Opening Weekend has been and gone and the Classics season is now properly underway. We saw big names celebrating big wins in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday for Mathieu van der Poel and Demi Vollering, and Britain's own Matthew Brennan taking his second win of the season at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne the following day.

But those weren't the only races on the calendar, and anyone able to look beyond the noise and fanfare of Opening Weekend, would have spotted other riders notching up some impressive results.

A gift for dad from Paul Seixas

If the 19-year-old phenom was hoping to slip into success under the radar, he should probably alter his approach. Paul Seixas's 42km solo breakaway to win the hilly Faun Ardeche Classic in the south of France had echoes of Tadej Pogačar and had French media shouting from the rooftops. "Incredible… what a performance," trumpeted L'Équipe, who put him on the front page of the print version.

It was no soft win either – the Decathlon CMA CGM rider outgunned a strong field that included Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Matthias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and more.

The Lyonnais rider said he struggled at times but kept in mind his family at the finish line: "It was tough — in the Val d’Enfer I was struggling at times, but I pushed myself to keep the rhythm. I was thinking about my family at the finish line; it was my dad’s birthday. It was crazy — I could hardly believe it. It was an incredible day, and the team did a fantastic job."

France has been historically rather good at building up its promising talents to the point where the pressure becomes too much to bear, and judging by the first reader comment on the L'Équipe story, may need to rein itself in a little where Seixas is concerned. "This kid is going to sweep the whole country," they wrote. "It's written in the stars. And to hell with the naysayers! For those of us who, as kids, experienced the Tour de France with a French winner, there's something truly moving about witnessing the emergence of such a French champion."

Then again, going on the Decathlon CMA CGM rider's results so far, who are we to argue?

Romain Grégoire has his say

France had more to celebrate in the Faun Ardèche's sister race, the Faun Drôme Classic, the following day. Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ United) outsprinted breakaway partner Jorgenson as the chasing group bore down on them from behind.

With both Faun races contested by many of the same riders, 23-year-old French rider Grégoire – the winner of Faun Ardèche last year and a former Tour of Britain winner – had finished 22nd the previous day and Jorgenson fourth. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) led in the chase group, just two seconds later.

It was the first win of a season that has begun well for Besançon rider Grégoire. He was third on a stage at the Vuelta a Andalucia and finished fifth on GC.

Charlotte Kool opens up

The move to new team Fenix-Premier Tech seems to be working for Dutch rider Charlotte Kool, who opened her account for the team at the Omloop het van Hageland on Sunday. One of the best sprinters in the women's peloton, Kool led home the bunch sprint at the end of the 148km Belgian race – perhaps garnering a little extra motivation from the fact that the race was sponsored, like her team, by Fenix.

Kool has experienced health struggles, and notched up just one win last year – rather unaccustomed for a rider who just a couple of years back ended the season sitting on a dozen victories. She transferred from Picnic PostNL to Fenix-Deceuninck mid-season and this early victory will be a welcome confidence boost that she will take forward into the Classics.

The 2026 season is well underway, with two Women's WorldTour races already completed, the Tour Down Under and the UAE Tour.

As the racing switches to Europe, it's time to look at the teams, the key riders, and the races to watch across an engrossing season. Everything is building up to a fifth Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in August, but there is so much more before then.

Here is our team-by-team guide to the Women's WorldTour, and the moments of the season to anticipate.

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 5 February 2026. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

Teams

AG Insurance-Soudal
Belgium
2025 WorldTour wins: 5
Team leaders: Kim Le Court and Sarah Gigante
Team boss: Jurgen Foré
Raison d’être: Providing a solid platform for Le Court and Gigante to fly from

This was a winter of continuity for AG Insurance-Soudal, with two riders leaving and only one, Letizia Borghesi, joining. It means 2026 looks very similar to 2025, but with the hindsight of what happened last season, we can expect them to deliver more regularly.

Kim Le Court was far from an unknown, having won a stage of the Giro d’Italia Women in 2024, but last year was her breakout, with wins at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour of Britain Women and, the biggest, the Tour de France Femmes. Her teammate Sarah Gigante finished on the podium at the Giro and sixth at the Tour.

This pair will continue to lead the team, alongside Urška Žigart and Justine Ghekiere, both of whom have big results in them.

Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto
Germany
2025 WorldTour wins: 2
Team leader: Kasia Niewiadoma Phinney
Team boss: Ronny Lauke
Raison d’etre: Challenge again for the top step of the Tour de France Femmes

It was always going to be a big ask for Kasia Niewiadoma to defend her Tour de France Femmes title in 2025, especially with the return of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot at Visma-Lease a Bike and renewed hunger of Demi Vollering at FDJ-SUEZ, so to hold on to the final podium place in the end felt like a job well done. Never one to settle, the Polish rider and her team will be hoping to win back the yellow jersey this summer, but also pick up a few more victories along the way.

Although Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto won 15 times last season – their highest tally since 2019, and a marked improvement from six in 2024 – only two of those victories came on the WorldTour: one thanks to Chloé Dygert at the Tour Down Under, and the other signed by Zoe Bäckstedt at the Simac Ladies Tour.

The team will no doubt call on the two time trial sensations again in 2026. Already, Dygert has come out with fighting talk. “I’m sick of losing,” she said ahead of January’s Tour Down Under, “so this year, I’m really focusing on making sure it doesn’t happen much.” Unfortunately for the American, she left Australia with 12 stitches in her leg, and is now eyeing a period of recovery before the Classics.

There have been no new signings at Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto over the winter, and only two outgoings: Tour stage winner Ricarda Bauernfiend has found a new home at Lidl-Trek, while former British champion Alice Towers has moved to EF Education-Oatly. The effervescent Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and budding climber Neve Bradbury remain among the most exciting riders in the team. Italian sprinter Chiara Consonni will be there for the flatter days.

EF Education-Oatly
USA
2025 WorldTour wins: 2
Team leader: Noemi Rüegg and Cédrine Kerbaol
Team boss: Esra Tromp
Raison d’être: Keeping the good vibes going at a young team full of talent

New to the Women’s WorldTour, EF Education-Oatly had the perfect start to their season, by winning the Tour Down Under for the second year in a row through Noemi Rüegg.

However, those were the team’s last WorldTour victories in 2025, so it is a low bar to clear for this season. In Rüegg and Cédrine Kerbaol they have two riders who were often at the front of races last year. The team stand out in pink, and also because they have the rainbow jersey, through Magdeleine Vallieres.

Kristen Faulkner, Olympic champion, will want more than her one win last year, while there has been an injection of youth to keep the American squad ticking over. No more Alison Jackson.

FDJ United-Suez
France
2025 WorldTour wins: 11
Team leader: Demi Vollering
Team boss: Stephen Delcourt
Raison d’être: To win the Tour de France Femmes and remain the world's top-ranked team

When the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was first announced, team manager Stephen Delcourt dreamed of winning it, building the team with that ambition in the front of his mind. Only six years ago the team was one of the also-ran squads, but since Évita Muzic won the closing stage of the 2020 Giro Rosa, their first WorldTour win, they’ve been on the rise. Last season they brought in defending Tour champion Demi Vollering hoping the yellow jersey ambition might be realised but, while she came close, second place was all the team could manage.

FDJ dominated the first half of last season. Vollering quickly repaid Delcourt's faith, blossoming into a fine leader, starting the year with victory in the four-day Comunitat Velenciana, then winning Strade Bianche, the Vuelta Femenina, Itzulia Women and the Volta Catalunya. They were far from a one-woman band; fellow new recruit Elise Chabbey and Ally Wollaston contributed multiple victories, helping the French team to top spot in the UCI rankings.

That said, they have fewer riders this year, but have recruited well, with German champion Frazinska Koch the pick of the new additions. A hugely versatile Classics rider and domestique, she will contribute widely, while Eva van Agt is a proven helper and Sofia Bertizzolo has been a target for the team for years now. It will be interesting to see how Scotswoman Lauren Dickson fares in only her third year in the sport. The signs are promising: she finished 17th on GC at the recent Tour Down Under, helping Wollaston to two stage wins and brilliant team performance.

Fenix-Premier Tech
Belgium
2025 WorldTour wins: 1
Team leader: Puck Pieterse
Team boss: Philip Roodhooft
Raison d'être: Big Classics victories

Fenix-Premier Tech are among the minority of Women's WorldTour teams to have more riders this year than last, starting 2026 with 19 of the permitted 22 riders. An interesting mix of cyclo-cross and Classics riders, they have never been prolific winners. Last season they took only five, though three of those were national championships.

