Copenhagen Sprint Women

Introduced as a dedicated sprint stop on the women's WorldTour, the women's Copenhagen Sprint is a one-day bike race that brings the peloton onto city-center roads where tight corners, a U-turn and a stretch of cobbles make leadouts far less straightforward than a standard boulevard finish.

Copenhagen Sprint Women is a Women’s WorldTour one-day race from Roskilde to a finish on Sølvgade in Copenhagen, first held in June 2025. Lorena Wiebes won both of the first two editions, each time by several bike lengths.

A free date on the Women’s WorldTour calendar

The UCI added the race to the 2025 Women’s WorldTour as a new event on June 21, at first under the name Copenhagen Race. The Danish Cycling Union holds the license, granted for an initial three years from 2025 to 2027, and the women have raced on the Saturday, a day before the men. When the dates were presented, the union’s acting chairman Johnny Lillelund said the slot was “a free date on the women’s calendar” and hoped for a visit from the biggest stars.

The Women’s WorldTour had come to the city before: the first Tour of Scandinavia began in 2022 with a team presentation on Kongens Nytorv and a stage to Helsingør that Marianne Vos won. The Copenhagen Sprint was the first WorldTour one-day race in Denmark. The women’s and men’s races pay the same prize money, 40,000 euros in total with 16,000 for the winner. In 2025 that was the minimum for a men’s race at this level and five times the minimum for a women’s.

The women’s route: 151 kilometers in 2025, 156 in 2026

The first edition started at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde and covered 151.3 kilometers. It ran north to Frederikssund, reached Hillerød and Frederiksborg Castle after 50 kilometers, and turned south through Allerød and Farum to the hillier roads around Ganløse. From there it passed Ballerup and Rødovre and entered Copenhagen along Roskildevej and over Valby Bakke. The men’s race adds a loop to Fredensborg and Humlebæk that the women do not ride.

In 2026 the start moved to Stændertorvet, the square in front of Roskilde Cathedral, and the distance grew to 156 kilometers. About 125 of them come before the first passage of the finish line on Sølvgade, and three laps of 10.3 kilometers follow. Three town sprints on the way count for a separate classification, and in 2026 its winner received a prize from Tivoli Gardens that included two nights at the Tivoli Hotel.

Crashes on the road to Copenhagen in 2025

The first race was run on June 21, 2025, with twelve Women’s WorldTour teams and a Danish national team in the field. After the town sprint at Ganløse, a large central reservation brought down more than a dozen riders in the peloton, among them Elisa Balsamo and four of her Lidl-Trek teammates. Blanka Vas, part of Wiebes’s lead-out at SD Worx-Protime, abandoned there. A few kilometers later, where the road narrows around bollards to slow cars, a rider hit a protective hay bale head-on, around a dozen more fell, and four of them could not continue.

On the last lap Rebecca Koerner, the national champion of Denmark, and Georgia Baker fell in the turn onto the cobbles of Adelgade, 8.5 kilometers from the finish, and at first only about 30 riders were left in front. Wiebes complained afterward that nobody had signaled the central reservations. “I hope next time the UCI takes a bit more care of our safety,” she said.

Lorena Wiebes’s first win on Sølvgade

Without Vas, SD Worx-Protime had to rearrange its lead-out, and Barbara Guarischi did the last of the work. Picnic PostNL led into the turn onto Nørre Allé with 2 kilometers left, and Lidl-Trek came alongside at the one-kilometer mark. Guarischi began her effort on Fredens Bro, 550 meters from the line, with Charlotte Kool on her wheel and Wiebes behind Kool. Wiebes went with 200 meters to go and won clear of Balsamo and Chiara Consonni, with Kool fourth. It was her 104th professional victory, in 3 hours 32 minutes 30 seconds. Amalie Dideriksen, a former world champion, was the first Dane in eighth.

Wiebes again in 2026, after her Giro disqualification

The second edition was run a week earlier in the calendar, on June 13, 2026, after the UCI moved it to fit new dates for the Tour de Suisse. It now came six days after the Giro d’Italia Women, which had moved from July to a finish on June 7. Wiebes had won the first stage of that Giro and then been disqualified for an underweight bike, and she had not raced since. Ten Women’s WorldTour teams started; four others used a dispensation that let each team skip one WorldTour race that season.

A break of seven formed in the first half hour and never had more than 1 minute 46 seconds. Solbjørk Minke Anderson of EF Education-Oatly, one of three Danes in it, won all three town sprints. The break was caught in Valby before the circuit. Silje Antvorskov, 21 and riding for the Danish national team, then attacked on Nørrebrogade and stayed clear for a full lap, never by more than nine seconds, until 14.5 kilometers from the finish.

Kool had to change bikes with 11 kilometers to go and started the last lap 23 seconds behind the peloton. Her Fenix-Premier Tech teammates brought her back to the first 20 positions by Nørrebros Runddel, just over 3 kilometers from the line. Lucinda Brand led Lidl-Trek through the final corner with Clara Copponi and Balsamo behind her, but Wiebes was on Balsamo’s wheel. Wiebes launched 250 meters out and again pulled several lengths clear. Kool took second ahead of Nienke Veenhoven, who had been fifth a year earlier, Balsamo was sixth, and Dideriksen, now riding for the national team, was eighth again.

This race occupies a rare slot on the women's calendar: a dedicated sprint opportunity in northern Europe during the summer window, when most of the season's focus shifts to stage racing and climbing. Lorena Wiebes won the first two editions, each by several bike lengths, establishing the race as a target for the fastest finishers who can also navigate tight corners and a stretch of cobbles. The flat Copenhagen course suits the purest sprinters, but staying in front on the city circuit matters as much: a crash 8.5 km from the finish split the peloton in the first edition.