The ladies’s street race will conclude the street biking occasions on the 2024 Olympic Video games on Sunday, August 4 in Paris earlier than consideration shifts towards observe racing on the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Nationwide Velodrome from August 5-11.
The ultimate street biking occasion will begin and end within the shadow of the Eiffel Tower on the Pont d’Iéna that crosses the Seine between the Trocadéro Gardens and the Champ de Mars.
The race will cowl 158km, with 1,700 metres of climbing and 9 named ascents, after which end on three difficult circuits in central Paris that go to the enduring Montmartre space of the town.
The riders to observe for these Olympic Video games are additionally these well-suited to the Spring Classics, such because the Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
Cyclingnews highlights the primary contenders for the ladies’s street race on the Olympic Video games.
Get limitless entry to all of our protection of the 2024 Olympic Video games – together with breaking information and evaluation reported by our journalists on the bottom from each occasion throughout street, mountain bike, observe and BMX racing because it occurs and extra. Discover out extra.
Paris Olympics ladies’s street race contenders
Lotte Kopecky arrived in Paris aiming to win three medals in her focused occasions: particular person time trial, street race, and Omnium on the observe.
Her efficiency within the time trial, which opened the Video games final Saturday, suffered attributable to a mid-race crash on the rain-soaked and slippery parcours. She ended up ending sixth place, 1:56 behind Australia’s gold medal winner Grace Brown.
She now has two extra probabilities on the medals, with the subsequent alternative within the street race on Sunday. Hopefully, she has recovered from the time trial accident and can have the ability to carry out at her greatest in a street race that’s well-suited to her power and talent as an all-rounder.
Kopecky is the reigning World Champion on this occasion, having secured her title on the Glasgow Worlds final summer season, together with world titles within the Elimination Race and Factors Race, and bronze within the Omnium.
Her profitable performances at Strade Bianche, Paris-Roubaix, and second total on the Giro d’Italia Ladies point out that she is at her greatest kind for these Olympic Video games. And as a two-time Tour of Flanders champion, look ahead to Kopecky to set the tone for the ladies’s street race in Paris.
If Kopecky is the out-right favorite to win the gold medal within the ladies’s street race in Paris, then Lorena Wiebes is her greatest rival.
The pair are usually SD Worx-Protime teammates within the WorldTour. The tough-to-beat duo has claimed many 1-2 victories all through the final two seasons, which means they know one another’s strengths and weaknesses very nicely.
In Paris, they are going to be racing in opposition to each other and it will likely be attention-grabbing to see how they compete amongst their respective nationwide groups.
Whereas Kopecky typically performs extra of a wildcard in her street races, Wiebes is often in tune with a strong lead-out that helps place her for dash wins. She comes into this occasion recent off of 5 stage wins and the general title victory on the Baloise Girls Tour and she or he mentioned she would spend time fine-tuning her kind at residence earlier than heading to Paris.
Wiebes will spearhead a Dutch staff which additionally contains Tour de France winner Demi Vollering, who may additionally win a medal in Paris, former multi-time world champion and Olympic champion Marianne Vos, and three-time time trial world champion Ellen van Dijk.
Nationwide coach Loes Gunnewijk confirmed the choice to nominate Wiebes because the staff chief, and whereas she is well-known as one of many peloton’s quickest sprinters, she can also be able to climbing with one of the best and taking part in techniques in a decisive breakaway.
If the race comes all the way down to a diminished group dash, and the Dutch staff are all current on the entrance, Wiebes can have one of the best lead-out within the area, and a transparent probability on the gold medal.
Chloé Dygert, reigning time trial and Particular person Pursuit world champion, additionally got here into these Olympic Video games aiming for gold medals within the time trial, street race and on the observe however a crash within the rain-soaked time trial final weekend meant that she needed to accept the bronze medal.
Regardless of crashing on the identical leg that she injured in a horrific crash on the Imola Worlds in 2020, Dygert mentioned she is going to proceed on in these Video games and check out her greatest within the street race on Sunday earlier than turning her consideration to the observe the place she is going to compete within the Staff Pursuit.
No stranger to the Olympic Video games, Dygert has received silver and bronze medals within the Staff Pursuit in 2016 Rio and 2021 Tokyo, respectively.
Within the street race, Dygert is taken into account a darkish horse, lining up alongside her teammate and nationwide champion Kristen Faulkner, additionally a possible medal contender.