When they do win, they win big, with stages in the Tour de France Femmes on the team palmarès. The hugely talented and versatile Puck Pieterse is always among the action, finishing in the top 10 in every one of last year's spring Classics and winning La Flèche Wallonne. Charlotte Kool joined the squad mid-season last year and should she regain her mojo will provide genuine winning potential in the sprints.

Lidl-Trek
Germany
2025 WorldTour wins: 5
Team leader: Elisa Balsamo and Niamh Fisher-Black
Team boss: Luca Guercilena
Raison d’être: Getting the big signings to deliver

There’s a lot of talent stockpiled at Lidl-Trek, and getting it to fire is the main goal of the team for 2026. Ellen van Dijk and Lizzie Deignan retiring could have unbalanced another team, but this one was prepared for this eventuality already, making the big changes ahead of 2025. As it is, the German squad’s signings this winter have largely been dealing with domestique reorganisation, and providing some experience to a developing roster.

Last season saw success through the year, although perhaps not quite at the level that was expected, with fewer WorldTour wins than 2024. However, there were stage victories at the Vuelta España Femenina and the Giro d’Italia Women, with Anna Henderson’s result in the latter perhaps spurring her on to more consistent success, and Elisa Balsamo won the Trofeo Alfredo Binda.

Niamh Fisher-Black and Riejanne Markus, both signed as general classification options, performed impressively at stage races, with Fisher-Black fifth at the Tour de France Femmes and sixth at the Vuelta. This year, they will aim to cement their places in the top five at WorldTour stage events, especially the Grand Tours. Fisher-Black has a lot of promise, and is still only 25, so one feels that there is a breakout performance still to come.

In the Classics, Balsamo has the abilities to overcome almost anyone, therefore just needs the race to fall in her favour, while she will be ably backed up by Clara Copponi, Emma Norsgaard, Shirin van Anrooij and Henderson, which has the makings of a pretty good collection of leaders for the chaos of one-day racing. The team still has four 20-year-olds, too, including Isabella Holmgren, who finished eight at last year’s Giro, so there is a lot of hope for the future.

Movistar
Spain
2025 WorldTour wins: 10
Team leader: Marlen Reusser
Team boss: Sebastián Unzué
Raison d’etre: Win regularly and develop young talent

Only four teams won more races than Movistar in 2025 – SD Worx-Protime, UAE Team ADQ, FDJ-SUEZ and Visma-Lease a Bike – putting the Spanish squad just outside of the realm of the super-teams. Of Movistar’s 10 victories at WorldTour level, seven came courtesy of the world time trial champion Marlen Reusser. And that doesn’t account for the Swiss rider’s status as one of the peloton’s best GC contenders; she finished runner-up at both the Vuelta Femenina and the Giro last year.

Movistar will also look to British prodigy Cat Ferguson for wins in 2026, one of a handful of talented teenagers in the squad. The youngest is Spaniard Paula Ostiz, the junior world and European road champion, who turned pro this year.

Picnic PostNL
Netherlands
2025 WorldTour wins: 1
Team leader: Pfeiffer Georgi
Team boss: Iwan Spekenbrink
Raison d’etre: A team in transition, with a host of young riders on board

Nine riders left Picnic PostNL over the winter, and eight came in, underlining how in transition this team is. Some of those who left will be missed badly: Charlotte Kool, Francesca Barale, Franzi Koch, Megan Jastrab and Nienke Vinke. It leaves a young, callow squad, which will hope to outperform low expectations.

They hit the ground running at the Tour Down Under, with two podiums and 12th place overall for Josie Nelson, but the Classics will be the place where the squad can really show their mettle. Pfeiffer Georgi had a quiet 2025, as she worked her way back from the concussion she suffered at the Tour de France Femmes a couple of years ago, and will be looking to show that she is still a contender.

SD Worx-Protime
Netherlands
2025 WorldTour wins: 27
Team leaders: Lotte Kopecky, Anna van der Breggen and Lorena Wiebes
Team boss: Erwin Janssen
Raison d’être: Retaking their number one ranking after a slight dip

This year represents a new challenge for the previously all-conquering SD Worx-Protime. Instead of coming into the season as the number one team, the one everyone wanted to beat, they are now number two, chasing FDJ United-SUEZ, and their former charge Vollering.

