CW: How did you get into cycling?
OP: I started off running, doing local cross-country races. My uncle [Andy Peace] won the 3 Peaks Cyclo-cross race four times, so I got into cycling through cyclo-cross. I joined my local club [Bronte Tykes], raced on the local circuits, and gradually as I went through the age groups things got more serious. I raced internationally as a junior and was picked up by the Picnic development team.

CW: How were your two seasons as an U23?
OP: All of Picnic's development riders live on site in Sittard, in the Netherlands, where there are 12 houses with two riders in each. I shared a house with Jacob Bush, who is a really good mate. I really enjoyed my two years living there, and this team is great for developing riders, not just physically but mentally in lots of different situations.

CW: What sort of rider are you?
OP: I'm still exploring, but for sure I am more of a climber. I prefer the shorter stuff like in the Ardennes, but I've also really enjoyed the longer mountain stages that I've done so far.

CW: How are you adapting to life in the World Tour?
OP: It's clearly a big step up physically, and being in the bunch is obviously faster, as when the racing is on it's really on, but it also feels more comfortable. Because everyone's at such a high level and knows how to ride a bike, racing is more predictable. In the U23 scene, everyone's scrapping around, willing to risk it all to get to the bottom of the climb first. There's more trust in a World Tour bunch.

CW: How has your training evolved?
OP: I've changed coaches, and the main change has been the amount of intensity I've been doing, especially more VO2max stuff from December onwards. It works for me and has helped me to improve a lot.

Oliver Peace's training diary

Monday: VO2max intervals This was the last day of a three-day block and there were four sets of intervals. I started with four times 90 seconds at Zone 5, so around 490 watts, with 45-second rest periods. Then it was five reps of 60 seconds at the same intensity, with 30 seconds off. The third block was six lots of 40 seconds with 20 seconds' rest. In the last hour I did 10 reps of 30 seconds at the same power, with 30 seconds' rest.
Total riding: 4hr 55m

Tuesday: Rest day Usually I like to ride to the cafe for an hour on a rest day and meet guys who are returning from their own training, but this time I took the day off.
Total riding: 0hr

Wednesday: Sprint intervals This was mostly a Zone 2 endurance ride but after 30 minutes I did three lots of one-minute max efforts with 10-15 minutes' recovery in between. I also did two five-second sprints, and two 10-seconds sprints. My maximum power was 1,190 watts.
Total riding: 4hr 10min

Thursday: Threshold session After a 45-minute warm-up, I did two intervals of 20 minutes in Zone 4, which is 365 watts, just below 5W/kg. I then did four two-minute Zone 5 efforts with three minutes recovery in between, followed by four lots of five minutes at 400 watts, with just four minutes between each effort. I used the same climb for all the efforts.
Total riding: 4hr 15min

Friday: Recovery ride This was a day off, and even though it was raining I still went out for an hour to spin the legs. Depending on my racing schedule, I usually go to the gym a couple of times a week, and at specific points of the year - such as before the Tour Down Under - I'll go to the sauna and have hot baths.
Total riding: 1hr 5min

Saturday: EMOM spikes I fluctuated between Zone 1 and low Zone 3 for most of this ride, and in the third hour I did two 10-minute efforts at 300 watts with EMOM [every minute on the minute] spikes for 10 seconds at 420 watts. In the final hour, I had two eight-minute Zone 5 efforts, so around 425 watts. It's nice just to go out and just ride, but I prefer doing efforts and having a structured ride, so I enjoy days like this more.
Total riding: 4hr

Sunday: VO2max intervals This was the exact same session as Monday: five hours with four sets of VO2max blocks of between 30 and 90 seconds. I felt a lot better than I had on Monday, and was able to push a little bit more, especially in the last hour. My Training Stress Score for this day was 266-quite high. I didn't feel magic after coming back from the Tour Down Under, so this was a productive training week and it was nice to do some grippy efforts ahead of my next goals.
Total riding: 5hr 5min

Total riding: 23 hours, 30 mins

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.

In the final kilometre of stage three of the 2026 Tour Down Under, everything was still on the line. Noemi Rüegg of EF Education-Oatly, the defending champion, was present, but vastly outnumbered. She had fought to stay with three UAE Team ADQ riders – Mavi García, Dominika Włodarczyk, and Paula Blasi – over the final ascent of the Corkscrew climb, but there was still an imbalance.

Rüegg, thanks to bonus seconds, only needed to finish with the group to win the race overall, but it was not an easy assignment, especially after a testing time in the kilometres leading up to this point.

She had been distanced on the first time up the climb after Garcia and Włodarczyk went clear, along with Sarah Van Dam (Visma-Lease a Bike), but thanks to the work of her team, especially world champion Magdeleine Vallieres, Rüegg got back to the front of the race. Now it was just a question of timing.

With the three UAE riders looking spent after their afternoon of attacking riding, Rüegg was able to sprint to a clear victory in Campbelltown, looking every inch the deserving winner.

That was the climax, but there was more that occurred on the other side of the world this weekend that you should know about.

Rüegg and EF Education-Oatly mean business

There isn't much of a better way to announce your arrival as a Women's WorldTour team as winning a race at the first opportunity, but that's what EF Education-Oatly did, through Noemi Rüegg.

The Swiss rider timed her sprint to perfection in the end to defend the ochre jersey, but her being there was thanks to the stellar work of her teammates in Australia: Henrietta Christie, Magdeleine Vallieres, Stina Kagevi and Alice Towers. Vallieres, the world champion, put the team in front of any ambitions she had to star on stage three, and it paid off handsomely.

The American team is young, and full of talent, and their year is off to a flyer. Expect them to continue with their aggressive riding through the season, and keep your eyes on them – they're hard to miss anyway, in that pink.

Canadian cycling is in rude health

Vallieres is world champion and helped her teammate to victory, but there was another Canadian who impressed on stage three: Visma-Lease a Bike's Sarah Van Dam, who, in her first race for her new Dutch team, finished fifth overall after briefly looking like a potential winner.

