The top-tier peloton will line up in Genoa along the picturesque coast of the Mediterranean for what will mark a historic moment in women’s cycling, the return of Milan-San Remo Women on Saturday, March 22.
It has been 20 years since the women’s field has been offered the opportunity to compete in the race that was formerly called La Primavera Rosa held from 1999 to 2005.
Organised by RCS Sport, the comeback of the women’s version of Milan-San Remo now becomes the first of four Monuments offered to the women’s peloton, alongside the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix Femmes and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. RCS Sport also organise the fifth and final Monument of the season – Il Lombardia – and has stated their intent to offer a women’s race there in the near future as well.
The 156km route from Genoa to San Remo for the revived Milan-San Remo race will see the peloton compete along the scenic coastline before tackling the iconic Cipressa and Poggio climbs, that are likely to decide how the final plays out.
Given this is the first edition since 2005, there is no results trail on hand to indicate just who excels at this particular event but Cycling News has selected some of the key riders to watch by picking out those with the characteristics and form that could well see them chasing victory in San Remo.
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Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime)
Lotte Kopecky has made no secrets about the changes she has made to her programme this year with a season’s start – and focus – on Milan-San Remo before she turns to a selection of Spring Classics ahead of her role as a GC contender at the Tour de France.
The two-time consecutive World Champion will line up as one of the standout favourites, even if she has not yet toed the start line this season. The Belgian will be backed by a powerful SD Worx-Protime team that includes another potential winner in Lorena Wiebes.
Kopecky’s strengths in one-day races and on climbs mean that she will be eyeing the challenging Poggio as a potential place to make her move. She has stated that Milan-San Remo, and especially its finale, has been her favourite race to watch on the men’s calendar over the years. Now it is her time to show her explosive power as she hunts for victory in the first women’s edition since 2005.
Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ)
Perhaps Kopecky’s biggest rival is Demi Vollering, who lines up as the outright favourite given her winning start to the season racing in the colours of her new team FDJ-SUEZ.
As former teammates, Vollering and Kopecky will know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and will likely be evenly matched on a course like Milan-San Remo. Vollering may have the edge, however, given that she started her season earlier and has a stage race and three one-day races already under her belt.
She also came out on top with the overall victory at Setmana Valenciana, finished third at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and secured a thrilling victory at Strade Bianche.
It was her performance on the punishingly-steep Santa Caterina climb leading to the iconic entrance into Piazza del Campo last weekend that marks her as the rider to beat after she punched up the ascent distancing her former teammate, coach, sports director and now rival Anna van der Breggen to take the victory in Siena.
It is unlikely that anyone could drop Vollering on the final climbs into San Remo, and she is a tactically savvy rider who has a powerful sprint, too. That mean’s with support from riders like Juliette Labous and Ally Wollaston, the race will be FDJ-SUEZ’s to lose.
Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek)
Another winning start to the year for Elisa Balsamo has seen her stand on the top step of the podium in two stages at Setmana Valenciana and Trofeo Alfredo Binda. There is no doubt that every Italian rider competing will have placed an importance on this event and Balsamo is certainly no exception.
Organisers may have only recently announced the official details of the 156km race that takes the peloton southwest down the coast towards the Via Roma finale in San Remo, but riders would have had ample opportunity to preview and train along the final that includes the Cipressa and Poggio, which is the same as the men’s race.
Balsamo’s most recent victory at Trofeo Alfredo Binda will have given her confidence heading into the next race on home soil. She also lines up with a strong Lidl-Trek team that includes Anna Henderson, Lucinda Brand and Lizzie Deignan, who is the only rider that has won the other three Monuments; Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Liège.
Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ)
The Italian Champion and winner of last year’s Giro d’Italia is another with plenty of motivation to try and take victory in San Remo. Elisa Longo Borghini takes the start with her new team UAE Team ADQ after her tenure with Lidl-Trek came to an end last year.
