10 riders to watch at Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift

From the favourites to the underdogs, here are ten riders we think you should keep an eye on during the race on Saturday

02:05, Friday 5th April 2024

GCN

The GCN team

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Lotte Kopecky drives the peloton in the 2023 edition. Can she finally give SD Worx their first win in Paris-Roubaix Femmes?

Saturday brings one of the newest and toughest races of the spring: Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift. Only launched in 2021 after much clamour for the women’s peloton to have their own “Hell of the North”, Paris-Roubaix immediately established itself as a race everyone wants to win.

One of the most intriguing elements of Roubaix is that, as well as being a race every rider would love to win, it’s a race that, to a degree, every rider could actually win. The cobbles of northern France are as unpredictable as they are brutal, which means the race situation can be upended in a moment, and things rarely happen as expected. In three editions we’ve seen: a long-range solo win, a closer solo attack, and a totally unexpected breakaway victory. Anything can happen and anyone can win, as long as they survive.

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With that in mind, it’s hard to pick out one rider as a favourite, but this deep into the Classics season, we do have a good idea of who has the legs to perform on Saturday. Here are ten of the names to keep an eye on as the peloton hits the 30km of cobbles between Denain and Roubaix this weekend.

10 riders to watch at Paris-Roubaix Femmes

Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime)

A few weeks ago, Lotte Kopecky would have been amongst the out-and-out favourites for Paris-Roubaix. Despite being defeated in the last few races, we’d argue that that makes Kopecky more of a contender for Saturday, not less: she has a Classics season to save, and the fire of disappointment to spur her on. Her form is is a curious question, especially with the Ardennes – which she has specifically worked towards – coming up. Nevertheless, Kopecky is always one of the strongest riders in the peloton, and the lack of climbing in Roubaix should play into her hands, as that was her biggest challenge in the Tour of Flanders.

Kopecky is a rider who is often successful through brute force and will, which is a valid approach in Roubaix, where a big part of winning is just getting through unscathed. She is also one of the few riders strong enough to launch a successful move on the flat, which is how we’ve seen this race won in previous years. With a motivated team around her, and a cobblestone up for grabs – this is one race SD Worx-Protime have yet to win – the power is in Kopecky’s hands this weekend. She just needs to get it right.

Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike)

Marianne Vos at the 2021 Paris-Roubaix where she finished second

Another rider for whom a cobblestone would be a very welcome addition to an already pretty full trophy cabinet is Marianne Vos. The widely-accepted GOAT of women’s cycling has won pretty much everything there is to win in the sport. Unfortunately for her, they keep adding new races, which she needs to win to keep her palmarès so extraordinarily complete. Paris-Roubaix is one of those races and one she’ll be hoping to win before her career ends. After coming second in the inaugural edition, she then unluckily caught Covid before the second edition of the race, but came back to take 10th in 2023.

Being the best of the rest behind Lizzie Deignan in 2021, Vos knows she can do well here, she just needs things to go her way. Fortunately, the Dutchwoman seems to be in the form of her life at present, winning Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Dwars door Vlaanderen so far this season, and happily admitting that things are going very well for her right now. Winning Roubaix is never easy, but if Vos is going to do it, this year seems like possibly her best chance.

Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek)

Lidl-Trek have won two of the three editions of Paris-Roubaix Femmes so far, but they’re without their former champions this weekend, with Lizzie Deignan nursing a broken arm and Flanders winner Elisa Longo Borghini sticking to her plan to skip Saturday and focus on the Ardennes. In their absences, Lidl-Trek have a few options, including former podium finisher Lucinda Brand, but their likely leader will be Elisa Balsamo, who has been on scintillating form so far this Classics season. The Italian doesn’t have the best record here – an unfortunate DSQ and twice outside the top 50 – but she does have experience, having ridden every edition, and of course the expertise from her team.

Balsamo is also in good shape, having won the Trofeo Alfredo Binda and Brugge-De Panne so far this season, as well as taking runner-up spots in Ronde van Drenthe and Gent-Wevelgem. Balsamo isn’t a rider who’s built for a solo move like her successful teammates, but is definitely capable of infiltrating – or surviving in – the move that goes to the finish, where you would back her to beat most riders, bar perhaps Lorena Wiebes. Survival, and some good luck, will be key to Balsamo’s success and if she’s there in the finale, her chances of victory are high.

Emma Norsgaard (Movistar)

For all its unpredictability, and its place at the end of a turbulent cobbled Classics season, it can feel surprising that riders build their campaigns around Paris-Roubaix, but many do and Emma Norsgaard is one of them. The Dane is the definition of a rouleur, and her TT strength combined with her sprint makes her the perfect kind of rider to do well at Roubaix, and so far she’s taken 11th and sixth in the velodrome. Norsgaard brings an extra level of hardiness and sustainable power that the likes of Balsamo and Wiebes can’t quite match, which should see her survive longer into a tough race than them, and hopefully still have a sprint at the finish. She’s also a very aggressive racer, alongside her Movistar team, who have animated the Spring so far but without a big result, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see her getting stuck into the action on Saturday, and very possibly delivering a good result.

