Old girls’ network

The Worldtour youth explosion has yet to upset the order in the women’s sport

The phenomenon of riders in their teens and early twenties winning at the highest level currently seems restricted to men’s racing. In the women’s peloton the old guard remains dominant.

The youngest winner of a Women’s Worldtour race in 2021 was 22-year-old Lorena Wiebes, while 24-year-old Demi Vollering also enjoyed a breakthrough season. But the overall winner of the Women’s Worldtour was Annemiek van Vleuten, who turned 39 in October, and the average age across the 18 events was 31.2, with Marianne Vos (34), Lizzie Deignan (32) and Chantal van den Broek-blaak (32) among the winners. Added to that, the winner of the Olympic road race was Anna Kiesenhofer, aged 30.

Arguably the revelation of the year was not a young rider, but 28-year-old Kristen Faulkner. After a string of strong performances in the Classics she won a stage at the Tour of Norway and finished third overall, earning herself a move to the Worldtour and Team Bikeexchange for the 2022 season.