Lorena Wiebes has arrived in Paris and will compete in her first Olympic Games as the leader of the Dutch team in the women's road race on August 4.
Wiebes is considered the fastest sprinter in women's road cycling, but she has also transformed herself into a powerful climber in recent years. This has made her a favourite to win the gold medal, but she says she is heading into this weekend relaxed about her prospects.
“I’m really looking forward to it. I don’t really feel the tension yet, but that will come in the coming days. Maybe when we have had the last team meetings, or when the men have ridden their road race. Then you can taste the Olympic Games a lot more," Wiebes said in an interview with Wielerflits.
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Wiebes said that growing up, she participated in gymnastics, and so she has watched Olympic gymnasts such as Simone Biles on TV during more recent summer Olympic Games. Now that she is at the Games herself, she said she is taking an even bigger interest in other sports.
“I have always followed the Olympic Games, but I was not really involved in them. Now that I have been selected for the summer Games myself, I have started to delve a bit deeper into it. Then you start to look at more sports. In the past, I was mainly interested in gymnastics. I still look at it with admiration. That is because I did acrobatic gymnastics myself as a child. I just think it is beautiful to watch. The explosiveness that those girls have is amazing. Especially now with Simone Biles, I can really enjoy it," she said.
She said that she had been eyeing the Paris Olympic Games since 2020, but that she realised she could be a medal contender when the women's road race route was announced last year.
The women's road race is 158 kilometres long with 1,700 metres of climbing and nine named ascents, using the same run-out and finishing circuits as the men's race and only one loop outside the city centre, through the Vallée de Chevreuse.
The peloton will then finish on two laps of 18.4km, including the Côte de la butte Montmartre before the flat finish along the Seine past the Quai d'Orsay and finishing on the Pont d'Iéna.
"When the course was presented last autumn, it immediately appealed to me. I like a finale with laps through the city," she said.
“I immediately had the feeling about the climb at Montmartre that this is a place where the race can be decided. It is a fairly short climb. Actually, all the climbs in the loop are not very difficult.
"I should normally be able to handle them. After the reconnaissance of the course, I did gain confidence in it, and from then on, I worked even more towards this race.”
Wiebes will spearhead a Dutch team which also includes Tour de France winner Demi Vollering, who could also win a medal in Paris, former multi-time world champion and Olympic champion Marianne Vos, and three-time time trial world champion Ellen van Dijk.
National coach Loes Gunnewijk confirmed the decision to appoint Wiebes as the team leader. If the race comes down to a reduced group sprint, and the Dutch team are all present at the front, Wiebes will have the best lead-out in the field, and a clear chance at the gold medal.
"It is now standard practice that the national coach presents us with our role and that we can think about whether or not we want it. Of course, I didn't need any time to think about it," Wiebes told Wielerflits.
"In the same telephone conversation, I indicated that I was up for it. Of course, it became more of a priority from that moment on. Although I do try to work towards it as normally as possible.”
Wiebes said that she is used to handling team leadership pressures in flat to hilly WorldTour racing with SD Worx-Protime, where she often shares that role with Belgium's Lotte Kopecky, while her Dutch compatriot Vollering leads the team in many of the challenging one-days and mountainous stage races.
In fact, Wiebes and Kopecky, the reigning road race World Champion, are often a tough-to-beat duo as trade teammates and have claimed many 1-2 victories throughout the last two seasons, meaning they know each other's strengths and weaknesses very well. In Paris, they will be racing against one another and it will be interesting to see how they compete among their respective national teams.
Wiebes has named the Italian team with former World Champion Elisa Balsamo and Giro d'Italia winner Elisa Longo Borghini and favourites, too.
"My goal is to hang on to it as long as possible. I see Lotte as one of the main competitors in that, especially because the course is somewhat reminiscent of the street circuit of the World Championship in Glasgow, with twists and turns, where she won the world title last year," Wiebes said.
"The Italian block is also very strong. The competition is quite big anyway. Everything just has to fall into place on Sunday. I may have the perfect preparation now, but a lot can still go wrong.”
If anything does go wrong, Wiebes said the Dutch team comes prepared with more than one card to play with Vollering, Vos, and Van Dijk, and any one of them could win a medal.
"You can’t just have a plan A. We have to have multiple plans. For me, it has to be a perfect race that ends in a sprint. But along the way, anything can go wrong. So much can happen," she said.
"That's why it's great that we have several girls with Demi and Marianne who can finish the match. We can play multiple trump cards, and we have only one main goal: Winning gold with the Netherlands."
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