SD WORX : END OF AN ERA ?

The dominant women’s team of the last decade finds itself at a crossroads, writes Owen Rogers

- Owen Rogers

When it comes to crushing superiority few are better than SD Worx. Just look at how they filled all three steps of the podium at the season’s toughest race, the Giro Donne.

Behind Anna van der Breggen, winning her fourth maglia rosa, Dutch compatriot Demi Vollering was second and South African Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio third, a whopping three minutes ahead of fourth place.

With Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) absent, van der Breggen’s dominance was complete. She put 1min 22sec into Moolman-Pasio on stage two’s mountaintop finish, and two days later won the 11km mountain time trial by 1min 2sec from Vollering.

But that was her last stage win, her final GC victory before retirement and the team will miss her winning habit. Since joining what was Boels-Dolmans in 2017 she has collected 31 of their 85 individual international victories – 10 this year alone.

What’s more, Chantal van den Broek-Blaak, who has 11 of those successes to her name, is also retiring after the 2022 Classics. Can the team continue to be the sport’s dominant team?