There has never been a better time to be a fan of women’s cycling. If you aren’t already convinced, it would only take watching the final stage of this year’s Tour de France Femmes to understand why. The close-fought, dramatic battle between Kasia Niewiadoma and Demi Vollering on the slopes of Alpe d’Huez which led to the eventual general classification being decided by just four seconds, then the heartbreak and elation at the top of the climb, was the power of sport at its best. While it is hard to imagine that racing could get any better, there’s change afoot in the Women’s WorldTour in 2025 – change that has the potential to light up drama like we’ve never seen before.
Comebacks. There are two riders returning to road racing next season with such decorated palmarès and experience that they are certain to shake up the current status quo in the women’s peloton. The first of these is Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, who joins Visma-Lease a Bike after six seasons focusing virtually solely on mountain biking. Her gold medal-winning performance at the Paris Olympics showed that physically, Ferrand-Prévot still has everything it takes to be at the very top – riders like Puck Pieterse have proven how well mountain biking results translate into road racing. While it might take the Frenchwoman a little while to get back into the ebb and flow of the peloton, Ferrand-Prévot is far from inexperienced on the tarmac. She was road world champion in 2014 and has won races like La Flèche Wallonne and stages of the Giro d’Italia Donne before. As soon as she completed her goal of gold in her home Olympics, Ferrand-Prévot announced her ambition to win the Tour de France Femmes. The 32-year-old does not do things in half measures.
Winning the yellow jersey is going to be far from easy for Ferrand-Prévot, however. She’s not the only rider who has been tempted back into the sport by the maillot jaune, with SD Worx-Protime’s Anna van der Breggen, making the shock announcement earlier this year that she would be returning to racing after three years in retirement. What makes seven-time Flèche Wallonne winner Van der Breggen’s return particularly interesting is that the Dutchwoman never completely left the sport (she has worked as one of SD Worx’s lead sports directors since stopping competing). This means that while she undoubtedly is going to need to get used to being in the peloton on two wheels, the two-time former world champion is still acutely aware of what it takes to make it to the very top in the modern Women’s WorldTour.
One rider who Van der Breggen has been working particularly closely with on SD Worx is last year’s Tour de France Femmes winner, Demi Vollering. The older rider directed Vollering to her victory in 2023 and her close second place in 2024 and neither editions of the race were without incident for the Dutch squad. This year, the team’s choice not to send riders back to help Vollering pace back to the peloton after her crash on stage five caused untold controversy, and the negotiations regarding Vollering’s contract have also seemed to raise tensions in the team. It’s perhaps no wonder that Vollering is rumoured to be moving elsewhere next season.
With Van der Breggen back in the peloton and Vollering likely riding for a different team, a complex rivalry is likely to emerge. Her former sports director will know everything about Vollering’s racing style and mentality, while Vollering herself will undoubtedly be wanting to prove to SD Worx-Protime that she’s better without them. It was clear for all to see how difficult it was for Vollering to process her loss at the Tour this year and this is only going to make her hungrier for success in 2025, but the likes of Van der Breggen and Ferrand-Prévot will make for tough competition.
It’s not only SD Worx who have big changes to prepare for in 2025, either. The Dutch team’s long-time dominance has looked to be coming to a slow and painful end this season, and others have been working hard to get level with them. American team Lidl-Trek has made some big signings for 2025, with significant changes to their line-up which point to them becoming a powerhouse squad in the mountains.
Niamh Fisher-Black, a promising young climber who won a stage in both the Giro d’Italia Women and Setmana Ciclista Valenciana this year will swap SD Worx for Lidl-Trek colours in 2025, alongside Emma Norsgaard who comes to the team from Movistar. All-rounders Riejanne Markus and Anna Henderson finish Lidl-Trek’s swathe of clever signings ahead of next season and they will race alongside current riders like Gaia Realini, Elisa Longo-Borghini and Shirin van Anrooij. This combination of talent creates a well-rounded squad who will have options for every type of stage in Grand Tours next season. We once called SD Worx a superteam, but Lidl-Trek are now hell bent on building their own.
With FDJ-Suez’s expected impending announcement that Vollering will join the team, they are another squad who have dreams of winning the Tour next season. Should the Dutchwoman ride for the team as expected, Vollering will race alongside other new signing Juliette Labous who comes from DSM-Firmenich-PostNL. Labous has finished in the top-10 in every edition of the Tour de France Femmes so far and excels in tough mountain stages. The same can be said for FDJ-Suez’s current climber, Évita Muzic. This trio would be a force to be reckoned with when the gradients kick up.
Then, of course, defending Tour champions Canyon//SRAM can not be forgotten. The confidence – and budget increase – that winning the biggest race on the calendar will have given the German team and their leader, Niewiadoma, should not be underestimated. They will only want to continue this success into 2025 and there are likely still more new signings to be announced by the team yet.
The reality is that there is only one yellow jersey to be won in next year’s Tour de France Femmes, but there are plenty of teams who believe they have a real shot at getting it. Gone are the days when we could pick from a small handful of riders as key contenders for major women’s stage races, there’s now a peloton full of climbers with the talent to take victory. With Van der Breggen and Ferrand-Prévot making their return, plus the musical chairs for the likes of Vollering, Fisher-Black and Labous, every team looks to only be getting stronger ahead of 2025. The result should be some incredible bike racing.
