Cyclist
Top 50 women’s road cyclists of the 2020s so far
Now that the 2024 cycling season has come to a close, we have reached the halfway point in the 2020s. This decade has seen monumental growth in women’s cycling. Crucially, we now have a proper Women’s WorldTour in which three Grand Tours are held each year for women. In terms of racing, Dutch dominance has persisted in the Grand Tours, new Classics stars have emerged and a fresh crop of youngsters have broken through through the ranks.
Continuing our mid-decade ranking series, we’ve dug deep through the results archives over the past five seasons to deduce who we think are the top 50 riders of the 2020s so far in women’s cycling. The list will factor in victories, notable finishes and UCI rankings since 2020. Retired riders will be factors in, as will young riders who weren’t even riding on the professional level back in 2020. For context, only results in road cycling will be accounted for in this list – results on gravel, track or cyclocross will not affect the ranking.
Take a deep breath and get a coffee, we have 50 riders to get through. Let’s get started.
50. Neve Bradbury
We kick off our selection with Neve Bradbury from Australia.
Much of this choice was influenced by her stellar 2024 season. The Canyon-SRAM rider’s breakout season saw her claim an impressive stage win atop Blockhaus at the Giro d’Italia Women as well as a gruelling stage of the Tour de Suisse. Those wins were backed up by strong GC results throughout the year. She landed podium finishes at the Tour de Suisse, UAE Tour, Tour Down Under and the Giro. She missed the mark at the Tour, but her GC promise is certainly there.
Aged just 22, Bradbury will surely fly up the ranks during the second half of the 2020s.
49. Audrey Cordon-Ragot
The first of our veteran picks, Audrey Cordon-Ragot has been a stalwart of women’s cycling over the past two decades.
Notably, Cordon-Ragot has won the French tricouleur jersey on five occasions so far this decade – two in the road race and three in the time-trial. Her strong TT pedigree has also landed her on the podium of flatter stage races such as the Simac, Baloise and Bretagne Ladies Tours.
Her consistency is evident on the UCI rankings on which she has finished inside the top 70 on four occasions since the turn of the decade, peaking with a top 30 finish in 2022 during her final season at Trek-Segafredo.
After leaving the team, Cordon-Ragot was a victim of the ill-fated Paris Cycling Club project, which folded in the eleventh hour at the end of 2022. She was left without a team for the next season until she was swept up in time for Paris-Roubaix by American squad Human Powered Health.
48. Blanka Vas
Mountain biker-turned-roadie, Blanka Vas has become one of the most versatile riders in the pro peloton. An exciting central European talent, stage wins at the 2023 Giro and the 2024 Tour proved the Hungarian’s hype on the Grand Tour stage – even if she didn’t drop back to help Demi Vollering who crashed on that Tour stage.
Elsewhere, Vas has been a consistent performer at international races despite her lack of teammates. She finished in fourth at the 2021 Worlds and the 2024 Paris Olympics after getting swamped by Kristen Faulkner in the final 5km.
That said, she’s a hot and cold rider. When she’s on good form, she’s often one of the strongest, but those days seem to be few and far between. She’s still young and I reckon she’ll become more consistent on the road in the seasons to come.
47. Marta Bastianelli
It may feel odd to slot Marta Bastianelli on a list that celebrates the best riders of the 2020s. However, what might come as a surprise is that Bastianelli has finished inside the top 40 of the UCI rankings each year from 2020 until 2023, the year she retired.
She was a core figure at second-tier races during the 2020s, claiming wins at races including the Omloop van het Hageland, the Festival Elsy Jacobs and Le Samyn.
She was still a consistent top ten finisher at WorldTour races though. A solid sprinter in her own right, the Italian crept into the top ten of almost every Belgian Classic she’d enter in 2022. Add in a top five finish at Paris-Roubaix, a runners-up spot on a Tour stage and the Omloop Het Nieuwsbald, and I think it’s clear that Bastianelli made her mark on her third decade in the sport.
46. Arlenis Sierra
From the untapped cycling destination of Cuba, Arlenis Sierra is the most decorated Latin American rider this decade. In total, she has 18 wins during her stint in the peloton so far in the 2020s.
In the early part of the decade, Sierra swept the Giro Toscana and finished in second at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race. After making the step up with Movistar in 2022, Sierra has been easy to spot in her distinct Cuban national champion’s jersey. In her debut season with the team, she picked up a stage win at the Tour de Romandie as well as a couple of stages of the Vuelta Andalucia.
In 2024, she was visible at the head of the cobbled Classics, but her crowning moment would come at the Pan American Championships where she scooped up another gold medal.