It is a new setup for her but she has quickly integrated with the programme and her new teammates, together securing the overall victory at the UAE Tour. The team raced to perfection in the crosswinds on stage 2 which effectively placed Longo Borghini in pole position to win the stage race before they even reached the decisive Jebel Hafeet.
A standout runner-up performance from Silvia Persico on the daunting climb, which was especially impressive after her domestique work in support of Longo Borghini, shows that she, too, is a contender for the win in Milan-San Remo.
If they work as well together as they have so far this season, the sky is the limit for both riders, and it will pay off to have two strong cards to play in a challenging final in San Remo.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike)
No one really knew what to expect when Pauline Ferrand-Prévot made the decision to retire from mountain biking and return to road racing with Visma-Lease a Bike this year.
The 15-time elite World Champion and 2024 mountain biking Olympic Champion has now committed to the road full-time, at least for the next three years. She began her season at the UAE Tour, which she called a ‘warm-up’, before rivalling the top riders in the sport to claim third place, behind Demi Vollering and Anna van der Breggen, at Strade Bianche.
She had already stated that the next big target was the revived Milan-San Remo Women and in the future, the Tour de France Femmes.
While Strade Bianche’s off-road element played to her strengths, there is no denying that Ferrand-Prévot looks set to continue to be a major contender in the more challenging terrain and hilly one-day races.
It will be interesting to see how Visma-Lease a Bike play their cards with two potential winners in Ferrand-Prévot and Marianne Vos. Vos is always a contender at just about any race she starts but the Dutch rider had a later start to the season. Despite that, she managed fourth place at Trofeo Alfredo Binda, which shows that she, too, is in top form ahead of Milan-San Remo.
Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck)
She might not have the same experience in competing in the Spring Classics as some of the other favourites on this list, but mountain bike world champion Puck Pieterse has certainly become one of the most consistent performers over the previous two seasons.
Last year was her first full spring road racing campaign and she ended up in the top 10 at every race she started. This year has been no different, so far, finishing fourth at Omloop and a pair of seventh places at Strade Bianche and Trofeo Alfredo Binda.
On top of her strength in mountain bike, cyclocross and one-day road racing, she delivered her greatest performance in road racing so far in her debut at the Tour de France Femmes last year, beating Demi Vollering to win stage 4 in a rain-soaked Liège and then securing the best young rider classification.
At Milan-San Remo, we expect to see more of the same consistency but she will also have a strong team that includes Yara Kastelijn and Pauliena Rooijakkers, who was third overall at the Tour last year.
If the weather turns for the worst along the coastal route, as it has been forecast ahead of the weekend, that will only play to Pieterse’s strengths and enhance her chances of delivering another top result.
Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto)
This was a tough call because Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto are fielding a very strong team for Milan-San Remo with the likes of Tour de France winner Kasia Niewiadoma, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Italian sprinter Chiara Consonni, but we have selected Chloé Dygert as their rider to watch this weekend.
All are certainly contenders, however, Niewiadoma has only recently recovered from a heavy crash that forced her to abandon Strade Bianche and Uttrup Ludwig hasn’t had a stellar start to the season, yet. Consonni is a contender in the event of a bunch sprint or even a reduced sprint if a split occurs on the run-in to San Remo.
Dygert has flown under the radar ahead of this race, though she has clearly been in great form given her results at the opening races in Australia where she won the final stage at the Tour Down Under and finished fourth at Cadel Evans Road Race.
Still, Milan-San Remo is her first race on European soil this year so that makes her somewhat of an outsider pick but with her characteristics it is hard to go past the rider from the United States. She is strong enough to climb with the front group on the Poggio, powerful enough to go on a late-race attack and hold off a chase, plus fast enough to contest a sprint for the victory.
Marta Cavalli (Team Picnic PostNL)
It’s been nearly four years since Marta Cavalli had her breakthrough season – winning the Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne, and finishing fifth at Paris-Roubaix and sixth at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2022 – and it has been a challenging road back from the serious crash that forced her to abandon the Tour de France Femmes that same year.