The 24-year-old raced for CERATIZIT last year, and hardly went beneath the radar, finishing third overall at Itzulia Women and fifth at the Tour of Britain Women. However, Van Dam showed how she is one to watch in 2026 Down Under, at the front of the race on the Corkscrew.

While Visma remain led by Marianne Vos and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Van Dam will offer another option for the Dutch squad this season.

Wollaston continues to be more than a pure sprinter

Stage one played out exactly how FDJ United-SUEZ wanted it, with Ally Wollaston dominantly sprinting to victory after a flat day. However, the Kiwi's win on stage two reminded all that she is more than a pure sprinter, with a stage win after 2,000m of climbing.

The 25-year-old has form, winning the Tour of Britain Women last year, but with two victories to kickstart her 2026, expect her to challenge at a variety of races this season. Wollaston seems strong on tough days, so could well be an option when the Classics come around.

FDJ United-SUEZ, meanwhile, look to have real strength in depth across the team.

Australia left empty-handed again

For the second successive year, there was no Australian winner at the Tour Down Under. In fact, the second successive year that there was no Australian in the top-three on any stage either.

Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek), in her retirement year, finished seventh overall, but the next best Australian was Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv AlUla Jayco) in 20th.

For Liv AlUla Jayco in particular, the lack of success at their home race must sting. Australian riders should have the advantage, given the TDU comes in their summer, on their roads, and after their National Championships.

The nation that produced Spratt, Grace Brown and Chloe Hosking, and more recently Neve Bradbury and Sarah Gigante, will have to wait another year for a win.

Josie Nelson points way forward for Picnic

Picnic PostNL had a major reshuffle ahead of 2026, losing Marta Cavalli to retirement, and Charlotte Kool, Franzi Koch, Megan Jastrab, Francesco Barale and Nienke Vinke to other teams.

However, they left their first race of the season reasonably happy, with two podium finishes through Josie Nelson, and 12th overall too. The 23-year-old is already into her third season with the Dutch team, but showed signs last year that she was close to a big result, which has continued this year.

The rider from Lichfield is something of an all-rounder, and will work well alongside fellow Brit Pfeiffer Georgi. As a relatively inexperienced team, Picnic PostNL will use the early-season success to keep them rolling on, and hope that Nelson will break through to victory.

Oscar Onley, Britain’s new GC darling, recently revealed that he no longer has a bike at his family home in Scotland. Whenever he’s back in Kelso, the town where the 23-year-old grew up, he’s there to “really, really relax” and to take a break from cycling. But that doesn’t mean he can get away with not paying subs at his local club. If he bumps into anyone from Kelso Wheelers, he’d better make sure he’s got his excuses ready – or a few bank notes in his wallet.

“Oscar’s mum Sharon is our club secretary, and she usually pays his club membership," Kelso Wheelers chairman Robert Ure tells CW. “I’d need to have a look, but I don’t think he’s paid his membership for this year. I’m going to have to send him an arrears letter unless he pays his 20 quid,” Ure laughs, joking that the outstanding debt could follow Onley around long after he’s hung up his professional racing wheels.

“If he comes down once he’s finished and retired and still hasn’t paid his membership, there’ll be serious words with him! We will have to backdate the payments.”

All of which is said in the best possible spirit, of course. Regardless of Onley’s technical membership status, his childhood cycling club – and the whole of the Scottish Borders – are immensely proud of him. This year, in just his second appearance at the Tour de France, he finished fourth, 72 seconds shy of a spot on the podium.

Onley signs for Ineos Grenadiers after being made an offer neither he nor Picnic Post could refuse.

As a result, Onley was one of the most in-demand riders in July, winning a legion of new supporters after keeping pace for long stretches with runaway leader Tadej Pogačar and his arch rival Jonas Vingegaard. ‘Onley Fans’ – a brilliant pun on the adults-only website OnlyFans – became a favoured placard slogan during the Tour, while as a hashtag #OnleyFans it went viral on Instagram, TikTok and X.

But attention and the spotlight don’t come naturally to Onley – though affable and polite, he is reserved and softly spoken. A bit like Vingegaard, he appears to be something of a reluctant superstar.

Adjusting to stardom

Onley’s finishing only a minute off the podium of the biggest race of all might not have been predicted, but it wasn’t entirely surprising. Ever since he turned pro with what was then Team DSM, the Scot has promised big things. In fact, he first signposted his enormous talent when he was still technically riding for DSM’s development team, finishing just behind reigning Tour de France winner Vingegaard at the 2022 CRO Race.

Over the following two years, he took his first WorldTour victory, a stage at the 2024 Tour Down Under, was an active presence in breakaways during his maiden Tour, and finished second at both the Tours of Britain and Guangxi.

2025 saw an even steeper progression. Second on the queen stages of both the Tour Down Under and UAE Tour in the early part of the year, and in June he won a stage of the Tour de Suisse, finishing third on GC. Come the Tour de France, publicly Onley and his team said he was targeting stages, but consistently high placings during the first week’s Classic-like stages were followed up by impressive performances in the Pyrenees and Alps. He was a very deserving fourth-placed finisher.

Only last winter, Onley told CW that Picnic-PostNL were working on the assumption that their leading GC prospect, at least in Grand Tours, was Max Poole. “He’s got the one up on me on the longer climbs and in time trialling,” said Onley, “[which] means Grand Tours suit Max better, and that’s how the team have been seeing it as well.”

Poole might still prove that assertion correct, given time, but Onley’s performance in July disproved any doubts about his own capabilities. Back then, he had seemed unsure about converting his improving results into Grand Tour success. “That’s another step, and to be honest I don’t know if I am capable of it yet.” His legs soon replied: yes, he was, and is.

Onley acknowledges that he is naturally self-deprecating – unlike the sport’s extroverts such as, say, Pogačar. Could it be a particularly Scottish trait, this keeping his head down and quietly working hard?

