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During their presentation of the season in Calpe, Soudal Quick-Step revealed the programme of their main leaders.

First of all, the Spanish Mikel Landa will return on one of his favourite races: the Giro. At 35 years old, the Basque rider already finished twice on the podium at the Corsa Rosa and will be at the start in Albania with the objective of playing for the general classification. The Spanish rider will have a lot of Italy in the first phase of his season, as it has also been announced that he will start the year on the Strade Bianche. In his team’s press release, Landa said “I will do my best to fight for a stage win and a good result in the general classification.” The three times stage winner on the Italian Grand Tour will try to raise his arms again on what is one of the greatest races in the world, eight years after his last victory. After the Giro, Mikel Landa will then take on the Tour de France, where he will be a first-class domestique for Remco Evenepoel.

It was the other big announcement of the Calpe presentation for Soudal Quick-Step. One year after his third place, Remco Evenepoel will take on the biggest race in the world again, with the hopes of doing even better. Before the Tour, the former World champion will aim for the Ardennes Classics but also for his national championships, where he will try to regain his title after his non participation in 2024. However, unlike in 2024, Evenepoel will not be the unique leader of Soudal Quick-Step on the Tour de France as this year the European Champion Tim Merlier will also take on the French roads of July, with the objective of raising his arms again after 2021. The Belgian, who will start his season at the AlUla Tour, has also extended his contract with Jurgen Foré’s team until 2028, as did his friend and lead-out man Bert Van Lerberghe. At 32 years old, it is very likely that Tim Merlier will finish his career with Soudal Quick-Step, hoping to bring a lot of wins for the team that gave his access to the World Tour.

Another team who announced the programme of their leader during a team presentation is Groupama-FDJ. The French team has officialised that David Gaudu will participate in the Giro for the first time of his career, with the objective of finishing in the top five minimum. The Frenchman will then ride his national tour without the ambition of the general classification but rather to play for stage wins. At the opposite, his compatriot and teammate Guillaume Martin will be the leader of Groupama-FDJ at the start in Lille, before aiming for a top ten on La Vuelta.

Sources: Soudal Quick-Step press releases about Mikel Landa and Tim Merlier ; Groupama-FDJ's post on X

10/01/2025

Team FDJ-SUEZ has just announced an exclusive partnership deal with Nike, making the team the only professional cycling team – across both the women’s and men’s pelotons – to work directly with the iconic sportswear brand. 

From the 2025 season onwards, Nike will become the team’s official lifestyle apparel supplier, supplying the riders and staff with specially designed clothing to be worn off the bike. Stephen Delcourt, the General Manager of FDJ-SUEZ, emphasised that this is likely to be a long-term collaboration, and shared how he believes that it will help the team to “strengthen [its] identity” and “enhance [its] image, both on and off the competition stage”.

It is believed that the arrival of Demi Vollering – a Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift winner, and the current best stage racer in the world – to the team helped them to secure the collaboration. Vollering signed her own personal sponsorship deal with Nike in April of last year, being one of the few cyclists – alongside Mark Cavendish, Letizia Paternoster and Cameron Wurf – to have done so. That deal did not extend to her previous team, SDWorx-Protime, but after joining FDJ-SUEZ, Vollering seems not only to have brought over her bicycle sponsor, Specialized, but also to have incentivised Nike to invest even further into women’s cycling, and team up with her new team.

Besides being a big win for the French team, this collaboration also has wider implications. It marks another big step forward for women’s cycling, as more and more brands seem eager to get involved, and the star power of riders like Vollering and her ex-teammate and World Champion, Lotte Kopecky, continues to help raise the profile of the sport.

Source: FDJ-SUEZ Press Release

09/01/2025

2024 is almost over, but a number of updates and announcements are still coming through, including rider retirements, contract extensions and last-minute transfers, as well as reveals of some of the key race routes and rider race schedules for 2025. Here's a round-up of some of the most interesting developments, for those who missed them over the festive period.

Marianne Vos returns to cyclocross

In relation to current racing, Visma Lease-a-Bike has announced that the “Greatest of all Time”, Marianne Vos, will be making her return to cyclocross this week. The eight-time UCI Cyclocross World Champion is a legend in the cyclocross world, as she is on the road, but was forced to sit out the 2023-24 season due to having undergone surgery.