That’s not to say 2025 was a fallow year for the Dutch squad, with 48 wins across the year, including 25 wins for Lorena Wiebes, who appears unbeatable in sprints. Wiebes won through the year, from the UAE Tour onwards, taking two stage wins at both the Giro d’Italia Women and the Tour de France Femmes. Meanwhile, Lotte Kopecky won the Tour of Flanders, again, and Anna van der Breggen and Mischa Bredewold showed themselves in flashes.

However, Kopecky did have an off-year, due to knee and lower-back issues, and her tilt at Tour GC failed to materialise. Also, in the absence of Vollering, they only won one general classification title. This might be a continued trend, with a group of developing riders not quite there yet, although Van der Breggen did finish third at last year’s Vuelta España Femenina.

Expect Wiebes to keep winning, wherever she races, and Kopecky to go all in for the Classics, from Omloop Nieuwsblad onwards. Ultimately, SD Worx want to be the team that everyone watches in the peloton again, and be back to the space where they can bend races to their will. They do not have the same number of dominant riders as before, but they do have the right pieces for the right races. New signing Nienke Vinke could be the future for GC challenges, and Bredewold can continue to do her very good Vollering impression in hillier one-day races.

UAE Team ADQ
UAE
2025 WorldTour wins: 7
Team leader: Elisa Longo Borghini
Team boss: Yana Seel
Raison d'être: Defence of Elisa Longo Borghini's Giro title and a Tour de France Femmes podium finish

Building year on year, UAE Team ADQ are now among the most dangerous teams in the peloton. The addition of Elisa Longo Borghini last year has proved pivotal. Though they've only existed in their current form since 2022, the team dates all the way back to Nicole Cooke's Mcipollini-Giordana team of 2011. Last year's crop of 28 wins represented their most successful season, the winning shared among a remarkable 13 of their 19-woman roster.

2025 Tour de France Femmes revelation Maeva Squiban, along with Karlijn Swinkels, have already opened the team's account, winning in Mallorca last week. While they're one of the few teams to have increased the size of their roster, we can expect Longo Borghini to be most influential again.

Visma-Lease a Bike
Netherlands
2025 WorldTour wins: 7
Team leader: Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Marianne Vos
Team boss: Rutger Tijssen
Raison d'être: Another Tour de France title for Pauline Ferrand Prévot and big Classics wins for Marianne Vos

Even without Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's Tour de France Femmes victory, Visma-Lease a Bike had a great 2025, winning more races than in any of their four previous seasons while relying less on their big names. Martina Fidanza stepped up with three wins, and Ninke Veenhoven bagged two. The future lies with two young riders: the hugely talented Brit Imogen Wolff, who began winning before her 19th birthday, and Marion Bunel, who is already among the best climbers in the bunch aged only 21.

Ferrand-Prévot has a freakish ability to successfully target races, so another Tour de France win is possible. Meanwhile, Marianne Vos always bags at least one big win a year. Add in Canadian all-rounder Sarah Van Dam and Dutch rouleur Daniek Hengeveld and Visma have a recipe for success.

Uno-X Mobility, Liv AlUla Jayco and Human Powered Health

Uno-X Mobility won just one WorldTour race last year, a stage of the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas through Mie Bjørndal Ottestad, who won four more races for the team. This year, they are likely to continue their aggressive underdog strategy, which has brought them success in the past. In Katrine Aalerud, they have an experienced GC leader.

2025 ended well for Liv AlUla Jayco, who won two stages at the Tour of Chongming Island; they also won stage two of the Tour de France Femmes through Mavi García. This year, they will hope that they can return to the front of races more often, through Letizia Paternoster and Ruby Roseman-Gannon, among others.

Human Powered Health will aim to be more than just the 14th WorldTour team, with a ProTour or WorldTour victory surely among their plans. In Thalita de Jong and Kathrin Schweinberger, they have experienced riders who could surprise.

Races

Spring Classics

From Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (28 Feb) until Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes (26 April), the women's Spring Classics season follows an almost identical rhythm to that of the men's, with female 'siblings' having been introduced for nearly all of the original major men's races. The inauguration of Milan-San Remo Donne (21 March) last season – won by Lorena Wiebes – leaves E3 Saxo Classic as the only men's WorldTour race with no equivalent. Omloop and Opening Weekend is followed in March by Italy's Strade Bianche, San Remo, and a pair of new names: In Flanders Fields. From Middelkerke to Wevelgem (formerly the more succinct Gent-Wevelgem) and the Tour of Bruges (formerly Brugge-De Panne).

