Cyclist
Who are the favourites for the Vuelta Femenina 2024?
The first Grand Tour in the women’s calendar kicks off this weekend at the Vuelta Feminina. This tour around Spain will get underway on Sunday 28th April in the city of Valencia over on the Mediterranean coast. From there, the race will snake around Spain before arriving in Madrid-ish a week later with a final hurrah in the mountains on Sunday 5th May.
The reigning champion, Annemiek van Vleueten, has retired since winning this race in the rainbow jersey last year. This means that the race for red will have a new leader. Last year, Demi Vollering of SD Worx took the second spot on the podium, ahead of Gaia Realini of Trek.
The field this year is wide open, with riders’ forms oscillating after an opening foray in the spring stage races and one-day Classics. However, a lengthened route and a tougher set of profiles will make the 2024 edition the toughest battle for the maillot rojo to date.
Demi Vollering
Last year’s runner-up Demi Vollering has had a tough season so far. A transfer fiasco, inter-team tension and lacklustre results have followed her Tour de France win last year.
This year’s parcours will favour Vollering. A longer route and added mountain stages will favour the reigning Dutch champion. After taking a big bite into her contenders in the high mountains last year, it’s likely that her grand comeback will come on the roads of Spain.
In all fairness, she has made the podium in Strade Bianche, the Brabantse Pijl, Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège this spring. She admits it herself, she needs to do better. For now, she’ll still be the most marked woman given her pedigree in Grand Tours.
Rating: 4/5
Elisa Longo Borghini
On the other end of the spectrum, Longo Borghini has been a reliable force this year so far. A win at the Tour of Flanders and the Brabantse Pijl highlighted her strength in the Classics. A podium finish at this race in 2022 and 2020 also demonstrates a strong sign of things to come at this year’s Vuelta Femenina. The tough stage to Jaca will suit her strengths, but the longer summit finish in the Madrid periphery on Stage 8 could be her undoing.
Her Lidl-Trek squad has been improving race by race and with the support of Italian youngster Gaia Realini – more on her later – the squad has a real chance to claim their first Grand Tour in years. At age 32, Longo Borghini’s time may finally have come.
Rating: 4/5
Kasia Niewiadoma
The nearly woman of post-pandemic cycling, Kasia Niewiadoma has stepped up this year. In a much-celebrated effort at Flèche Wallonne, the Pole has returned to winning ways in 2024. These results weren’t a fluke, they were, in fact, backed up by a 2nd place at the Tour of Valencia and the Tour of Flanders respectively.
After two hard-fought Tour de France podiums over the past two seasons, Niewiadoma has it in her to shine at a Grand Tour. With the support of the steadfast Ricarda Bauernfeind – who herself has a good shout of a top ten here at the Vuelta – Canyon-SRAM have a real possibility of making the final podium. Their TTT pedigree will help them in the opening stage (as will the crazy Giro helmets), and Kasia’s mountain legs should translate into tip-top performances on the three mountain stages to come in this race.
Rating: 4/5
Juliette Labous
Finishing in the top ten of every Grand Tour she has finished since 2021, Labous will go into this race as DSM-Firmenich-PostNL’s out-and-out GC leader. The Frenchwoman cracked new heights last year with a silver medal at the Giro Donne before a solid top five finish at the Tour de France and Tour de Romandie.
Riding on this wave of solid GC results, 2024 has been equally successful and consistent. A top five in Valencia and a top ten in the Ardennes Classics give us a glimpse of some pre-Grand Tour form.
A victory might be a bridge too far, but a podium or top five should certainly be in DSM’s crosshairs. Along with a strong sprint train, the Dutch squad could come out of this race with plenty of podium visits.
Rating: 3/5
Gaia Realini
Third last year behind the juggernauts of Vollering and Van Vleuten, Realini has grown in confidence. Although not on the scintillating form we saw 12 months ago, her added maturity should be rewarded at the Vuelta this year.
A fourth place at the UAE Tour and a silver medal overall at the Vuelta Extremadura at the dawn of the 2024 calendar suggest some signs of form in her legs.
Like Vollering, the high mountains will benefit the chances of Realini. This may even give her the chance to take team leadership of Lidl-Trek if Longo Borghini is scared of the heights of Stage 8’s mountain affair.
Rating: 3/5
Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio
At age 38, South Africa’s Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio is the oldest favourite to make this list. The veteran, riding for AG Insurance-Soudal, has a reliable reputation in the Grand Tours. A flurry of top tens overall at the Giro and a sixth place at last year’s Tour de France support this claim. So far in 2024, Moolman-Pasio has been off to a steady start, with another string of top ten results in major races. Without any stage races in her legs, it will be interesting to see how she goes in this Vuelta.
Sarah Gigante will provide stellar support, however. The youngster has already taken the Women’s WorldTour-level Tour Down Under this year. That said, results in Australia can sometimes be misleading in gauging form for the Grand Tour season. Gigante has been making waves in 2024, and with a new contract needing to be signed this year, she should be motivated to leave her mark on the Vuelta.
Rating: 2/5
The Outsiders
Mavi García will hold the hopes of the home crowds for Liv-AlUla-Jayco. Her form this year has been hit or miss, but a third place at the UAE Tour can’t go unnoticed. The 22-year-old Neve Bradbury will star in a strong Canyon-SRAM squad while Riejanne Markus will lead Visma’s line-up, but she may come unstuck in the high mountains. Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ) deserves a shout-out too.
As for breakout Grand Tours, I expect to hear Evita Muzic’s (FDJ-Suez) name on blast throughout the Vuelta Femenina. Also, keep an eye out for Nienke Vinke (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL), who is making her Grand Tour debut at the age of 19.
The Cyclist prediction
Lidl-Trek will control this race throughout à la Jumbo-Visma Tour de France 2020, only to lose it on the final mountain stage around Madrid. Here, we will see Demi Vollering return to form and take a valiant win on Stage 8 to claim the race on the final day of racing. As for the podium, it’ll be between Elisa Longo Borghini and Kasia Niewiadoma.
Want to know more about the Vuelta Femenina 2024? Where to watch, where it’s going? Read our full preview avilable here.
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