It's finally the time for Sanremo Women presented by Crédit Agricole, a race returning to the calendar after a 20-year absence. The 156 km from Genoa to Sanremo - with Liguria as the main protagonist in the year it is the European Region of Sport - will be the stage for a challenge among the greatest protagonists of women's cycling, with bib number 1 on the shoulders of Lotte Kopecky. The world champion will make her seasonal debut at the Classic with SD Worx - Protime, which can also count on European champion Lorena Wiebes. Kopecky's main rival will be her former teammate Demi Vollering, winner of Strade Bianche Women Elite and captain of an ambitious FDJ - Suez. Among the Dutch, Marianne Vos, who will share team leadership with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, and U23 World Champion Puck Pieterse will be ones to watch. In the Italian camp, great expectations are placed on Elisa Longo Borghini, winner of the UAE Tour Women, and Elisa Balsamo, who won the Trofeo Binda last Sunday. Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner and Tour de France Femmes winner Katarzyna Niewiadoma are also announced at the start.

The Sanremo Women starts from Genoa and crosses the Porto Antico elevated road to reach Sestri Ponente and enter the Aurelia state road. A few kilometers later, the race meets the professional men's race in Voltri and from there continues to the finish, retracing the road that for over 110 years connected Milan to Sanremo. It proceeds westward alongside the sea along the Aurelia state road through Varazze, Savona, Albenga until reaching Imperia. At San Lorenzo al Mare, after the classic sequence of the Capes (Mele, Cervo, and Berta), the two climbs added in recent decades are tackled: Cipressa (1982) and Poggio di Sanremo (1961). The Cipressa covers 5.6 km at 4.1% before a very technical descent that returns to the SS.1 Aurelia.

9 km from the finish, the climb of Poggio di Sanremo begins (3.7 km at less than 4% average with peaks of 8% in the section preceding the summit). The climb features a slightly narrow roadway and 4 hairpin turns in the first 2 km. The descent is very challenging on an asphalted road, narrowed in some sections, with a succession of hairpin turns and curves until entering the Aurelia state road. The final part of the descent takes place in the town of Sanremo. The last 2 km are on long straight city streets. Notable is a left turn on a roundabout 850 m from the finish and the final curve 750 m from the finish that leads to the final straight of Via Roma.

The list of participants is in the attached PDF