There is also the Trofeo Alfredo Binda (15 March), one of the oldest Classics on the women's calendar with more than 50 years of history.

As with the men, the women's Classics tends to centre around the Tour of Flanders (5 April) and Paris-Roubaix (12 April), but some of the stronger climbers will target the hilly Ardennes races – Amstel Gold (19 April), Flèche Wallonne (22 April) and Liège.

Vuelta España Femenina by carrefour.es – 3-10 May

With the women's season rejigged to free the Giro d'Italia Women from its annual clash with the men's Tour de France, there is now a decent gap between the three Grand Tours, opening up the possibility of seeing all of the world's best riders in all three. The season is packed, though, especially in May when the Vuelta is the first of three Spanish WorldTour stage races, and with teams having such small rosters it's more likely teams will need to be very choosy when selecting their squads.

In its short history as a stage race, the Vuelta Femenina has always attracted the pick of the stage racing bunch, and that is unlikely to change this season. Not many riders have confirmed their programmes beyond the Classics and the Tour de France Femmes so far, but last year's runner-up Marlen Reusser is down to ride, and don't be surprised defending champion Demi Vollering here either.

Tour de France Femmes – 1-9 August

The 2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift begins slowly with two flattish stages, before the temperature gradually rises. A series of hilly stages are punctuated by an individual time trial, before the pièce de resistance, Mont Ventoux. After Planche des Belles Filles, the Tourmalet, Alpe d’Huez and the Madeleine comes the Giant of Provence. The bald mountain will surely hint at the direction of the fifth yellow jersey, but there is still a hectic stage around Nice to come, like a turbo-charged final day of Paris-Nice. Four ascents of the Col d’Eze will sort out the wheat from the chaff.

Demi Vollering will be itching to take back the crown she lost in 2024, and prove that she really is the best rider in the world; FDJ United-SUEZ will also demand better from their star signing. However, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has proved that she will go to huge lengths to win, and will have the French public on her side. It should be a clash for the ages. From Switzerland to the Mediterranean, the action will not stop.

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 7 August. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

Tales from Celtic folklore speak of a mischievous spirit – a playful trickster said to shape-shift through nature and enchant those it encounters. Often portrayed as fairy-like, this creature's name is Puck. In 1600, William Shakespeare brought the character into the cultural mainstream, lending the name to a magical mischief-maker in A Midsummer Night's Dream, who famously declares, "What fools these mortals be!" – a line that could serve as an apt warning to the rivals of my interviewee.

Speaking to me by video call, Puck Pieterse looks puzzled as I muse on the meaning of her first name. Swivelling in a desk chair in her father's home office, the Fenix-Deceuninck rider clearly isn't sure where I'm going with this tangent. She's fairly certain, she tells me, that her parents had no idea about the folklore when they chose the name. But does she relate to it in any way? "I think it suits me," she says with a smile. "It's nice that the name fits."

Maybe I'm pushing this too far, but Pieterse, with her fiery ginger hair and high-energy aura, has a sprite-like quality. Like the pucks of the folk stories, she shape-shifts in her riding across disciplines, and excels in them all. She has won world titles in mountain biking and cyclo-cross, as well as the white jersey and a stage of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. In the latest edition of the Tour, which ended on Sunday, she helped her team-mate Pauliena Rooijakkers to a top-10 finish, herself placing 24th, in spite of multiple crashes.

We are speaking two months before the race, Pieterse having called me from her family home in Amersfoort, the Dutch city that also gave the world the artist Piet Mondrian. "We have all the good ones," she says, referring to the city's famous offspring, who include world champion athlete Femke Bol. On the wall behind her is a series of paintings in Mondrian's boxy, abstract style. They were made by Pieterse's grandfather. Puck herself, though, is making art from pedalstrokes rather than brushstokes.

