Women's WorldTour 2025: Everything you need to know about the teams

Now in its 10th year, the women's WorldTour continues going from strength to strength, with new protagonists and narratives to follow.

Among the 15 teams that make up the elite tier of racing are SD Worx-Protime, now with the returning Anna van der Breggen, FDJ-Suez, bolstered by the signing of Demi Vollering, and Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, home of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift champion Kasia Niewiadoma.

Find out more about all the squads, their rosters and ambitions, as well as those of the seven new ProTeams, in our essential team guide below.

AG Insurance-Soudal

2024 WorldTour wins: 5
Team leader: Justine Ghekiere
Team boss: Jurgen Foré
Raison d’être: Continue growing and solidify credentials on the WorldTour

It’s hard to believe that AG Insurance-Soudal only rose to WorldTour level at the start of last season. They got off to a flying start, too, winning the opening race of the year through Sarah Gigante at the Tour Down Under. Since then, the boat has steadied for the Belgian squad, and new talents have begun emerging. The biggest of those appears to be Justine Ghekiere, now a Tour de France Femmes stage winner, who won the mountains classifications at both the Tour and the Giro d’Italia last year. New signing Urška Žigart adds further climbing firepower, alongside the veteran Ashleigh Moolman, now 39 years old and in her third year with the team.

Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto

2024 WorldTour wins: 5
Team leader: Kasia Niewiadoma
Team boss: Ronny Lauke
Raison d’être: Race aggressively, put rivals on the backfoot, and retain the Tour de France Femmes

Canyon-SRAM didn’t win many races in 2024 – they only won five, in fact – but they did manage to take home the biggest prize of them all: the yellow jersey. That honour was earned by Kasia Niewiadoma, a rider who had won just once in the previous five years, but had become a fan favourite for her relentless, and often fruitless, attacking. When the 30-year-old won the Tour de France Femmes last August, she did so by four seconds, the narrowest winning margin ever. This season, she wants to become the first woman to win the race twice. Her team manager, Ronny Lauke, thinks it’s possible.

“To be honest, when you have experienced what this yellow jersey does to a team, and the attention it raises, the emotions all the staff members go through, you want to have it again,” he told Cycling Weekly. “We are not shy of saying we aim for the highest and the best, so we’re going for this.”

By way of recruits, the team has brought in another fan favourite in the form of the effervescent Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, from FDJ-SUEZ, as well as a new sprinter in Italy’s Chiara Consonni. Chloé Dygert, now buoyed by an Olympic gold medal, might feel like a new signing too, as she refocuses her attention to her road team after the Olympics. Already, the American has launched the team’s season with a winning start, claiming stage three of the WorldTour opener at the Tour Down Under.

Expect the team to be an “uncomfortable opponent”, in the words of Lauke, “the most uncomfortable opponent that anyone can ask for”.

Ceratizit

2024 WorldTour wins: 6
Team leader: Sandra Alonso
Team boss: Claude Sun
Raison d'être: A rebuild is on the cards after losing their two best riders, but there is promise to be found

CERATIZIT will be a different entity this year, without Marta Lach and Cédrine Kerbaol, two riders who had outgrown the team. In Mylène de Zoete and Sandra Alonso, the team has proven winners, and they’ve already won once this year.

FDJ-Suez

2024 WorldTour wins: 4
Team leader: Demi Vollering
Team boss: Stephen Delcourt
Raison d’être: Bring the yellow jersey home and win the Tour de France Femmes

Demi Vollering’s arrival to the French team is one of the biggest cycling transfers in recent history. Rarely does one of the top riders swap allegiances at the height of their talent, especially when they’re still winning as much as the Dutchwoman is. Last year, Vollering earned 15 victories with SD Worx-Protime – all at WorldTour level – including two stages of the Tour de France Femmes and the overall at the Vuelta Femenina. In her, FDJ-SUEZ can be confident that they’ve bagged a winner.