“I would say the main characteristics of people from where I’m from are that we’re willing to work hard,” he told Rouleur post-Tour. “Some people want things, they’re demanding, [but] I’m happy to go with whatever is happening. I think that’s natural coming from where I come from, we’re not big show people or anything. We’re down-to-earth people.”

Emily Brammeier, the head of communications at Picnic-PostNL, confirms that the team saw a leap in media requests for Onley post-Tour. He hasn’t minded the attention – it would be wrong to depict him as media-averse or painfully shy; he is not. The team has been careful to limit his media obligations to a comfortable level.

Everyone who knows Onley seems to repeat similar sentiments: he is simply a young, decent, hard-working lad from the Borders – certainly not someone who craves the limelight.

“We tried to manage the story before and during the Tour so as not to put him on too much of a pedestal,” Brammeier says. “Since the Tour it’s also been important to give him a break and to wind down from it all. It’s always a balance: a rider only has so much energy per day, and the priority is riding a bike.

“They also need to find time for tactical discussions, time to call home and to be themselves, and time for the media and commercial activities. A lot of what we do is based on feeling, and working with riders to make sure they get the best out of themselves.”

Local hero

Ever-present at the roadside during the Tour were Onley’s mum and dad, Sharon and Steve. Back home in the Borders, the entire region was claiming him – the quiet young cycling lad was front and centre of many people’s minds.

“The whole town and Borders were rooting for him,” Ure confirms. “He rode in the Border Trophy for Kelso, so everyone knows Oscar, and everyone feels proud of him, because we’ve all ridden with him.” His stepping away to the big league matters not.

“Alright, he probably wouldn’t ride with us on a Sunday right now, for his own sanity, but we all feel a connection with him,” Ure continues. “One club member is forever updating our Facebook page with what Oscar’s doing – and seems to know what he’s up to before his parents!”

The unpaid subs are more than compensated for by the avalanche of positive publicity. “It’s just fantastic what he’s doing, and fantastic publicity for the club,” Ure says. “Let’s be honest, no one had a clue who the Kelso Wheelers were until Oscar came along. The club will dine out on the fact that we had a Tour contender for the next 50 years – a top-five finisher, too. And it was this same young lad who used to sit on my wheel for 100 miles and then jump me in a sprint!”

As Onley adapts to his newfound fame as one of the sport’s leading GC lights, it’s Ure who is absorbing some of the media attention. “I never thought I’d see the day when I’d get journalist fatigue,” he laughs. “I”ve been on the radio, in the papers. Everyone goes on about having 15 minutes of fame, but it’s not my fame – it’s someone else’s!”

When Onley eventually returns to Kelso and meets his clubmates, they’ll have a celebration for him – whether he likes it or not.

“What we will do as a club, without a doubt, is honour and commemorate him for being a member and going on to great things,” Ure pledges. “We will have a sportive in his name. A few members were on about it before the Tour, and I always said he has to do something first. His mother agreed, saying, ‘Oh God, don’t do anything like that, as he’s not done anything yet.’ But then he finished fourth in the Tour.”

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 18 December 2025. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

Oscar Onley is to leave Picnic PostNL and ride for Ineos Grenadiers in 2026, it was announced on Tuesday evening.

The 23-year-old has been the subject of fierce transfer speculation in recent months, with Onley himself revealing that "probably 15" teams had reached out.

Picnic PostNL confirmed on Tuesday that a deal had been agreed for Onley to leave the team. Ineos Grenadiers then revealed they had signed the Scot following his "standout" fourth place at this year's Tour de France.

The length of the new contract has not been revealed.

Onley was understood to have a contract at Picnic PostNL until 2027, which has now be broken. The press release from the Dutch squad revealed they had received multiple offers for the Scot, "all of which were initially declined".

The statement continued: "However, a very late but appealing offer was made in recent days. While the team would have loved to keep Oscar for the remainder of his contract and beyond, the proposal was not one Oscar or the team could refuse and an agreement has now been reached."

Commenting on the move, Onley said: "I’m extremely proud of what I’ve achieved with this team. Progressing through from the development program to finishing fourth at the Tour de France has been incredible, and a real testament to what this team is able to do with riders.

"Both Picnic PostNL and Ineos Grenadiers have a great history of racing for victories in Grand Tours, and I know for a fact that both my current and new team will continue to do so in the coming years. The opportunity to represent the team of my home country was one I could not refuse and I’m happy that a solution was found.

"I’ll hold the memories made with this team close, and I know I’ll face tough competition from the next generation of talents they develop in the years to come."

In a statement released by Ineos Grenadiers, the team's new director of racing Geraint Thomas said Onley "complements our rider roster perfectly".

"Oscar’s performance in 2025 has been incredible really. I rode my first Tour when I was 21, so to see what he achieved at this year’s Tour at just 22 was really impressive," Thomas said. "The way he rides and understands a race is mature beyond his years – he’s a proper racer. I can’t wait to work with him – at his age there’s still loads of headroom.

"Our whole team has worked really hard over the winter to re-focus and re-set our ambition, changing our structures and processes to help us deliver against our goals. Oscar fits naturally with this project – and I’m confident the new system we’re building will help him achieve his absolute best."

Robyn Clay is Cycling Weekly's domestic rider of 2025. This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 4 December 2025. Subscribe now and never miss an issue.

Robyn Clay had a lot of success in 2025. There were five race wins, both the National Road and National Circuit Series, and the inaugural Rapha Super-League too – all by a 21-year-old who had only started racing at elite level a couple of years previously. It was not hard to select our domestic rider of the season.

What meant most to Clay, though, was not one of the victories or titles. Intriguingly. It was her performance in the under-23 individual time trial at the British National Championships in June, where she finished second, 51 seconds behind the winner, Millie Couzens.

“I felt I couldn’t have executed it any better,” Clay told Cycling Weekly last month. “I just timed it perfectly with my form, coming after a couple of stage races that had got me into really good shape. I managed to follow the plan exactly, to the extent that the result didn't really matter, as I couldn’t have gone any faster.”