It's two weeks after her 23rd birthday, and days after she won a World Cup mountain bike race in the Czech Republic. The reigning world champion in the cross-country discipline, she went on to win her next four races in a row. Pieterse's start to the road season had been equally as impressive; she finished inside the top 10 in all 11 events she competed in before this year's Tour, scoring podiums in all three Ardennes Classics, including winning La Flèche Wallonne ahead of Demi Vollering in April. And still, Pieterse has been racing on the road for only two years. "I thought that maybe I would miss the decisive split sometimes," she says, "but that was not the case. I was always there in the race to battle."

The best young rider in 2024, Pieterse went into last week's Tour de France Femmes as an outside bet for the general classification. She kept up her streak of finishing in the top 10 over the opening weekend, before a pile-up on day three left her bumped, bruised and rolling home mid-pack. "Every day is really hectic," she said afterwards, adding that this was also making it "more and more fun". Then came another crash, this time on a fast descent on day seven, putting paid to her yellow jersey hopes. She would spend the next day doing wheelies on the Col de la Madeleine.

It was clear on the eve of the race that Pieterse is a rider unfazed by nerves. In the car park of her Fenix-Deceuninck team hotel, rather than dwelling on the GC bid ahead of her, she turned to practising drills on her bike. She pivoted around a cone, picked a bottle up off the floor, and balanced no-handed in the saddle, unclipping her left foot and leaning it on her front wheel to show off. It's all part of her mantra for approaching racing: "Be as relaxed as possible – you need to be serious, of course, but within the seriousness, you can have fun as well."

That mentality was clearly on display at Amstel Gold this spring, when, after finishing third on her race debut, Pieterse necked her podium beer and raised the glass above her head. "After the race I said, 'We're chugging it and we'll have to see who wins'," she remembers with a smile. A video of the moment went viral. To many fans, it confirmed their image of Pieterse: the playful spirit who pulls wheelies, bunnyhops onto kerbs, and vlogs her career on YouTube. What it didn't tell was the story of dedication that got her to that point. "I did not sit still during winter," Pieterse says of her 2025 preparation – and I suspect that not sitting still has been a lifelong trait.

Raised 30 miles south-east of Amsterdam, Pieterse grew up in a sporty family. "I've never known different," she says. "In the Netherlands, it's really normal to already have a city bike before you go to pre-school... My dad took me with him mountain biking with his friends when I was seven or eight."

It wasn't long before Puck, the youngest of two sisters, was tempted into her first road race; it would also turn out to be the first she won. "It was on school bikes with big tyres," she points out. "It was two laps around a 1.5km course, and I think I just rode away after one lap. After that race, I went directly to join the club."

Mountain biking was the discipline that stole Pieterse's heart. What appealed to her most about it? "I think just the freedom of being in the forest," she begins, "and it's less boring, especially as a child. If you do hours on the roads, you ride in a straight line, you don't have to think half of the time. If you go off road, you always have to look ahead at what's coming, 'Where's this corner? How should I approach it? How should I brake?' It's good for people with a shorter attention span."

The grin as she delivers that last comment betrays the truth that she has no problem applying herself. This is a person who, last September, completed a university degree in human movement sciences, having studied while racing all year round. A person who, when she wanted to learn to wheelie as a teenager, would spend hours practising on a grass patch near her home "to get it dialled". Years of racing on forest trails, and in the cold mud of cyclo-cross courses, crafted her into one of the best bike-handlers in the sport, and among the pack's fiercest kickers. It seemed logical, then, that she'd eventually give road racing another stab.

Pieterse claims, flippantly perhaps, that it was "just out of interest" that she chose to compete in Strade Bianche two years ago. The event was only her second-ever elite road race, her first at WorldTour level, and she ended up placing fifth. The result was proof of her potential on the road. But it wasn't until last year's Tour that she began to show just how good she could be.

A year on, the white jersey Pieterse earned for winning the young rider's classification is still hanging in her bedroom. Her stage win into Liège on day four, sprinting ahead of world number one Vollering, brought a milestone first victory on the road. For her second, she would beat Vollering again, seven months later at Flèche Wallonne.

"After last year's Tour de France, I wanted to show myself that I could win a road race again," she says. It's a drive that her Fenix-Deceuninck team and rivals around her have noticed, too. "When Puck participates, she only wants one thing, and that is to win," says her sports director Michel Cornelisse. Last year's Tour champion, Kasia Niewiadoma, describes her as "free-spirited, crazy, and good on the bike" – or, as the Celts might say, puckish.