Otherwise, Sierra has been a fixture of the UCI rankings since the turn of the decade. She’s finished every season inside the top 40 of the rankings since 2017.
45. Yara Kastelijn
Former European cyclocross champion, Yara Kastelijn has emerged as a solid puncheur after switching to road racing with Fenix-Deceuninck a couple of seasons ago.
Kastelijn’s career is headlined by a Tour de France stage win on a tough day to Rodez in 2023. That may be the only professional win on her road palmarès, but Kastelijn has been close on numerous other Grand Tour stages and Classics.
This year, Kastelijn would continue her upward trajectory with top ten finishes at the Amstel Gold Race, Brabantse Pijl and the Vuelta Femenina. Elsewhere, she’s been a remarkably consistent rider in the Ardennes, having finished in the top 25 of almost every Ardennes Classic she’s entered over the past three seasons.
44. Veronica Ewers
Veronica Ewers rose through the American ranks to the WorldTour in 2022 at the age of 27.
She rode a strong Giro in 2023, just missing out on the podium in fourth place overall. In that race, she was influential in the eventual course of action after latching onto a race-defining move on Stage 4.
She’s not just a stage racer, Ewers has a solid record in one-day races. She’s stepped up onto the podium at Tre Valle Varesine, Durango-Durango and the Giro dell’Emilia. Her only one-day win, though, came two years ago at the Navarra Classic.
Ewers is currently on an indefinite hiatus from cycling however, having paused her career to focus on her health back in the spring. She’s contracted to EF-Oatly-Cannondale for next year, so we hope she gets better soon and returns to racing when she’s ready.
43. Emma Norsgaard
Emma Norsgaard has become a force as a stage hunting rouleur.
She’s collected two Grand Tour stage wins in this fashion over the past few seasons, first at the 2021 Giro, then at last year’s Tour. Her ability to outmuscle the peloton also resulted in a big Classics title at Le Samyn back in 2022.
The Dane has pulled off GC success at the Elsy Jacobs race over in Luxembourg as well as making the podium of some high-profile Belgian Classics, usually on cobbles. She’s one of a few riders on this list moving to Lidl-Trek in 2025.
42. Ricarda Bauernfeind
Still a young rider, Ricarda Bauernfeind stepped up from Canyon-SRAM’s development team in 2022 and quickly made her name known at the WorldTour level.
A climber by trade, she’s finished in the top six of the GC at two Vueltas and she’s been building up her CV with other strong GC results at the Tour de Romandie and Tour de France Femmes.
Last year at age 23, Bauernfeind really left her mark at the Tour de France Femmes on Stage 5. On that day, she slipped away to stage glory on a rolling day through the lower Massif Central.
41. Lucinda Brand
Lucinda Brand makes the cut mainly based on her early 2020s results.
The Dutch cyclocross star has managed to claim a number of WorldTour races this decade. The overall titles at the Tour de Suisse, Thüringen Ladies Tour and Baloise Ladies Tour have all been added to Brand’s already staggering list of achievements.
These wins may have come a couple of years ago, but Brand is still hanging around near the top echelon of women’s cycling. She slotted into the top ten of the GC rankings at this year’s Tour de France Femmes and she defeated a number of younger names on this list at the Dwars door het Hageland earlier this season.
She’s also diversified her palmarès this decade by taking two mountain classification prizes at the Giro and Vuelta since making the move over to Trek-Segafredo in 2020.
40. Karlijn Swinkels
Karlijn Swinkels has morphed into a real Swiss army knife type of rider.
She’s not a serial winner, but Swinkels is a reliable finisher. With top tens at Trofeo Binda, Tour of Flanders and Gent-Wevelgem under her belt, she’s become accustomed to the upper echelon of women’s cycling.
Using her strong kick, Swinkels took her biggest win to date at the Grand Prix de Wallonie earlier this year. She also finished in the top three at the Vuelta a Burgos and narrowly missed out on a podium spot at the Simac Ladies Tour. As a result, the 26-year-old UAE Team ADQ rider has moved up into the top 15 of the UCI rankings this year, her best placement to date.
39. Anna Henderson
Hertfordshire-born Anna Henderson has forged a reputation as a reliable time-trialist and rouleur. Her selection of championship medals includes a silver at the Europeans, two national titles and an Olympic silver. These time-trialing legs helped to secure a series of podium finishes at the Baloise Ladies Tour, Simac Ladies Tour and a runner-up spot at the 2024 Tour of Britain Women.
Since joining up with Marianne Vos at Visma-Lease a Bike, Henderson has been one of the peloton’s best leadout riders, and she is the only British woman to have worn a Grand Tour leader’s jersey so far this decade. She’s also off to Lidl-Trek next season.
