Lifeplus-Wahoo at the Ford RideLondon Classique

Images: @naikefotosport

The RideLondon Classique offers British-based women's cycling team Lifeplus-Wahoo the opportunity to showcase their talents in front of UK cycling fans. Here we take a look at the team selected to ride the UK's biggest women's cycling stage race of 2023 and what it means to the riders involved.

Lifeplus-Wahoo's season has been nothing if not eventful. At the turn of the year it was unclear whether they would even race at this level at all in 2023. Sponsorship issues left them in a state of limbo and without a main title sponsor. Seemingly with few options left open to them, team management advised the exisiting squad of riders to find alternative rides with new teams. Thankfully a new sponsor was found at the last hour, but having let their existing talent sign for other teams, they no longer had a squad whith which to race. A new roster of riders was required, and time was short in short supply for the race season was rapidly approaching. But find riders they did, and the rest, as they say, is history. Despite precious little time to train, let alone race together, Lifeplus-Wahoo has enjoyed a highly successful season to date. And long may it continue, because this team is going places!

As part of the UCI Women's WorldTour, the Ford RideLondon Classique will see Lifeplus-Wahoo once again pitted against 19 of the world's best cycling teams. Over the course of three days of racing, the riders will tackle three unique courses that promise lots of thrilling race action for cycling fans of all ages to enjoy. Lifeplus-Wahoo will be looking to put on a show for their UK fans and sponsors as they navigate their Ribble Endurance SL R Disc team bikes around the highways and byways of Essex and London.

As a British-based team, does RideLondon hold any extra significance to you? Definitely. We very rarely get to race in the UK at the highest level. With the Women's Tour being cancelled this year also, this is the only World Tour race in the UK. So, for us, being a British team, with four British riders, it definitely adds motivation. Racing around the nations capital on the final day, literally on the most famous roads in the country will be very special too. There is also a best British rider jersey, which is something that is fairly unique. To start a stage in any special jersey is always a privilege and for one of us to wear that in a British-based team would be pretty cool!

What's the race plan? All-out attack, or ride in support of a nominated leader? Will you be focussing on any one stage in particular? The race will definitely come down to time bonuses, in my opinion. I think we will sprint depending on who's feeling the best on the day. Obviously we will have a Plan A for each stage, but as we know, anything can happen in a bike race, so we will need to be adaptable. On the profile, everything looks relatively straightforward, especially with so many fast finishers on the startline. But the roads in the UK are deceptively difficult and very attritional. So, something that can look like a straightforward bunch kick could also be a breakaway opportunity. We will try to be present in these moves. I think this attritional and more open style of racing suits the team well and we can hopefully pick up some great results over the weekend. Be it best British rider on GC or in the individual stages themselves.

Do you decide before the stage who will go with the breaks? Or does this happen on the road? It's a bit of a mixture, you have some riders who are a lot more suited to breakaways and then those you want to save for the sprint or for that leadout role. Typhaine is captain for the weekend, so she will communicate what's happening on the road back to Tom and Arthur in the car.

How do you prepare for a race like RideLondon? For us riders it's pretty straightforward. We will work with our coaches to make sure we are in the best physical shape to race. For the staff, there's travel plans to make, timings, making sure the bikes are perfect (which they always are, thanks Yves!), working out feed zones, making bottles. The list is endless really!

Then in the leadup to the race, we will focus on veloviewer and making sure we know the parcours 100%. That way, we have no unwelcome surprises on race day and you can really get to know the key points like the climbs, or the final 3km. During an activation ride the preceding day, we will maybe recce parts of the course and do some sprints to open up the legs and lungs. After that it's just recovering as hard as you can; massages, stretching, grabbing a coffee.

What bike will you be riding during the race? We are riding the Ribble Endurance SL R series Disc. They handle really nicely. Yves will be setting up our bikes in the lead up to RideLondon, and depending upon the weather and parcours we will riding with around 5 bar of pressure in our tyres.

And if you weren't racing, what would you like to do in london? London is a really special city to me. It's where my dad is from and where my parents met as students. So, it's always nostalgic to visit and I have many great memories of visiting as a kid. Like many cyclists, I would scope out coffee and basically make it a day trip by ticking off as many cafés as possible.

