Datalearning 2023: Best rider (women)
Thursday 14 December 2023 • Stats
2023 will go into the history books as the final year of Annemiek van Vleuten and the unbeatable Team SD Worx. Demi Vollering and Lotte Kopecky were the best in almost all big races. Who is the best rider after 2023?
In this article, team CyclingOracle looks back on the 2023 cycling season, using our well-known (and improved!) AI-model. Which riders have improved most? Who has not been able to live up to expectations? And which ten riders are the best climbers after 2023?
In this article we look at the women's peloton. How did the riders improve their overall skill? Also check out our other articles, in which we specifically highlight the riders from the following categories:
Curious about how our improved AI model works? In this article we will take you through our considerations and adjustments.
Most progress 2023 - women
The cyclist who made the most progress in 2023 is Barker. At Gent-Wevelgem she achieved a nice seventh place. At the national road race and ITT championships in Great Britain, Barker finished fourth and third respectively, which are also the best results in her career.
Steels finished second in the same national road cycling championship. She only started as a professional in 2020 and is now transferring to Movistar at the age of 37. Steels finished in the top 20 of a general ranking several times this year. That promises something for 2024.
Door de langdurige beenblessure die Dygert suffered in 2020, she could hardly race in the following seasons. 2023 was the year of her comeback. And it was a succesful one. The American won, among other races, the World ITTtitle and the points classification in the Giro Donne.
Biggest decrease in 2023
Alice Wood has dropped the most in her scores after a disappointing season. While she achieved good results in the spring-races of 2022, including in the Ronde van Drenthe (6th), similar results did not materialize this season.
Van den Broek-Blaak and Van Dijk both did not take action in 2023 due to their pregnancies. Van den Broek-Blaak managed to finish third in the Tour of Flanders in 2022 and Van Dijk won the Tour of Belgium and the World ITT championship in 2022.
Sarah Roy's setback is also striking. The 37-year-old Australian was unable to achieve any significant results in 2023.
Best riders
Which leaves us with the best female cyclists at this moment. 4 out of best 5 cyclists in the world are contracted ad Team SD Worx. With a perfect score of 99, Demi Vollering rightfully is on top of that list. Her highlights this year included her wins in the Amstel Gold Race and the Tour de France. And if the lowest score on 13 different indicators is a score of 90 (!) in the sprint, you can rightly call yourself most all-round.
In 2023, Vollering just managed to get past Annemiek van Vleuten, who is at 98 points just as a year ago. Van Vleuten won the Vuelta and the Giro, ending her wonderful career with an incredible palmares. At the end of her career, she is still is the best GC-rider in the world according to the model.
Kopecky completes the top-3. The Belgian star will race in the rainbow-jersey in 2023. In the spring she won her own Ronde van Vlaanderen for the second consecutive time en finished second behing Vollering in the Tour de France GC. An amazing season for the multiple World Champion in track-cycling.
| Best riders after 2023 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Rider | Start 2023 | End 2023 | Change |
| 1 | Demi Vollering | 95 | 99 | +4 |
| 2 | Annemiek van Vleuten | 98 | 98 | 0 |
| " | Lotte Kopecky | 95 | 98 | +3 |
| 4 | Lorena Wiebes | 95 | 96 | +1 |
| 5 | Marlen Reusser | 94 | 95 | +1 |
| 6 | Grace Brown | 93 | 94 | +1 |
| " | Riejanne Markus | 88 | 94 | +6 |
| 8 | Elisa Balsamo | 93 | 93 | 0 |
| " | Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig | 92 | 93 | +1 |
| " | Juliette Labous | 92 | 93 | +1 |
| " | Katarzyna Niewiadoma | 91 | 93 | +2 |
| " | Liane Lippert | 91 | 93 | +2 |
| " | Anna Henderson | 88 | 93 | +5 |
| 14 | Elisa Longo Borghini | 94 | 92 | -2 |
| " | Marianne Vos | 93 | 92 | -1 |
Wiebes and Reusser are the fourth and fifth best riders of the world, thanks to their specialties in sprinting and time-trialing respectively. Wiebes won 9 sprints this year and Reusser was the best in the ITT of Tour de France Femme 2023.
A notable improver among the best riders is Anna Henderson. She was able to achieve some top-10s in one-day races this spring and finished third in the Tour of Belgium later in the season. What does 2024 have in store for the British ITT-specialist?
Contact
The countdown to 2024 has begun. The transfers and preparations are in full swing. Which rider will you pay special attention to in 2024? Let us know through a DM at Instagram. If you have any questions or suggestions: feel free to connect. You can send us an e-mail at [email protected].