That comment might give some insight into the latest female star to emerge from the British racing scene. The stand-out year has seen Clay transfer from Continental team DAS-Hutchinson to Women’s WorldTour squad Picnic PostNL. The 22-year-old modestly attributes her winning formula not to talent alone, but also fortune. “

I think I was really lucky,” she said. “Even being injured at the start of the season was a blessing in disguise, because it forced me to not start too early, and then I was ready at the right time. I didn’t really have any bad crashes, and no illness, which disturbs your flow.”

Born into biking

The rider from Otley, Yorkshire, comes from a cycling family, so her genes are clearly working for her – her dad is 1998 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Jonny Clay, and her mum is former elite rider Danielle Davis.

Further inspiration came from the Tour de France’s visit to Yorkshire when Clay was 10, and the World Championships arriving in Harrogate when she was 15. Perhaps surprisingly, she did not fully commit to life on two wheels until the pandemic.

“It's always been in my life,” she explained. “When I was quite young, I did a bit of grasstrack. Both my parents were professionals, so it was always going to be a part of my life, but I was mostly focused on football, and I hardly rode my bike until I was 16. But during Covid, I started riding quite a lot more and decided I wanted to take it a bit more seriously, so I quit football.”

It has been a steep trajectory for Clay, from her local Otley Race Team to Picnic PostNL, via Pro-Noctis and DAS-Hutchinson, in just five seasons. It makes her success all the more impressive; pre-pandemic, she was still a footballer practising against a “brick wall at the back”, as she puts it.

The breakout season did not come from nowhere, though. There were many signs, not least victory at the Curlew Cup last year, the final race of the National Road Series. Now, just one year later, Clay holds both series titles after an incredibly consistent 2025.

“The first two rounds, my mindset was just to do what I could,” she said. “I got two solid results, and that put me into the lead; then, at Lincoln, I was still in the lead, so I thought I might as well try and hold on to it… I knew if I was consistent, and I showed up to every race, and I could be in the running for it.”

This success has not come without jeopardy. Last year she suffered an injury so serious it could have completely derailed her career. A crash in Belgium left her with four broken vertebrae – but she was back on the bike within six weeks. “It could have been much worse,” she pointed out. That she was so quickly back in the bunch, racing on the margins once more is further testament to her grit and courage.

Into the big leagues

Away from the National A races, Clay grasped opportunities to ride bigger events, with DAS taking part in the Amstel Gold Race and the Tour of Britain Women. She DNF’d at the former, after spending time in the break, while she came ninth in the youth classification at the ToB.

“Turning up [at Amstel Gold], getting a tap from Demi Vollering because she wants to move up, then looking right and seeing Marianne Vos – it’s crazy,” she said of her experiences. “At the Tour of Britain, spending more time with pros like Lizzie Deignan was a dream. I’m sure I’ll eventually get used to it, but it’ll take a while.”

Clay is still young – she turned 22 in October – and is still working out who she is on the bike, a development process her new team will be keen to nurture.

“I can sprint fairly well, so if there's a reduced bunch, I'd fancy my chances, but not in a pure bunch sprint,” she explained, before turning to her climbing aptitude. “I can usually hang on, but I’m definitely not a climber. I guess I’m fairly punchy, and suited to time trialling as well – I’m probably just a bit of a sufferer, able to dig deep.”

This skillset seems well matched to the Classics, a hypothesis that might get tested sooner rather than later. Along with Cat Ferguson, Zoe Bäckstedt and Pfeiffer Georgi, among others, there is a promising new generation of British one-day racers coming through.

Having completed the domestic scene, Clay is fixing on new targets for 2026, which is set to be a big learning opportunity. But don’t expect her to vanish into the peloton, because Robyn Clay is only getting started.

With just over three weeks until the start of the season, Oscar Onley has said his team status is still "up in the air" for 2026.

Speaking to Cyclingnews, the 23-year-old revealed he has had interest from “probably 15 teams” following his fourth place at this summer's Tour de France.

His comments come amid reports linking him with a potential move to Ineos Grenadiers. According to journalist Daniel Benson, the British team has been interested in the Picnic PostNL rider "for months".

Asked if he would still be at his current team next year, Onley told Cyclingnews: “For now, yes. We’ll see. But yeah, it’s still things up in the air a little bit.”

The Scot emerged this year as one of the UK’s brightest Grand Tour prospects, finishing just over a minute shy of the Tour podium on only his second appearance at the race. At the same time, Ineos Grenadiers, the UK's only WorldTour team, are plotting to restore their dominance in three-week races.

“It’s quite obvious that there’s going to be interest in me after coming fourth in the Tour,” said Onley, “and there’s been, I think, probably 15 teams that have reached out to my manager or reached out to the team directly.

“And you know… you also have to capitalise on what I’ve done this year. But, yeah, I can’t really say so much just now.”

Onley is understood to have a contract with his current Picnic PostNL until the end of 2027. Journalist Benson reported on his Substack last week that the Dutch team appears "confident" of retaining their breakthrough GC rider.

As well as finishing fourth at the Tour, Onley’s impressive 2025 counted a stage win at the Tour de Suisse – a race in which he went on to finish third – as well as top-five overall placings at the Santos Tour Down Under, UAE Tour, and Lloyds Tour of Britain Men.

Onley’s interview with Cyclingnews came at Australia’s Tour of Bright, where he finished 19th on Sunday.

Asked about his calendar for next year, the 23-year-old said he hadn’t discussed further than January’s Tour Down Under with his current Picnic PostNL. “That will happen next week,” he said, “when we’re at team camp, which is normal at the December camp to talk about the year.”

As maligned as the British domestic scene has been in recent years, it still remains a talent pipeline to the top of cycling. The latest proof of this is Robyn Clay, who has gone from winning the National Road and Circuit Series, and the Rapha Super-League too, to the WorldTour.

