The reigning World, European and Commonwealth Road Race Champions Chantal Blaak, Marianne Vos and Chloe Hosking headline the provisional line-up for the OVO Energy Women’s Tour, which gets underway on Wednesday (13 June) in Suffolk.
The provisional rider list is headed by defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma, who took victory in the OVO Energy Women’s Tour 12 months ago, and will wear the number one placard, leading a Canyon//SRAM line-up that also includes Hannah and Alice Barnes, and former World Champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, making her debut in the race.
World Road Race Champion Blaak leads a strong Boels Dolmans line-up with a pair of former stage winners in the race – Amy Pieters and Christine Majerus – plus another former World Champion in Dane Amalie Dideriksen.
Dideriksen, Blaak and Ferrand-Prevot and joined by three further former World Road Race Champions in Giorgia Bronzini (Cylance Pro Cycling), Marta Bastianelli (Ale Cipollini) and Marianne Vos (WaowDeals Pro Cycling), plus a pair of former World Time Trial Champions in Ellen van Dijk (Team Sunweb), and Lisa Brennauer (Wiggle HIGH5), who won the race overall in 2015.
Hosking, who was crowned Commonwealth Games Champion in April, returns to the race for Ale Cipollini having won Stage Three in Royal Leamington Spa last June, as do the riders who finished second and third behind her on the Gold Coast, Georgia Williams (Mitchelton Scott) and Dani Rowe (WaowDeals Pro Cycling)
Fellow 2018 Commonwealth Games medallists Hayley Simmonds (WNT Rotor), Katie Archibald, Annette Edmondson (both Wiggle HIGH5) and Neah Evans (Storey Racing) will also be on the start line in the Suffolk town of Framlingham for Stage One.
Among the provisional line-up for the race are 11 current National Road Race Champions, notable among them are Finnish champion Lotta Lepistö (Cervelo Bigla), who won the final stage in 2016; Italian Champion and 2016 podium finisher Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle HIGH5); and last year’s runner-up Christine Majerus (Boels Dolmans), the current Luxembourg champion, while double stage winner and Belgian national champion Jolien D’Hoore (Mitchelton Scott) may ride, as she recovers from a training crash last month.
In total 102 riders from 17 teams feature on the provisional rider list, with athletes from 23 different nations due to amass in Suffolk for the opening stage from Framlingham to Southwold.
