LIDL-TREK RESURGENCE & OTHER CONTENDERS
“Van Anrooij is continuing to mature into an elite Classics rider”
Following an injury-ravaged 2023 for Lidl-trek, the team appears poised to challenge SD Worx’s supremacy. They’ve started the season on fire, inverting the usual status quo at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad when Elisa
Longo Borghini and Shirin van Anrooij combined to outnumber SD Worx-protime in the finale.
Though neither rider managed to win that day, nor at Strade Bianche the following weekend, where Borghini was outsprinted by Kopecky, Borghini’s form suggests she’s fully recovered from the health problems that plagued her last year. Van Anrooij, meanwhile, having just turned 22, is continuing to mature into an elite Classics rider. Adding yet more strings to Lidl-trek’s bow is former world champion Elisa Balsamo, whose sprint provides the team another dimension, while Lizzie Deignan and Ellen van Dijk will bring firepower and experience if they can return to their best following the birth of their children.
As for the other teams, victory at Het Nieuwsblad suggests that Vismalease a Bike’s Marianne Vos is in flying form. Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-sr AM) can, as ever, be relied upon to burst a race into life with one of her explosive attacks, though Cecile Uttrup Ludwig’s (FDJSUEZ) consistency will be tested after she fractured her sacrum at Het Nieuwsblad. Silvio Persico (UAE Team ADQ) returns to the Classics after being one of the stars of the spring last year, while Kristen Faulkner’s long-range attack to win Omloop van het Hageland a few weeks ago outlines her as a candidate to try and replicate the shock breakaway win at Paris-roubaix from her EF Education-cannondale team-mate Alison Jackson last year.