{"id":343065,"date":"2025-12-30T16:07:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T16:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/343065\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T16:07:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T16:07:14","slug":"what-she-is-doing-is-unbelievable-how-lorena-wiebes-is-taking-winning-to-the-next-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/343065\/","title":{"rendered":"‘What she is doing is unbelievable’ \u2013 how Lorena Wiebes is taking winning to the next level"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tightly gripping the drops of her handlebars, Lorena Wiebes<\/a> thrashes down on the pedals, shoulders low, head dipped into the wind. The gantry comes into frame. She bows to look under her arm, sees no one, sits up, and punches the air. It\u2019s a finish every cycling fan now recognises: the trademark conclusion to a Wiebes sprint. It could have been Gent-Wevelgem<\/a>. It could have been stages three or four of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift<\/a>, or any of five stages of the Simac Ladies Tour. In 2025, Wiebes was so imperious she won 25 times \u2013 more than any other male or female pro \u2013 and usually in exactly this way. But as the season unfolded, it became clear her repertoire was expanding.<\/p>\n

For a few years now, Wiebes has spoken of her desire to be dominant beyond the finishing straight. \u201cI want to be more than just a sprinter,\u201d she told the Dutch magazine Ride<\/a> last month. But does the 26-year-old really have the performance characteristics to be more than a sprinter? Is it even a smart ambition? If you\u2019re a sprinter who can beat just about anyone, why hedge your bets elsewhere?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To gain a deeper understanding of Wiebes, I turn to someone who knows her better than most: her agent of eight years, Andre Boskamp. Does he see her as more than a sprinter? \u201cShe is more than a sprinter,\u201d he snaps back. \u201cWhat she is doing is unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For Boskamp, it\u2019s not just Wiebes\u2019s tally of wins that is impressive, but the success she has had across disciplines. In 2025, she won the UCI Gravel World Championships<\/a>, as well as omnium and scratch race world titles on the track, proving her versatility. \u201cShe\u2019s very impulsive,\u201d Boskamp adds. \u201cShe needs challenges \u2013 that\u2019s Lorena.\u201d It\u2019s a phrase he\u2019ll repeat again and again over the course of our conversation, stressing her uniqueness: \u201cThat\u2019s Lorena.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Lorena\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWPix)<\/p>\n

A former Dutch national coach in the 1980s, Boskamp met Wiebes when she was a teenager and among the world\u2019s most promising junior talents. She\u2019s one of around 130 cyclists the agent has represented, alongside Olympic speed skaters. In all his career, he says, he\u2019s never met anyone more professional than Wiebes. How has she changed over the past eight years? \u201cMentally she\u2019s become very, very, very, very strong,\u201d Boskamp says. It\u2019s what gives her the drive and determination to go after new goals. \u201cShe\u2019s looking at what she can do to grow better and better. Actually, she\u2019s going to the south of Holland, to Limburg, so she can train for hilly situations, and so on. That\u2019s Lorena.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not content to rest on her sprinting laurels, Wiebes\u2019s hill training has taken her to new heights. It\u2019s likely what helped her climb the 6km Cipressa and 3.7km Poggio with ease to win the inaugural women\u2019s Milan San-Remo<\/a> this spring, a victory that kickstarted a triumphant streak through the Classic Brugge-De Panne and lumpy, cobbled Gent-Wevelgem \u2013 her milestone 100th win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wiebes\u2019s climbing ability surfaced again in May, at the Vuelta a Burgos. On a 6% incline, she sprung off the wheel of Giro d\u2019Italia winner Elisa Longo Borghini<\/a> and outpunched her to claim the stage win. It hit home that she was one to watch outside of routine sprint finishes. The nature of the win may have seemed uncharacteristic from the Dutchwoman, but it really shouldn\u2019t have. \u201cHilly stages are, for her, no problem anymore,\u201d says Boskamp.<\/p>\n

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This is a rider who refuses to be a one-trick pony, a sprinter typecast to simply ride fast. \u201cI need that challenge,\u201d Wiebes told Ride. \u201cI think that’s what will keep me going in cycling for longer. If I were to focus solely on sprinting, I\u2019d be done with it at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lorena Wiebes\u2019s year in numbers<\/p>\n

25 \u2013 road victories
51 \u2013 road race days
49% \u2013 win rate in road races
2 \u2013 track world titles (omnium, scratch)
1 \u2013 track European title (omnium)
1 \u2013 gravel world title<\/p>\n

Does this explain her need to be more than a sprinter? Is it a way to stave off boredom? A decade ago, Kirsten Wild was in a similar position. Like Wiebes, Wild was the sprinter to beat; she\u2019d regularly rack up double-figure win tallies, turning up to flat races such as the Tour of Qatar and Tour of Chongming Island and all but clean-sweeping the stages. Thanks to those victories, the now retired Dutchwoman is also part of the 100 club, having earned her centennial victory in 2018 at the age of 35. Did she ever feel greedy for wins? \u201cNo,\u201d Wild says, and bursts into laughter. Did she ever find winning boring? \u201cNo,\u201d she laughs again.<\/p>\n

