Eleonora Maria "Ellen" van Dijk is a Dutch professional road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Lidl–Trek. Besides road cycling she was also a track cyclist until 2012. Van Dijk is known as a time trial specialist and is five times world champion. She won her first world title on the track in the scratch race in 2008. She became Road World Champion in 2012, 2013 and 2016 with her respective trade teams in the team time trial and in 2013 also in the individual time trial. In 2015, she won the time trial at the first European Games and the silver medal in the team time trial at the world championships.
The Tour of Flanders, formerly the Tour of Flanders for Women, is an annual road bicycle racing event in Flanders, Belgium, held in early April. It is held on the same day as the men's race, on much of the same roads but at a shorter distance. Dutch riders Mirjam Melchers, Annemiek van Vleuten, Belgian Lotte Kopecky and German Judith Arndt hold the record with two wins each. Lotte Kopecky won the most recent edition in 2023.
Elizabeth Mary Deignan is an English professional world champion track and road racing cyclist, who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Lidl–Trek. She was the 2015 World road race champion.
The 2012 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – Women's race took place on 25 February 2012. It was the 7th women's edition of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. This year's Omloop started and ended at St. Peter's Square in Ghent, Belgium and spanned 119.4 km (74.2 mi) in the province of East Flanders.
SD Worx is a professional cycling team based in the Netherlands, which competes in elite road bicycle racing events such as the UCI Women's World Tour. They have topped the UCI Women's World Tour team ranking in 2016–2019, 2021 and 2022.
Anna van der Breggen is a Dutch former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2009 and 2021 for Team Flexpoint, Sengers Ladies Cycling Team, Rabo–Liv and SD Worx. She won the gold medal in the women's road race at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and has won the Giro d'Italia Femminile on four occasions. In 2018 and 2020, she won the women's road race at the UCI Road World Championships.
Katarzyna "Kasia" Niewiadoma is a Polish racing cyclist, who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Canyon–SRAM. Among her eighteen professional wins are the Amstel Gold Race in 2019, the Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio in 2018, and The Women's Tour stage race in 2017. She is a former national champion in both the Polish National Road Race Championships and the Polish National Time Trial Championships, winning both in 2016.
The 2013 season was the eleventh for the Specialized–lululemon cycling team, which began as the T-Mobile team in 2003. Three riders joined the team in 2013, American cyclists Carmen Small and Tayler Wiles, and the Canadian Gillian Carleton. Charlotte Becker, Emilia Fahlin, Chloe Hosking, Clara Hughes and Amber Neben left the team in the post-Olympic year.
The 2014 Giro d'Italia Femminile, or 2014 Giro Rosa, was the 25th running of the Giro d'Italia Femminile, the only remaining women's Grand Tour and the most prestigious stage race on the 2014 women's road cycling calendar. It was held over ten stages from 4 July to 13 July 2014, starting in Caserta and finishing in Madonna del Ghisallo.
The 2014 women's road cycling season was the fifth for the Boels–Dolmans Cycling Team, which began as the Dolmans Landscaping Team in 2010. The main new rider for the team was the Time Trial World Champion Ellen van Dijk, after have ridden 5 years for Specialized–lululemon. After winning the Omloop van het Hageland in early March, Lizzie Armitstead won also the first World Cup race, the Ronde van Drenthe. She would finish later three times in second place in the later World Cup races and keeping the lead in the overall World Cup classification. In begin April, after a solo of 30 km Ellen van Dijk won the Tour of Flanders World Cup race.
The 2014 La Course by Le Tour de France was the inaugural edition of La Course by Le Tour de France, a women's cycling race held in France. The race was run before the 21st stage of the 2014 Tour de France on 27 July.
The 2014 Boels Ladies Tour also known as the 2014 Holland Ladies Tour is the 17th edition of the Holland Ladies Tour, a women's cycle stage race in the Netherlands. The tour is part of the 2014 women's road cycling calendar and will be held from 2 September to 7 September. The tour has six stages, it starts with an individual trial over 10.1 km (6.3 mi) in Tiel and concludes with a hilly stage in Limburg. The tour has an UCI rating of 2.1.
The 2015 women's road cycling season was the sixth for the Boels–Dolmans, which began as the Dolmans Landscaping Team in 2010.
The 2015 Ladies Tour of Qatar was the 7th edition of the Ladies Tour of Qatar. It was organised by the Qatar Cycling Federation with technical and sports-related assistance from Amaury Sport Organisation (A.S.O.) under the regulations of the Union Cycliste Internationale. It took place from Tuesday 3 February until Friday 6 February 2015 and consisted of 4 stages. 15 teams of 6 riders took part. The event was broadcast live by beIN Sports.
The 2015 Strade Bianche was the first running of the Strade Bianche Donne, a one-day women's cycling race in Italy that was held on 7 March 2015. The race started in San Gimignano and finished on Siena's Piazza del Campo and was run entirely in the province of Siena, in the Chianti region of Tuscany. The inaugural edition was spun off the men's event, which started in 2007, and had a UCI rating of 1.1.
The 2015 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – Women's race was raced on 28 February 2015. It was the 10th women's edition of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. The race started and finished in Ghent, Belgium, totaling 120.5 kilometres in the province of East Flanders. Dutch rider Anna van der Breggen won in a two-up sprint with Ellen van Dijk.
The 2015 La Course by Le Tour de France was the second edition of La Course by Le Tour de France, a women's cycling race held in France. The race was held before the final stage of the 2015 Tour de France on 26 July. The race was rated by the UCI as a 1.1 category race. The event was organised by ASO, which also organises the Tour de France.
The 2015 Philadelphia Cycling Classic, known as The Parx Casino Philly Cycling Classic for sponsorship purposes, was the sixth round of the 2015 UCI Women's Road World Cup. It was held on June 7, 2015, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The event had last appeared in the Women's Road World Cup in 2001, as the Liberty Classic.
The 11th running of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad women's race in Belgium was held on 27 February 2016 and is widely regarded as the start of the Classics season. The race was won by the ruling world champion, Britain's Lizzie Armitstead, after a solo breakaway. Chantal Blaak won the sprint for second place ahead of Tiffany Cromwell. Armitstead’s win marks the first time a world champion has graced the top step of the podium at the Belgian Semi-Classic. The Omloop started and finished in Ghent, addressing several climbs in the Flemish Ardennes and covering 124 km (77.1 mi).
Lidl–Trek is a professional cycling team that competes in elite road bicycle racing events such as the UCI Women's World Tour.
2014 UCI Women's Road World Cup 
