Lippert in the top 10: The best female pro cyclists with the most Instagram followers
Thomas Huber
· 24.12.2023
20th Christina Schweinberger - 5900 followers
The Austrian Christina Schweinberger attracted particular attention at the 2023 World Championships. There, she won the bronze medal in the individual time trial and finished a strong fifth in the road race. Schweinberger also finished fifth in the Ghent-Wevelgem classic. This puts her twelfth in the UCI world rankings and 20th in the Instagram ranking of the top 20 female riders.
19th Gaia Realini - 9800 followers
The young Italian took off immediately in her first year as a professional. She finished on the podium in the overall classifications of the UAE Tour, the Vuelta a Espana and the Giro d'Italia. She even took a stage win in the Tour of Spain and finished third in the Fleche Wallonne classic. Her success at a young age is likely to have an even greater impact on her Instagram ranking in the not too distant future.
18th Elise Chabbey - 10,300 followers
Elise Chabbey is not only successful as a cyclist, she also took part in the 2012 Olympic Games in London as a canoeist and was a long-distance runner. She has been a professional cyclist since 2018 and won a stage at the 2021 Tour de Suisse. In 2023, she finished fifth overall at the Tour of Switzerland, achieved the same position at the Liège-Bastogne-Liège classic and won the mountain jersey at the Tour of Scandinavia.
17th Pfeiffer Georgi - 11,000 followers
The British classics specialist took a step forward in 2023, even making it into the top 10 in the UCI world rankings. She landed her first major coup by winning Classic Brugge-De Panne. She also put in a strong performance at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and only just missed out on the podium. She had already shown what she was capable of the year before when she finished second at the U23 World Championships.
16th Grace Brown - 11,300 followers
Grace Brown has repeatedly attracted attention for her time trial skills in the past. In 2022 and 2023, she won the silver medal in this discipline at the World Championships, and she took stage wins at the Tour of Scandinavia and the Bretagne Ladies Tour in 2023. She also made her mark in tours and classics. In 2023, she won the Tour Down Under in her home country and has already finished second twice in Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
15th Silvia Persico - 22,300 followers
Silvia Persico has only been under contract with a World Tour team since the 2023 season, but she already made headlines in 2022. She finished fifth in the Tour de France and third in the World Road Race Championships. In 2023, she finished on the podium at the UAE Tour, which she narrowly missed out on at the Tour of Flanders. The Italian is also successful off the road in cyclocross.
14th Juliette Labous - 24,200 followers
The French stage race specialist was particularly strong in her home Tour de France, where she finished fourth overall in 2022 and fifth in 2023. In 2022, she also won the overall classification of the Vuelta a Burgos, and a year later she was only beaten by Annemiek van Vleuten in the Giro d'Italia.
13th Ashleigh Moolman - 30,900 followers
The experienced South African celebrated her greatest success at World Tour level in 2022, when she won a stage and then the overall classification at the Tour de Romandie. In 2023, she finished third in her class at the Vuelta a Burgos and sixth at the Tour de France. In the rankings, she is the first rider to break the 30,000 follower barrier.
12th Shirin van Anrooij - 31,700 followers
At 21, the Dutchwoman is one of the most promising talents in cycling. Van Anrooij won the young rider classification of the Tour de France in 2022. In 2023, she finished second overall in the Vuelta a Burgos and took her first victory in a UCI World Tour race with the Trofeo Alfredo Binda. At the Amstel Gold Race, she finished third behind Demi Vollering and Lotte Kopecky.
11th Marlen Reusser - 36,500 followers
At the age of 32, Marlen Reusser had her best year as a professional cyclist last season. After a Tour de France stage win in 2022 and two second places in the individual time trial at the 2020 and 2021 World Championships, she stood at the top of the podium three times in 2023. She won the overall classifications of the Tour of the Basque Country and the Tour de Suisse, and also won the one-day race Ghent-Wevelgem. She is a strong third in the UCI rankings, but just misses out on the top 10 in terms of Instagram followers.
