SD Worx-Protime are far from unbeatable in 2024, as team misses out in Ardennes Classics
Kasia Niewiadoma and Grace Brown got the better of Demi Vollering at Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège respectively last week, as the cloak of invincibility over the latter’s SD Worx-Protime team vanished over Ardennes Week.
The wins were both breakthroughs in different ways for the riders from Canyon-SR AM and FDJ-Suez, but also represented setbacks for Vollering, who won both races last year.
For Niewiadoma, it was her first victory since 2019, a period in which she has finished second or third 30 times, including twice third at the Tour de France Femmes. For Brown, it was the landmark win her ability pointed towards, and came after two second places at the same race.
Vollering, however, was left with tears of disappointment after a dispiriting Classics campaign. Last year, the Dutchwoman became only the second woman in history to complete the Ardennes triple, winning the Amstel Gold Race, Flèche and Liège last year, but this year could not live up to the hype, and found herself standing lower down the podium at the final two.
“I felt really good today, and I was again in the position to go for the win, but I couldn’t do it, because I gambled a bit too much in the sprint. That was a bit stupid,” Vollering said post-Liège on Sunday.
“I felt so good also in the sprint, I should have gone much e