Now racing for her new team Team Picnic PostNL after ending her tenure at FDJ-SUEZ last year, Cavalli finds herself in an all-new leadership role surrounded by new faces and chance to aspire to new goals.
Milan-San Remo has been on her radar since it was rumoured that RCS Sport might revive the women’s race back in 2022. At that time, Cavalli said she dreamed of winning the Monument and that she would “love to play out a big fight with all the riders from the WorldTour on the Poggio”.
She also said the iconic climb had a special place in her heart and that she had spent time training in the area out of a base in San Remo. She will now get that chance to compete in her nation’s famed Monument, with a team that has several cards to play with Pfeiffer Georgi.
Cavalli has been performing consistently in the early season races, and while she may not be a favourite for the win, she is certainly a contender for the a top place, and the unpredictability of bike racing means that anything can happen on the roads to San Remo, including a surprise victory.
Liane Lippert (Movistar)
There isn’t anything Liane Lippert can’t do when it comes to racing on the Women’s WorldTour, and she has proven herself capable of winning the biggest races, especially over the last two or three seasons in her transition from DSM to Movistar.
Victories in stages at the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, Tour de Romandie, and at challenging one-day races like Cadel Evans Road Race, Tre Valli Varseine, while also second at Flèche Wallonne make her a good fit for this new and punchy Milan-San Remo route.
She may not be as consistent as some of her rivals, but she is certainly one to watch in the later stages of the race when the climbing gets tougher. She is an explosive rider on the shorter climbs and should have no problem racing among the best on the Cipressa and Poggio, so if there is a reduced group on the descent and run-in to San Remo, Lippert is likely to be in it.
With teammates like Olivia Baril and Cat Ferguson, Movistar should have a good showing at Milan-San Remo.
Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly)
It is another tough call because EF Education-Oatly will field a powerful team that includes Paris-Roubaix winner Alison Jackson, Tour de France stage winner Cédrine Kerbaol, and sprinter Lotta Henttala who could all feature in the final. However, we chose Olympic Champion Kristen Faulkner as the rider to watch on Saturday.
At the moment, Faulkner’s form is a question mark, because she has not raced yet this season. The team recently announced that Milan-San Remo would be her first event of the year, and the reason for her delayed start was so that she could fully recover from a concussion sustained in a crash while training last December.
It is sufficient to say, that the team and Faulkner are confident that she is well-prepared for Milan-San Remo, and Faulkner herself has said this is her first target before competing at the Ardennes and the Vuelta, and then peaking again in the second half of the season.
Contracted to race with EF Education-Oatly through 2026, she had an exceptional season in last year where she won the elite women’s road race title at the USA Cycling National Championships followed by two gold medals at the Olympic Games in the road race and team pursuit. If these performances are anything to go by, we should expect the unexpected from Faulkner on this challenging course.
Letizia Paternoster (Liv-AlUla-Jayco)
Another Italian rider to watch is Letizia Paternoster, who is not just a sprinter but excels on tough one-day terrain. She will be leading the Liv-AlUla-Jayco and a great option for the final, should she cover the Cipressa and Poggio with the front runners.
Paternoster has already proven that she is up for such a challenge. She is a track racer who loves the Spring Classics and was already twice in the top 10 at Le Samyn and Trofeo Alfredo Binda this year.
Last year she finished fourth at Ronde van Drenthe, third at Dwars door Vlaanderen and ninth at Tour of Flanders, and she finished third at Gent-Wevelgem in 2019.
Liv-AlUla-Jayco have multiple other riders to watch, too, with Mavi Garcia, who will undoubtedly be among the selections on Cipressa and Poggio and Ruby Roseman-Gannon, who is also a powerful sprinter on challenging terrain.
Honourable mentions
- Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike)
- Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime)
- Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek)
- Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto)
- Kimberley Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal Team)
- Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck)
- Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly)
- Pfeiffer Georgi (Team Picnic PostNL)
- Juliette Labous and Ally Wollaston (FDJ-SUEZ)
- Ruth Edwards (Human Powered Health)