The difference, perhaps, is that Wild was always, in her words, \u201ca bit of a doubter\u201d. Even when she was the favourite, she never took winning for granted. \u201cMaybe that was a strength, that I always doubted if I was good enough \u2013 so I had to go faster. I always had the motivation to go harder, faster.\u201d She picks out a brace of victories as her favourites: Brugge-De Panne and Gent-Wevelgem in 2019<\/a>, her 104th and 105th wins. Coincidentally \u2013 or perhaps not \u2013 the woman in second in both races was a 20-year-old Wiebes.<\/p>\n

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\n

\"Lorena\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

I ask Wild what she has made of her compatriot\u2019s progress. \u201cShe\u2019s more dominant than I ever was,\u201d Wild says bluntly. Wiebes herself acknowledges that winning \u201cseems like a normal thing\u201d for her nowadays. Wild continues: \u201cI was quite equal to [Ina-Yoko] Teutenberg, Marianne Vos<\/a> and [Giorgia] Bronzini, so it was never certain that I was going to win. It was always one of us. I think Lorena is above everyone who\u2019s sprinting right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiebes\u2019s rise to the top hasn\u2019t been without its blips, though. At last summer\u2019s Tour de France Femmes, which started in her native Netherlands, the SD Worx<\/a> rider left empty-handed, second best in the sprints to DSM-Firmenich PostNL\u2019s Charlotte Kool. Boskamp remembers his client feeling \u201cvery, very, very disappointed\u201d afterwards. But she came back stronger to this year\u2019s edition, and won comfortably twice. Now she is peerless in bunch sprints. It\u2019s no surprise, then, that she\u2019s looking to the track, gravel racing<\/a>, cobbled Classics and punchy road finishes for excitement and jeopardy. She\u2019s even raced cyclo-cross, placing as high as seventh in an event last October.<\/p>\n

Wild retired in 2021 after 16 years as a pro. She won 109 road races, nine track world titles, and an Olympic bronze medal in the omnium. As Wiebes closes her eighth season, what is Wild\u2019s advice to her for a long and successful career? \u201cI loved what I did, and I think that\u2019s one of the main things, maybe the most important. I kept challenging myself,\u201d she says \u2013 a characteristic she knows Wiebes shares. \u201cShe\u2019s doing gravel, the track, the road. She loves the sport, and I think that\u2019s also her strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Lorena\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As if to illustrate that fact, Boskamp reveals Wiebes recently spent a chunk of her winnings on a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van, into which she plans to bundle her bike to go on riding holidays. Cycling remains a joy before it\u2019s a job for the Dutchwoman. As the wins keep totting up, and she morphs more into a multi-discipline all-rounder, the question will be posed: is she one of the greatest riders of all time? Is it a question, this legacy one, she dares to consider? \u201cNo, no, no. She\u2019s not busy with that,\u201d says Boskamp. \u201cMaybe in the coming years her mind will change, but she\u2019s not busy with that. Every race is new for her. Every race she\u2019s focused.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still more to conquer, more challenges to take on. \u201cMaybe she\u2019ll try and take 30 victories next year,\u201d Boskamp says. Wiebes herself has said she\u2019ll target Amstel Gold \u2013 a race with over 20 hills and almost 2,000m elevation \u2013 while her agent is tipping her for victory at Paris-Roubaix<\/a>. Both races are too great an endurance challenge for an ordinary sprinter \u2013 Wiebes is not that. As for her longer-term goals, \u201cshe\u2019s looking to the Olympic Games<\/a> and the World Championships [in Abu Dhabi] in 2028,\u201d Boskamp says. Time will tell how dominant she will become, but there\u2019s no shortage of ambition \u2013 that\u2019s Lorena.<\/p>\n

Destined to be the greatest?<\/p>\n

\n

\"Lorena\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Alex Whitehead\/SWPix)<\/p>\n

After Wiebes\u2019s haul this season, there are now only two female riders with more all-time UCI wins than the Dutchwoman: Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (148) and Marianne Vos (260). Wiebes\u2019s 118 puts her a long way off top spot at the moment, but what would it take for her to reach it? Let\u2019s run the numbers.<\/p>\n

Vos has just finished her 20th season in road cycling, meaning she has averaged exactly 13 victories a year. Wiebes\u2019s win rate, after only eight seasons, is 14.75 per year. If she carries on like this, she\u2019ll reach 295 wins after her 20th season \u2013 35 more than Vos.<\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s not as simple as that. Vos is still winning races \u2013 the 38-year-old won three this year and scored 11 top-threes \u2013 and has a lifetime contract with Visma-Lease a Bike<\/a>, so could keep adding to her tally into her 40s. If we imagine, however, that Vos doesn\u2019t win another bike race, then mark mid-August 2034 in your diary \u2013 that\u2019s when we forecast Wiebes will surpass Vos\u2019s 260 and become the outright record-holder. By that point, she\u2019ll be 35 years old.<\/p>\n

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 18 December 2025. Subscribe now<\/a> and never miss an issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tightly gripping the drops of her handlebars, Lorena Wiebes thrashes down on the pedals, shoulders low, head dipped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-343065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}