This year, however, she will back – albeit with a limited schedule that will allow her to prepare optimally for the road season. She will race the following races, before turning her attention fully to the road racing season ahead.

· World Cup Besançon – 29 December 2024

· National Championships Cyclocross in Oisterwijk – 12 January 2025

· World Cup Benidorm – 19 January 2025

· World Cup Hoogerheide – 26 January 2025

Geraint Thomas to retire at the end of 2025

Turning towards news regarding next year, in a video taken at the team’s pre-season training camp, Geraint Thomas announced that 2025 is likely to be his final year as a professional cyclist, after an impressive 18-year career.

In this final year, he plans to focus on stage racing, beginning with the Tour Down Under, and potentially ending with the Tour of Britain in September. In between, he’ll likely race Tirreno-Adriatico and Volta a Catalunya – and maybe even the Tour de France for one last time – but notably, he has decided to avoid the Classics. The 38-year-old believes that the Classics are “too crazy” for him now, and so is firmly set on chasing stage racing success to end his career on a high.

Jarno Widar extends his contract with Lotto Dstny

Despite the recent departure of one of their star riders, Maxim Van Gils, Lotto Dstny has demonstrated that they can still retain their top talent with the announcement that they have re-signed the young supertalent, Jarno Widar.

Widar – a rider who already boasts a strong palmarès in the Under-23 category, being the first Belgian winner of the Giro Next Gen, and winning the Alpes Isère Tour and the Giro Ciclisto della Valle d’Aosta-Mont Blanc – has signed a three-year contract to stay with the Belgian team. He will remain in the development team for the 2025 season and will then make the step up to the ProTeam for the next two.

With next year being his final season as an U23 rider, his main targets will be the Giro Next Gen and Tour de L'Avenir, but he is also aiming for success at the European and World Championships.

The final few transfers are announced

The transfer season is coming to a close, but the final few are still trickling through:

· Mona Mittwallner – the three-time MTB marathon world champion has signed with Human Powered Health Cycling through to 2026, as she seeks a “new challenge” on the road.

· Joseph Pidcock – as was already speculated, the younger Pidcock will be joining his older brother Tom at his new team, Q36.5 Pro Cycling, after his current team, Trinity Racing, chose to close down their road racing team at the end of this year.

· Ashlin Barry – the promising 17-year old junior will join Visma Lease-a-Bike’s affiliated junior team, JEGG Skil DJR in 2025, before moving up to the development team, and then finally, joining the WorldTour team, when he is ready.

Riders begin announcing their 2025 schedules

Geraint Thomas is not the only rider that has begun to discuss his schedule for 2025 – at their team media days, a number of other riders have begun to share their plans too.

The new World Champion, Tadej Pogačar, has shared a schedule packed with one-day racing alongside the usual stage races. He is expected to begin his season at the UAE Tour to represent his team’s main sponsor, before moving on to defend his victory at Strade Bianche, ahead of a number other prestigious Classics, including Milano-Sanremo, E3 Harelbeke, Ghent-Wevelgem, the Ronde van Vlaanderen, Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Instead of the Giro d’Italia, it is expected that this year he will do the Critérium du Dauphiné, as preparation for the Tour de France. The Vuelta is therefore most likely to be his non-Tour de France Grand Tour of choice, and then following that, he will race the World Championships to see if he can retain his title.

Primož Roglič has also shared some of his plans. He will likely begin with the Volta ao Algarve and the Volta a Catalunya, before heading back to the Giro d’Italia to see if he can find some good Grand Tour form before he goes to the Tour de France. Then, towards the end of the season, he too will ride the World Championships, which is set to be a mountainous course that could suit him well.

Remco Evenepoel will have to begin his season slightly later, due to the injuries he sustained in a training crash earlier this month. He has therefore stated that his first race is likely to be the Brabantse Pijl in April, and following this, the remaining Ardennes Classics, such as La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. It appears unlikely that he will race the Giro d’Italia after this, as his main goal is the Tour de France, but apart from this, the rest of his schedule is yet to be announced.

Jonas Vingegaard is the only member of the “Big Four” who has not yet publicly discussed his schedule, but it is speculated that he may race Paris-Nice instead of defending his victory at Tirreno-Adriatico, and could try the Giro d’Italia this year for the first time.