She may not have won on her second Tour appearance, but with another stage race under her belt, Pieterse's road experience is building steadily. Though she is aware that fans want to see her in the peloton more often – she has ridden only 20 road race days this year, nine of them at the Tour – she won't be surrendering her shape-shifting any time soon.

"I still decide my own programme," she says. The biggest off-road race on the horizon is the mountain bike event at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. Pieterse will be going for gold – and what fools the mortals be that try to stand in her way.

Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) earned her first big Classics victory on Wednesday, rounding Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ) in a slow-motion sprint to win La Flèche Wallonne.

The Fenix-Deceuninck rider rose out of the saddle with 150m to go on the punishing Mur de Huy climb, attacking beyond the race’s 2023 winner, and holding her off by just two seconds.

The win marked only the second of Pieterse’s young road career, following on from a stage victory at last year's Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. A former world champion in cyclo-cross and mountain bike, the 22-year-old transitioned to the road in 2024, and is yet to finish outside the top-10 in races this season.

"It took everything, but I'm really happy to get a victory here," Pieterse told the TV cameras afterwards.

"We were always in control with the team, especially when we came to the local lap.

"On the bike, I thought, 'Now I really, really have to finish it off, to give them something back'. I'm just super happy to get it. I think I did everything good this race. I attacked where everybody says you have to attack. I listened to my sports director for a change," she added with a wink.

How it happened

With the rain pouring down on the start line in Huy, Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) – winner of seven editions in a row from 2015 to 2021 – withdrew before the start gun sounded, cautious not to worsen an illness she had been carrying for a few days.

A few hopeful attacks livened up the opening 100km, but each was carefully policed. The race entered its final 40km with one lone rider – Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) – known for her bike handling skills, and solo winner of a stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift last year. The Frenchwoman's advantage grew out to 40 seconds over the first of two ascents of the Mur de Huy.

Kerbaol’s foray, however, would only last until 7km to go. The EF Education-Oatly rider was swallowed up in the rush of the peloton on the race’s penultimate climb – the Côte de Cherave – where Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) moved to the front.

By the time the peloton reached the finale on the Mur de Huy, its size was a quarter of what it had been at the start of the day.

Juliette Labous (FDJ-SUEZ) led into the foot of the climb, sheltering Vollering on her wheel. As the tarmac then rose to 19%, the French champion peeled off, leaving her team leader to pace by herself.

Swarmed closely by her rivals, namely Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) and Pieterse, Vollering remained focused on the road lifting up in front of her. She pedalled faster, putting a bike length into most, but couldn't shake off Pieterse.

The Fenix-Deceuninck rider stood up on her pedals with 150m to go and lashed against the fierce gradient. As she crested the top of the Mur, she gritted her teeth, and continued to push away from Vollering, who crossed the line two seconds later.

Longo Borghini won the bike throw for third, while last year's winner, Niewiadoma, narrowly missed out on the podium.

La Flèche Wallonne Féminine 2025 (140.7km)

1. Puck Pieterse (Ned) Fenix-Deceuninck, in 3:53:25
2. Demi Vollering (Ned) FDJ-SUEZ, +2s
3. Elisa Longo Borghini (Ita) UAE Team ADQ, +6s
4. Kasia Niewiadoma (Pol) Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, at same time
5. Liane Lippert (Ger) Movistar, +11s
6. Kim Le Court (Mus) AG Insurance-Soudal, +14s
7. Juliette Labous (Fra) FDJ-SUEZ
8. Nienke Vinke (Ned) Picnic PostNL, both at same time
9. Niamh Fisher-Black (NZl) Lidl-Trek, +20s
10. Mijntje Geurts (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike, at same time

Annemiek van Vleuten has joined Belgian Women’s WorldTour team Fenix-Deceuninck as a performance mentor, it was announced on Friday.

The 42-year-old retired from professional cycling at the end of the 2023 road season after a glittering career but will return to the sport after just a year away from racing as part of the team’s management group. The former two-time world champion will work directly with riders like Puck Pieterse, and Pauliena Rooijakkers, who finished third in the most recent edition of the Tour de France Femmes.

A press release from Fenix-Deceuninck said that Van Vleuten’s vast expertise will help “guide riders to achieve their full potential.”

Van Vleuten said that she had been weighing up moving into coaching for the last few years of her career.

