It wasn't exactly an easy run into the season for Lily Williams, who finished off 2023 recovering from a double collarbone break in November but 2024 is shaping up as a year to remember for the Human Powered Health rider who is clearly ready to start challenging for the top spots on the results sheets.
The 29-year-old from the United States charged to her first podium place at Nokere Koerse, manoeuvring into the leading group which ended up following solo victor Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime) over the line. The rest of the podium steps were decided by an uphill six-way sprint – with Lorena Wiebes clearly outpacing her rivals to make it an SD Worx-Protime one-two, but Williams held off Sofie van Rooijen (VolkerWessels) to take third.
“It feels so good to get that first podium,” said Williams in a team statement. “I feel like I’ve believed in myself for a long time but you always have doubts. To move in the direction that I want to be in is extremely gratifying.”
Williams has tasted plenty of success in cycling, an Olympic medallist and World Champion on the track, but while she'd raced in Europe before 2022, that year when the US-based team shifted up to Women's WorldTour level was the first really solid European season for Williams.
“As an American, performing in Europe has been my goal since I first came here, but it takes a long time to feel like you have the respect of the European peloton,” Williams said.
“Coming from the track, I like when the bunch is chaotic and I love the fight for positioning and I can get quite emotional and vocal, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But you have to fight for your spot and I hope this showed that I will always try to be in there with my team.”
Nokere Koerse wasn't exactly straightforward, with attacks aplenty and crashes – including one that bought down Kopecky and Wiebes – but nor was the preceding event, Ronde van Drenthe, with Williams having crashed there twice. She was sporting "more aero" chipped teeth as a result, but there was clearly little that could distract Williams from the opportunity presented through the combination of teamwork and building experience.
Human Powered Health had worked toward being in the optimum position at the finale after attacks by Audrey Cordon Ragot and Maëlle Grossetête during the race.
“In the finale, the girls put me in a great spot and I was able to just follow the key riders without the chaos of positioning myself,” Williams said. “It’s simple in theory but hard to execute, even in the reduced bunch."
"Having had our riders represented in the front moves all day showed that we were flowing well with the race and pushing other teams to waste energy chasing.”
