Race analysis, favourites, and predictions for Simac Ladies Tour 2023

At the age of 40, Annemiek Van Vleuten (1200) has decided to put an end to her successful sporting career, and she will do so at home, in the Simac Ladies Tour, which takes place in the Netherlands starting next Tuesday.

The Dutch climber has undoubtedly been one of the three most dominant cyclists of the 21st century, alongside her compatriots Marianne Vos (1200) and Anna Van Der Breggen. Throughout her illustrious sporting career, Van Vleuten has won 4 editions of the Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile, a Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift (and two editions of La Course), and three editions of the women's Vuelta race. But her successes don't end there: she has been a two-time road world champion and two-time ITT world champion, a discipline in which she has also been the Olympic champion. In addition, in the record of the great Dutch champion, there are several of the most important one-day classics on the calendar, including 2 editions of the Ronde Van Vlaanderen, 2 of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and 2 of the Strade Bianche.

A legend bidding farewell.

Route

The 2023 Simac Ladies Tour consists of 6 stages. The first and third stages are two short time trials, 2.4 km and 7 km-long respectively. Stages 2 and 4 are entirely flat and are expected to end in a bunch sprint, while the last two stages have undulating profiles and should be decisive for the overall classification.

Favorites

Three days before the start of the race, only Annemiek Van Vleuten (1200), Lotte Kopecky (1200) and Lorena Wiebes (1200) are listed in the lineup, so it is impossible to speak of favorites, although it is likely that the three of them will achieve victories during the week.

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