La Vuelta organisers announce the 2025 route

Pogačar aiming for the Vuelta makes perfect sense, as the organisers of the 2025 Vuelta a España – running from 23 August 2025 to 14 September 2025 – have announced the official route, which features 10 mountaintop finishes, an Individual Time Trial and a Team Time Trial. Italy has been chosen to host the beginning of the race, with Stage 1 taking place in Turin, but the race will also pass through France and Andorra.

The rest of the stages, however, will take place in northern Spain, passing through Valladolid, Bilbao and Ponferrada, to name a few. The famous Angliru will also make an appearance, on Stage 13, which will be followed by another Category One finish on Stage 14. The race will then finish in Madrid, as usual, with a flat sprint stage for any surviving sprinter to claim.

28/12/2024

Alongside the announcement of their new kit and team name (Team Picnic PostNL) for next year, DSM-Firmenich PostNL revealed that John Degenkolb has extended his contract with the team through to 2026.

The German rider joined the team in 2022, and over the past few years he has used his experience and skill in one-day racing to play a key role in their Classics squad. At the beginning of this year, he signed a one-year contract extension to take him through to 2025, however he has now decided to keep going with the team, and make it two, breaking open the contract and signing up to stay with the team until the end of 2026.

In an Instagram post, he stated that he did this as he is “super happy” within the team, and is looking forward to spending “two more seasons in the WorldTour with this awesome crew, team and new kit”.

Source: John Degenkolb Instagram Post

14/12/2024

It has finally been announced after a few months of uncertainty, that Taco van der Hoorn will in fact be staying with Intermarché-Wanty for the foreseeable future.

The Dutch rider joined the team in 2021 and immediately made his mark, giving the team their first ever Grand Tour win in the Giro d’Italia. He then followed this up with a string of successes, winning a stage at the Benelux Tour and Omloop van het Houtland, and brought this momentum into 2022, winning the Brussels Cycling Classic and being only millimetres away from winning a stage in his first Tour de France.

In 2023, however, disaster struck, and his pro-cycling career was put on hold following an accident in the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Van der Hoorn was unable to return to racing for sixteen months whilst he recovered from severe concussion, and at one point it was unclear whether he’d ever be able to make a return. But, in August 2024 it was finally time, and he got stuck in immediately, riding a number of races, and even securing a victory at the Elfstedenrace in October.

Despite his impressive return to racing, however, it was unclear for a while whether he’d be kept on by his team, or left to find a space elsewhere. It has now been confirmed – to the joy of Intermarché-Wanty and Taco van der Hoorn fans everywhere – that it’s the former, and he will be staying with his team for at least the next two seasons.

In the team’s press release, the Dutch rider stated that he is “very happy that [he is] back at [his] best form and able to look to the future with confidence”, and chose to continue his career with Intermarché-Wanty as they “share the same vision” and he enjoys the atmosphere in the team. It is expected that he will continue to play a role as a lead rider in the races that suit him – such as the Spring Classics – alongside acting as a key domestique in a number of other races.

Source: Intermarché-Wanty Press Release

12/12/2024

Despite having announced the extension of his contract with Lotto-Dstny at the beginning of the season, Maxim Van Gils will leave the Belgian team to ride with Red Bull Bora-hansgrohe until 2027.

He was one of the revelations of the season. After a good year in 2023 where he showed himself by finishing second at the Grand Colombier on the Tour de France, Maxim Van Gils definitely exploded to the eyes of the cycling world in 2024. Indeed, the Belgian revealed himself as one of the best puncheurs in the world, having a phenomenal Classics campaign. After finishing third at the Strade Bianche and seventh at Milano-Sanremo, the native of Brasschaat in Northern Belgium confirmed on the Ardennes Classics with a podium at the top of the Mur de Huy and a fourth place in Liège on the “Old Lady”. The Belgian continued his great period by raising his arms for the first time at the World Tour level at Eschborn-Frankfurt before taking another win one month later at the Grosser Preis des Kantons Aargau in Switzerland.

The extension of his contract with Lotto-Dstny at the beginning of the season was a great news for the Belgian team that should return to the World Tour in 2026. Indeed, Van Gils formed, along with riders like Arnaud De Lie and Lennert Van Eetvelt, a promising young generation for Stéphane Heulot’s team. However, Red Bull Bora-hansgrohe, a team with much more budget, has redeemed the contract of the Belgian puncheur at the end of the interseason, making it impossible for his former team to replace him. These contract surrenders are beginning to be more common in cycling, which benefit the wealthier teams and make it harder to exist for the poorest ones.

