23rd Ronde van Vlaanderen WE, April 5th, 2026

Samu Cuenca

Samu Cuenca

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Ot's time for the second monument-ish race of the season. Can three time winner Lotte Kopecly triumph once again, or will she be left behind like in DDV earlier this week?
Has PFP reached another super peak, or will Demi Vollering finally add De Ronde to her palmares? Will UAE make perfect use of their strengt in numbers? Watch the race and find out!

While the men's race has grown by 10 km since last year, the women's route is 4 km shorter, so the distance should make a bigger difference than usual.

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Start list: https://firstcycling.com/race.php?r=9049&y=2026&k=8

We won't see Marianne Vos following the passing of her father and life long supporter, Henk, and Kasia Niewiadoma is not racing either. However, we will be seeing Kristen Faulkner on European roads for the first time this year, among others.
 
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IT WAS SATURDAY?
Awww... I missed it... 🙁

So, who won?
 
Here are my thoughts who are the favorites for the Ronde:

After DDV Reusser and Vollering are the two top favorites but there are few other riders who can challenge for the win.

Kopecky: last years winner and in an interview this week she said she is in better form than last year. But on the other side she was not in the front group after the attacks on the Cipressa in MSR and she couldn't follow the attacks on the Eikenberg in DDV. So I have my doubts if she can really win the Ronde this year.

Wiebes: After here impressive ride on the Kemmelberg in Wevelgem she could have a chance to win this race. On the other side, the total elevation could be too much for her and she couldn't follow Vollering attack in Omloop. Also the dynamic between Wiebes and Kopecky could be interesting if they both survive the Paterberg and are in the front group.

Ferrand-Prevot: we can't forget last year's second place. But she only raced ones this year (Strade). So we simply don't know how her form is.

Pieterse: only one of the few riders who could follow the attack on the Eikenberg in DDV. Also was super strong in Strade, so I expect her to get top result in the Ronde.

Moors: my dark horse for the win. After the Kemmelberg in Wevelgem and the Eikenberg in DDV she was in the front group. She is in top form, so I expect her to get a top result in the Ronde.

Swinkels: the winner of Trofeo Alfredo Binda and third in Wevelgem. The question is, for which rider UAE will work?

ELB: the winner of the UAE Tour. But she also struggled on the Eikenberg in DDV. I am pretty sure that someone from UAE will challenge for the win.

Other possible names who could play an important role this year: Bredewold and Vas, but Ronde probably to hard for them. They will play an important role for Kopecky and Wiebes.
Lippert, Koch and Chabbey have to work for their leader, but if a crash or a mechanical happens to Vollering or Reusser, they could also be in the mix for the win.
Rüegg and KLCP both have an outside chance to win.
 
And one should of course not forget about the two Letizias either. Georgi has looked decent, but she is probably better suited for Roubaix. Van Anrooij is not on the same level she had in 2024, but could still end up with a good result. Ferguson might be able to throw a Cat among the pigeons.
 
Big crash. Le Court down, Reusser down, Jastrab down, a few others as well, couldn't identify the SD Worx rider who's stuck.

Edit: reports Wiebes not in group of favourites. The SD Worx rider on the floor had an arm tattoo but I didn't think it looked like Wiebes (and that it would have been reported on if Wiebes). Marty seems to think she's in the chase group however, so reports are contradictory. SD Worx attacking would appear to suggest that Wiebes is there because you wouldn't usually want to attack your own team's protected rider, but the team is SD Worx so things like logic and common sense tend to go out the window.
 
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Wiebes crashed in the descent now. She was in group 2 over the Koppenberg.
 
FDJ are getting ready to launch Demi (I don't know how many legs and hearts they have).
 
What a performance from Fdjeux. Making it as hard as possible. No time to relax. And Demi seems really strong.
 
G3 seems to be in the process of giving up, so it's going to be from those up front.
 
Puck, Koch and three smoking barrels. But G2 makes it back, for a short while anyway.
 
The race dynamic we're getting here is what I formerly associated with the men's big cobbled classics: an elite group goes away on a climb, then the chasing group rejoins, there's a pause in the action, then the same repeats, with some resorting of each group's composition.
 
Demi has gapped PFP, but I don't know that it's enough to keep it from coming back. Seated power is super, should be decisive but you never know with PFP. On the other hand the race isn't in France so she doesn't get her extra performance buff.
 
Libertine Seguros said:
Demi has gapped PFP, but I don't know that it's enough to keep it from coming back. Seated power is super, should be decisive but you never know with PFP. On the other hand the race isn't in France so she doesn't get her extra performance buff.
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The gap is huge though now.
 
I doubt they can come back now. Maybe Pieterse could have done a better job than PFP if she had been better positioned and got her engine running right away.
 
I know her name is Karlijn Swinkels, but I could swear the German ES commentator is saying Karl-Heinz Winkel every single time. I was super confused and had to look up who's in the group.
 
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