It’s not just Vollering who’s likely to make a difference for the squad this year, though. Backed by the French national lottery FDJ and waste management company SUEZ, team boss Stephen Delcourt finds himself with around €4 million in funds to play with, and he’s spending it wisely. In comes Juliette Labous from Picnic PostNL, twice a top-five finisher at the Tour de France Femmes, and a home hope for the French faithful. The best bit of business, however, might turn out to be the recruitment of young New Zealander Ally Wollaston. The 24-year-old won two world titles on the track in 2024, adding to an already earned bronze and silver medal at the Olympics. Transfer that talent to the road, and FDJ-SUEZ have found themselves a gem.

Still, the main aim for the team, by virtue of its birthplace, rests in eight days in France in the summer. If Vollering were to win nothing all season, but succeed in avenging those four seconds that left her in second place to Kasia Niewiadoma at last year’s Tour, then FDJ-SUEZ would still hold the champagne party for the ages. Will a change of scenery bring Vollering back the yellow jersey? We’ll have to wait until August to find out.

Fenix-Deceuninck

2024 WorldTour wins: 1
Team leader: Puck Pieterse
Team boss: Philip Roodhooft
Raison d'être: Just two victories in all of last year is a low bar to beat, and in Puck Pieterse, they have a world class talent

Now in its third year as a Women’s WorldTour team, it feels like it’s time for Fenix-Deceuninck to be more than a promising squad and to start delivering. Pauliena Rooijakkers offers experience and talent, especially in stage races. Her third place at the Tour de France Femmes last year was a high-water mark, but there should be more to come from the 31-year-old. Puck Pieterse might be the future not just of the team but of Dutch cycling, with the 22-year-old showing through her stage win at the Tour last summer that she’s already at the top level. Expect success for her at the Classics after her string of top 10s last season.

Human Powered Health

2024 WorldTour wins: 0
Team leader: Thalita de Jong
Team boss: Ro De Jonckere
Raison d'être: The American team will look to deliver on some promising signings, but might find themselves outgunned by bigger squads

It's been an off-season of change for Human Powered Health, with six riders out, including the retiring Audrey Cordon-Rago and Alice Wood. In their place comes Thalita de Jong, a serious talent, and Kathrin Schweinberger, another winner. Ruth Edwards will hope for more success, too.

Lidl-Trek

2024 WorldTour wins: 7
Team leader: Elisa Balsamo
Team boss: Luca Guercilena
Raison d'être: A new start for Lidl-Trek, with four big names coming in. The team has a lot of promise to deliver on

Revolution is in the air at Lidl-Trek, with the team losing four riders over the winter, but with four big names coming in to replace them. Elisa Longo Borghini has moved on after six years with Elynor Bäckstedt and Brodie Chapman following her to UAE Team ADQ, but in Niamh Fisher-Black, Anna Henderson, Emma Norsgaard and Riejanne Markus, the team has recruited well. All four are riders who will hope to unlock their potential in the primary colours of Lidl, and will surely be given the chance to do so across the season. At a bigger team, and with no expectation to only work in support roles, it might just be time for Fisher-Black and Norsgaard to shine in particular, although Markus is a proven GC rider, and Henderson is one of the best time trialists around.

In Elisa Balsamo, Lidl-Trek have a proven winner who can tussle with Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes when on form, as shown by her win at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda and her second places at Gent-Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix last season. A stage win at the Tour de France Femmes can’t be too far away. Gaia Realini, 23, and Shirin van Anrooij, 22, still have much more to give, with the latter consistently placing in the top five in one-day races, and the former a podium finisher at the Giro d’Italia Women, La Vuelta Femenina and the Tour de Romandie. It is also the final year of Lizzie Deignan’s career, with the former world champion very much in a road captain role now, while Ellen van Dijk and Amanda Spratt still provide buckets of experience for the many youngsters in the squad.

