Cyclingnews' guide to the women's spring one-day races – Preview

De Muur van Geraardsbergen / Cobblestones / Fans / Public / Landscape / during the Tour of Flanders 2019

De Muur van Geraardsbergen features in the Tour of Flanders (Image credit: Getty Images)

The Classics season will open with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad between Gent and Ninova on February 29, when the best one-day specialists in the sport, including new road race world champion Annemiek van Vleuten, will be raring to get their European seasons underway.

Van Vleuten will be the number one rider to watch – and for good reason – after her audacious 105km solo attack that netted the world title in Harrogate last September. That, combined with her stated intent on making a mark on the Classics campaign, should even have her rivals eager to see what she will bring to the one-day races over the next two months.

The Classics are far from predictable, however, and there are many women in the peloton who will be vying for victory in the one-day races held across Belgium, Netherlands and Italy. There are 17 one-day races in total and nine of those are part of the Women’s WorldTour, which will automatically feature the eight new WorldTeams: Canyon-SRAM, Alé BTC Ljubljana, CCC-Liv, FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope, Movistar Team Women, Team Sunweb, Trek-Segafredo and Mitchelton-Scott.

Chantal Van den Broek-Blaak (Boels Dolmans) opened last season with a victory at Omloop het Nieuwsblad and will be looking for an early season win once again. She's a former world champion and one of the best one-day riders in the peloton, but the same could be said for her teammates Anna van der Breggen and Amalie Dideriksen, so look out for them, and don’t discount European champion Amy Pieters, Jolien D’hoore and Jip van den Bos to round out a team full of Classics contenders.

Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is not a part of the Women’s WorldTour but it is one of the most anticipated races of the season because it historically opens the Classics calendar. The women race 126.5km from Gent to Ninove. It's a notoriously tough race held under the cold and often times rainy conditions. What makes the race even more challenging are the 10 climbs on route: Leberg (45km), Wolvenberg (57km), Molenberg (69.5km), Rekelberg (83.5km), Elvererberg (90km), Terbosse (94.5km), Eikenmolen (99.5km), Muur-Kapelmuur (109.5km) and the Bosberg (113.5km) before the final in Ninove.

Omloop van het Hageland also forms part of the opening weekend for the elite women's peloton, held the day after the kick-off Omloop Het Nieuwsbald in Belgium. The women race 131km that starts in Tienen with one larger 52km loop before six smaller 13km loops in Tielt-Winge. The route includes a total of five climbs: once over Kerkstraat and four trips up Roeselberg before the finish in Tielt-Winge.

Le Samyn des Dames is one of the shorter races at 94.9km with cobbled sections through Vert Pignon, La Roquette, Ch de Wiheries, Core de Nonettes and at Rue Belle Vue, and three climbs at Grand Place Quaregnon (26.6km), Cote de Calvaire (35.5km), and at Cote de la Roquette (53.6km). The field completes one large loop followed three finish circuits that are 25km each with an intermediate sprint on the first two passages through the finish line in Dour.

Drentse Acht van Westerveld, more commonly known as Drentse 8, starts and finishes in Dwingeloo. There are three 38km larger loops that pass through the start-finish line in Dwingeloo before the peloton races three short 7km finishing circuits. The route has traditionally included multiple trips over the VAM-berg climb, a steep, short climb over a landfill, which has also been used in the Women’s WorldTour Bevrijdingsronde van Drenthe two days later.

Nokere Koerse organised an inaugural women’s race in 2019 won by Lorena Wiebes, who ended the season as the number one ranked rider in the world. Now in its second edition, the race is 129km and travels from the start line in Dienze south to a large around the finish city of Nokere. They will then race five laps of a shorter 14.2km loop that includes back-to-back climbs over Stokstraat and Nokereberg.

Gent-Wevelgem will start in Ieper where both men's and women's teams will be presented alongside each other. The women’s race will begin at 10 a.m., one hour ahead of the men’s 256km race, and both races finish in Wevelgem. The route is considered on of the 'flatter' of the classics but it does include climbs over the Beneberg, Kemelberg and Monteberg (twice each) enroute to the finish in Wevelgem.

Flanders Classics has stated that The Tour of Flanders offers a course tailor-made for ‘Flandriennes’ for the women’s peloton, with start and finish in Oudenaarde. The women will race 159km that includes 10 hills and four cobbled sectors. There are some small changes to the course from last year, but the bulk of the flat cobbled sectors are, once again, located near the beginning of the race: Lippenhovestraat (33km), Paddestraat (35km), Holleweg (57km) and Haaghoek (62km). There are also 10 sharp climbs: Wolvenberg (55km), Leberg (64km), Berendries (68km), Tenbosse (76km), Muur-Kapelmuur (86km), Kanarieberg (114km), Taaienberg (118km), Kruisberg/Hotond (133km) and the final two climbs over the Oude Kwaremont (143km) and Paterberg (146km). From the last climb it’s another 13 kilometres to the finish in Oudenaarde.

Brabantse Pijl is the fifth and final one-day race organised by Flanders Classics. The race will move from Gooik to Lennik to allow the women to finish in Overijse at the same location as the men on April 15. The peloton will race 122km and first travel to Beersel for an opening set of hills and one local lap, where there are a trio of climbs; Bruine Put, Menisberg and Lotsestraat. There are 20 climbs in total, however, that include multiple trips up Hagaard, Hertstraat, Holstheide and Schavei on the local laps in Overijse. On the last lap, the field race up Moskesstraat, a 500-metre long cobbled climb with a maximum gradient of 17 per cent. The Moskesstraat is only 11 kilometres from the finish line but the riders then have to race over Holstheide and Schavei, one last time, before the finish in Overijse.

Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition marks the first of three Ardennes Classics on April 19, and the only round in the Netherlands. The hilly 126km race starts in Maastricht and finishes just after the famous Cauberg climb in Berg en Terblijt. There are 14 climbs in total; Slingerberg, Adsteeg, Lang Raarberg, Bergseweg, Plettenberg, Zwartebrugweg, Eyserbosweg, Fromberg, and Keutenberg. Once on the three final local laps, the peloton race up the Geulhemmerberg (970 metres, gradient 7.9 per cent), the Bemelerberg (900 metres, gradient 7 per cent) and the Cauberg (800 metres, gradient 12 per cent) to the finish line.

Flèche Wallonne is synonymous with names like Marianne Vos and Anna van der Breggen who have both won it on five occasions. The women's 124km race starts in Huy and then finishes on the famed Mur de Huy. This year's race will include climbs over the Côte de Warre, and twice up the three ascents; Côte d'Ereffe, a new climb Côte du Chemin des Gueuses (1.8km with an average gradient of 6.5 per cent) and the Mur de Huy.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège will close out the Ardennes Classics and the spring one-day races. The 136.5km race starts in Bastogne and includes climbs over Côte de Wanne, Côte de la Haute-Levée and Côte de la Vecquée, before taking on the climbs in the later stages of the race; Côte de La Redoute, where Van Vleuten attacked to win last year's edition, Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons before finishing in Liège.

Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.

Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.

She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.