38. Chantal van den Broek-Blaak
Chantal van den Broek-Blaak was one of the most reliable Classics riders at the turn of the decade. A strong team player for her SD Worx squad, Van den Broek-Blaak chased her own one-day victories at the end of 2020, peaking with a solo win at the Tour of Flanders.
The following year, she played a crucial role in the Classics, mainly in a supporting role for her teammates. That said, the former world champion took an impressive win at the 2021 Strade Bianche, defeating Elisa Longo Borghini, Anna van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vleuten in the process. On top of this, the Dutch rider bagged a one-day win at the Dwaars door het Hageland and an overall victory at the top-level Simac Ladies Tour.
Since these highs, Van den Broek-Blaak has remained in the ring for Classics, having taken top ten finishes at Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders and Trofeo Binda since 2022. She took a pause in 2023 to have a baby but came back this season and won the Dutch national title. She remains contracted by SD Worx-ProTime for just one more year before her retirement at the end of 2025.
37. Puck Pieterse
Puck Pieterse started her road career proper last year. Transitioning across from mountain biking and cyclocross, the young Dutch star made the top five of Strade Bianche in her first Women’s WorldTour race.
Still unfamiliar with top-level road racing, Pieterse ruffled some feathers at the Classics earlier this year, including the Tour of Flanders. Testament to her talent, she made the top ten at every Flemish Classic she started in 2024.
At her first Grand Tour, she claimed an impressive stage win at the Tour de France Femmes ahead of the eventual first and second place finishers in the GC. She’d eventually spend a couple of days in the polka-dot jersey before winning the best young rider’s maillot blanc a week later.
36. Cédrine Kerbaol
Breton breakout star Cédrine Kerbaol has been one of the most exciting talents in the Women’s WorldTour scene over the past two seasons. A winner of the Tour de France Femmes’ white jersey in 2023, Kerbaol continued this success into 2024 where she would grow into one of the peloton’s best descenders.
With this newfound tagline, Kerbaol claimed Durango-Durango and the one-day Valenciana Classic before becoming the first French stage winner in the Tour de France Femmes’ three-year history this summer. She topped off her landmark 2024 season with a win in treacherous conditions at Tre Valle Varesine.
It’s just been announced that Kerbaol will sever her contract with Ceratizit and make the move to EF-Oatly-Cannondale for next season.
35. Niamh Fisher-Black
Former under-23 world champ Niam Fisher-Black makes this list with ease.
The Kiwi has claimed a couple of notable stage wins during her time as a pro. This includes wins at the Giro, Tour de Suisse and the Volta Valenciana. She’s stepped up her GC game in recent years with top ten finishes at the Giro, Vuelta and Tour de Suisse.
Having spent most of her career so far as a luxury domestique for Vollering, it’ll be interesting to see how Fisher-Black’s career progresses at Lidl-Trek next year.
34. Pauliena Rooijakkers
A steady name at the top of the GC pecking order, Pauliena Rooijakkers has landed big-name GC podiums at the Itzulia Basque Country and Tour de Suisse. To add to these overall successes, she claimed a solo win at the 2022 Durango-Durango while riding for her former team Canyon-SRAM.
Rooijakkers tactical brain came into play on the final day of this year’s Tour de France Femmes. Impressively sticking to Demi Vollering on her long-range move on the final stage, the Fenix-Deceuninck snuck onto the podium just a few seconds behind the overall winner Niewiadoma.
33. Mischa Bredewold
Mischa Bredewold is one of the hardiest riders in the women’s peloton. She’s claimed numerous stages at the Simac Ladies Tour, Itzulia Basque Country and the Baloise Ladies Tour of Belgium. In the one-day market, Bredewold is now a two-time winner at the hilly GP Plouay over in France.
Of course, Bredewold’s palmarès is propped up by her European title won on home roads in 2023. As European champion, she climbed up the UCI standings to an impressive 21st place, mainly off the back of her successful run in the Basque Country, which saw the SD Worx order finish in second overall behind her own teammate Vollering.
32. Chiara Consonni
You can never count out Chiara Consonni in a sprint finish. The Italian has collected a total of three stage wins at the Giro spread over three years.
Aside from her sprinting results, Consonni earned a win at Classic Dwaars door Vlaanderen and the overall title at Chongming Lake – a race we previously ranked as the worst on the Women’s WorldTour. Nevertheless, she’s also featured in the top ten of Paris-Roubaix and reached the podium of both Gent-Wevelgem and Scheldeprijs.
