Gent - Wevelgem 2024

A 171km test featuring cobbles, climbs and crosswinds around the Flanders heartlands

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Gent - Wevelgem

Dates 24 Mar
Race Length 168 kms
Start Ypres
Finish Wevelgem
Race Category Elite Women

Published: 20 March, 2024

Gent-Wevelgem Women 2024 overview

The women’s Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields will run on Sunday, March 24 in Belgium and will take on 171km of Flemish racing across the western half of the country.

The race is a stalwart of the Spring season and gives the women’s peloton a stern test in the run up to the biggest Classics on the calendar. Traditionally run the Sunday before the Tour of Flanders, Gent-Wevelgem is a crown in and of itself with an honour roll almost as illustrious as Flanders with recent winners like Marlen Reusser, Elisa Balsamo and Marianne Vos. The characteristics of the race are distinctive, with more time spent on the flat, windswept roads of West Flanders than De Ronde, but with two laps of the fearsome Kemmelburg there is still enough cobbled climbing to make the race selective.

With a fine balance between the strengths of Classics specialists and sprinters, Gent-Wevelgem is a race with many possible outcomes that can kick off very early in the long race with the windswept fields of De Moeren preceding the seven climbs that are scattered throughout the final 70km.

Gent-Wevelgem Women 2024 key information

When is the 2024 Gent-Wevelgem Women? Gent-Wevelgem Women will take place on Sunday, 24 March.

Where does Gent-Wevelgem Women take place? Gent-Wevelgem Women takes place in the Flanders region of Belgium. While the race is historically called Gent-Wevelgem Women, the race itself no longer starts in Gent. Instead, the race begins in Ypres before looping around West and East Flanders and ending with the long flat run to Wevelgem.

Who won Gent-Wevelgem Women in 2023? Malen Reusser (SD Worx-Protime) won the race with a solo attack, winning the race by 2:42 over the peloton. Megan Jastrab (dsm-firmenich PostNL) won the sprint for second ahead of Maike van der Duin (Canyon-SRAM).

When did Gent-Wevelgem Women start? The first edition of the race was run in 2012, and was won by Lizzie Deignan, then Armitstead.

Who has the most wins at the Gent-Wevelgem Women? Kirsten Wild has two wins at Gent-Wevelgem, in 2013 and 2019.

Gent-Wevelgem Women 2024 route: early crosswinds and late climbs decide the day

The route for the 2024 women's Gent-Wevelgem

The 2024 Gent-Wevelgem Women is one of the longer races on the Women’s WorldTour calendar at 171km, and will have all of the same trappings of the course over the past few years with the main elements of the course remaining on the menu.

From the start in Ypres the race will start by heading northwest towards the coastline of the North Sea and De Moeren where, if the weather is right, the wind will blow and break the race apart early in the proceedings. The first 100km are flat, with wind and a couple of cobbled sectors the only potential difficulties, but that changes once the race reaches the climbs around the Kemmelberg for the first time, with just over 67km to go.

Once the climbing starts, they come in rapid succession with the seven ascents all packed into 30km as they wind their way up, down and around the Kemmelberg area. Those hills packed together, plus the added kilometres of flat racing leading into the climbs, will fatigue the legs of the peloton before the crucial final kick up the Kemmelberg’s steep side (0.7km, 11.4%) with 35km to go.

On that final steep surge up the Kemmelberg, the Classics riders and would-be attackers will try to make their move before the sprinters and their teams attempt to reorganise after the descent and set up for the flat run to the finish. A last-minute escape can go after the Kemmelberg, however with the high calibre of sprinters on the start line if it is together after the final climb a sprint is the likely outcome.

Which teams are racing Gent-Wevelgem Women 2024?

Gent-Wevelgem Women is a WorldTour race and will have a full complement of 15 WorldTour teams and nine wildcard Continental teams making up the full peloton of 24 teams of seven riders.

WorldTour teams:

AG Insurance-Soudal
Canyon-SRAM
Ceratizit-WNT
FDJ-SUEZ
Fenix-Deceuninck
Human Powered Health
Lidl-Trek
Liv AlUla Jayco
Movistar
Roland
dsm-firmenich PostNL
SD Worx-Protime
UAE Team ADQ
Uno-X Mobility
Visma-Lease a Bike

Continental teams:

Arkéa-B&B Hotels
Cofidis
Chevalmeire
Proximus-Cyclis CT
EF Education-Cannondale
Lifeplus Wahoo
Lotto-Dstny
Team Coop-Repsol
VolkerWessels Women's Pro Cycling

What happened at Gent-Wevelgem Women in 2023?

Marlen Reusser wins the 2023 Gent-Wevelgem

Marlen Reusser (SD Worx-Protime) won the 2023 Gent-Wevelgem Women with a 40km solo move, attacking before the race even hit the crucial final climb up the Kemmelberg. The time trial specialist was never to be seen again as she powered her way to win solo by almost three minutes. Megan Jastrab (dsm-firmenich) took the group sprint behind for second while Maike van der Duin (Canyon-SRAM) finished third.