Simac Ladies Tour 2024 Race Preview

Charlotte Kool had a huge Tour de France Femmes, winning both of the flatter sprint stages and taking the yellow jersey in the process. Up until then, she’d struggled to beat Lorena Wiebes this season, which had been one of the best battles of the 2023 season. We get another chance to see who is the faster sprint here, with Team DSM-firmenich-PostNL bringing the full sprint train. They’re only missing Pfeiffer Georgi who is an important cog but whose season ended early. The only recent mis-step was at Binche-Chimay-Binche where Kool repeatedly tapped the back wheel of her leadout Franziska Koch, eventually unclipping as Cat Ferguson made her race-winning move.

Lidl-Trek have a strong set-up but might find it tough to unseat SD Worx. Elisa Balsamo will cover the sprints nicely and will have some confidence back after winning the opening stage of the Tour de Romandie Féminin, finishing faster than Kopecky and Lippert on a tough dig of a finish. That was her first win since March’s Classic Brugge-De Panne in an interrupted season. She may be the third wheel to the Wiebes and Kool battle. Ellen van Dijk should be there or thereabouts in the time trial and that might set up a bit of a GC tilt but she’ll probably ride in support of others in this race after getting a chance for stage on the opening day. Elisa Longo Borghini clearly has some good form still after impressively winning the Giro dell’Emilia with an unanswered attack on the San Luca climb. She can time trial well which will raise her up the GC standings but I’m struggling to see how she beats Wiebes and Kopecky the rest of the way. The climbs in Arnhem probably aren’t tough enough for the Italian national champion but will be her best chance. 

Thalita de Jong has finally seen things click in the last month with so many top-10s but near misses of wins finally exorcised with 2 stages and all the jerseys at the Tour de l’Ardeche and a stage win and 2nd in GC at the AG Tour de la Semois too. De Jong has had one of the best comeback seasons and found some new life at the Lott Dstny Ladies team this year and will try to do her best on home roads at the Simac Ladies Tour. She has time trialled ok recently, not quite top-drawer level but enough to be competitive and she will get in the hunt once the race breaks up too.

Liv AlUla Jayco certainly has plenty of options here with Letizia Paternoster probably the one to get the nod in the obvious flat sprint stages. The Italian finally took her first win in over 5 years at the Tour de Gatineau over in Canada – she hadn’t won since the U23 European Championships in 2019! She’s had a strong year up against the sprinters and is certainly in that next tier below the very best sprinters (who are all here). Ruby Roseman-Gannon was hugely impressive at the World Championships, finishing 6th and being in the elite front group. We’ve seen her take a win this year on a tough stage in the rain at the Tour of Britain, if Paternoster drops then Roseman-Gannon will be able to step up, probably in Arnhem. Silke Smulders is also worth a watch on that stage too as a rider who can finish in the top-10 on stages, her TT may prevent that being a GC top-10.