Demi Vollering is the outstanding female cyclist in 2023. The Dutchwoman not only won the Tour de France Femmes in July, she also dominated the classics in the spring with victories such as the Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Vollering was awarded the Velo d'Or for the best female cyclist of 2023, but had to give way to her team-mate Lotte Kopecky in terms of best female classics rider. On the other hand, Vollering also closes the 2023 UCI world rankings in first place with 6038.86 points. This puts the 26-year-old from Team SD Worx more than 1600 points ahead of world champion Kopecky, who is in second place.
UCI Women's World Ranking 2023: The top 10
- Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx/Netherlands) 6038.86
- Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx/Belgium) 4367
- Marlen Reusser (Team SD Worx/Switzerland) 3279.53
- Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx/Netherlands) 3167
- Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team/Netherlands) 3115.57
- Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Caynon//SRAM Racing/Poland) 2333.04
- Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-Suez/Denmark) 2202
- Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ/Italy) 2138.64
- Liane Lippert (Movistar Team/Germany) 2137.57
- Pfeiffer Georgi (Team dsm-firmenich/Great Britain) 2124
The dominance of the SD Worx team on the road is fully reflected in the UCI world rankings. The Dutch team claims the top four places in the rankings. Former champion Annemiek van Vleuten, who competed in her final season and was dethroned by Vollering at the Tour de France Femmes, made it to fifth place thanks to her victories at the Vuelta and the Giro Donne, among other things.
UCI world rankings: Liane Lippert in top 10
Four places below her is her German team-mate Liane Lippert. The Friedrichshafen native has had her most successful professional season to date with four victories. In addition to her success at the national championships at the end of June, she won stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes, stage 3 of the Tour de Romandie Feminin and Tre Valli Varesine at the end of the season.
If you only look at the races in the UCI Women's World Tour, things look a little better for Lippert's team-mate van Vleuten. There, the 41-year-old is in second place behind Vollering. The successes at the Giro and Vuelta as well as the triumph at the Tour of Scandinavia alone have added 1200 points to van Vleuten's account. Kopecky, on the other hand, lacks the 600 points she received for winning the Road World Championships. However, this is not part of the World Tour and does not count in this classification.
UCI Women's World Tour Ranking 2023 - the top 10
- Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx/Netherlands) 4891.86
- Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team/Netherlands) 2790.57
- Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx/Belgium) 2735
- Marlen Reusser (Team SD Worx/Switzerland) 2512.86
- Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Caynon//SRAM Racing/Poland) 2284.71
- Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx/Netherlands) 2212
- Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek/Italy) 1601
- Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek/Italy) 1532.29
- Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich/France) 1526.14
- Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ/Italy) 1496.14
The UCI points system
The women's ranking is similarly complex as with the men. However, the Tour de France is not above all else in the women's category, as it is for the men. The Tour, Giro Donne, Vuelta and other tours of the UCI Women's World Tour are treated equally - 400 points are awarded to the overall winner in each case. Exactly the same as in the classics. A victory in Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders or the Amstel Gold Race, for example, also earns 400 points.
The only way to score more points in one go in 2023 was with the World Championships. Lotte Kopecky was credited with 600 points for her rainbow jersey on the road, Demi Vollering in second place with 475 and third place for Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig was worth just as much as Vollering's victory in the Tour de France Femmes, namely 400 points.
