2024 - a tale of two Elisas
17 wins, almost half at World Tour Level, was the story of a solid 2024 season for Lidl-Trek. An improvement on 2023, it still represented a relatively modest haul for a team who could be argued to be vying for domination alongside Team SD Worx-ProTime, who by contrast, claimed a whopping 64 wins in 2024.
Despite the season perhaps falling somewhat shy of expectation, it included some marquee wins from their talisman and leader Elisa Longo Borghini, who won the Ronde van Vlaanderen, and a stage and the overall classification at the Giro d’Italia Women. It was another strong season too, from Italian sprinter Elisa Balsamo, who won two Classics - Brugge-De Panne and the Trofeo Alfredo Binda - along with a stage at the Tour de Romandie. The two Elisas accounted for all of the World Tour victories between them, including the team time trial at La Vuelta Femenina, which featured Longo Borghini.
In fact, only four of the team’s 2024 victories on the road were scored by other riders, Lucinda Brand taking a stage at the Thuringen Ladies Tour, and Ellen van Dijk opening her season strongly with victories at the Vuelta Extramadura and Tour de Normandie.



Elisa Balsamo was responsible for a large proportion of Lidl-Trek's victories in 2024 (image credits: left - Hoebele, Wikimedia Commons; centre & right - Justin Britton
Big changes in camp
When it came to the transfer season, Lidl-Trek had some work to do following the announcement that their long-term leader and talisman Elisa Longo Borghini would be departing for UAE Team ADQ, leaving a huge hole in the team’s structure after ten years with the Italian champion at the helm. ELB wasn’t the only loss sustained by the American team, as solid teammates and domestiques Brodie Chapman and Eleanor Bäckstedt were recruited to follow their leader to UAE, leaving the team short of a couple of loyal support riders.
While it would have been difficult to recruit like for like, the team signed four new riders who will lift the team in a number of areas. Each of them brings a unique and varied skillset, and together, they will enable the team to move forward if not in the same way as before, still with the strength in depth to be able to take on races from the front, with a range of attacking riders.
First up were two signings from Visma-Lease A Bike. 26-year-old Brit Anna Henderson had a difficult year in 2024, fracturing her collarbone on her second race day of the season, then again two weeks after her return to action at La Vuelta Femenina. Despite these setbacks, Henderson returned strongly at the Tour of Britain Women in June, taking second place on stage 2, and second place overall, as part of a competitive Great Britain line-up. She became the national ITT champion in Catterick later that month, before securing an incredible silver medal in the same discipline at the Olympic Games in Paris. She will hope to take a step up and win at World Tour level in 2025, an outcome which her talent certainly indicates is within her reach.


Teammates reunited: Anna Henderson (left) and Riejanne Markus (right) will add their strength to the roster for 2025 (image credits: Wikimedia Commons)
Another rider capable of performing on both time trials and varied parcours is her Visma-LAB and now Lidl-Trek teammate, Riejanne Markus. The experienced 30-year-old from the Netherlands has been a vital teammate both for her trade team and national team for a number of years, picking up impressive victories of her own along the way. Markus bagged three wins in 2024, the most prestigious of these being the final stage of the Tour de Romandie, where she stayed clear of the bunch after a breakaway, pipping new teammate Niamh Fisher-Black. Markus’ strength and consistency will be highly valued by her new team, along with her proven versatility: in 2024, she was able to secure a top 10 placement in the European Time Trial Championships, Road World Championships, and Gravel World Championships, alongside taking back her Dutch national title in the ITT.
The third rider hoping to bounce back to her best as she begins a new chapter of her career at Lidl-Trek is the Dane Emma Norsgaard. A former Tour de France Femmes stage winner, Norsgaard has spent the past four seasons at Movistar, and will provide an excellent option for her new team in the cobbled classics. Another national ITT champion in 2024 – her sole victory last season – Norsgaard has the chance to establish herself in a new role at Lidl-Trek at the age of 25, as a rider who can offer support to teammates, and also go for her own chances.
The final rider new to Lidl-Trek's 2025 squad is Niamh Fisher-Black. The 24-year-old from New Zealand arrives from Team SD Worx-ProTime - where she was primarily used as a domestique for Demi Vollering - in the hope of launching her own quest for GC leadership. A strong climber, Fisher-Black won her first Grand Tour stage in 2024, on the summit finish at Toano at the Giro d’Italia, and she will aim to provide hope for a post-ELB future at Lidl-Trek.