The 22-year-old, when contacted by Cycling Weekly to arrange an end-of-season interview, asked if we should wait until after her new team had been announced, and it was a good job we did.

Riding for DAS-Hutchinson in 2025, the young woman from Leeds was the best rider in the country, only finishing outside of the top 10 at a National A twice, one of them being the National Championships. She won five races, including her home Otley GP, and has been rewarded with a contract for Picnic PostNL.

It turns out, riding for the Dutch team didn’t just complete her ambition of riding on the Women’s WorldTour, but a long-term goal of hers. To some, a team is a team, but to Clay its more than that.

“The dream was to get on a pro team,” she told CW. “It was actually to get onto Picnic. It has been pretty much since I started racing, so I guess I need to think of a new dream now.”

“I've just always seen them as a very gritty team,” she explained, when asked why Picnic. “They just get stuck in, you know they get the job done. I really like that, not caring too much about… I don't know how you look, or anything like that. Just really getting stuck in racing.”

There are no set goals at the moment, considering it will be quite the step up for Clay, but everything is labelled as a learning opportunity. She has only taken part in two WorldTour races, the Amstel Gold Race and the Tour of Britain Women, but that will soon change.

“I’m just going to try and soak it all up,” she said. “I’m going to Holland at the end of the month to meet the staff, get my bike, have a bike fit and all that sort of stuff. That’s exciting. I’m sure I’ll learn some new things there, straight away. Then I’ve got a team camp in December. But even being at the Tour de l’Avenir, I learned a lot. Three of the GB girls that were there with us were WorldTour [Flora Perkins, Millie Couzens, and Imogen Wolff], so I learned a lot from them. Nutrition plans, the little routines they have before and after a race, little things like that. I feel like there’s a lot to soak up.”

Her plans for next year are pretty succinct, no ‘I want to ride the Tour de France Femmes’.

“It's honestly just that I just want to learn,” Clay said. “I want to get stronger. I just want, yeah, I want to become a better cyclist and do exactly as I'm told and do a good job.”

At Picnic PostNL, she will join a British group – also on the Dutch team are CW columnist and former national champion Pfeiffer Georgi, Becky Storrie, and Josie Nelson, although Abi Smith has now left the squad.

“I know Becky, and I know Josie a bit, but I don’t really know Pfeiffer. I know her dad, but not her yet,” Clay said.

She’ll have a lot of time to get to know the trio, as Picnic seeks to rebuild after the exits of Charlotte Kool, Franzi Koch, and Marta Cavalli. For a team that won four times in 2025, there might be some expectation on Clay to hit the ground running, but the 22-year-old has coped with every challenge thrown her way so far.

She leaves DAS-Hutchinson as their best rider. “I'll miss it,” she said. “It was just good vibes, it was fun. Everyone wanted the same thing. I'll definitely miss it, but I'm also excited for what's to come.”

As for the domestic scene, it will be poorer for the loss of Clay, but it’s doing what it is supposed to, providing a challenge, and getting riders to move up. The National Series will also miss her.

Tadej Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates-XRG will appear at the Tour of Britain Men for the first time this September as part of a 19-team field that will contest the race.

However, the Slovenian is unlikely to be part of the UAE squad for the six-day competition. Pogačar was initially due to race the Vuelta a España after claiming a fourth Tour de France title, although he withdrew from the race earlier this week due to fatigue; he will return to competition at the GPs de Québec and Montréal in Canada before the World Championships.

As well as UAE, eight other WorldTour squads will be on the start line in Suffolk on 2 September: Visma-Lease a Bike, Groupama-FDJ, Bahrain Victorious, Ineos Grenadiers, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, Soudal Quick-Step, Lidl-Trek, and Picnic PostNL. Similarly to UAE, Groupama-FDJ will also debut at the event.

Soudal Quick-Step, Ineos Grenadiers and Visma-Lease a Bike are the three most successful teams in the history of the modern Tour of Britain, having won a total of 64 individual stages between them.

Apart from the presence of Geraint Thomas, no other riders have been confirmed as part of the start list yet. The Welshman is due to retire at the end of the race in his hometown of Cardiff. Ahead of the World Championships, it's possible for riders to attend the Tour of Britain as a warm up race, as Wout van Aert did when he triumphed in 2021 and 2023 and could be part of the Visma team selection once more.

Elsewhere, eight ProTeam level squads are set to take part. Israel-Premier Tech - the team of last year's winner, Stevie Williams - are set to return, as are Uno-X Mobility, Unibet Tietema-Rockets, Kern Pharma, Flanders-Baloise, and Tom Pidcock's Q36.5 Pro Cycling. The third squad making its Tour of Britain debut is Tudor Pro Cycling, the team of the two-time road World Champion Julian Alaphilippe.

After impressing with aggressive riding in last year's event, the Anicolour-Tien 21 squad will return to the race next month. The Portuguese registered team will be the only UCI Continental team included. Great Britain will also field a six-rider strong team as usual.

"This year's line-up of teams for the Lloyds Tour of Britain Men is one of the best that we have ever seen assembled for the race, and shows the status with which the event is held by UCI WorldTour and Pro Teams," said the race's managing director, Jonathan Day. "Excitement is building for September, and what will be a highly competitive Lloyds Tour of Britain Men. We cannot wait to see these teams in action."

The Lloyds Tour of Britain Men gets underway in Woodbridge, Suffolk on 2 September.

He's the surprise of the Tour de France: Oscar Onley was sixth on stage two, fourth on stage four, and then third on stage seven at the Mûr-de-Bretagne. His direct competitors? Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard. Even he can't believe it.

After arriving back at the Picnic PostNL team bus to little fanfare following his latest impressive performance, the 22-year-old pulled up, passed his bike to a waiting mechanic, before then climbing onto a turbo trainer to complete a warm down in the shade provided for him behind the bus.

