Team SD Worx

Silvia Persico outsprinted her breakaway companions, including Demi Vollering and Liane Lippert, in the kick to the line to take her first win of the season and her maiden victory for UAE Team ADQ at De Brabantse Pijl.

Useful Links:
GCN+ | Every. Unmissable. Moment. 👉 


Ride with us at the Global Bike Festival 👉 

🎵 Music - licensed by Epidemic Sound 🎵

📸 Photos - © Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images & © Sprint Cycling Agency

Brought to you by the world’s biggest cycling channel, the Global Cycling Network (GCN), GCN Racing brings you the best of the world’s bike races to your screens, wherever you are: the finest live race commentary, in-depth analysis and behind the scenes access from your favourite events are all here. So get involved, join us, and get ready to be in the thick of the action.

Engage with on the channel and across social media – we’re here to answer every question you’ve got on cycling racing.

Watch our sister channels:
Global Cycling Network - 

Persico vs Vollering! #shorts

This Dutch team, formerly known as Boels-Dolmans, is now likely the strongest team in the WorldTour, but started its life as a small domestic squad in 2010 under the name Dolmans Landscaping Team. 

In 2011 they were granted a UCI licence and from there they blossomed, acquiring a new title sponsor in Boels Rental in 2012, and soon growing into one of the very best teams in the sport. 

Over the years they’ve been home to the likes of Lizzie Deignan, Anna van der Breggen and Megan Guarnier, and  established themselves as 

 super-team of the women’s peloton, usually the ones to beat in both stage races and one-day Classics. In 2021, SD Worx took over as the team’s title sponsor, but the same healthy budget and star-studded line-up continued from the Boels-Dolmans days. 

After Anna van der Breggen’s retirement, Demi Vollering stepped into her role as GC leader, whilst the arrival of Lotte Kopecky only strengthened their already rock-solid Classics team. Known for signing already-established names more than development riders, they acquired a huge talent in 2023 by signing prolific sprinter Lorena Wiebes. As if they weren’t already winning enough, Wiebes will certainly ensure the victories keep ticking up this season.

Demi Vollering

Lotte Kopecky

Lorena Wiebes

Marlen Reusser

Mischa Bredewold

Niamh Fisher-Black

Blanka Vas

Christine Majerus

Anna Shackley

Marie Schreiber

Elena Cecchini

Barbara Guarischi

Sina Frei

Lonneke Uneken

Chantal van den Broek-Blaak

Femke Markus

Racing

Women's

Women's Racing

Vuelta a Burgos Féminas: Demi Vollering and SD Worx cap off Spanish campaign with dominant wins

Demi Vollering and Marlen Reusser celebrate victory at the 2023 Vuelta a Burgos

 both pulled off two impressive clean sweeps: Vollering won all three stages of the inaugural 

, and two weeks later, Wiebes did that same thing at 

. This season, the pair are teammates, and combined forces to complete the second 

 and Vollering shared the spoils at Itzulia, at the sprint-friendly 

, it was Lorena Wiebes’ turn to notch up the stage wins as Vollering went for the overall.

It would have been Wiebes three, Vollering one, but a disqualification for Wiebes on stage 2 denied her the triple crown. Fortunately for SD Worx, though, it was Vollering who came second behind her teammate, so the team’s winning streak was not interrupted (it would be up to 9 victories on the bounce by the time the race was over). With two stages left, SD Worx went into the weekend with the leader’s jersey in hand, two more opportunities to win coming, and a chance for Demi Vollering to secure an overall victory after missing out at the 

Compared to the first two stages, stage 3 was a very straightforward affair: no classified climbs, and much less winds than the gusts that had blown the race apart the day before. The first two-thirds of the stage seemed to reflect that, with no early breakaway going, but heading into the last 40km, the action ramped up.

It was Morgane Coston (Cofidis) who initiated the attacks, going away solo and building a lead. For 10km, it looked like Coston would be on her own, but with 26km to go seven more riders from the peloton bridged across to the French rider - four Continental team riders joined by Sheyla Gutiérrez (Movistar), Karoline Kumiega (UAE Team ADQ) and Kathrin Hammes (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) from the WorldTour.

With 10km to go, the leaders had an advantage of over a minute, and finally, the peloton was sparked into chasing. As expected, it was race leaders and stage favourites SD Worx who put the most horsepower into the chase, with all their riders except Wiebes taking turns on the front.

