Even without Lotte Kopecky to lead her out Lorena Wiebes is formidable, but with the world champion leading the way no one could come close to Wiebes who won all three sprint finishes at the RideLondon Classique, a perfect mirror of her 2022 sweep.
Even her chief rival Charlotte Kool couldn’t match Wiebes, who won each of the sprints by bike lengths. Kool managed to finish second overall with her runner-up finishes in both the second and final stages. In the finales this year there were no close calls, the closest rider to Wiebes in form was her teammate Kopecky, who after finishing third on the second and third stages finished third overall, putting two SD Worx-Protime riders on the final podium.
Wiebes also won the points classification, but the mountains classification was secured by Uno-X Mobility’s Rebecca Koerner of Denmark. The youth classification was won by Eleonora Gasparrini of UAE Team ADQ six seconds ahead of Linda Riedmann of Visma-Lease a Bike. Ceratizit-WNT won the team classification and Lizzie Deignan took the best British rider classification, one special to RideLondon.
- From the very first stage, it was clear SD Worx-Protime intended to let Wiebes do her thing. They controlled the peloton and thwarted attacks from Canyon-SRAM and Lidl-Trek. Alice Powers and Lauretta Hanson tried for a late race move, but the Dutch and Uno-X Mobility team wasted no time securing a sprint finish.
- In the finale of the first stage, Kopecky piloted Wiebes to an easy victory, with daylight between herself and Paternoster.
- The queen stage covered a number of short categorized climbs but they didn’t impact the finale of the stage. There were a number of attacks in the final 35 km, including a move by Canyon-SRAM’s Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka that was marked by Kopecky.
- Once the race got closer to the finish a few crashes caused SD Worx-Protime to take control early. They kept the pace fast and when it came time for Wiebes to sprint she was well ahead of Kool who finished second.
- The final stage was a fast one on the streets of London. The few attacks were doomed from the start. With another potential victory for Wiebes or even Kool, both SD Worx-Protime and DSM-Firmenich PostNL worked to keep the peloton together.
- With 10 km to go, third overall before the stage Letizia Paternoster suffered a mechanical and needed a bike change, but Liv AlUla Jayco quickly mobilized to get the Italian back into position. At that point, it was Lidl-Trek pushing the pace at the head of the race for Copponi and the problem for Paternoster was getting back to the front of the peloton. With the bunch taking up the full road, it was a challenge for the Australian team to regain their position before the sprint. She was able to get to the wheel of Wiebes just before the 2 km to go mark, it was a fantastic bit of late-race drama.
- Going into the sprint Wiebes was shuffled slightly out of position but held tight to Kopecky’s wheel. When it was time to go, Kopecky was able to regain a lot of the lost space so when Wiebes went she didn’t have to make up any ground and took the third stage easily.
Stage-by-stage results:
Stage 1: 🥇 Lorena Wiebes, 🥈Letizia Paternoster, 🥉 Clara Copponi
Stage 2: 🥇 Lorena Wiebes, 🥈 Charlotte Kool, 🥉 Lotte Kopecky
Stage 3: 🥇 Lorena Wiebes, 🥈 Charlotte Kool, 🥉 Lotte Kopecky
Final GC Top 10
Loading...
Quote of the day
It’s always hard to try the same again, hat tricks are always hard to do, but I’m really happy to be unbeatable in RideLondon.
Lorena Wiebes on her double-hat trick of stage wins in 2022 and 2023
Brief analysis
- Going into the race Wiebes was undefeated in sprint finishes this year. Kool was able to best her at the start of last season, but after a late comeback to racing in 2024 due to illness, the Dutchwoman hasn’t been up to her 2023 form. Still, Kool was the closest to Wiebes in all three finishes and will be taking these results into her prep for the rest of the season. After the third stage, Kool said she felt better this weekend than at La Vuelta, and that she feels her shape is going in the right direction.
- This is the second WWT stage race in a row SD Worx-Protime has swept the stages. In Spain, Mischa Bredewold won the first two stages and Demi Vollering the third and overall of Itzulia Women. Even if their Spring campaign wasn’t the same as last year, they are starting the summer just as dominant as they were in 2023. The Dutch team has now won every WWT stage race (on European soil) so far this year. Vollering won La Vuelta, Vuelta a Burgos and Itzulia, and now Wiebes adds to the tally with RideLondon.
- A breakout rider from the spring came back to the peloton with flying form. Letizia Paternoster of Liv AlUla Jayco, who finished third at Dwars door Vlaanderen and fourth at Ronde van Drenthe, took second on the first stage and fourth on the second stage.
- The women will remain in the UK for the next round of the Women’s WorldTour. The newly named Women’s Tour of Britain kicks off June 6 – a four-stage race starting in Welshpool and ending in Manchester. Formerly the Women’s Tour, this year British Cycling will take over control of the race after former organizers nearly cancelled the event for the second year in a row.
What did you think of this story?