Fans slowly approached him for autographs – he's becoming a bigger name with each passing day – before two team staff members quietly asked them to wait in order to afford the Scotsman a brief quiet moment of contemplation after finishing third on the podium to the two best male Grand Tour riders this decade; company that Onley seems to be at ease with as his stock continues to rise.

After completing his warm down, Onley spoke with Cycling Weekly and reflected on another big result. "It was just about hanging on really," he said. "I think they were playing about a bit in the front, and there was a bit of a headwind so that kind of helped, but it was already split from the corner so that made it pretty hard."

"It’s not really something that I’d ever expected to be able to do from the bunch," he added. "It's always nice to be up there. But that’s these kinds of stages over with and now it’s onto the real mountains [beginning on Monday] which is really something quite different."

Onley’s kick in a reduced sprint to the line even drew admiration from Pogačar: "Oscar showed what a superb rider he is with a punchy kick, he is riding super well so far."

Picnic PostNL spoke before the race of their desire to keep Onley under the radar, with minimal pressure in what is just his second Grand Tour. However, as the Kelso-born rider himself stated, his ambition to get into the breakaway in the mountains in the coming days may prove tougher to achieve now he sits seventh in the general classification, 2:49 off the race lead.

"The team has been really good and helped me a lot," he said. "Each day we’ve taken different approaches, sometimes we’ve sat a bit further back and then today on the smaller roads we’ve really tried to take it on from the front."

"Hopefully I’ll get to Paris," he joked, when asked whether he will now aim for the podium in the Pyrenees and Alps. "But I don’t know to be honest, we’ve not had a climb over five minutes yet so there’s a long way to go."

Onley is a modest, down-to-earth bike rider, reserved in his answers and cautious to publicly state how much belief he has in his own ability to continue to fight for success. However, behind the quiet demeanour, sports director Matt Winston explained that Onley’s confidence in his own ability is growing.

"I think he can take a lot from this," Winston told Cycling Weekly. "I think his confidence and self belief is growing as he’s seen himself up there on several days with the best guys in the world and we can only be happy with that."

"Today was a stage that we’d targeted from the start of the race," Winston explained. "We thought when we were looking from the outset that we’d be a little further down the GC at this point and then from there we could maybe come into the stage a bit fresher. But obviously we’ve raced full gas every day since we’ve been here, we still wanted to target this stage today and the boys really looked after Oscar. They did a really good job and made sure he was in a good position to get me a nice result."

Whatever now happens, Winston said that the team wouldn’t get carried away: "We want him to take each day as it comes and we’ll see how far we can go. We have our plan and we’ll stick to it. We’ll just keep focusing on the stages for now and when we come into the third week we can then see where we’re at."

22-year-old Oscar Onley is midway through an ambitious five-year plan with his Picnic PostNL team designed to take him, and his British team mate Max Poole, to the top of the sport.

This year, Poole targeted the Giro d'Italia GC, where he finished a credible 11th place, 18 minutes down on winner Simon Yates. Meanwhile, Onley is currently mixing it with the best in the first week of the Tour de France, placing fourth on stage four behind winner Tadej Pogačar but comfortably in amongst the race favourites

But there is one thing that separates them – and it has nothing to do with how quick they ride up mountains.

"I'll tell you one thing that Oscar can do but Max really can't," begins Phil West, one of three British sports directors on the Dutch team. "Eat red things."

Erm, excuse me?

"Max has an aversion to food groups that are the colour red."

Cue laughter, and Poole's face turning the colour he so despises. "Yeah, it's true," he chuckles, sitting across from West in the team's hotel in Calpe, Spain earlier this year. "Peppers are fine, tomatoes are OK, but red fruits… nah. Strawberries, red apples, red grapes, cherries, raspberries, red currants. No... Jam, no. Ketchup neither."

A few weeks later, I ask Onley about this and he confirms it. "If we have porridge with red fruits like strawberries, Max can't have it," he says, speaking to me via videolink from his home in Andorra. "There's also guaranteed to be one red thing on his plate at dinner that he doesn't like. Every single time. It doesn't matter what the taste is – it's just the colour red he doesn't like." A good thing, then, that Picnic PostNL ride in blue and orange.

Team-mates and regular training partners, neighbours in their adopted home of Andorra, and off-season holiday buddies, the softly spoken duo are set to be Britain's main general classification hopes in the coming years. Based on their results so far, a podium finish in a future Grand Tour is not out of the question for either.

"We made a five-year plan for both of them when they came into the team, and each year there's greater commitment and expectation," explains Matt Winston, another British DS with Picnic PostNL. "That's managed in a good and proper way, and they keep progressing. They and we have some pretty big goals."

Onley and Poole were teenagers when they signed for DSM's development team in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Both developed at a faster rate than initially expected, signing professional terms with the World Tour squad in 2023. "We're both GC riders, but our styles are different," says Onley, who hails from the Scottish Borders.

I ask how exactly, turning to West. "Max has a longer aerobic burn, whereas Oscar is better at tolerating nasty little kicks and changes in pace," says the DS. "We've seen at the Vuelta a España and other races that Max is suited to pretty long climbs."

Poole concurs, albeit modestly. "It's not like there's some crazy difference, but on the longer climbs I'd back myself, and Oscar for the punchier climbs," says the Scunthorpe-born rider. "With Oscar's characteristics, he can follow guys and rhythm changes, but I need a steadier, consistent pace. We're similar but different, and that's a strength when we race together."

When I check this with Onley, he agrees: "It's good that we can play our styles off each other," he says. "At the Cro Race [in autumn 2022] we both came into the race as leaders despite being promoted from the development team, and when I finished second on stage three, Max fell straight into the support role for me, and it's something he's really good at."

Though they have followed separate Grand Tour programmes, the two riders are ambitious friends following similar journeys. They frequently share responsibilities – brothers in arms, if you will. "At the Tour de Romandie in 2023, it was the other way around [with Poole finishing fourth on GC], and at the Tour of Guangxi in China last year he switched roles and worked for me as I finished second," Onley continues. "We have a good relationship and it's easy for us to work well together."

