Vuelta Femenina: 6 rising stars to watch

From Nienke Vinke to Ingvild Gåskjenn, here are the riders looking to show off their potential in Spain

07:57, Saturday 27th April 2024

Matilda Price

Racing News Editor

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Magdeleine Vallieres, Nienke Vinke and Mareille Meijering are all exciting prospects in the Vuelta Femenina

The Vuelta Femenina gets underway this Sunday, 28 April with eight days of racing making up the first Grand Tour of the year. The challenging route between Valencia and Valdesquí includes sprinting, a team time trial, punchy finishes, and plenty of tough climbing.

The main focus will, of course, be the battle for the red jersey, where Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime), Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) are expected to be the favourites duking it out in the mountains. There’s also a brewing sprint duel between Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike), plus plenty of strong opportunists chasing stage wins.

However, outside of the big names, Grand Tours also offer a crucial chance for young or upcoming riders to test themselves over several days of racing. In recent times, many of the peloton’s best young riders had their breakthrough in Grand Tours – Realini in the Giro, Ricarda Bauernfeind and Yara Kastelijn in the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift – because there’s a chance every day to put in a big ride, or for the peloton to let a break survive.

In this year’s Vuelta, there are plenty of riders hoping to emulate the likes of Realini and Bauernfeind and show themselves on the biggest stage. Here are six of the names you should be looking out for next week in Spain.

Nienke Vinke (dsm-firmenich PostNL)

Nienke Vinke celebrates taking second at the Tour Down Under

Joining dsm-firmenich straight out of the juniors in 2023, last year was fairly quiet for Nienke Vinke, but she really burst onto the stage racing scene at the start of 2024 when she claimed second overall at the Tour Down Under, climbing to second behind Sarah Gigante on Willunga Hill. Though she wasn’t a name known to many at the time, it wasn’t a total surprise, with the 19-year-old picking up seventh overall at last year’s Tour de l’Avenir Femmes, clearly proving her climbing proficiency. At the Vuelta, Vinke will make her Grand Tour debut as part of the team assembled around Juliette Labous and Charlotte Kool. Though the leaders’ respective GC and sprint ambitions will be central, there are lots of climbing days in this race, and they won’t all be won by the GC riders. If Vinke can get in the right move, she’ll be a real favourite for a top result, or in any case, a chance to show the world how good she is.

Mareille Meijering (Movistar)

Mareille Meijering is the oldest rider on this list, at 29, but is definitely still a rising star, having raced at a lower level in the Netherlands before bursting onto the WorldTour scene last year. Her start in the pro peloton was a little tumultuous – she joined the Zaaf team – but she was picked up by Movistar in the middle of last year and has already shone for them, securing herself a contract through to the end of 2027, showing just how much the team believes in her talent. A good climber with a punchy flair, Meijering is the type of rider who can do a lot of different things, whether it’s mountains, GC or hilly one-day races. She’s already taken a GC victory this year, at the Vuelta Extremadura Feminas, where she finished third, first and seventh across the three stages. She was consistent in the hillier Classics, and the Vuelta will mark her first big stage race. With Movistar going into this race with fairly open ambitions, there’s every chance Meijering will have the opportunity to show off the big talent she clearly has.

Sophie von Berswordt (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Sophie von Berswordt made an impression at Paris-Roubaix

Unlike Vinke and Meijering, the next name on this list isn’t a climber, but with lots more on the Vuelta route than just the climbs and GC days, there are a lot of different types of riders to watch. Visma-Lease a Bike’s new Dutch recruit Sophie von Berswordt is one of them. Similar to Meijering, Von Berswordt is not super young at 27, but has steadily come up through amateur racing to now be in the WorldTour. She is a powerhouse type of rider, and during the Classics has really shown her aptitude for one-day racing, especially the hard days like Paris-Roubaix, where she finished 14th on debut. What Von Berswordt’s role will be in the Vuelta, her first World Tour stage, remains to be seen, but she should be able to slot in as both a lead-out rider for Vos and support on the flat for their possibly GC hopes, Riejanne Markus and Eva van Agt. On the flatter but rolling days in Spain, Von Berswordt’s strengths should come to the fore, and as she’s proven she can be aggressive, don’t be surprised to see her in and amongst the action.

Justyna Czapla (Canyon-SRAM)

Justyna Czapla is in a perhaps daunting position at Canyon-SRAM as she follows in the footsteps of her fellow Canyon-SRAM Generation alumni Ricarda Bauernfeind and Antonia Niedermaier – both in the Vuelta team – who both won Grand Tour stages in their first season with the elite team last year. Whether she will continue that trend is unknown, but she could certainly have a very good week in Spain. A top-five finisher at the World Championships in both her years as a junior, Czapla is a rider who is slightly more well-known than Bauernfeind and Niedermaier were, and has always been on the path to the WorldTour, making the step up this year. She’s a small rider and a strong climber, and proved her abilities particularly in the Generation team’s Spanish block last year, where she picked up a string of top 10s in tough races. She’s had a relatively quiet season so far, with a fairly rude awakening in the Classics, but the hills and stage races are where she thrives, so keep an eye on her progress at the Vuelta.

Magdeleine Vallieres (EF Education-Cannondale)

There are multiple rising stars to watch within the EF Education-Cannondale team – Kim Cadzow and Clara Emond being the others – but the name we want to highlight is Magdeleine Vallieres. A tipped rider in 2023 and winner of one of the women’s Mallorca Challenge races at the start of the season, Vallieres is a name that is already on a lot of people’s radars, but perhaps not everyone’s. Moving to the fresh, motivated new EF team seems to have been a big boost for Vallieres, with her teammates often singing her praises, and their well-picked programme offering plenty of opportunities for young riders like her. The 22-year-old Canadian is a climbing specialist, and is already quite experienced in Grand Tours – she rode all three last year – but this is the first time she’s racing as a rider who really knows she can win. Main GC responsibilities will be elsewhere et EF, but breakaways or unpredictable days could allow Vallieres to shine and show off the experience she’s gained.

Ingvild Gåskjenn (Liv AlUla Jayco)

Ingvild Gåskjenn in esteemed company on the Amstel Gold Race podium

25-year-old Ingvild Gåskjenn has been on the scene for a long time, coming up through the ranks with her home team Coop-Hitec Products before joining Jayco AlUla in 2023, but she really looks to be getting to her best this season. Some steady results in the early season began to suggest that, but her step up was really exemplified when she rode to third at Amstel Gold Race, just behind Lorena Wiebes and Marianne Vos. That result wasn’t a fluke, but rather down to the progress that both Gåskjenn and her Liv AlUla Jayco team have been making this season, racing more consistently in the harder races. She backed up her surprise podium with 13th and 21st in Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which aren’t the biggest results but point towards a real strength. The Vuelta will be her next test, but the medium climbing days should suit her well, and she’ll be looking to back up her potential shown so far this spring.

For everything you need to know about the 2024 Vuelta Femenina, from the key information to this year's route and start list, be sure to check out our dedicated race hub.