Gent-Wevelgem Preview

Mar 26
cyclical

A little like the budget airline that drops you 50 miles from your intended city, Sunday’s Gent-Wevelgem makes barely the most cursory effort to go anywhere near Gent. Infact, the closest it gets is actually the finishing town.

The elite women line up in Ieper (Ypres) and head north to Merkem. The route then swings south-west and south to Poperinge and beyond to five hellingen. All the climbs in the race are crammed into a 30-kilometer stretch in the middle of the race: two times up the Kemmelberg, two times up the Monteberg and a climb of the Baneberg.

The route of the 2016 Women's Gent-Wevelgem.
The route of the 2016 Women’s Gent-Wevelgem.

After that, it’s a basically flat run-in to the finish. North off the Monteberg to Ieper, east to the Menen Gate and then east-north-east to Wevelgem.

It’s a race for strong riders. The final 35 kilometers are on basically dead straight roads, so it’s hard to get into an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ scenario. There are hares for the greyhounds to chase all the way to the finish on Vanackerestraat.

Floortje Mackaij, Team Liv-Plantur, training in Calpe, Spain.
Floortje Mackaij, Team Liv-Plantur, training in Calpe, Spain. © Team Giant-Alpecin

Floortje Mackaij won here in abysmal conditions in 2015. Lauren Hall outwitted a breakaway group in 2014. Before that, Kirsten Wild took the victory in 2013. Lizzie Armitstead, slaying all before her this year, won the first Women’s Gent-Wevelgem in 2012 after a mighty 40-kilometer solo escape.

Barring Wild, all the previous winners are back as well as Janneke Ensing who’s been runner-up the last two years.

Gent-Wevelgem 2016 route profile

Boels-Dolmans, Wiggle-High5, Canyon-SRAM, RaboLiv and Cervelo-Bigla all bring talent stacked squads. Mackaij’s Liv-Plantur team brings Leah Kirchman

Surprises – if you could call them that – may come from others. Ale Cipollini bring Marta Bastianelli and Annalisa Cuccinota, while Annemiek Van Vleuten heads Orica-AIS; the American squads Team TIBCO-SVB, TWENTY16 and UnitedHealthcare all have proven race winners and strong motors.

The race rolls out of Ieper’s Grote Markt at 11.20 and is due to hit the finish around three hours later.

An interesting aside – the race director is Patsy Maegerman, silver medallist in the 1994 Worlds behind Norway’s Monica Valvik, and who rode a couple of years as a professional with Topsport-Vlaanderen.