With Red Bull Bora-hansgrohe, Maxim Van Gils will be a major asset on the Classics and should be one of the leaders of the German team, adding even more talent in a very good collective. At only 25 years old, the Belgian has signed for the next three seasons and will be an important piece of Red Bull Bora-hansgrohe in the future, as said by his new manager Ralph Denk: “It [Van Gils’s season] shows strength, but also potential. We will continue to develop this with our performance structure.”

Source: Red Bull Bora-hansgrohe press release

10/12/2024

After announcing the termination of his contract with INEOS Grenadiers a few days ago, Thomas Pidcock has officialised that he will be riding for the Swiss team Q36.5 for the next three years.

It was one of the sagas of the cycling world during this interseason. After an end of the season where tensions between the Thomas Pidcock and his team INEOS Grenadiers were visible, especially when the double Olympic champion was dropped from the selection of the British team for Il Lombardia and showed his incomprehension on an Instagram post. These tensions concluded in the termination of the contract of the British rider, who was supposed to stay with his now former team until 2027.

At 25 years old, Pidcock is one of the best puncheurs in the world. Indeed, the former Cyclo-cross World champion has already raised his arms on some very prestigious races such as the Strade Bianche in 2023 or the Amstel Gold Race this season. The rider from Leeds is also a great climber, as proven by his victory at the Alpe d’Huez on the Tour de France 2022 and has already announced his ambition to play for general classifications in the future.

Joining Q36.5 is a bet for Thomas Pidcock. Indeed, the Swiss team is not part of the first division of cycling and will not take part on every World Tour race next season. The addition of a rider like Pidcock can assure them some invitations but they are not the favourites to accede to a Grand Tour, especially the Tour de France. As said by the team manager Doug Ryder: “His extraordinary talent, both on and off the bike, and his proven ability to win at the WorldTour level make him a game-changing addition to our roster.” It should be really nice to see Thomas Pidcock at the front of some of the best races in the World in the Q36.5 jersey, adding more diversity to a peloton that really needs it.

Source: Q36.5 press release

10/12/2024

Following the announcement of his departure from team CANYON-SRAM in September, it has now been revealed that the former pro-turned-Sports Director will join the Cofidis women’s team for the 2025 season.

Earlier today, the team announced a number of changes to their staff – one of which being the arrival of Bäckstedt as Sports Director. In their press release, Mélanie Briot, one of the existing Sports Directors, stated that the Paris-Roubaix winner’s “experience on the bike…sense of racing and…know-how will be invaluable to [their] athletes," and noted his ability to bring the team more visibility on the “international scene”.

Bäckstedt himself stated that he found this new challenge “exciting”, and that he liked Briot and Cédric Vasseur’s approach with the team. He hopes to bring in his experience, and help to foster an environment that is conducive to the riders’ development.

It is expected that from 2025, he will largely be present roadside at the Classics races, but will also play a role at the other key races that the team targets, as they aim to reach UCI WorldTour status.

Source: Équipe Cofidis Press Release

06/12/2024

Whilst out training in Belgium on Tuesday, Remco Evenepoel was involved in a crash with a bpost vehicle that resulted in him sustaining several injuries.

The double Olympic champion was on a training ride when a delivery driver in a bpost vehicle in front of him unexpectedly opened the door. Evenepoel had no choice but to collide with the door, which, in his words, “catapulted” him to the other side of the road.

Not only did the incident cause the top tube of his golden bicycle to snap in half, but it also resulted in fractures to his rib, shoulder blade and hand, as well as the dislocation of his right clavicle, lung contusions and torn ligaments. Luckily the young Belgian rider was able to receive medical attention relatively quickly, and has already undergone surgery to begin the recovery process.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Evenepoel confirmed that his surgery went well, and that he is on the road to recovery, “determined to come back stronger, step by step.” He also thanked the emergency services and members of the public that helped him, as well as the medical teams in Anderlecht and Herentals and the Soudal Quick-Step doctor, Phil Jansen.

It remains to be seen what this could mean for Evenepoel’s 2025 season. He acknowledged that his recovery journey is likely to be long, but there still remains time for him to make some positive steps before the season begins.

Source: Remco Evenepoel Instagram Post

06/12/2024