Liv AlUla Jayco

2024 WorldTour wins: 1
Team leader: Mavi García
Team boss: Brent Copeland
Raison d'être: Australia’s team is more cosmopolitan now, and will hope for more victories in 2025 after a disappointing 2024

There is hope for Liv AlUla Jayco, despite their disappointing return last year. In Mavi García, still plugging away at 41, they have a rider who can still finish high up on general classification at stage races, and hopefully getting results. Silke Smulders, the team’s 23-year-old star, has already finished second at the Tour Down Under this year, and will hopefully continue her GC development. For one-day races, there is Ruby Roseman-Gannon, who impressed with sixth at the World Championships last year, and Letizia Paternoster, who was the breakout star of the Classics last season with third at Dwars door Vlaanderen and ninth at the Tour of Flanders. If some of this promise can convert into wins, then the team will be flying.

Movistar

2024 WorldTour wins: 1
Team leader: Liane Lippert
Team boss: Sebastián Unzué
Raison d'être: Rebuild the team

2024 was never going to be easy for Movistar following the retirement of one of peloton’s most prolific winners. No one was going to fill the Annemiek Van Vlueten sized hole left in the team, and their solitary WorldTour win – a stage at the Giro – illustrated the size of the task ahead of them.

Their tactic appears to be to gamble on youth, signing Cat Ferguson early last year. The Brit dominated the junior scene like few others have ever done, and then immediately started winning in the senior ranks having landed two junior road world titles. The team has increased from 15 to 18 riders, but with no big-name signings, it appears they’re gambling on Ferguson.

Picnic PostNL

2024 WorldTour wins: 2
Team leaders: Marta Cavalli and Charlotte Kool
Team boss: Iwan Spekenbrink
Raison d’être: Get back to winning ways, particularly in the sprints and Classics

There was a wonder at the start of last season whether Charlotte Kool would ever taste victory at the Tour de France Femmes, cursed to exist at the same time as the best female sprinter of all time, Lorena Wiebes. That wonder quickly vanished when Kool won the opening two stages, earning herself a stint in the yellow jersey, too. Sadly for the then called dsm-firmenich PostNL, those victories ended up being the team’s only two at WorldTour level in 2024. Might new signing Marta Cavalli, once the Queen of the Ardennes, bring better fortunes? Perhaps, but she only raced five times last year due to injury. In reality, the team’s strongest hope for success lies already within its ranks in the form of British road champion Pfeiffer Georgi. The 24-year-old’s third place at Paris-Roubaix proved she can tussle with the stars, and this year could yield a big breakthrough.

Roland

2024 WorldTour wins: 0
Team leader: Tamara Dronova-Balabolina
Team boss: Ruben Rodrigo Contreras
Raison d'être: The lowest-ranked Women’s WorldTour team doesn’t have a lot going for it, but they could always surprise

It is difficult to know where the results will come from, particularly at the top level, for Roland. Tamara Dronova-Balabolina is their only rider ranked inside the UCI’s top 100 riders. They were the lowest ranked Women’s WorldTour team in 2024 for a reason.

SD Worx-Protime

2024 WorldTour wins: 45
Team leaders: Lotte Kopecky, Lorena Wiebes and Anna van der Breggen
Team boss: Erwin Janssen
Raison d’être: Remain the best team in the world, as has been the case for the past two years

It was another show of domination from SD Worx-Protime in 2024, the team’s best season to date. Sixty-four victories last year – of which 45 at WorldTour level – bettered 2023’s tally by two, and again it was mostly thanks to the usual suspects. Lorena Wiebes took the crown for the most victories, counting 21 in her name. Then came Demi Vollering with 15 and Lotte Kopecky, the world champion, with 14. After the big three, the next best was Mischa Bredewold with four wins, showing a clear reliance on certain names.

This is set to change in 2025. Kopecky and Wiebes will continue as leaders, but the loss of Vollering to FDJ-Suez leaves a big hole to be patched. Who has the team brought in to do that? None other than their own sports director, Anna van der Breggen, who is making a comeback from her three-year retirement.