"When Philip Roodhooft approached me about joining Fenix-Deceuninck, I was surprised but quickly impressed by the professionalism and their commitment to both performance and the human side of the sport," she said.

"I’m excited to contribute to the growth of this talented team. Throughout my career, I learned the value of reflection and improving through trial and error, and I hope to help accelerate this process for the athletes here. This new role is a fantastic challenge that perfectly aligns with my ambition to grow as a coach."

During her lengthy 16-year career Van Vleuten won almost all of cycling’s major prizes. On top of winning the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and two road world titles, she also won the Giro Donne on four occasions and La Vuelta Femenina. She also won two editions of the Tour of Flanders, Strade Bianche and Liège–Bastogne–Liège.

While her former rival Anna van der Breggen is set to return to WorldTour racing next year, Van Vleuten told Cycling Weekly at the Tour de France Femmes that she has now "closed that chapter" and is unlikely to ever return to competitive action.

"I quit at just the right time," Van Vleuten told Cycling Weekly. "I don't miss it. I haven't regretted quitting even for a single day, not even when I see such beautiful moments or people winning."

She added: "Being on the other side feels really good."

Fenix-Deceuninck also announced that Fenix would continue to back the team until at least 2027, and that they would be working with NXTG to bring more talent through their development system. NXTG has been aligned with AG Insurance-Soudal's development squads.

Few, if any, of the riders at the UAE Tour Women could claim to know the country better than Kim de Baat. For many, the new four-day event brought a first taste of racing in the Middle East. Not for De Baat, though.  

Just two years ago, the Belgian national champion left her life in Europe and moved to the sky-scraping city of Dubai to join Police Cycling Team. When the opportunity came to return earlier this month, she was eager to take it. 

“I was really happy when they said I could start my season here,” the 31-year-old tells Cycling Weekly on the race's final day in Abu Dhabi. “It’s really nice because I’ve seen a lot of people from when I was here.” 

When De Baat moved to the Middle East at the start of 2021, it was an unusual career move. For decades, budding riders have turned to her native Belgium to kickstart their careers, but De Baat chose to go the opposite way. 

“I was, at that time, maybe a bit sick of all the races in Europe,” she says. “I came here to the Dubai Women’s Tour in 2020 and I reached third place in one stage. I kept in contact with them [the race organisers] and they wanted to make a women’s team to develop women’s cycling here. I really wanted to help.”

In Belgium the year before, De Baat had been working part-time alongside her racing, first in a kitchen, then as a personal trainer. Moving to Dubai seemed the perfect opportunity to get her career back on track. “I could ride my bike full-time again,” she says with a smile. 

So off she went. In 2021, De Baat signed a one-year contract with the Dubai Police Cycling Team and began her season with local races in the UAE. That summer, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees in the city, she travelled to Europe to compete with her national team, before flying back out to the UAE to close out the season. 

Asked how she found her time in Dubai, De Baat's review is mixed. Life away from racing was “a bit boring," the Fenix-Deceuninck rider says, but chooses not to go into details. “It’s better not to say too much about that.” 

The standard of racing, too, left a lot to be desired. “You cannot compare it with Europe,” she says, “but it is what it is. It was a bit frustrating and, honestly, I was sometimes a bit ashamed to be better and race against the girls here. They were years behind with their education of riding a bike.” 

Still, De Baat's keen to stress, she looks back fondly on her year in the UAE. “Without it, I probably wouldn’t have reached this level again.” 

At the start of the 2022 road season, De Baat returned to Belgium, joining Plantur-Pura (now Fenix-Deceuninck) as the team’s road captain. 

Suddenly, her calendar looked very different. She swapped the desert dunes for the cobbles of Flanders and, come June, she had earned herself a new jersey - the Belgian tricolour - having taken the biggest victory of her career in her national road race. 

Now, with the new UAE Tour Women, De Baat hopes more Emirati women will be inspired to pursue a similar path to hers. 

“I think it will have an impact, for sure,” she says when asked about the race. “It’s good that they [local Emirati women] see how professional women’s cycling is becoming in Europe and around the world. I think they have to keep going how they are going now.” 

As for De Baat, the immediate plan is to return to her national title-winning form. "Last winter, I worked really hard to get a bit of shape," she says, "but I need a few more races to be back on my level.

"The first thing I want to do is work for the team, get the best results for the team, and be the team captain they want me to be."