On pure numbers alone, Consonni has clocked up a total of 18 victories so far in the 2020s, making her one of the 15 most decorated riders based on victory counts alone. She’s also finished inside of the top 20 of the UCI rankings over the past three seasons, so she’s definitely made a strong case for her placement here.
31. Alison Jackson
Known for her dance moves and Classics prowess, Alison Jackson has been a breakout rider of the past two road seasons.
By winning Paris-Roubaix in 2023, the Canadian rider catapulted herself onto the world stage with an impressive breakaway ride and her victory dance in the track centre of the Roubaix Velodrome. Don’t let the breakaway tagline detract from Jaskson’s performance that day, she commanded the break and helped to engineer that victory throughout the final phase of the race.
Apart from her Paris-Roubaix win and effervescent personality, Jackson has gone on to pick up more WorldTour level success. She won a hectic bunch sprint at the Vuelta earlier this season, proving that she was more than just a one-hit wonder.
30. Antonio Niedermaier
The young German Antonio Niedermaier won the overall classification at the 2022 Tour Cycliste de l’Ardèche at the age of just 19. A year later, she added a Giro stage win to her palmarès after a cunning breakaway win on the exciting fifth stage of the 2023 Giro Donne.
2024 has been a coming of age for the now 21-year-old. She craked the top ten at the Giro and Tour de Suisse before a fourth place finish in the individual time-trial at the World Championships.
I have tipped her for success at a Tour de France Femmes stage next year. Let’s see if she can add that to her already impressive list of achievements.
29. Riejanne Markus
Riejanne Markus has been a Steady Eddy in the Women’s WorldTour. She’s been an anchoring figure at Visma-Lease a Bike in recent years while picking up some of her own success such as her ever-growing collection of Dutch national titles.
Markus has been a nifty stage hunter with wins at the Tour de Romandie, Simac Ladies Tour and Tour of Scandinavia. Elsewhere, she’s nabbed a couple of Classics wins at lower-level Veenendaal-Veenendaal and Navarra Classic.
Her GC results peaked this year with a runners-up spot at the 2024 Vuelta Femenina. This isn’t an isolated result, she marched onto the podium at the Volta Catalunya earlier this year, clearly stretching out that good form in Spain.
28. Pfeiffer Georgi
Pfeiffer Georgi has evolved into a tough Classics rider able to thrive on attritional courses. This is where she’s shone in recent years.
A tactical masterstroke led Georgi to glory at the 2023 Classic Brugge-De Panne. That same year, she added a victory at the late season Binche-Chimay-Binche.
In 2024, while wearing the national champion’s jersey, Georgi stepped up in the Classics and landed herself a podium finish at Paris-Rouabix as well as a top five at the Amstel Gold Race and Olympic Games road race.
The brightest spark in the current crop of British riders and still just 24, she isn’t likely to slow down any time soon.
27. Lizzie Deignan
Lizzie Deignan began the 2020s as one of the most decorated women in the peloton. She continued where she left off last decade by taking some big wins in 2020, including a one-day win at La Course by Le Tour and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Since that glittering 2020 season, Deignan claimed the inaugural Paris-Roubaix in 2021 and the Tour de Suisse as well as a top five finish at the Giro Donne.
The first queen of the Queen of the Classics, she has taken time out to have two children and still came back strong, playing a key role in the Olympics road race. That said, it’s her performance at the start of the decade that get her this far up this list.
26. Shirin van Anrooij
Shirin van Anrooij was only 17 when the 2020s began. The cyclocross convert announced herself on the WorldTour level in 2022 with a watershed victory at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda. She had just turned 20 years old at this point.
Since that big victory, Van Anrooij has emerged as one of the best all-round riders in the bunch. She has been a cornerstone rider for Lidl-Trek in the cobbled Classics this year, appearing at the head of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Dwaars door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders, all of which she finished in the top four.
Her expertise isn’t just confined to the cobbles, however. Van Anrooij finished inside the top five at Strade Bianche and the podium of Amstel Gold. GC is no stranger to Van Anrooij either, she’s managed to make it onto the podium of the Vuelta a Burgos stage race, won the white jersey at the first Tour de France Femmes and won the inaugural Tour de l’Avenir Femmes.
25. Évita Muzic
Évita Muzic began the decade with a breakthrough ride at the 2020 Giro, which saw her take the win from an elite select group. A year later, Muzic won the right to wear the French champion’s jersey.
Since 2021, she has been climbing her way through the ranks to become one of France’s brightest GC stars. 2024 was a particularly strong year for the Alps-born rider. She consistently made it into the top ten of key Classics, but more than any other, she took an impressive stage earlier this year at the Vuelta, defeating race leader Demi Vollering on an uphill finale.