There are question marks around how the two-time world champion will fare in the peloton today. She hasn’t raced since the 2021 World Championships, but having coached Vollering the last few years, knows what it takes to succeed at the top level. She won’t be returning from going cold turkey, either. During her retirement, Van der Breggen continued to train, and was once spotted by Cycling Weekly leaving at dawn on a ride before a stage of the Tour de France Femmes. That race, one in which she has never taken the start line, will no doubt be a target for her in 2025.

Other key transfers within SD Worx-Protime include the exits of Marlen Reusser and Niamh Fisher-Black, to Movistar and Lidl-Trek respectively. Don’t be confused by the emergence of another Kopecky in the team, Czech rider Julia Kopecký, who is of no relation to her namesake, and has joined from AG Insurance-Soudal.

UAE Team ADQ

2024 WorldTour wins: 1
Team leader: Elisa Longo Borghini
Team boss: Melissa Moncada
Raison d’être: Join the big GC battles and develop into a super-team

Signing Elisa Longo Borghini was a show of intent from UAE Team ADQ, who are hoping to reach the super-team status of their male counterparts. The Italian’s stellar 2024 season was overshadowed somewhat by SD Worx-Protime pair Lotte Kopecky and Demi Vollering, but she still finished the year as the third best rider in the world. The 33-year-old won the Tour of Flanders and the Giro d’Italia, and finished on the podium at Strade Bianche, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Vuelta Femenina. If she can bring the same success to UAE, a team that has struggled for big wins, she’ll make the bosses very happy. Look out, too, for the two Brits on the team: former national time trial champion Elizabeth Holden and new recruit Elynor Bäckstedt, who, like Longo Borghini, has joined from Lidl-Trek.

Uno-X Mobility

2024 WorldTour wins: 0
Team leader: Anniina Ahtosalo
Team boss: Thor Hushovd
Raison d'être: The Scandinavian squad will look to punch above their weight and prove they’re not there to boost numbers

There were no WorldTour wins for Uno-X in 2024, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t have an impact, with their sprinter Anniina Ahtosalo, in particular, putting them on the map. In Mie Bjørndal Ottestad and Maria Giulia Confalonieri they have riders who can challenge in smaller races.

Visma-Lease a Bike

2024 WorldTour wins: 6
Team leader: Marianne Vos
Team boss: Rutger Tijssen
Raison d'être: Challenge for GCs with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot

Visma have grown their roster from 16 to 18 riders for 2025 and by signing Olympic mountain bike champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, has bolstered the team that since forming in 2021 was overly reliant on Marianne Vos for wins and ranking points. The Frenchwoman hasn’t raced a full road calendar since 2018 and even that year incorporated just 17 days of racing. She hasn’t ridden a major stage race since the 2015 Giro d’Italia and most of her results are from one-day races, but at 32 she’ll no doubt be thinking time is running out to be competitive at the Tour. Her compatriot Marion Bunel has also joined Visma to fortify the team on the climbs.

Wildcard teams

There are seven women’s ProTeams this year, a new category of fully professional squads. Of these, EF Education-Oatly are a WorldTour squad in all but name, with the American team boasting Noemi Rüegg, Cédrine Kerbaol, Kim Cazdow and Olympic champion Kristen Faulkner. Signing Kerbaol was a seriously smart piece of business, and the squad have already won the Tour Down Under overall through Rüegg. VolkerWessels are another ProTeam which punches above their weight, with Scarlett Souren one to watch. Demi Vollering’s sister, Bodine, turns pro with the squad this year. Elsewhere, Cofidis have a solid squad, with Victoire Berteau the leader, while Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi are a team to watch, particularly at the Spanish races. The other three new ProTeams are Arkéa-B&B Hotels, St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93 and Winspace Orange Seal, although it would be a surprise to see any of them win a WorldTour event.