Retirement beckons for Cordon-Ragot and Wood after the Simac Ladies Tour

As the Simac Ladies Tour marks the final European Womenโ€™s WorldTour event of the 2024 season, the womenโ€™s peloton is preparing to bid farewell to some of its seasoned competitors. Among those retiring are Audrey Cordon-Ragot and Alice Wood, both from the Human Powered Health team.

The 17-year journey of French rider Cordon-Ragot reaches its conclusion at this six-day Dutch race. Having competed for teams such as Vienne Futuroscope, Wiggle High5, and Trek-Segafredo, she has amassed 21 victories, including nine national titles. Reflecting on her imminent retirement, Cordon-Ragot shared, โ€œIโ€™ve tried not to think about it too much. Iโ€™ve managed to stay focused and still train hard, so Iโ€™m proud of myself for maintaining that focus, which was really important for me this year to keep my motivation.โ€ The sentiment is especially poignant as she dons her French national time trial championโ€™s jersey for the final time. โ€œFor sure itโ€™s going to be special because it will be the last time I wear it in a race. Iโ€™m so proud to wear it whenever I can.โ€

Meanwhile, Alice Wood is also stepping away from racing after nine years in the peloton, having ridden for teams like Drops and Canyon-SRAM. With five professional victories, including British road and time trial titles, the 29-year-old reflects on her decision: โ€œItโ€™s a weird feeling to know this will be my last race. I still feel this is the perfect time for me to end my career. I have often had some good results at this race and in the Netherlands, so hopefully, I can end on a high.โ€

The duo began their final race with Cordon-Ragot and Wood finishing 16th and 42nd respectively in the 10km time trial at Gennep, which was claimed by Zoe Bรคckstedt of Canyon-SRAM. The competition continues with a 155km sprint stage to Assen on Wednesday afternoon.