With Milan-Sanremo over for the year and the Tour of Flanders around the corner, the Classics are in full swing, and on Sunday, March 30, at Gent-Wevelgem, an opportunity for cobbled glory awaits. In its 12th edition, the race, which although a prelude to Flanders, has had some star winners in the past, including Marianne Vos, Chantal van den Broek-Blaak, Marta Bastianelli, Elisa Balsamo and Lorena Wiebes.
The latter two are on the startline again and having finished first and second last year, they will start as the main favourites on Sunday. Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) came out on top in the 11th edition, outsprinting Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) and Chiara Consonni (then UAE Team ADQ), to take her first win. As a relatively young race, if either Wiebes or Balsamo win on Sunday, they will become the only multiple winner in the women’s Gent-Wevelgem history.
Gent-Wevelgem gives the sprinters a chance to taste glory on the cobbles of Flanders; of the race’s 11 editions, six have culminated in a large bunch sprint with another two editions concluded by a small group of riders sprinting it out for victory. However, as Marlen Reusser (Movistar Team) proved in 2023, a long-range move can work, when, riding for SD Worx, she went solo with 40km to go and crossed the finish line with 2:42 to spare.
Route
Like the men’s race, Gent-Wevelgem starts in Ypres, not Gent, and makes its way north towards the coast before turning back to the Flandrian climbs and on to the finish line in Wevelgem, after 169km of racing. If the weather conditions allow, the first 60km around the northwest, near Veurne, presents a risk of crosswinds, especially as the peloton has to tackle a number of 90-degree turns, which if navigated well could allow a team to blow the race apart.
Unlike Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, the riders don’t have to contend with cobble sectors or bergs in the last 35km, meaning the sprinters’ teams have plenty of opportunity to catch a breakaway in the run to the line. However, that isn’t to say Gent-Wevelgem is a walk in the park — the riders face the Scherpenberg (1.2km at 2.6%) the Baneberg (1km at 7.6%), the Monteberg (1km at 4.9%) and the cobbled Kemmelberg (400m at 9.5%) all coming in the space of 8km after 103km of racing. The riders then have to tackle the Scherpenberg-Baneberg double header again before the mighty Kemmelberg, this time from the other side, which is 700m long at 10% and is crested with 35km to go.
Gent-Wevelgem Women contenders
Lorena Wiebes
Off the back of her wins at Brugge-De Panne and Milan-Sanremo, Lorena Wiebes will be brimming with confidence that she can retain her title from last year. Since she emerged as the best sprinter in the peloton a couple of years ago, she has rarely been beaten and is closing in on 100 career victories. At Sanremo, Wiebes proved her climbing is at a level where she can withstand the punches from some of the best ascenders in the peloton. Moreover, without the likes of Demi Vollering, Kasia Niewiadoma, and Puck Pieterse on the startline in Ypres, Wiebes will be confident she can hold onto the wheel of anyone who decides to take the race on on the bergs of West Flanders — if she can do so, it would take something special for a rider to beat her in the sprint in Wevelgem.
Picture by Simon Wilkinson/SWpix
Elisa Balsamo
The sprinter most likely to upset Wiebes’ title defence is the aforementioned former Gent-Wevelgem champion, Elisa Balsamo, who has three wins to her name already this year. Earlier in the month she took her third win at Trofeo Alfredo Binda, demonstrating her sprint at the end of a hard day is as impressive as ever. On paper, the Italian’s fast finish is not as strong as the Dutchwoman's — she was beaten by Wiebes on Thursday's Brugge-De Panne, so Balsamo may not be content coming into the finish with Wiebes, although getting rid of the SD Worx rider will prove challenging for her. However, the 2021 road world champion has had a good start to her season and will be looking to upset the odds on Sunday by taking her second win at the finish in Wevelgem.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix
Lotte Kopecky
Gent-Wevelgem is a race that has eluded Wiebes’ teammate, Lotte Kopecky, so far in her career — a rare gap in her burgeoning palmarès, which includes pretty much every other cobbled Classic on the calendar. Kopecky is the archetypal Classics rider and there doesn’t appear to be a terrain on which she doesn’t thrive. Viewers can expect her to launch an attack, forcing other teams to chase, which will allow Wiebes to sit on and be towed to the finish; if the chase is not concerted enough, Kopecky could disappear up the road to victory. SD Worx are seasoned Classics winners, using their strength in numbers to their advantage, and their dominance may land Kopecky yet another big win.
Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix
Elisa Longo Borghini
2024 Flanders winner, Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) is another rider who has not won Gent-Wevelgem, but has all the attributes to do so. Unlike Balsamo and Wiebes, who can rely on their sprinting abilities, and Kopecky, who is part of the best team in the race, Longo Borghini is going to have to race more creatively in order to steal the title from the other contenders. This may involve her trying to replicate a similar move to that of Reusser’s 40km attack in 2023, but Longo Borghini would probably prefer to have a few fellow attackers come with her to help hold off a charging peloton. If such a move formed, she would be able to outsprint most other breakaway riders on the home straight.
Picture by Andrew Smith/SWpix
Other contenders
Eighteen-year-old Brit Cat Ferguson (Movistar Team) is the second youngest rider in the race but what she lacks in experience, she makes up for in talent, as shown by her first two races at WorldTour level, particularly when she finished on the podium at Trofeo Alfredo Binda behind Balsamo and Blanka Vas.
Chiara Consonni finished third last year and following a move from UAE Team ADQ, she will likely have leadership status at new team Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto and will be hoping to improve on her 2024 result and her second place to Wiebes on Thursday's Brugge-De Panne shows she is in the form to do so. Karlijn Swinkels (UAE Team ADQ) has started 2025 well, and has one win to her name at the Trofeo Oro in Euro earlier in March — if her team leader, Longo Borghini, were to struggle, she could step up and fight for a top spot. Likewise, Charlotte Kool (Team Picnic PostNL) could spring a surprise, like in the 2024 Tour de France, when she came away with two stage wins, in doing so producing a rare feat — beating Wiebes in a sprint.
Prediction
The SD Worx-Protime squad line up in Ypres in the luxurious position of having the best sprinter, Wiebes, and the best Classics rider, Kopecky, in their squad. It’s therefore hard to see beyond the Dutch super-team. Of the two riders, shown by her ability to survive climbs, Lorena Wiebes has the best opportunity to come away with victory. She is likely to make it to the finishing sprint and as she has proven in the 99 career wins so far, she knows how to convert a race-winning opportunity.