Nevertheless, Dygert has proven that when she is wholesome and never injured, she is a serious contender in one-day street races. She completed fourth within the elite ladies’s street race on the Yorkshire World Championships in 2019, the place she additionally received her first elite time trial world title. Dygert has additionally been on the rostrum in levels on the Vuelta España Femenina, Giro d’Italia Ladies, RideLondon, and was sixth this 12 months at Traditional Brugge-De Panne.
Whereas her situation following the time trial continues to be considerably unknown, her means to rise to the highest at key moments makes it arduous to strike her off the record of contenders for a medal within the ladies’s street race.
Elisa Longo Borghini got here into this block of the season aiming for high performances on the Giro d’Italia Ladies, Olympic Video games and Tour de France Femmes. She has already gone above and past even her personal expectations, profitable her first total title on the Italian Grand Tour in July.
On the Olympic Video games, Longo Borghini completed eighth within the particular person time trial. Whereas there was no medal, it might have provided her a warm-up forward of Sunday’s street race.
At all times bringing a tactical and aggressive model of racing to the one-day occasions, Longo Borghini will seemingly play a pivotal position within the consequence of the occasion; whether or not it comes all the way down to a diminished group or a breakaway, we will anticipate to see Longo Borghini preventing for the victory all the best way to the end line.
A winner of Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders (twice), Trofeo Alfredo Binda (twice) and Strade Bianche, and this 12 months she was additionally third at Flèche Wallonne and second at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Longo Borghini excels on each technical and punchy terrain, and the Paris course would possibly play into her benefit.
The Italian staff can also be full of power, together with former world champion Elisa Balsamo, Silvia Persico, and Elena Cecchini. The Italians are recognized for his or her cohesive racing – suppose Leuven Worlds, the place Balsamo received the rainbow jersey after a stellar staff efficiency – which may once more be what units them other than the opposite groups on the Video games.
The Australians opened the Olympic Video games precisely as that they had hoped, with Grace Brown profitable the gold medal within the particular person time trial final weekend.
Brown will likely be a contender, too, for a medal within the street race, particularly as this course seems to play into the fingers of those that go well with the Spring Traditional and the Ardennes Classics.
Brown had had a stable season, profitable the time trial title on the Australian Championships after which taking victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, changing into the primary girl from Australia to win one in every of biking’s Monuments.
She plans to retire on the finish of this season and, within the course of, is punctuating a glowing profession in skilled biking with one of the best outcomes of her profession.
The Australian staff additionally has one other contender in Ruby Roseman-Gannon. as whereas Brown typically grasps her greatest outcomes by taking part in an attacking hand Roseman-Gannon gives an choice for a diminished bunch dash. She doesn’t outline herself as one of many world’s greatest sprinters however says she has the power to place herself in the correct place close to the tip of a race for the absolute best end result.
She is the reigning Australian street champion and just lately secured her first victory on the WorldTour at Tour of Britain, outsprinting SD Worx teammates Christine Majerus, Lorena Wiebes and world champion Lotte Kopecky on the ultimate day.
She has recovered from an damage within the Spring Classics and appears able to compete for wins on the Olympic Video games and the Tour de France Femmes.
France’s gold-medal hopes are sitting on the shoulders of Juliette Labous at these Paris Olympic Video games. She was chosen to the staff alongside Audrey Cordon-Ragot and Victoire Berteau, whereas compatriot Évita Muzic missed out.
Labous is the French Champion and the nation’s high rider on the planet rating and was the only real rider representing France within the ladies’s street occasions on the Tokyo Olympics Video games. This season she has completed within the high 10 at Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, fourth total at La Vuelta Femenina, third total at Itzulia Ladies, and fifth total at each Tour de Suisse and Giro d’Italia Ladies.
She opened the Olympic Video games with a fourth-place end within the particular person time trial, simply exterior the medals, exhibiting that she is in nice kind for this block of the season and is more likely to solely get stronger as she approaches the Tour de France Femmes.
Labous can have the house benefit for the street race and has seemingly spent a while previewing the route with the nationwide staff, realizing each inch of the technical and difficult parcours. She will even have the assist of the roadside followers out to observe and cheer on their residence favourites.
Nice Britain has had a robust begin to the Olympic Video games as Anna Henderson claimed a silver medal within the ladies’s particular person time trial and Tom Pidcock received gold within the males’s cross nation mountain bike occasion.
Henderson will even be a contender for the street race, however the staff will seemingly assist British Champion Pfeiffer Georgi.
