Global Scout 2023: 10 Female Riders to Sign
It’s August and squads are now being assembled for 2023. There is loads of talent on the market from all over the world. Here is a look at some riders from some smaller nations who could make a big impact if signed up for 2023.
Thi That Nguyen
29, Vietnam
Thi That Nguyen is a name you may recognise. In 2019, she rode for the Lotto Soudal Team after being on the UCI World Cycling Centre for a couple of years. While racing for the WCC, Nguyen won Dwars door de Westhoek, beating Lorena Wiebes and Elisa Balsamo in a sprint.
In 2019 at Lotto Soudal, Nguyen had a good season, taking three wins. This included GP Fourmies in another bunch sprint.
Nguyen had a contract for another year at Lotto Soudal but never raced for them again due to COVID. She also didn't race in 2021. Nguyen only had her return to UCI racing this year, winning the road races in the Asian Continental Championships and the SEA Games.
She's only had four race-days so far this year but has shown that she still has the speed to compete at the highest level. Any team looking for a proven winner for 2023 should not be over-looking the Vietnamese rider.
Ideal 2023 Team: Team BikeExchange-Jayco
Wilma Aintila
18, Finland
Finland seems to be producing quite a few good young female riders. Anniina Ahtosalo is leading the way at Uno-X. Amazingly, Wilma is actually a few months older than Anniina. She has spent a significant portion of her career so far coming second to Anniina at national championships and other races around Scandinavia.
Wilma put in a good rider earlier this season at Omloop Borsele Juniors, finishing a strong 7th on the opening 14.3K TT. She's also had the opportunity to grow her experience by racing the Gent Wevelgem and Trofeo Binda junior races.
She is perhaps not yet ready to jump right up to Uno-X like Ahtosalo. Wilma now needs a solid environment where she can grow her experience.
Ideal 2023 Team: Team Coop-Hitec Products
Nesrine Houili
18, Algeria
Here's a huge talent.
This year, at just 18, Houili won the TT at the African Continental Champs. She backed that up with 4th in the Road Race. The rest of the year, the youngster has picked up valuable experience racing in Turkey, Belgium and at home in Algeria. She also came 10th in the road race at the Mediterranean Games, a race which featured the likes of Barbara Guarischi, Vittoria Guazzini and Antri Christoforou. Recently, she also dominated both national championships.
Here is a clearly talented rider at the very beginning of her career. Hopefully a good team picks her up and gives her a chance to grow in the sport. They could have a star on their hands.
A lot of people in Algeria speak French, so there may be one barrier dealt with already for her.
Ideal 2023 Team: Stade Rochelais Charente Maritime
Phetdarin Somrat
27, Thailand
Somrat has been a dominant figure in cycling in Asia over the past few years.
She's won the Tour of Thailand on two occasions, most recently this season after dominating stage two with a long breakaway. The stage finished up a hard climb and Somrat managed to win by 2:31 over Australia's Hannah Seeliger.
She has built a great deal of racing experience around the world. She has ridden the Worlds on three occasions and has raced high profile European races such as Baloise Ladies Tour, Tour Feminin l'Ardeche and Kreiz Breizh Elites Dames. In Kreiz Breizh 2019, she managed to take a solid 11th place on a stage.
She is a consistently strong performer and deserves a shot.
Ideal 2023 Team: Plantur-Pura
Laura Lizette Sander
18, Estonia
Sander has a lot of potential. She's multi-talented, becoming both the Estonia junior TT champion and the elite cyclocross champion last season.
This season she has kicked on even more. She started her season with a strong third place in the Trofeo Ajuntament d'Ondara and backed that up with a brilliant second place at Gent - Wevelgem and fourth at the opening TT at Omloop Borsele. This perhaps shows the type of rider she can be, similar maybe to Lotte Kopecky.
There's a lot of potential there for Laura to become a world class rider in multiple disciplines. With no Estonian or Baltic UCI Women's team, where will she go?
Ideal 2023 Team: Andy Schleck-CP NVST-Immo Losch
Maude Le Roux
23, South Africa
2022 is Le Roux's first full season racing. Taking that into consideration, she has done amazingly well. Racing with the World Cycling Center, Le Roux picked up an early win at Trofeo Ajuntament d'Ondara - finishing solo, 1:24 ahead of the next rider. She then picked up a couple of sixth places at Swiss national level races.
Having had such a late start to racing, Maude is having to learn on the job, but seems to be doing that really well. She has the legs to be a World Tour rider and hopefully she will get that opportunity soon.
Ideal 2023 Team: EF Education-TIBCO-SVB
Ebtissam Zayed Ahmed
25, Egypt
Ebtissam Zayed Ahmed is one of Africa's strongest female riders.
This year, we saw her put in a strong display across the four disciplines at the African Continental Championships. She powered an otherwise weak Egypt teams to podiums in the Mixed and Women's TTTs. Then she narrowly missed out on winning the TT, just losing out to Nesrine Houili. She finally managed to pick up a win in the road race, beating a very strong group in the sprint.
She has backed that up this year with a 4th place at Belsele-Waas in Belgium and a couple of solid rides on the track in the Cali World Cup.
It feels to me that there is some untapped potential here. She could become a decent sprinter.
Ideal 2023 Team: Canyon//SRAM Generation
Gabriela Soto Lopez
29, Guatemala
Gabriela Soto Lopez has spent almost her entire career racing in Central and South America. She's a five-time Guatemala RR champion and has been a contender in the tough South American races for most of the last decade. She's fast on a tough day in the saddle.
Most recently, she went close to winning the Vuelta Costa Rica, just missing out by an handful of seconds after coming top-5 on three stages.
Guatemala is starting to produce a few decent riders in the women's and men's pelotons, it would be great to see one of their best getting a chance on a bigger stage.
Ideal 2023 Team: Bizkaia-Durango
Kimberley Le Court
26, Mauritius
Mauritius is emerging as an unexpected source of cycling talent. Le Court could be their strongest rider.
She turned some heads with some brilliant rides at the African Conti Champs earlier this year - while struggling with a mild illness causing her to sit out the TT. Le Court put in a strong ride in the TTT, helping her team to 2nd place. She then narrowly missed out on the win in the road race, coming second to Ebtissam Zayed Ahmed. More recently, we've seen her ride to a decent 5th at the Commonwealth Games MTB race and then 16th in the road race.
Kimberley has also had some experience racing in Europe, having raced with the Matrix Fitness and Bizkaia Durango teams. Her best result during that time was an 8th place on a stage of Vuelta a Burgos Femininas as a 20 year old.
Ideal 2023 Team: Le Col Wahoo
Diane Ingabire
21, Rwanda
Diane Ingabire is one of the best African prospects around. The problem for her is that there is barely any good-quality racing available for African women.
We've just seen Diane racing in the Commonwealth Games. In the TT, along with team-mate Jacqueline Tuyishmire, she was given a terrible set up by the Rwandan Federation, having to use a road-bike in a flat 28.8k TT. This put her on the back-foot straight away. (By the way, all the men were on TT bikes).
She was not the only one and finished 1st in the ‘road-bike category,’ just ahead of Tuyishmire. I'm no expert, but I'd make a conservative estimate that the bike itself cost her 3 minutes over 28.8k. This would have put her in 19th place, 4:34 down, in good company.
As it was, both Rwandan women now have results on their palmares which are show them to be weaker than they are.
Diane is clearly talented, it would be great to see her come out from under the jurisdiction of the Rwandan Federation and on a UCI team.
Ideal 2023 Team: WCC Team