Their efforts brought the gap down considerably, but it was still touch-and-go into the finale with the break still 15 seconds ahead with 1km to go. Kumiega opened up the sprint from the break first, but the peloton were coming up fast and when Wiebes and Balsamo launched with 250m to go, the chances of a win coming from the breakaway were over. The pair flew past the sprinting breakaway, with Wiebes showing off her unmatchable speed once again to win by a bike length. Gutiérrez held on for third, the best result from the breakaway.

Of course, Wiebes’ closest competitor this season, Charlotte Kool (Team DSM), was missing in Spain, but it was a real display of dominance from the Dutch rider. Balsamo could barely come close to Wiebes’ front wheel, and even on the steep cobbled finish on stage 2, Wiebes was exceedingly powerful on a stage more for the puncheurs than sprinters. Had she not been relegated - for an action that seemed to have little impact on the outcome of the stage - that may have been her most impressive win yet.

Stage 4: Vollering leaves no room for doubt

After three broadly flat stages, it all changed on stage 4. The Lagunas de Neila loomed, a 12km, 8% gradient climb that would define and decide the overall race. The whole stage led to the daunting ascent, the road very slowly rising for 100km before the real mountain even began.

A large, 14-rider group went away early in the stage, but with some riders who were less than a minute down on GC in its midst, this break was never allowed much freedom and SD Worx reeled them back in quickly. A few other riders tried to get away, but it wasn’t until the last 60km that something stuck, when Elisa Balsamo, Alex Manly (Jayco-AlUla) and Sara Martín (Movistar) broke off the front of the peloton. The trio were given around a minute’s advantage, but going into the last 25km, with the climb approaching, the gap began to tumble as SD Worx wound things up in the peloton.

The chase was timed perfectly, and the leaders were caught right at the base of the climb with 12km to go. SD Worx continued to set the pace, and as soon as the road went up, the group began to split with riders struggling to hold on to the speed set. With 9km to go, Vollering had already hit the front, riding at her own tempo with only Shirin van Anrooij (Trek-Segafredo) able to hold on to her wheel. That didn’t last long, and with 8km to go Van Anrooij was dropped too, and Vollering was all alone already.

It made a stark difference from this stage in 2022, when a relatively big group drag raced to the top of the climb, with Vollering only attacking in the last few kilometres, and not able to take enough time to grab the overall lead from Juliette Labous (Team DSM). This year, it was a much more Annemiek van Vleuten-style move from Vollering: set the pace into the climb, attack a long way out, and win by a huge advantage. As soon as Vollering attacked so far from the top, it wasn’t a question of if she was going to win, but rather how much by.

In the end, the answer was a minute and 35 seconds. The group behind her stayed together for most of the climb, with UAE Team ADQ completing the podium with Erica Magnaldi and Silvia Persico in second and third, just ahead of Van Anrooij and Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal QuickStep), who finished second and third on GC. At the finish, Vollering explained how her efforts were not just to win, but to see how far her abilities go - perhaps an important test before she faces Annemiek van Vleuten in bigger races this summer.

“I challenged myself a little bit on this climb to see how far I could come and what I’m capable of doing,” she said. “It’s nice to have some confidence for the Tour de France and other races coming up. It’s nice to challenge yourself.”

Somewhat surprisingly, this Vuelta a Burgos title is only the third GC win of Demi Vollering’s career, after Itzulia 2022 and the Women’s Tour 2021. The numbers may not reflect it, but the 26-year-old has become one of the very best climbers and stage racers in the peloton. She may have finished second to Van Vleuten more times than she’d care to count, but this month in Spain has proved that Vollering is not just the ‘best of the rest’ behind the world champion, but a powerful, domineering rider in her own right, also capable of pulling off long-range, competition-neutralising attacks. That’s 12 wins already this season for the Dutchwoman - almost double that of prolific winner Lorena Wiebes, to put it into perspective - and her biggest goals are still to come.

Vuelta a Burgos Féminas 2023 GC results:

Shirin van Anrooij (Trek-Segafredo) +2:07

Ashleigh Moolman Paiso (AG Insurance-Soudal QuickStep) +2:11

Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Canyon-SRAM) +3:21

Tamara Dronova (Israel Premier Tech Roland) +3:48

Vuelta a Burgos Féminas: Demi Vollering wins stage 2 after Lorena Wiebes relegated

Demi Vollering was awarded the win on stage 2 of the Vuelta a Burgos Féminas 2023.

