A Belgian sprint classic where the fastest finishers settle the score in Schoten, and where Lorena Wiebes has never lost.
Scheldeprijs Women is a one-day sprint classic held each April in Belgium, part of the ProSeries calendar. The race finishes in Schoten and has established itself as one of the purest tests of pure speed in the women's spring calendar.
Also known as: Scheldeprijs Vrouwen Elite
Lorena Wiebes has won every edition she has started, making her unbeaten record the race's defining storyline.
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This is where the fastest sprinters in women's cycling come to prove themselves on flat Belgian roads. The race has become synonymous with Lorena Wiebes, who maintains a perfect record here, but that dominance only sharpens the question each year: can anyone break through? It sits in the post-Flanders, pre-Ardennes window when the classics calendar shifts from cobbles to speed.
The parcours is built for sprinters, with flat roads through Flanders leading to the finish in Schoten. The challenge is not the terrain but the positioning battles in the final kilometers, where teams must deliver their sprinters through narrow roads and tight corners without losing the wheels that matter. Breakaways rarely survive, and the race typically comes down to which lead-out train can hold formation longest and which sprinter has the sharpest kick in the final 200 meters. Weather can disrupt the script, splitting the peloton before the finale, but the default expectation is a controlled buildup and a bunch sprint.
One of the flattest races on the women calendar. The race is built for pure sprinters.
Team leadout trains control the finale. The winner is usually the rider with the best positioning and the fastest kick from 200m.
The route follows the Scheldt river through Flanders, finishing in Schoten near Antwerp.
Most recent winner: Elisa Balsamo (2025)
Scheldeprijs Women launched with the same sprint-first identity as the men's race and immediately filled a gap on the spring calendar.
Elisa Balsamo ended Lorena Wiebes' run of four straight victories, reminding everyone that even the cleanest sprint script can be broken.
Four consecutive wins (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024) made Wiebes the undisputed queen of the Scheldeprijs. No sprinter has dominated any single race more completely.
Broke the Wiebes streak in 2025, showing that the race can still produce surprise winners when the sprint goes wrong.
Scheldeprijs is defined less by climbs than by its flat roads and its run-in to Schoten.
The finish town north of Antwerp gives the race its fixed point, where lead-out trains try to stay intact into the last straight.
Broad exposed roads, small roundabouts, and nervous positioning make this a classic Belgian sprint setup even without real climbs.