As a British-based team, does RideLondon hold any extra significance to you? Of course, it's always a pleasure to race in the country where you come from! It adds something extra, a great atmosphere!

What's the race plan? All-out attack, or ride in support of a nominated leader? Will you be focussing on any one stage in particular? It's a surprise! 😁

Do you decide before the stage who will go with the breaks? Or does this happen on the road? Yes. We'll decide during the briefing. Determine everyone's role, but sometimes the race plan has to be changed when the time comes! In cycling, you always have to adapt.

How do you prepare for a race like RideLondon? There's no specific preparation for this race because we are in the middle of the season at the moment. But, as always, it's important to get a good night's sleep and eat well to be ready.

And if you weren't racing, what would you like to do in london? I love the atmosphere of London. I want to visit all the monuments and discover English culture.

As a British-based team, does RideLondon hold any extra significance to you? I think racing in the UK is always nice but to have the world's best riders over here racing is really special! Its not often you get a stage race in Britain, especially as women. So, that gives you extra motivation to want to do well in each stage and get the team noticed on home roads.

What's the race plan? All-out attack, or ride in support of a nominated leader? Will you be focussing on any one stage in particular? I think it would be nice to try for the best British rider's jersey. We have four Brits in the team for this race so it would be nice to try and aim for that. I'm sure we can try and target getting into some early breaks and bunch sprints too, as we have quite a dynamic team racing.

Do you decide before the stage who will go with the breaks? Or does this happen on the road? We have a plan going into each race and we all have specific team roles to complete. But obviously not everything is plain sailing. For example, crashes or bad legs may come into play. So we may have to adapt during the race - at which point we will communicate via the team radios to make a new plan.

How do you prepare for a race like RideLondon? Since RideLondon is a pretty flat race, it doesn't need too much specific preparation like mountain races do. But having good acceleration will help as there's lots of intermediate sprints, tight corners, and punchy climbs. Also having good bunch navigation is key. British roads are narrow and twisty, so staying near the front will be important to gettng a good team result.

And if you weren't racing, what would you like to do in london? If I wasn't racing, I'd like to go and try some of the cool cafés in London! I've seen a few online but one that does nice pancakes would be good!

As a British-based team, does RideLondon hold any extra significance to you? Yes, of course! I am super excited to race RideLondon Classique on our teams home roads. It is a pleasure. I am happy that we can show our team colours with our Ribble bikes.

What's the race plan? All-out attack, or ride in support of a nominated leader? Will you be focussing on any one stage in particular? It's a secret! 😁 Seriously though, we will discuss our plans beforehand. And, of course, we want to show off our team and do our best.

Do you decide before the stage who will go with the breaks? Or does this happen on the road? Yes. We'll decide during the briefing. Determine everyone's role, but sometimes the race plan has to be changed when the time comes! In cycling, you always have to adapt.

How do you prepare for a race like RideLondon? I prepared with some hard training at home last week before two easy days here, in UK. I took the time to rest up, have a massage, nap and some good eating.

And if you weren't racing, what would you like to do in london? It's my first time in the UK. I'm very excited to be in London. I want to do some short sightseeing of Big Ben or the London Eye after the race. Of course I will see some buildings during the race 🤪

As a British-based team, does RideLondon hold any extra significance to you? Yes, it's super important for the team to do well. It's our home country and we will want to perform to the best of our ability.

What's the race plan? All-out attack, or ride in support of a nominated leader? Will you be focussing on any one stage in particular? We don't know the plan yet as we will talk about each stage day by day. But I think we will try and get the best British rider and go for some top 10s in the stages.

Do you decide before the stage who will go with the breaks? Or does this happen on the road? We have some riders that will have to be aware of any breaks and follow them. But it's also everyone's job to see if a break's going and if you're in the right place at the right time then you'll be in the breakaway.

How do you prepare for a race like RideLondon? Like I usually do for any race. There isn't any specific preparation for this race in particular. I did some racing in Spain last week, so I have some race speed in the legs.

And if you weren't racing, what would you like to do in london? I'd like to go shopping and take a ride on the London Eye.