Her worth as a climber has been proven multiple times throughout the last five seasons, however. She made it onto the podium of the Vuelta a Burgos a couple of times, and more recently, her most significant GC result came at the Tour de France Femmes this August where she finished in fourth overall.
24. Kristen Faulkner
The Olympic champion, Kristen Faulkner’s title speaks for itself. Along with her Olympic gold, Faulkner has earned herself a reputation as one of the most gutsy riders in the breakaways this decade so far.
Despite her tainted Strade Bianche podium – which was retrospectively taken away for wearing a glucose monitor – Faulkner claimed a courageous stage win at this year’s Vuelta Femenina and a solo win at the 2022 Giro.
On top of these breakaway efforts, Faulkner is a reliable rider against the clock, particularly in prologues. The Alaskan has won a handful of WorldTour level time-trials and is a former Pan-American time-trial champion. Sprinkle in some WorldTour stage race podiums and Faulkner has truly proved her worth during the first half of the 2020s.
23. Chloe Dygert
Chloe Dygert has fallen victim to some heavy bouts of bad luck since the turn of the decade.
In 2020, she suffered a nasty crash in the World Championships individual time-trial that almost severed her leg. She barely raced in the two subsequent seasons, only competing in a few time-trials and Classics during her long period of recovery. Even this recovery period was peppered with misfortune.
Dygert bounced back in 2023 for her first full-ish season since the turn of the decade. There, she lit up the Giro and Vuelta and claimed a second career rainbow jersey. She continued this run into 2024 where she claimed three international medals at the World Championships and the Olympic Games.
She doesn’t race often, but when she does, Dygert is one of the most impressive riders in the pack.
22. Mavi García
Spanish champion on four out of five occasions this decade so far, Mavi García has been a solid candidate in the GC and Classics over the past couple of years.
Notably, she held on in the 2022 Giro to finish in third place behind Annemiek van Vleuten. She also finished third at this year’s UAE Tour.
GC aside, the Liv-AlUla-Jayco rider has featured at the forefront of some major one-day races. Looking past her silver medal at the 2020 Strade Bianche, García has snatched the trophy at the Giro dell’Emilia and GP Plouay. Add in her overall victory at the Vuelta Andalucia and the Spaniard has built quite the repertoire in the past four years despite turning 40 this year.
21. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio
She might not be the most prolific winner, but Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio is a fixture of GC and Classics top tens throughout the decade.
During her tenure at SD Worx, Moolman-Pasio was a reliable teammate for the likes of Van der Breggen and Vollering. She even made the podium of the Giro as a domestique and broke the top ten of major Classics while on lieutenant duties.
She added an overall win to her 2020s palmarès at the 2022 Tour de Romandie before moving across to AG Insurance in 2023. There, she cracked the top ten at the Tour de France on the back of a GC victory at the Tour des Pyrénées.
20. Silvia Persico
Silvia Persico burst onto the scene in 2022. The northern Italian snuck into the top ten of the Giro ahead of her consistent Tour in which she finished in fifth place overall. Along with a stage win, Persico sealed a green jersey at the Vuelta before earning a bronze medal at the World Championships road race that year.
The following year, Persico outgunned Demi Vollering to take an outstanding victory at Brabantse Pijl, becoming the only person to dethrone Vollering during her clean sweep spring. That year was topped off by another solid result in the GC standings at the Giro Donne.
She’s a strong pick for a top ten at a Classic like the Tour of Flanders and the Trofeo Binda due to her mix of strengths.
19. Ellen van Dijk
Undeniably one of the best riders against the clock of all time let alone this decade, Ellen van Dijk has continued her reign as one of the sport’s most established rouleurs.
I could spend all day listing Van Dijk’s time-trial accolades, but she’s no one-trick-pony. In 2021, she added a European road race title to her palmarès. That same year, she began her two-year streak as time-trial world champion across both 2021 and 2022.
After a break in 2023 to have a baby, Van Dijk returned to racing earlier this year. In her comeback year, she returned to her previous time-trialing form, but she’s slotted herself in more as a teammate over the past twelve months.
18. Gaia Realini
Still only 23 years old, Gaia Realini has been kicking about at the top of the Grand Tour scene for the past couple of seasons.
Notably, Realini threw her bike to stage glory at the 2023 Vuelta, even if the race directors contested her win for a good half an hour. She later went on to finish in third place at that race, proving that she is one of the sport’s most promising talents.