Since 2022, the pair have started seven stage races together. During that time, Poole has scored seven top-10 GC results in senior week-long stage races, including finishing second to Sepp Kuss at last August's Vuelta a Burgos. He topped the GC at October's Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia.

Onley, meanwhile, has scored 13 top-10 GC results, regularly impressing in races decided on shorter, steeper climbs, such as the Tour Down Under's Willunga Hill, where he triumphed at the start of the 2024 season. This is not to say that Onley can't compete on Alpine climbs – he has shown promise on longer ascents too. His biggest issue to date has been injuries, breaking a collarbone three times between August 2023 and April 2024.

"Considering the setbacks, my performances potentially could have been even better, but my progression has still gone quicker than I expected," Onley reflects. Not to feel left out, Poole fractured his collarbone at this March's Strade Bianche.

For Poole, the challenge is turning good performances into wins. At last year's Vuelta a España, he took one second place and, from breakaways, three thirds. "He needs to improve his final execution," West says. "We had a run of opportunities in the Vuelta against punchy opposition and we got really close, but he just lacked a bit of experience and patience... When he can be more patient and back himself in those finals, then I think we'll see that conversion from all those podiums to wins."

The hardening process has begun. "You need to be a bit of a bastard. Sometimes you have to be a bit smarter, ruthless, selfish," West continues. "The obligation in cycling is always: 'we're in the break together, we'll all do our equal turns'. But you have to play your best card, not someone else's game."

Poole nods along to West's assessment. "The Covadonga stage in the Vuelta [he finished third] was a good example of me being too conscious of other factors, and I didn't quite ride my own race. But you learn from it." He did a few weeks later he took his first pro victory at Langkawi. "I pulled a Marc Soler," he laughs, a reference to the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider who accompanied him in so many of those Vuelta breaks, "and it worked!"

Where Poole has the edge on his compatriot Onley is in time trialling. On flatter courses, Poole places in the top-10 in TTs, while Onley comes in around 20 spots lower. Onley accepts he has room for improvement. "I think I can improve in all areas – positioning and being comfortable when things are hectic or there are crosswinds is one – but the TT is something I really need to improve on," he says.

"Especially in those flatter TTs, I'm a little bit behind where I want to be against riders of a similar size." It's for this reason that Onley thinks Poole is better placed to target the GC in three-week racing. "He's got one up on me on the longer climbs and in time trialling, so in terms of the GC and what it means for Grand Tours, I think they suit Max better, and that's how the team have been seeing it as well," Onley says.

"But in one-week races, certain stages in Grand Tours and one-day races like the Ardennes, I think I've got the upper hand." Indeed, while Poole is targeting the GC at the Giro, Onley's task at the Tour will be stage-hunting. "I've not reached my full potential yet, but I've also not explored the GC in a Grand Tour," the Scotsman says. "I've had lots of top-fives and -10s in one-week races, but that's very different to doing it in a Grand Tour.

That's another step, and to be honest I don't know if I am capable of it yet. For now the focus is on stages." Emblematic of his level-headed approach, Onley is content, for now at least, to focus on his development. "There are many areas to improve on before I can say I want to go to the Tour as a GC rider," he says. "Right now I'd rather win a stage than sit 10th or 11th on GC." I check this with Winston: isn't Onley being too hard on himself? "They're just approaching it in different ways, taking different routes," says the DS. "Max will chip away on GC and ride a good TT, but Oscar can make gains on the punchier climbs."

In carrying Britain's GC hopes, Poole and Onley are somewhat shielded from the glare of expectation by being on a relatively low-profile team. Indeed, there's a distinct possibility that Picnic PostNL could be relegated from the World Tour at the end of the season, which would likely null and void the two Brits' current contracts.

But imagine for a moment that in 2027, the final year of their current contracts with the team, both are co-leaders at the Tour de France. Who wins? "So Wiggins and Froome all over again!" West says, excitedly. "Without a flatter TT in the final week, maybe I could hold on, but if there's a TT, it'd be quite close," reckons Onley. "I think Max would have the edge on me in some of the stages, the days with one long 40-to-60-minute climb, and on the softer stages with a shorter climb at the end I'd hold my own." For Poole, the first hurdle is getting selected.

"Yeah, good point," he laughs when asked why he's not yet ridden the Tour. "I don't know the answer to that, either. Why is it, Phil?" West the peacemaker steps in. "In the end we'll see them both riding the Tour together at some point, I am sure. Imagine that: two Brits on the same team riding for the win in the Tour. That'd be nice, wouldn't it?" Yes, and it's entirely plausible, too.

While there’s never been any doubt that Oscar Onley is a huge talent, his performances during the eight-day Tour de Suisse have underlined the ability of the 22-year-old Scot. One of the GC leaders who was caught out when a large break gained three minutes on day one, Onley clawed his way steadily back into contention, taking podium finishes on no fewer than five of the last six stages, which included the biggest success of his career on day five, when he outsprinted João Almeida at the Santa Maria summit finish.

The Picnic PostNL rider’s confidence was so high going into Sunday’s final time trial on the fierce ramps of the Stockhütte climb above Lake Lucerne that he felt overall victory was within his reach. Ultimately, though, as UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader Almeida delivered another demonstration of why he started the race as favourite by winning the TT and the title, Onley was delighted to finish third on the day and overall.

Speaking to CyclingProNet soon after finishing the time trial, the Scot said he had no regrets about his TT. “I think I did quite big numbers so I’ve got to be happy.

“I tried to split it into two parts," he continued. "The first was to where the intermediate was [at 4.5km], and it was really about trying to hold back in that first part. Then the second part would suit me quite well normally with the steep sections so I just tried to do what I could,” he said.

“It’s been a really good week for me, a step up compared to my results in the past and also my own performances. I stepped up physically and I’m happy with it.”

His duel with Almeida may have tipped the way of the very seasoned Portuguese in the end, but Onley has been saying all week that he’s relished competing with one of the sport’s best racers on current form. Yet, although his performances have lifted his sights, he says that he won’t change his approach to the Tour de France, where he finished 39^th overall on his debut last year.