Demi Vollering (SD Worx) was awarded the win on stage 2 of the Vuelta a Burgos Féminas after her teammate Lorena Wiebes was relegated for a tussle with Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) in the finale.

Wiebes had put in an impressive performance to cross the line first on the punchy finish, but was then demoted to third after elbowing Dygert in the final 500m of the stage. Dygert originally finished third, but was moved up to second with Wiebes now in third place.

A group of only 13 riders battled it out for the win, after being out front for almost the entire day on the wind-affected stage. The group had been nearly 30 riders strong to start, but hard racing from SD Worx and Trek-Segafredo saw plenty of riders dispatched before the finale.

Crosswinds split up the race within the first 10km, and once a strong front group had gone clear in the echelons, they were almost impossible to reel back in.

"It was crazy from the beginning," Wiebes said before the news of her relegation. We had crosswinds or tailwinds almost all the time. So it was a super fast stage, which made it also exciting, and the group went smaller every time there were crosswinds. As a team we did a really great lead out to the final climb."

“In the end it’s not bad at all," Vollering said of being able to keep the win in the team. "But for me, Lorena is the winner of course because she showed again how strong she is and what a special kick she has in the legs. She was really really strong today.”

May in Spain should be sunny, but it was a windy and chilly morning as the riders lined up for the start of stage 2 in Sotresgudo. The stage took in 119km to the finish in Lerma, with a kick up to the line in the finale. With crosswinds expected from the gun, it was a nervous start to the day, and most teams warmed up on rollers, ready to race hard from the get go. There’s just one big day of climbing in this year’s Vuelta a Burgos, so there are a lot of teams interested in forcing splits on these flatter stages.

As a result, the speed was high from the start, and as soon as the winds started blowing, chaos ensued. Within 15 minutes of racing, the peloton was already splitting, with a group of 47 riders emerging at the front, pulling out a 30-second gap on the next group by the 15km completed mark. Stage 1 winner Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx) and her biggest rival Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) made it into the front group, whilst GC hope Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ) found herself on the wrong side of the split. It seemed to be Movistar riding hardest in the echelons, keen to take advantage in a race where they had neither a sprinter nor a top GC contender, but riders from Trek-Segafredo, Canyon-SRAM and SD Worx were all contributing too.

Most of the GC favourites, including Demi Vollering (SD Worx), Shirin van Anrooij (Trek-Segafredo), Silvia Perscio (UAE Team ADQ) and Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal QuickStep) were present in the front group, and all of them had teammates with them.

With 30km completed, the front group had broken apart even more, now made up of only 27 riders. Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM) won the first Queen of the Mountains point, extending her lead in the competition. After the climb, the pace relaxed slowly, and the second group started to claw back a few seconds. With many of the best sprinters and GC riders in the front, and only FDJ leading the chase behind, closing the gap was a hard task, and over the next 30km the gap went out again to over a minute. Heading into the last 50km, the winds let up slightly and the gap came down to 35 seconds, but 20km later it had risen to a minute again.

Going into the last 30km of the stage, the leading group was organised and motivated, riding hard to stay away to the finish. The likes of Balsamo and Wiebes were eyeing up the sprint, whilst Vollering and Moolman Pasio were keen to exploit the situation to make gains on the GC. Early agitators Movistar became some of the biggest losers, with all of their riders dropping out of the lead group before the final 25km. Stage and GC hope Silvia Persico also found herself distanced before the finale. Behind, the chase was waning in the second group, who trailed by two minutes with 20km to go.

Heading towards Lerma, the situation remained stable with the leaders now thinking about the finish and working together for the last 15km. Balsamo and Wiebes both had teammates to support them, but a steep and tight finish was looming. Going into the final few kilometres, it was SD Worx who were leading out, with Demi Vollering drilling it hard into the bottom of the climb up the finish. Vollering’s pace saw a split emerge in the final 800m - she, Wiebes, Balsamo and Chloe Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) drew clear of the rest of the group - and after a tussle for position with Dygert, Wiebes was able to launch her sprint and power all the way to the line, conquering the steepest gradients in the final hundred metres. However, after the finish it was deemed that Wiebes’ maneouvre on Dygert was enough to earn her a relegation to third, with the win then awarded to Vollering.