The Italian has proved her GC promise on countless occasions over the past few seasons. Headline podium finishes include the UAE Tour, Giro and Tour de Romandie. At that Giro, she slipped into the leader’s role after her teammate Longo Borghini crashed out. If it weren’t for her domestique duties, who knows what she would have been capable of.
17. Elise Chabbey
Elise Chabbey is the kind of rider who’s often in the mix but rarely takes the win.
To illustrate this in terms of her GC results, she’s finished on the podium of the Vuelta and Tour de Suisse, and finished in the top five of the Vuelta a Burgos, UAE Tour and Itzulia Basque Country.
This trend continues into the Classics where she’s finished in the top five of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Paris-Roubaix, Dwaars door Vlaanderen, Ronde van Drenthe and Brabantse Pijl. I could list her close calls in the top ten, but let’s just say she’s massively underrated.
16. Marta Cavalli
Marta Cavalli’s 2022 season would make many of her colleagues jealous. She pulled off two big Ardennes wins at Flèche Wallonne and Amstel Gold, finished runner-up overall at the Giro, conquered the Mont Ventoux Challenge and came fifth at Paris-Roubaix.
However she suffered a bad crash at the 2022 Tour de France that left her with a concussion that was still affecting her through a large part of 2023. She still picked up some respectable GC victories last year at the Tour des Pyrénées and Tour de l’Ardèche, however, her 2024 was cut short after she was hit by a car, forcing her out of racing for the rest of the season.
Rumour has it that she’s heading over to DSM-Firmenich-PostNL next year. Will she finally have some better luck there?
15. Grace Brown
Grace Brown has been in the top 20 of the UCI rankings at the end of all five seasons so far this decade. She might have been nearing the end of her career, but she kept the best for last it seems.
During this period, Brown emerged as one of the leading time-trialists in the pack. She’s bagged a number of high-profile TT wins while also contesting Classics and lower-level stage races. The FDJ-Suez rider has a couple of Bretagne Ladies Tour wins to her name, a Tour Down Under title and a Brabantse Pijl trophy.
The Australian’s farewell season has been well-documented. She claimed an Olympic gold, a rainbow jersey and a major Classics win at Liege-Bastogne-Liege. That’s impressive enough to crack the top echelons of this list.
14. Liane Lippert
When Liane Lippert is in form, you know she’s going to light up a race.
One of the strongest puncheurs in the bunch, she’s often in contention on hillier profiles in stage races and Classics. A stage winner at both the Tour and Giro, Lippert has also propped up her palmarès over the past four years with wins at Tre Valle Varesine, Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and a stage of the Tour de Romandie.
She is often overshadowed by the Swiss army knife GC riders like Vollering and Longo Borghini, but the German has demonstrated time and time again that she is one of the most talented racers in the women’s peloton. Don’t even get me started on her near misses at the World Championships. She was hard done by not to make the podium in 2022 and 2024.
13. Juliette Labous
A consistent figure in women’s cycling this decade, Juliette Labous has a strong claim to make it so high on this list.
The French rider has been a staple of the GC scene so far. She might not have won many races, but she’s finished in the top five of the Vuelta, Itzulia Basque Country, the Tour of Britain and Tour de Romandie. However she has a particular affiliation with the Giro. There, the French rider has claimed a stage win and a GC podium on separate editions.
She’s also tasted success at the Tour with a strong run of top ten finishes in recent years, culminating with a fourth place finish in 2022. Throw in a French national title and Labous is certainly getting closer to superstar status.
12. Charlotte Kool
Charlotte Kool is one of the most prolific sprinters to feature on this list. She’s as pure of a sprinter as it comes, and she’s put these skills to good use over the past three seasons after turning pro with Team DSM in 2022.
Last year, Kool swept up 12 wins in total. Bluntly put, she was the sprinter of the season, often winning multiple times during the same stage race. This year, she was edged into the second spot on six occasions by her compatriot Lorena Wiebes. However, later into the season, Kool stepped up at the Baloise Ladies Tour and the Tour de France where she opened the race in style with two stage wins, placing her in the maillot jaune for two days.
Eleven of Kool’s victories have been on the WorldTour level at the UAE Tour, Vuelta Femenina, RideLondon, Simac Ladies Tour and the aforementioned Tour de France. She’s given us enough evidence to show that she’s one of the fastest around, however, she is very much a one-dimensional rider. She doesn’t dabble in the cobbled Classics and can’t pack a punch on a more rolling profile. That’s what keeps me from moving her into the top ten.
11. Elisa Balsamo
One of only four winners of the road race world title this decade so far, Balsamo had to make the cut.