Emma Norsgaard (left) and Niamh Fisher-Black (right) offer new options for Lidl-Trek (image credits: Justin Britton; Wikimedia Commons)
Big shoes to fill
When it comes to leadership for stage races and Grand Tours, well, in fact for any race at all, it’s difficult to imagine anyone being able to fill the shoes of Elisa Longo Borghini. A formidable all-rounder and tenacious competitor, the Italian leaves behind a legacy which her old teammates will be keen to continue in their own way. Her lieutenant and protégée Gaia Realini is first in line to succeed the senior Italian. Realini is the purest of pure climbers, weighing in at a diminutive 40kg, and though she excels in mountainous stages, it could be argued that she does not yet possess the all-round versatility still often required of a GC leader in the women’s peloton.
Having said that, Realini’s consistency as a climber saw her finish in the top 5 of every single stage race that she completed in 2024, an impressive statistic that incudes a 7th place finish at the Giro and 5th at the Tour de France Femmes, though she lacked a victory, other than in the youth classification at the Tour de Romandie. Lidl-Trek will look to Realini to assume the mantel of leader in 2025 more regularly, and without the shadow of Longo Borghini, it could be a season where the 23-year-old takes a step up – though her impressive talent at such a young age promises much for the future.
Alongside the new-look youthful GC line-up is Niamh Fisher-Black, who should complement Realini well, offering Lidl-Trek two options for leadership in stage races or at the hilly classics.
Classics crew consolidated
Casting your eye down Lidl-Trek’s refreshed roster, the name that jumps out as a potential Classics leader to step into the shoes of Elisa Longo Borghini is undoubtedly Shirin van Anrooij. Where Realini learned from her compatriot in stage races, Van Anrooij shadowed her in the Classics, and after three seasons of going above and beyond for her leaders, the 22-year-old Dutch woman has more than paid her dues, and deserves the trust of her team for leadership in the cobbled Classics at the very least.
A talented cyclocross rider, Van Anrooij has been absent from this off-road season due to her recovery from surgery undergone to treat an iliac artery condition, and her team will hope she can return to the kind of form that saw her take victory at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda in 2023, as well as secure podium finishes at the Amstel Gold Race in the same year, and at Dwars Door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders last season, where she sacrificed herself to enable Longo Borghini to take a stunning victory.

At just 22 years old, Van Anrooij’s potential to become one of the best Classics riders of her generation should not be underestimated. A vital teammate for her leaders in stage races, she is one of the women’s peloton’s MVPs despite her tender age, and she will be a beacon of hope for the team going forward. She has proven her consistency by winning the youth classification in the overall Women's World Tour rankings for the past three seasons.
In addition to Van Anrooij, the team will continue to back their high-flying former World Champion Elisa Balsamo in races which end in a bunch finish, with a sprint squad rounded out by Clara Copponi and Ilaria Sanguinetti, and will look to new recruits Emma Norsgaard and Riejanne Markus to provide alternative options in one-day races.

A winning team: Lidl-Trek will hope to exert their authority across all kinds of races in 2025 (image credit: Hoebele, Wikimedia Commons)
Youth and experience: the best of both worlds
Lidl-Trek have arguably one of the most balanced squads in the peloton for 2025, combining a selection of extremely talented young riders including former junior ITT champ Felicity Wilson-Haffenden, British powerhouse Izzy Sharp, Belgian cyclocross specialist Fleur Moors and multi-disciplinary Canadian talents the Holmgren twins, who will develop their skills alongside some of the most experienced riders in the peloton.
With two-time former World time-trial champion Ellen van Dijk on the books, Lidl-Trek retain a strong rouleur, and a proven winner. Alongside the likes of Amanda Spratt, Lauretta Hansen, and Lizzie Deignan – riding her final season before retirement – the team has an array of riders who can offer support the young riders both physically, during races, and by dint of disseminating their knowledge and experience across the board.
Last but not least, cyclocross star Lucinda Brand plays a go-between kind of role, inspiring the youth, and in particular the strong multi-disciplinary contingent, whilst offering reliable support across all kinds of parcours, and an excellent alternative in one-day races.
These experienced heads and capable leaders will guide the next generation while taking their own chances where they can, offering stability and consistency even in the wake of ELB’s departure.


Lizzie Deignan and Lucinda Brand: experienced heads (image credits: Justin Britton
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