CYCLING Preview: Five previous champions lined up for 13th women’s Ronde van Drenthe

Double World Track Cycling Champion in 2019: Kirsten Wild (NED)

The second race of the 2019 UCI Women’s World Tour is one of its highest-profile routes: the Ronde van Drenthe in the center of the Netherlands, with no less than 11 prior medalists and five race winners entered:

● Amy Pieters (NED) ~ Defending Champion
● Marianne Vos (NED) ~ Winner in 2011-12-13
● Chantal Blaak (NED) ~ Winner in in 2016
● Jolien D’Hoore (BEL) ~ Winner in 2015
● Amalie Dideriksen (DEN) ~ Winner in 2017
● Kirsten Wild (NED) ~ Second in 2011 and 2012
● Ellen van Dijk (NED) ~ Second in 2013; third in 2015
● Lucinda Brand (NED) ~ Third in 2017
Alexis Ryan (USA) ~ Second in 2018
● Gracie Elvin (AUS) ~ Second in 2018
● Chloe Hosking (AUS) ~ Third in 2018

The route covers 165.7 km and is fairly flat, from Zuidwolde to Hoogeveen in more-or-less a “figure-8″ circuit, with three rises to make things interesting.

Wild, Pieters and D’Hoore are fresh from medal-winning performances at the UCI Track Cycling Worlds in Poland earlier this month. Wild won the Omnium, was second in the Scratch Race and teamed with Pieters to win the Madison, while D’Hoore took a bronze medal in the Scratch Race.

The race has been won by a Dutch rider eight times out of the 12 contested, but only twice in the last five, by Blaak in 2016 and Pieters in 2018. Look for results here.