda Brand (Ned), Ellen van Dijk (Ned)
HISTORICAL SERIES: ESCAPE FROM HELL
In the end, it’s not always the strongest who wins. Certainly not in cycling, and most definitely not in Paris-Roubaix. On the roads of the Hell of the North, the “strongest” can just as easily win in the legendary velodrome as get bogged down in the Trouée d’Arenberg. Year after year, the cobblestone crushers crash in the Mons-en-Pévèle sector or collapse in the Carrefour de l’Arbre – and one cannot underestimate the traps of the asphalt either. On these unique roads, an aspirant for glory needs to be strong, but also brave and lucky. Paris-Roubaix smiles on the bold, even those who have been out there the longest. In a race where chaos is always the order of the day, early attackers create unsuspected openings. Conquerors of the Hell of the North, they tell us about their heavenly day on the cobbles.