A Classics rider by trade, Balsamo has been one of the most consistent riders on a rolling profile so far this decade. She has two wins at the Trofeo Binda under her belt, plus wins at Gent-Wevelgem and Classic Brugge-De Panne. On the Grand Tour stage, Balsamo has raised her arms a handful of times at the Giro and Vuelta. All that’s missing is a Tour de France stage winner’s medal.
The Piemontese rider has finished inside the top 25 of the UCI rankings each year since 2021, the same year she won the rainbow jersey ahead of Marianne Vos.
10. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig is a fun rider to watch. Not only is she good craic in interviews, but she also has a fiery temperament on the bike that often yields success.
After a strong streak of form through the early 2020s that saw her dabble in GC alongside her existing Classics showground, the Dane took a hard-fought stage win at the 2022 Tour de France Femmes. Not long after, she added an overall win at the Tour of Scandinavia to her trophy cabinet. Since then, the FDJ-Suez rider added two Giro dell’Emilia titles and a World Championships medal to that selection.
Up until this year, she was consistently in the top ten of the UCI rankings, mainly thanks to her omnipresence in the Ardennes Classics and hilly stage races. Her GC results have also proven fruitful with top ten results at the Tour, Vuelta and Giro throughout the decade. This helps fight her case for making it into our top ten, and she will certainly help her new team Canyon-SRAM next year.
9. Marlen Reusser
Marlen Reusser is quite possibly the best engine in the women’s peloton. A time-trialist and Classics titan, the Swiss has been a captivating figure to follow in the sport.
Reusser broke through to the top bracket of pro cycling in 2020. In that formative year, she claimed her first international medals at the European and World Championships. From then, she translated this time-trialing form into road race results. A stage win at the Vuelta paved the way to a podium finish overall that year. After signing to SD Worx in 2022, she became a key figure for the squad in the Belgian Classics. She worked on behalf of Lotte Kopecky to help her secure big wins at the Tour of Flanders. A stage win on the gravel roads at the Tour de France Femmes gave some vindication of her road racing capabilities.
2023 saw Reusser’s best season to date with a dominant solo win at a rainy Gent-Wevelgem, two major stage race victories at the Tour de Suisse and Itzulia Basque Country, and to top it all off, another stage win at the Tour de France. Despite abandoning the World Championships time-trial, Reusser lit up the road race the weekend after and took a hard-earned fourth place.
Still in keeping with her time-trialing strongsuit, Reusser has added several World Championships medals to her palmarès alongside an Olympic silver and three European Championships gold medals against the clock. She’s been off with a long-term illness this season but will hopefully bounce back next year with Movistar.
8. Kasia Niewiadoma
One of the kingmakers of racing in the 2020s, Kasia Niewiadoma has been everpresent in the women’s peloton.
Aside from her handful of Grand Tour podiums, Niewiadoma is a staple of the Classics. She’s appeared on the podium of Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Flanders.
Until this year, though, the Pole hadn’t claimed a race win since the late 2010s. Once the floodgates opened at Flèche Wallonne, she carried this form over into the Tour de France Femmes where she claimed the coveted yellow jersey by just a handful of seconds after a courageous final stage.
7. Anna van der Breggen
Anna van der Breggen began the decade in scintillating form during the delayed 2020 season. It all started with an overall win at the Giro, shortly followed by two world titles in the road race and the time-trial.
The following year, she rode this wave of form with another win at La Flèche Wallonne – a race she won on seven occasions – before claiming another Giro crown ahead of her two teammates who rounded out the podium. She later announced her retirement, ending her time in the peloton on a high note.
This wasn’t quite true, however. Van der Breggen is set to make her comeback next year. Could she add a Tour de France Femmes victory to her Giro and Vuelta wins?
6. Marianne Vos
Hold your horses, Marianne Vos is possibly the GOAT of women’s cycling, but we’re judging these riders on their performances in the 2020s. With that, let’s park Vos’s over 200 wins from previous decades and take a look at her post-pandemic results.
The evergreen Dutch rider has enjoyed plenty of success this decade. Challenged by a new crop of riders, she has settled the score at a number of WorldTour races with stage wins at the Tour of Scandinavia, Simac Ladies Tour and the Volta a Catalunya, a race she won overall earlier this year. On top of these, Vos has been a fixture in the Classics with victories at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Amstel Gold Race and Gent-Wevelgem.
At the Grand Tours, few riders have a record that rivals Vos’s. She’s claimed a Tour stage win, spent some time in the maillot jaune and secured two points classification contests. She has also carried this success across to the Giro and Vuelta where she has also claimed stage honours on several occasions since the turn of the decade.
She’s still pretty good, we can say that.
