UCI Women’s WorldTour: Come rain or shine, Trek-Segafredo rule the Hell of the North

The first two editions of Paris-Roubaix Femmes have been dominated by Trek-Segafredo in very different conditions and fashions.

After Lizzie Deignan’s muddy one-woman show in the inaugural edition, Elisa Longo Borghini rose to glory on the dry cobbles last Saturday.

Ina-Yoko Teutenberg and her team went through a roller-coaster of emotions last weekend. The Trek-Segafredo manager, a mighty rider herself at the turn of the century, was in a joking mood on Friday. “It just means the other riders will have to step up and get victory themselves,” she said with a laugh in Denain, as her team came to Paris-Roubaix Femmes as the defending winners, but without Lizzie Deignan, the first woman to conquer of the Hell of the North last October.

Only 24 hours later, no words were needed when Teutenberg hugged Elisa Longo Borghini as the second female winner in the iconic outside velodrome of Roubaix. In between those two moments, from fun to bliss, the American squad had gone through the many ups and downs the mighty French cobbled classic throws at its contenders.

Crashes, mechanicals, rival attacks and even the disqualification of the UCI Road World Champion Elisa Balsamo for an illegal return to the group after a puncture - they survived it all to claim victory yet again in the André Pétrieux velodrome, where Lucinda Brand (3rd) and Ellen van Dijk (7th) added more emphasis to the Trek-Segafredo dominance on the very specific challenges of Paris-Roubaix.

A collective masterclass

Back in Denain, the start city, Race Director Franck Perque was foreshadowing “a completely different race to last year’s” due to the conditions. Autumn and winter had passed since the epic first October 2021, dry cobbles were awaiting the peloton. “On wet terrain, placement matters a lot and you need dexterity,” Perque explained. “On the other hand, when it's dry, power makes the difference. You have to push, push, push.”

With drastically different conditions, Teutenberg was well aware her team would need to find another way to victory, six months after Deignan’s long-range show: “I’m sure there won’t be a solo breakaway from 85km to go!” But the American team still found a way to dominate proceedings.

With her UEC European Champion jersey and her raw power, Ellen van Dijk was already shredding the bunch on the first cobbles of the day, leading her team to the front on the same sectors where Deignan went solo in the first edition. The Dutch woman suffered a puncture through the third sector, but she was able to pace herself back to the front, while Audrey Cordon Ragot took over to make the race harder.

“We basically kept all the numbers up front,” Brand celebrated at the end of the day. The Dutch rider, a former cyclo-cross UCI World Champion, was tasked with marking a move initiated by Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx) 50km before the finish.

The Belgian Champion has displayed stellar form this spring, most notably winning Strade Bianche and Ronde van Vlaanderen. She’s the new leader of the UCI Women’s WorldTour rankings after another strong performance in Roubaix (2nd), and her team SD Worx remains in the lead of the UCI Women’s WorldTour team ranking. But on Saturday, neither Kopecky nor her teammate Chantal van den Broek-Blaak could counter the attack Longo Borghini ignited with 34km to go.

“The perfect bike for Roubaix”

Last year, Deignan managed to build a lead of more than 2 minutes on the cobbles, to seal her victory in dominant fashion. This time, Longo Borghini’s margin didn’t get higher than 40’’, but she never looked back: “If you don’t believe in your attack, you never win,” she said during a press conference graced by her elegant words. “Entering the velodrome is like going through the Dantesque hell, and then all of a sudden you’re in paradise. You’re riding in this velodrome where the history of cycling has been made… And I’m just Elisa.”

On her way to another major one-day race victory, the Italian National champion (also a former winner of Ronde van Vlaanderen, Trofeo Alfredo Binda – Comune di Cittilglio, Strade Bianche, GP de Plouay…) had great legs, strong tactics and also a supreme confidence in herself, in her material and in the people surrounding her.

“I think we have the best bikes for this type of race,” Longo Borghini stressed, highlighting the benefits she and her teammates also get from the experience of their male counterparts in Paris-Roubaix. “We put a lot of work into the technical side, and it’s a work that doesn’t necessarily come to light, but it’s really fundamental for us. They try to put us on the perfect bike for Roubaix, and I think they did.”