UCI Women’s WorldTour: SD Worx rule in Switzerland; can they be overthrown in the summer?

Continuing their dominant displays of power in the Classics with Team SD Worx, Marlen Reusser and Demi Vollering have won three of the last four stage races on the UCI Women’s WorldTour after Reusser’s recent home triumph in the Tour de Suisse Women.

A quick glance at the results of the Tour de Suisse Women leaves no doubt as to which team dominated the most recent event of the UCI Women’s WorldTour (17-20 June). SD Worx won three of the four stages with three different riders. Even though Demi Vollering didn’t score in the north-east of Switzerland, the Dutch star was part of a dominant crew, and finished 2nd in the overall standings behind Marlen Reusser. Another demonstration of how successful this pairing of two versatile champions can be.

A more detailed look at the records highlights the first UCI Women’s WorldTour successes of three stellar talents: Hungary’s Blanka Vas (stage 1) and New Zealand’s Niamh Fisher-Black (stage 4) for SD Worx, as well as Italy’s Eleonora Gasparrini (stage 3) for UAE Team ADQ. The other stage went to Marlen Reusser, who built her overall triumph by winning the 25.7km individual time trial (ITT) from St Gallen to Abtwil on day 2, with a gap of 8’’ on Vollering and 16’’ on Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo), the two riders who joined her on the final podium.

Finally, a broader analysis of the standings confirms the dominance of SD Worx, with three riders occupying the top three positions of the UCI Women’s WorldTour rankings: Demi Vollering (3,821.86 points), Marlen Reusser (2,090.86) and Lotte Kopecky (1,560). They’re followed by Trek-Segafredo’s Elisa Longo Borghini (1,492) and Canyon//Sram Racing’s Kasia Niewiadoma (1,403.71)… then another SD Worx star emerges: Lorena Wiebes (1,326).

The Dutch powerhouse collectively rules the UCI Women’s WorldTour. But new racing dynamics are brewing and rivals want to make the most of it to take their share of glory and overthrow the SD Worx rulers.

More opportunities for a varied cast

Although SD Worx held the leader’s jersey of the Tour de Suisse at the end of every stage, they could feel the threat of Canyon//Sram on the final day. With Tiffany Cromwell part of an early breakaway, Kasia Niewiadoma went for an ambitious long-range attack that saw her open a gap of 2’15’’ to the Reusser group. That meant the Polish rider was leading the virtual standings and Vollering had to pull for her Swiss teammate, before Reusser set off to chase Niewiadoma on her own.

Fisher-Black, who had followed the move, eventually got the better of Niewiadoma in the final straight. And Reusser finished 3rd (+37’’) to seal the overall victory. SD Worx ruled, again, but it was a tight call. One that may announce a wind of change for the summer?

Over the last six weeks, SD Worx has won the Itzulia Women (Reusser), the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas (Vollering) and the Tour de Suisse (Reusser). Only the RideLondon Classique escaped them as it crowned Team DSM’s rocket Charlotte Kool. But the first stage races of the season crowned a more varied cast: Grace Brown (FDJ-Suez) claimed the Santos Tour Down Under; Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) took the UAE Tour Women; Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team Women) secured La Vuelta España Femenina.

More opportunities to shake SD Worx in UCI Women’s WorldTour stage races lie ahead of the peloton with the Giro d’Italia Donne (30 June-9 July), the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (23-30 July), the Tour of Scandinavia (23-27 August), the Simac Ladies Tour (5-10 September), the Tour de Romandie Féminin (15-17 September) and the Tour of Chongming Island (12-14 October).

“Hopefully we’ll be able to make it more difficult for them”

Mavi Garcia (Liv Racing Teqfind) has spent the last few weeks in altitude, training in Sierra Nevada (Spain) for what she looks at as “the most important part of the season, for me and for the team, with the Giro and the Tour”. Third in last year’s Giro d’Italia Donne, winner of the Classic Lorient Agglomération-Trophée Ceratizit, she will return to competition in the Spanish National Championships.

Before she went on the move on Swiss roads, Niewiadoma spent a week in France to do recons for the upcoming Tour, with fireworks expected on the slopes of the Col du Tourmalet. “It’s nice that the Tour happens later in the season because we know what their [SD Worx] strong points are and where we stand,” says the 28-year-old Polish rider, who feels “way stronger mentally” since she finished on the podium of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2022.

She makes no doubt “Demi and SD Worx are having an amazing season” but also wants to open tactical opportunities to shake the race. “Hopefully my team and Annemiek’s team, Movistar, we’ll be able to make it more difficult for them,” she says. “And I think it can be nice to have two strong riders battling one against the other, like Demi and Annemiek, because they may forget the rest of the race. That’s how I see opportunities to go for victory or take extra time. It can work with Elisa Longo Borghini or Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig…”