5. Lorena Wiebes
In terms of pure victories in the 2020s, no one comes close to Lorena Wiebes. She’s claimed the most stage wins of any rider, male or female, since the turn of the decade.
On top of a select few GC wins at flat stage races, Wiebes will forever be the first woman to claim a stage of the Tour de France Femmes. She’s won two more since then and the 25-year-old has also won the Ronde van Drenthe and Scheldeprijs on four consecutive occasions. If that wasn’t enough, she’s captured wins at Gent-Wevelgem and Brugge-De Panne and at almost every major women’s stage race including all three Grand Tours.
Add in two European titles and it’s easy to understand why the Dutchwoman makes it so high on this list. She’s undoubtedly the best sprinter of the decade so far.
4. Elisa Longo Borghini
Elisa Longo Borghini is one of the most versatile riders in the women’s peloton. She’s the only woman to have won Paris-Roubaix and a Grand Tour.
The Italian can do it all. She’s won the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix alongside multiple wins at the Giro dell’Emilia and the Brabantse Pijl. Maybe if she didn’t play around with Niewiadoma, she might have added an Amstel Gold title to this list a couple of years ago as well.
Longo Borghini finally added a Grand Tour title to her ever-growing list of achievements this year at the Giro. In the GC field, Longo Borghini has also won the UAE Tour and Tour of Britain, and she has a Vuelta podium and Tour top ten in her 2020s bank. Alongside a handful of Grand Tour stage wins, she’s emerged as one of the best sprinters among the current crop of climbers.
All that’s missing is a Tour de France stage win. Could that come next year when she crosses over to UAE Team ADQ?
3. Lotte Kopecky
Possibly the best Classics rider of the past three seasons, Lotte Kopecky has made a big splash in the 2020s. Starting the decade as a relatively unknown quantity, she burst through with a stage win at the delayed 2020 Giro. Since then, she has become one of the most decorated riders in the women’s peloton.
Kopecky is a big race rider. She’s won two world titles on the road so far this decade, and that count is likely to increase in the years to come. On top of these rainbow jerseys, she has a European title to her name and in her trade kit she has won two Tours of Flanders, two Strade Bianches, two Nokere Koerses, one Paris-Roubaix and one Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. She’s also tasted success at the Grand Tours with points classification victories – alongside stage wins – at the Giro and Tour.
The Belgian has also become a hardy stage racer. Kopecky missed out on Giro victory this year by less than a minute and she climbed onto the podium at the 2023 Tour after an impressive week of climbing at the women’s Grande Boucle. Elsewhere, she clinched the overall victory at the Tour of Britain, Tour de Romandie and the UAE Tour during her impromptu GC transition.
2. Demi Vollering
It’s easy to argue Demi Vollering‘s case. Over the past three seasons, she has transitioned into the best climber in the sport and the undeniable GC favourite at any race she enters.
Simply put, Vollering has a Tour de France win and a Vuelta win under her belt, she’s bagged three Tour stages, a string of UCI WorldTour stage race leader’s jerseys and the Vélo d’Or. If you needed any more justification, Vollering has spent the past four seasons in the top three places in the UCI rankings. Even placing wins to one side, she has cracked the podium at all three Grand Tours, narrowly missing out on a title defence at the Tour earlier this season.
The Classics have also proved fruitful for the Dutch rider – that is, after all, where she made a name for herself back in the early 2020s. Vollering claimed a rare Ardennes triple crown in 2023. That same year, she found herself on the podium at the World Championships. She has also won Strade Bianche, Brabantse Pijl and La Course by Le Tour titles.
1. Annemiek van Vleuten
Some call Marianne Vos the GOAT, but I’d say Annemiek van Vleuten is the best women’s cyclist of all-time. Her heyday stretched from the 2010s up until 2023 when she was still winning Grand Tour titles just a couple of months before retiring from the sport. To me, it’s a no-brainer to place her at number one on this list.
Since 2020, Van Vleuten has championed a staggering total of six Grand Tours. If she hadn’t crashed out of the 2020 Giro, it would have most likely been seven. The Dutch rider has wrangled a number of high-profile Classics wins across both cobbles and hills. Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, the UCI World Championships, Strade Bianche – I could go on.
Van Vleuten’s 2022 season alone should land her in the top spot. She claimed all three Grand Tours, the rainbow jersey, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. No season ever in women’s cycling – or even men’s cycling – comes close to beating this. She was untouchable, even at the age of 39, mind you.
No rider on this list has dominated all types of terrains like Annemiek van Vleuten has throughout the 2020s. Demi Vollering might challenge this in the years to come, but Van Vleuten’s dominance from 2020 to mid-2023 will most likely not be seen again in the women’s sport.
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