Alison Jackson (EF Education-Cannondale)

Alison Jackson after she won the 2023 Paris-Roubaix

As the only former winner on the start line, Alison Jackson deserves a spot on this list. Her results this year so far have been relatively quiet, but the same was true before her win in 2023. Furthermore, Roubaix is a race where fortunes and form can change quickly, and previous results don’t necessarily tell you much. The other thing that plays in Jackson’s favour is the power of confidence. She knows what it takes to win this race, which sectors are crucial, where to push and where to save energy, but she also knows she can win it, a privilege that very few riders in the peloton share.

In a race that can strike fear into many, that ability to know you can survive is a calming, confidence-boosting asset. As a new team, born from the ashes of the EF Education-TIBCO-SVB squad, EF Education-Cannondale are taking on their first Paris-Roubaix but with bags of experience both on the bikes and behind the scenes, and a lot of success so far this season. Lightning rarely strikes in the same place twice and all the teams will be weary of letting another breakaway go, but Jackson doesn’t necessarily need that and should be in the frame anyway on Saturday.

Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime)

As Jasper Philipsen proved in the men’s race last year, even sprinters can go well in Roubaix, provided they are made of tough stuff. And while toughness is certainly something Lorena Wiebes has, she’s not had great results here so far. Then again, neither have SD Worx-Protime. The team doesn’t seem to have got the measure of this race yet. However, they’re determined this year, and Wiebes could prove a handy backup option to Kopecky.

Unlike Kopecky, Wiebes wouldn’t have to attack – the hardest task on the gruelling cobbles – but rather ‘just’ stay with the front group. Of course, this isn’t easy either, but Wiebes is a hard rider to drop, and if she can hold on towards the end, her sprint in the velodrome will be vicious. Whether Wiebes gets a chance or has to sacrifice her hopes for her team, as we saw to an extent in Flanders, remains to be seen, but the peloton will be looking at her as a threat, and she shouldn’t be counted out.

Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-SRAM)

As much as Paris-Roubaix is about skill, luck and form, it equally awards enthusiasm. Enthusiasm for the race, for its pavé and for the depths to which riders must plunge in order to come out the other side with a cobblestone on their mantelpiece. One rider whose love for the race perhaps stands above all others is Zoe Bäckstedt – the daughter of 2004 Paris-Roubaix winner Magnus Bäckstedt. Six years ago, the 19-year-old rode her final mini-Paris-Roubaix as a 14-year-old and was worried that it might be her last competitive pedalstrokes over the cobbles.

Such was her love for the race that her and a friend wrote an email to the ASO asking for the elite women to finally be given their own race. It may have taken three years but the peloton got given their first crack of the whip in 2021 and last year, Bäckstedt made her return. It wasn’t to be on the day, but the 19-year-old is one of the most exciting talents in the world and will no doubt compete for the win here in the near future.

Pfeiffer Georgi (dsm-firmenich PostNL)

Georgi at the 2023 Paris-Roubaix

There are four riders on the start list who have notched up two top-10 finishes in the race’s three editions to date. Among that number is dsm-firmenich PostNL’s Pfeiffer Georgi, who continues to go from strength to strength as she matures as a rider. Still only 23 years of age, the British national champion has quickly become one of the most dependable riders in the bunch, both as a loyal teammate to Charlotte Kool in the sprints and chasing her own ambitions in the classics.

The floodgates opened for Georgi in 2023 with victories at Classic Brugge-De Panne, Dwars door de Westhoek and Binche Chimay Binche pour Dames complementing her second national title. Georgi can perhaps be best described as a stubborn rider, rarely letting a bad moment spell the end of her race, and ninth and eighth-place finishes at the last editions of Paris-Roubaix are a testament to this. Her best hope for a victory would be a lone attack.

Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ)

At 59kg and 1.65m, Chiara Consonni is not a rider that one would assume would thrive in the Spring Classics, but the UAE Team ADQ sprinter is not an ordinary rider. Resilient beyond her stature, the Italian has a knack for being in the right place at the right time and that is a skill which is very hard to teach. A winner of Dwars door Vlaanderen two seasons ago, it goes without saying that Consonni is a fearsome opponent in a small sprint, but she is equally capable when the going gets tough.

In last year’s Paris-Roubaix Femmes, the 24-year-old was part of the small group that sprinted for secondary placings behind the successful breakaway. It wasn’t to be their day, but with a ninth-place finish, Consonni showed herself to be more than capable of going the distance. With a resilient streak and a fast finish, Consonni will always stand a chance in this race. All she needs is for a winning move to fall her way.

Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez)

Australia’s Grace Brown is not a perennial winner, but the 31-year-old is a rider who pops up with a big performance from time to time. With her diesel-like engine, gritted determination and a handy sprint when needed, Brown is a rider tailor-made for Paris-Roubaix Femmes. Though things haven’t fallen her way to date. A couple of solid if not unspectacular performances have resulted in 12th and 13th-place finishes over the past two seasons.

Credible standings in such a difficult race they may be, but for a rider of Brown’s ilk, much more is possible. The Australian has made a habit of picking off her moments over the past few seasons, with plenty of stage victories to her name and a win at the Oxyclean Classic Brugge-De Panne on her palmarès. Paris-Roubaix is a race for the tough, and in Brown, FDJ-SUEZ boasts one of the peloton’s strongest roulers.