Domestique Awards: Best Domestique Women - Ghekiere, De Vries, Guarischi or Chapman?

What makes a good domestique? Many need to have the endurance to ride on the front for hours on end. Others need a top-class tactical brain. They need solid bike-handling skills to weave their leader through the peloton. They all need to have a selfless, team-centered attitude, willing to ride themselves into the ground for the ambitions of others.

The 2025 season has seen many magnificent performances from some of the biggest riders in the world, but none of them would have been possible without the team behind them riding on the front, positioning them to perfection or carrying bottles.

Here are the four nominees for women’s domestique of the year. You can cast your vote on X and Instagram.

Think back to stage 7 of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes. Australian climber Sarah Gigante is showing the form of her life on the biggest stage of all. She’s showing that she is one of the best climbers in the race and could be heading for a podium placing. Throughout her career, Gigante has been held back by her ability to descend. It appears to be a mental block as much as it is technical skill. 

Gigante has climbed well on the final climb of the Col du Granier and is with the favourites going over the top. She also has her AG Insurance-Soudal teammate Justine Ghekiere with her. As the road flicks and flacks on the descent, Gigante loses contact. Ghekiere stays with her, the Belgian’s screams of encouragement are audible over the TV broadcast. She coaches her leader all the way down the descent and the pair make contact with the likes of Demi Vollering and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot by the time they make it to the finish in Chambéry.

Sometimes it’s difficult to visibly recognise the impact of a domestique, but this was one of the clearest concrete examples of a rider helping their leader in recent memory.

Cast your vote on X and Instagram.

Not a rider who receives many plaudits, but Femke de Vries has had a part to play in so much of Visma | Lease a Bike’s success in 2025. She was a constant force in both the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and Vuelta a España Feminina where Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Marianne Vos took home five stage wins between them along with the overall title.

De Vries is a top climber herself, also picking up good results in the Volta a Catalunya and Tour Feminin l'Ardeche this year. She laid her own ambition down for the biggest events of the year and rode strongly for her leaders, especially at the Tour de France Femmes, where she was the last rider for Ferrand-Prévot in each of the stages the Frenchwoman won. 

SD Worx-ProTime’s Lorena Wiebes has been such a dominant force in bunch sprints in recent times that it would be easy to dismiss the team behind her. For so many of her wins over the past three seasons, the rider by her side in the sprints has been Barbara Guarischi. 

Guarischi is an extremely experienced rider, having completed her 17th season as a professional rider in 2025. Having led teams as a sprinter for much of that time, she still has a wicked turn of speed, but uses her skills and experience as an expert lead-out rider and road captain.

In the likes of Wiebes, Lotte Kopecky and Anna van der Breggen, SD Worx-ProTime is a squad of big hitters, but their success over recent seasons is also down to the support team they have built underneath those leaders. 

Australian time-trial champion Brodie Chapman has been one of the most reliable and versatile domestiques in the bunch over the last several years. She can climb well, ride on the flat efficiently and has one of the coolest heads around.

The 34-year-old played a key role in Elisa Longo Borghini’s triumph at the Giro d’Italia Women in July, positioning her leader at the crucial moments and also acting as experienced road captain in the squad. 

Chapman’s power was also evident as she pulled the women’s half of the Australian mixed relay squad to World Championship glory in Kigali, defending the title they won in 2024.

Also have a look at the other categories of the Domestique Awards!

Most Entertaining Race Men
Most Entertaining Race Women
Most Entertaining Rider Men
Most Entertaining Rider Women
Breakthrough Rider Men
Breakthrough Rider Women
Best Domestique Men