British champion Pfeiffer Georgi will return to home roads to race the 2024 Ford RideLondon Classique, joining a star-studded field for the UCI Women’s WorldTour race, between Friday 24 May and Sunday 26 May.
Georgi, who won the Road Race at the National Championships last year, has enjoyed an outstanding start to the season including finishing third at the Paris-Roubaix Femmes. She will be part of the Team dsm-firmenich PostNL squad which will be looking for a hat-trick of wins at the Ford RideLondon Classique after triumphs for Lorena Wiebes in 2022 and Charlotte Kool in 2023.Sprinter Kool will be one of the favourites again for this year’s race while Wiebes, who now rides for Team SD Worx-Protime, is back for the first time since 2022.
Kool and Wiebes were confirmed to be racing this year’s Ford RideLondon Classique earlier this year alongside British star Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek) and current world champion Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx-Protime).
Other new names announced today with the publication of the latest start list include 2021 world champion Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) - twice a runner-up at the Classique, who returns having crashed out on Stage One of last year’s race - Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ), Clara Copponi (Lidl-Trek), and Cedrine Kerbaol (CERATIZIT-WNT Pro Cycling).
From a British perspective, former European Track Cycling junior champion Elynor Backstedt (Lidl-Trek) and UCI Cyclo-Cross World Championships under-23 champion Zoe Backstedt (Canyon//SRAM Racing) will be riding. Alice Towers (Canyon//SRAM Racing), who took the national road race title in 2022, is returning alongside 2016 Olympic champion Elinor Barker (Uno-X Mobility). You can view the full list of riders here.
The exciting Dutch talent Fem van Empel (Team Visma I Lease a Bike), who won the UCI Cyclo-Cross World Championship in 2023, will also make her first racing appearance in the UK. Eleonora Camilla Gasparrini (UAE Team ADQ) will return to defend her Best Young Rider jersey.
Stage One of the 2024 Ford RideLondon Classique begins on Friday 24 May in Saffron Walden and finishes in Colchester. The race starts and finishes in Maldon the following day for Stage Two, before concluding on Sunday 26 May with the showpiece Stage Three featuring eight laps of central London and a finish on The Mall.