The second group on the road, which included Uttrup Ludwig and Persico, finished two minutes down on the winner, with several riders losing even more time. The big GC day of climbing is still to come on Sunday, but some riders are possibly already out of contention with today’s time losses.

Despite relegation, Wiebes will retain the leader’s jersey going into stage 3, as well as the sprint jersey and young rider’s jersey. Soraya Paladin (Canyon-SRAM) continues to lead the Queen of the Mountains competition, after notching up some more points and bonus seconds on stage 2.

Vuelta a Burgos Féminas stage 2 results:

Tamara Dronova (Israel Premier Tech Roland) +0:07

Shirin van Anrooij (Trek-Segafredo) +0:10

Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal QuickStep) +0:12

Agnieszka Skalniak-Sójka (Canyon-SRAM) +0:26

Features

Racing Features

Who is the best sprinter in the women’s peloton?

Some of the best sprinters battled it out at Scheldeprijs.

Stage race season. It’s a part of the calendar that we tend to associate with climbers and GC contenders, but it’s also an important time for the sprinters. After the cobbled Classics, a stage win in one of the Grand Tours is one of the biggest successes a sprinter can claim, and they’re always hard-fought races. After the Vuelta Femenina, the Vuelta a Burgos, and the double-header of the Lotto Thüringen Ladies Tour and the RideLondon Classique, the battle between the sprinters is hotting up and the questions around who will come out on top in the summer are gaining pace.

So, who will it be? At last year’s Tour de France Femmes, Lorena Wiebes seemed to cement herself as the very best sprinter, but that’s changed this year, with former teammate Charlotte Kool testing her limits, and the desire for versatility at SD Worx meaning Wiebes is moving slightly away from the pure sprinter mould. Moreover, the top sprinters have gone head-to-head relatively few times this season so far, so it’s hard to sort out a clear hierarchy. The Tour de Suisse will tell us a little more, as will the Baloise Ladies Tour, likely to be popular with sprinters preparing for the Tour de France Femmes. With just a few weeks until the Giro Donne starts, though, let’s take a look at how the sprinters are currently lining up ahead of the next Grand Tours.

With Lorena Wiebes’ move from Team DSM to SD Worx over the winter, the sprinting debate was one of the key storylines in the women’s peloton from the very first day of the season. Wiebes faced off with her former lead-out rider and closest rival Charlotte Kool in their first race of the year, the UAE Tour. On the opening stage, Kool resoundingly answered all the questions about how she would fare against her old leader, by beating her emphatically in the sprint in Dubai. From then, the pair traded wins, with Wiebes taking stage 2, but Kool coming back for a second win on the final stage.

So the answer was clear, then - the sprinting narrative of the year would be equally-matched Wiebes vs Kool? Well, it wasn’t quite as clear as that. Firstly, Elisa Balsamo was also winning sprints in February, just not against Wiebes and Kool, and into the spring the duel we were expecting didn’t quite materialise as Wiebes took on a more puncheur type role in the Classics. It’s now June, and Wiebes and Kool haven’t raced each other since the start of April. Do we really know enough to say who is the best?

At this point in the season, numerically, Wiebes wins: she’s taken eight victories so far. You could also say she’s looked faster and more dominant, taking wins by bike lengths when Kool was being close-run by riders like Clara Copponi and Chloé Dygert in RideLondon. However, making a definitive judgement is made difficult by the fact that so far, the contenders for the title have gone against each other sparingly few times.

Are the top sprinters avoiding each other?

To answer this question with a question: how many times have Lorena Wiebes and Charlotte Kool faced each other this season? Just nine times, or six if you only count the occasions on which either of them were contending for the win. They come away with two wins each. Add Elisa Balsamo into that mix, and the three biggest names have only started four races together this season: Omloop het Nieuwsblad, Brugge-De Panne, Gent-Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix. If you remember how those races went, you’ll have worked out that that means the trio have gone head-to-head-to-head in a sprint exactly zero times so far this season.