She has had robust performances within the one-day races this 12 months, ending fifth at Trofeo Binda, third at Paris-Roubaix and fourth at Amstel Gold Race. She was additionally fourth total on the Tour of Britain and second total on the Baloise Girls Tour.
Lizzie Deignan is more likely to play a assist position at these Video games after a season marred by accidents following a crash on the Tour of Flanders this spring. Nevertheless, Deignan can by no means be counted out as a contender, as a former world champion and winner of the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Her expertise can also be more likely to be simply as helpful an asset on the street as her legs, on this race with no rider radio.
Austria comes into these Olympic Video games with the defending champion Anna Kiesenhofer, who took a shock victory within the street race on the Tokyo Video games in 2021.
Kiesenhofer has had a robust season, profitable double nationwide titles within the time trial and street race, and can play a helpful position for the Austrian staff within the street race this time round.
It might sound unlikely that the peloton will permit Kiesenhofer to energy away from a breakaway in pursuit of gold once more; something can occur in bike racing and typically it is the skin contenders who take advantage of a possibility in a race just like the Olympic Video games.
The staff additionally contains Christina Schweinberger, who had a breakout season in 2023 with memorable performances together with a 3rd within the time trial and fifth within the street race on the Glasgow Worlds.
Her efficiency within the street race on the World Championships was all of the extra spectacular as she completed with a range that broke off the entrance and fought to the end regardless of assault after assault from rivals Lotte Kopecky, Demi Vollering, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Marlen Reusser.
One other efficiency like that might see her reaching for the medals in Paris.
Kim Cadzow is barely in her second full season of racing however she has already turned heads, profitable the time trial title and ending second within the street race on the New Zealand Championships and taking the general title at Trofeo Ponente in Rosa.
On the Ardennes Classics she was sixth place at Liège-Bastogne-Liège after which went on to take three top-10 stage finishes and tenth total on the Vuelta España Femenina, eighth total on the Tour de Suisse, however did not end the Giro d’Italia Ladies the place the warmth took its toll.
Her performances led to a contract extension together with her commerce staff EF Schooling-Cannondale, so we will anticipate her gaining expertise and rising on the WorldTour over the subsequent two seasons.
She completed seventh within the time trial on the Olympic Video games and, given her season to date, has a shot on the high 10, too, within the street race on Sunday.
Katarzyna Niewiadoma, the reigning Gravel World Champion, has constructed this season round efficiency on the Olympic Video games and the Tour de France Femmes.
She opted to not compete on the Giro d’Italia Ladies and as a substitute completed her final block of racing on the Lotto Thüringen Girls Tour, the place she completed seventh total.
Earlier within the 12 months, she was seventh at Omloop het Nieuwsblad, fourth at Strade Bianche, second at Tour of Flanders after which received Flèche Wallonne, her first Classics victory since profitable the Amstel Gold Race in 2019. She then took fifth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
That is her third Olympic Video games, however she says she is extra calm and centered at this stage of her profession, and never as simply overwhelmed by the magnitude of the Olympics as she was in Rio (sixth) and Tokyo (14th).
Niewiadoma is an all-rounder, and whereas she excels in climbing, she can also be a strong rider within the finals of massive one-day races. She strains up alongside Polish teammates Marta Lach and Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka with an excellent probability at a high 5 on Sunday.
Alison Jackson is a former Paris-Roubaix winner who appears to be like for alternatives in each bike race she begins and races on tenacity, excessive vitality and power. She secured a stage win on the Vuelta España Femenina in Might, her high end result this 12 months, after negotiating her path to perfection via a messy crash marred dash.
Search for Jackson to commit 100% to a breakaway or be amongst a bunch dash within the remaining. The course in Paris is demanding however not too difficult for a rider like Jackson. She completed thirty second within the street race in Tokyo, however the Paris parcours go well with her strengths much better.
She strains up with nationwide street champion Olivia Baril, who completed twentieth within the time trial final weekend in Paris.
When is the Paris Olympics ladies’s street race?
The ladies’s street race begins on Sunday, August 4 14:00 CET (8:00 EDT) and ends at round 18:45 (12:45 EDT). Discover out watch biking on the Paris Olympics
Paris Olympics ladies’s street race begin record
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Paris Olympics ladies’s street race route
How lengthy is the Paris Olympics ladies’s street race
The ladies will race 158 kilometres, beginning on the Trocadéro and taking in a 110 kilometre loop earlier than returning to the centre of Paris for 2 18.4-kilometre ending circuits.
See additionally the complete particulars of the Paris Olympics biking programs.