10th Lorena Wiebes - 43,000 followers
For one of the best sprinters in the world, it's just enough for the top 10 in the Instagram ranking. In 2023, Lorena Wiebes celebrated stage wins at the UAE Tour, the Vuelta a Burgos, the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France and the Tour of Scandinavia. But that's not all: she has already won the Ronde van Drenthe one-day race and tours such as the Simac Ladies Tour 2022 for three consecutive years. She is also successful in gravel competitions off the road.
9. Chiara Consonni - 48,500 followers
Chiara Consonni is also one of the top riders in the field. She won a stage at the Giro d'Italia in both 2022 and 2023 and then turned up the heat again at the end of last season. In China, she won the overall classification of the Tour of Chongming Island and finished second in the subsequent Tour of Guangxi one-day race. In 2022, she also won the classic Dwars door Vlaanderen and the gold medal in the team pursuit on the track.
8. Elisa Balsamo - 57,600 followers
Classics specialist Elisa Balsamo made a name for herself in recent seasons when she won the road race at the 2021 World Championships. 2022 was just as successful for her - she won two stages at the Giro d'Itlaia and the Brugge-De Panne classic. In 2023, a stage win at the Simac Ladies Tour was her biggest success, which is why she only finished 20th in the UCI world rankings and therefore only just made it onto this list.
7th Elisa Longo Borghini - 57,800 followers
The third Italian in a row: In 2023, Elisa Longo Borghini won the UAE Tour and finished on the podium at the Tour de Suisse, as well as achieving podium finishes at the Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The experienced Italian was also successful in previous years: she won the Tour of Flanders in 2015, Paris-Roubaix in 2022 and has already collected two stage wins at the Giro d'Italia in her career.
6th Liane Lippert - 61,500 followers
Liane Lippert is currently the most successful German cyclist in the UCI world rankings in ninth place and sixth in the Instagram ranking. She first attracted international attention at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Race 2020, which she won. Her biggest success to date came in 2023 with a stage win at the Tour de France. She also finished second in the Fleche Wallonne classic.
5. Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig - 114,000 followers
The first rider in the ranking to reach 100,000 Instagram followers is Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig. The Danish rider's successes include overall victory in the Tour of Scandinavia 2022, and she showed what she's made of in the road race at the 2023 World Championships. In the final metres, she was only beaten by Lotte Kopecky and Demi Vollering.
4. Katarzyna Niewiadoma - 142,000 followers
Katarzyna Niewiadoma is one of the best climbers in cycling and proved this once again in 2023. The Polish rider won the mountain jersey at the Tour de France and came third overall. She also finished second overall in the Tour de Romandie. She also performed strongly in previous years - she took bronze in the road race at the 2021 World Championships and won the Women's Tour in 2017. She also became gravel world champion in 2023.
3. Lotte Kopecky - 160,000 followers
UCI world number two Lotte Kopecky makes it onto the podium with over 150,000 Instagram followers. Her star already rose in 2022 when she won Strade Bianche and the Tour of Flanders. Last season, the classics specialist won Omploop Het Nieuwsblad and the Tour of Flanders again, among others. With second place in the Tour de France, she also emphasised that she is a force to be reckoned with in the tours. She was the outstanding female cyclist at the 2023 World Championships: She not only won the road racebut also two gold medals on the track.
2nd Demi Vollering - 207,000 followers
In 2023, Demi Vollering from the Netherlands proved that she is the measure of all things in women's cycling. She won the Tour de France Femmes in impressive styleand the Tour de Romandie and the Vuelta a Burgos. But she also excelled in the classics and celebrated the Ardennes triple: within a week she won the Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Nevertheless, she has to admit defeat to one rider...
1. Annemiek van Vleuten - 216,000 followers
... One of the greatest female cyclists in history has the most Instagram followers of the top 20 in the UCI world rankings: Annemiek van Vleuten. The now 41-year-old ended her professional career at the end of the season and celebrated numerous successes during her active career. She won Olympic gold in the road race in 2021 and took four more world titles between 2017 and 2022. She also won the Tour de France in 2022 and was on the top step of the podium four times at the Giro d'Italia and three times at the Vuelta.