Whether it’s on purpose or not, the biggest names in sprinting have successfully avoided each other so far in 2023. The bad news is that after Elisa Balsamo’s heavy crash at RideLondon last week, her injuries are such that a return to competition before the Tour - let alone the Giro - is up in the air. It’s likely that Wiebes and possibly Kool will skip the Giro, but we’re hoping for a big showdown at the Tour. After Kool led Wiebes to two stage wins in 2022, will she be the one to deny her victory when they finally meet again this July?

Wiebes, Kool and Balsamo may fill up the podium spots in our best sprinters hierarchy, but there are a lot of riders coming up very fast behind them. Perhaps the biggest revelation of the spring has been Canyon-SRAM’s Chloé Dygert, who has returned from a few injury- and illness-plagued seasons with a bang. At the Vuelta Femenina and the Vuelta a Burgos, the American was giving the likes of Wiebes, Kool and Marianne Vos a run for their money, and at RideLondon she finally picked up her first WorldTour win on stage 2. Whether sprinting is even Dygert’s speciality is yet to be determined - she’s one of the best time trialists in the world, and was even climbing impressively in Burgos - but the basic fact is that her sprinting has been on a high level this season. She’ll be looking to start the Tour de France Femmes this year after missing out on the inaugural edition, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see her in the top five on any fast finish.

A rider we’ve seen relatively little of this spring, but who is sure to be at her best for the Grand Tours, is Marianne Vos. The Dutchwoman is pegged as an all-rounder, and we might expect that she’s slowing in the later years of her long career, but Vos proves again and again that she can win even the purest sprints. She won two stages of the Vuelta Femenina, and will be hoping to continue her Grand Tour record in the summer. We’ve not seen Vos better Wiebes in recent years, but she’s certainly capable of beating the likes of Kool, Dygert and Balsamo, and must not be left out of the sprinter conversation.

Other riders that have been knocking on the door of a big win this spring are names like Clara Copponi (FDJ-SUEZ), Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ) and Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Jayco-AlUla), all of whom have been rubbing shoulders with Wiebes and Kool this season. Grand Tours are notoriously unpredictable, and all it would take is an off day for one of the bigger names for one of these riders to sneak into a podium finish or even a win.

There’s also one of the veteran sprinters of the peloton, Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ) who will be hoping to go out with a bang at the Giro, as it is her last race before retiring. The Italian had a successful Classics campaign, taking three podiums and a win at Le Samyn, and whilst she was slightly off the mark at the Thüringen Tour, Bastianelli is always consistent and will be carefully building towards the Giro.

Well, that’s what we’re hoping to find out this summer. It’s easy to suggest that Lorena Wiebes is still wearing the crown of best sprinter, and perhaps she is, but with so few clashes between all the top sprinters on the record so far, it’s difficult to say that with absolute certainty. The sad news is that with Elisa Balsamo’s injuries, we may be waiting even longer for the next three-way battle, but we’re certainly expecting some good Wiebes vs Kool vs the best of the rest action at the Tour de France.

After a 2022 season of total Wiebes dominance, the Dutchwoman is really being pushed this year, and things are getting tight at the top of the sprinting hierarchy. The Grand Tours may be mostly about the GC, but we’re gearing up for some great sprint fights, too.

Watch live and on-demand coverage of the Tour de Suisse, Giro Donne and Tour de France Femmes on 

 this summer. Territory restrictions will apply.



Narrow Handle Bars, Perfect Bike Saddles & Chain Wax | GCN Tech Clinic

Are Super Strong Cyclists Killing Racing? | GCN Show Ep. 591

The 2024 Giro D'Italia Story So Far! | GCN Racing News Show

I Built A £17,000 Bike. WAS It REALLY Worth It?

Name	Age	UCI Career Wins	UCI Points
Demi Vollering	27	32	5125
Lotte Kopecky	28	41	5107
Lorena Wiebes	25	77	3526
Marlen Reusser	32	24	2630
Mischa Bredewold	23	7	1068

Team SD Worx

Team SD Worx

The Team

Top Team SD Worx Stories

Vuelta a Burgos Féminas: Demi Vollering and SD Worx cap off Spanish campaign with dominant wins

Vuelta a Burgos Féminas: Demi Vollering wins stage 2 after Lorena Wiebes relegated

Who is the best sprinter in the women’s peloton?

Featured Video

Persico vs Vollering! #shorts

Subscribe to the GCN Newsletter