Lorena Wiebes

Wiebes active on track and road

Lorena Wiebes was born on March 17, 1999. It was clear from a young age that Wiebes had immense talent. In 2016, she became Dutch junior road champion for the first time, and a year later, she won the European junior road title. Alongside her road success, Wiebes was also active on the track. At the Dutch Junior Championships, she won the scratch race and reached the podium in both the sprint and the time trial. In 2017, Wiebes competed for the first time in the National Track Championships for seniors, where she immediately took home the bronze medal in the scratch race.

While she made her elite track debut in 2017, Wiebes didn’t debut on the road at the elite level until 2018. In her first two years as a professional, she rode for Parkhotel Valkenburg. From day one, she impressed, and at nineteen years old, she claimed her first pro win at the 7-Dorpenomloop Aalburg in the Netherlands. That year, she also won the Omloop van de IJsseldelta and the Parel van de Veluwe. Following these impressive results, Wiebes entered the European Road Championships in Glasgow as team leader. However, in the final, she was positioned too far back to make an impact in the bunch sprint, while her lead-out Marianne Vos took silver.

First Dutch Championship

2019 was Wiebes’ definitive breakthrough year. She won the Dutch road championship for the first time, proving too strong for Vos and Amy Pieters in Ede. She also claimed gold at the European Games in Minsk, with Vos again joining her on the podium. Other highlights for the Mijdrecht-born cyclist included three stage wins and the overall victory in the Tour of Chongming Island, as well as wins in the Nokere Koerse and the SPAR Flanders Diamond Tour. With a total of fifteen victories that season, Wiebes finished second in the WorldTour rankings.

The following year, Wiebes continued her winning streak. On March 1, in what would be her last race with Parkhotel Valkenburg due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she won the bunch sprint at the Omloop van het Hageland. On June 1, 2020, she officially transferred to Team Sunweb. Although she won fewer races due to the pandemic, she still took victories in the GP Euromat, the Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne and the first stage of the Madrid Challenge.

Besides her success on the road, she remained active on the track. Although she didn’t compete in European or World Championships, she frequently participated in Dutch national championships. From 2017 to 2019, she made the podium each year. After skipping the 2020 and 2021 editions, she returned in 2022 to win five gold medals. Yet, she did not compete in the European or World Championships that year.

New team

In 2021, Wiebes switched to Team DSM, where she continued to excel. In her first year with her new team, she won two stages in the Giro Rosa, the Scheldeprijs and the Ronde van Drenthe. In 2022, her success only grew, as she repeated victories in the Scheldeprijs, Ronde van Drenthe and Nokere Koerse at the start of the season. Later that year, she also claimed two stage wins in the Tour de France Femmes and became European road champion. So far, 2022 has marked the peak of Wiebes' career.

Although 2022 was a standout year, 2023 proved to be another successful season for Wiebes. This year, she joined the powerhouse team SD Worx. Among her wins was a stage in the Tour de France Femmes, where she showed her sprinting prowess with the fastest finish. She also won a stage in the Giro d'Italia and claimed her third consecutive victory in the Scheldeprijs, along with wins in the Ronde van Drenthe and Omloop van het Hageland. At the end of the season, she narrowly missed defending her European champion title, finishing second in Drenthe behind Mischa Bredewold. After the European Championship, Wiebes went on to claim the European gravel title. While she didn’t win the race itself — Tiffany Cromwell from Australia took that honor — Wiebes became European champion as the highest-placed European finisher.