“The plan should still be to try to hunt for stages,” said the Picnic PostNL leader. “I think that’s a good first step to learning the Tour, and I’ve still got plenty of time to try for GC in the future. Probably, I’ll start trying GC in the other Grand Tours first, because the Tour is another level up.”

For his Picnic team, too, Onley’s rise is timely. Only a week ago they were bidding farewell to long-time leader Romain Bardet. But in Onley and English teammate Max Poole, who was 11^th at the Giro last month, they now have two riders ready to pick the baton from the retired Frenchman.

Casper van Uden (Picnic PostNL) powered to an unexpected victory on stage four of the Giro d’Italia, beating the likes of Mads Pedersen, Olav Kooij and Kaden Groves in a bunch kick in Lecce.

The victory was Van Uden’s first at WorldTour level, and hugely significant in his team’s battle against relegation from cycling’s top level. The Dutchman, along with his teammates, also wore a time trial helmet during the 189 kilometre stage, giving him an edge in the dash for the line. Kooij took second behind his fellow countryman, with Maikel Zijlaard (Tudor Pro Cycling) rounding out the podium.

"I didn’t do it alone, we did it with the whole team," Van Uden said afterwards as he paid tribute to his teammates. "All the boys and all the staff did super work. I didn’t have to take any wind until around 200 metres to go, I knew I had a good long sprint so I just went for it and hoped for the best.

"We did a good job for the whole season already with our leadouts, including at the Tour of Turkey last week when the boys did a real good job. I knew I just had to follow Bram [Welten] and the boys and I’m really happy I could give them all something back."

"I don’t think it was a surprise [victory]," he added. "The boys all really believe in me but sometimes I have to find that belief in myself a little bit. I think this will help, and everyone from the team did a really good job helping me to believe in myself which paid off."

Pedersen’s fourth-placed finish meant that he kept hold of the race leader’s pink jersey by seven seconds ahead of Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe).

How it happened

As the race moved back to Italy after the start in Albania, stage four was always set to be a transitional day for the peloton and one for the sprinters. A relatively flat 189 kilometres of racing between Alberobello and Lecce were on the menu.

Much of the day was a relatively subdued affair with just one rider, Fran Muñoz (Polti-VisitMalta), given licence to get up the road in a one man breakaway and enjoy his moment in the spotlight in front of the Italian Tifosi and global television cameras.

At one point, the lone leader’s time gap pushed out to more than four minutes as much of the peloton looked to keep the tempo down ahead of what was anticipated to be a frenetic finale. With just over 50 kilometres complete, a small crash in the main field took out several riders. Race leader Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was one of the riders affected, along with Picnic-PostNL’s Romain Bardet. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) and Giulio Ciccone, Pedersen’s Lidl-Trek teammate were also both reportedly brought down in the incident.

With 56 kilometres left to race, it was all over for Muñoz as he was reeled back in by the chasing pack, led by Visma-Lease a Bike and Trek as they started preparations for the inevitable sprint finish to come. Muñoz was caught at the second intermediate sprint point in which Kooij took the maximum 12 points on offer ahead of Pedersen. Once the Spaniard was back in the bunch, the peloton looked to get organised ahead of entering the finishing circuit on the course within the finishing town which came with 24 kilometres of racing left.

Another crash occurred once the riders were into the finishing circuit, taking out Soren Kragh Andersen (Lidl-Trek), a key leadout man for Pedersen, amongst others. Alpecin-Deceuninck and Ineos Grenadiers led the peloton into the final lap with Josh Tarling expertly keeping Egan Bernal out of trouble.

Going into the final kilometre, Visma and Alpecin appeared to have the edge as the finish appeared. But it was not to be for either team. Wearing time trial helmets, an unusual tactic in a road stage, Picnic PostNL came from nowhere to set up Casper van Uden for a hugely significant stage win for the Dutch squad.

Results

Giro d'Italia stage four: Alberobello > Lecce (189km)

1. Casper van Uden (Ned) Picnic PostNL, in 4:02:21
2. Olav Kooij (Ned) Visma-Lease a Bike,
3. Maikel Zijlaard (Ned) Tudor Pro Cycling,
4. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek,
5. Kaden Groves (Aus) Alpecin-Deceuninck,
6. Sam Bennett (Ire) Decathlon Ag"R La Mondiale,
7. Paul Magnier (Fra) Soudal Quick-Step,
8. Ben Turner (Gbr) Ineos Grenadiers,
9. Matteo Moschetti (Ita) Q36.5 Pro Cycling,
10. Enrico Zanoncello (Ita) VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizane, all same time

General classification after stage four

1. Mads Pedersen (Den) Lidl-Trek, in 11:44:31
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, +9s
3. Mathias Vacek (Cze) Lidl-Trek, +14s
4. Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +21s
5. Isaac Del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +22s
6. Juan Ayuso (Spa) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +25s
7. Max Poole (GBr) Picnic PostNL, +33s
8. Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Bahrain-Victorious, +34s
9. Michael Storer (Aus) Tudor Pro Cycling Team, +36s
10. Guido Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, +40s

The WorldTour season, hosting the highest level of bike racing in the world, is back underway for 2025.

Each year, 18 teams form the top tier, and compete for the sport's biggest prizes, from Paris-Roubaix to the Tour de France, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad to the Tour of Guangxi.

Below, you'll find everything you need to know about every squad, and the key protagonists set to shape the year ahead.

Alpecin-Deceuninck

2024 WorldTour wins: 15
Team leader: Mathieu van der Poel
Team boss: Christophe Roodhooft
Raison d'être: More than a one-man team these days thanks to Japser Philipsen and Kaden Groves, but still a Mathieu van der Poel vehicle

It is still hard to look past the flying Dutchman himself, Mathieu van der Poel, when it comes to Alpecin-Deceuninck, with the 29-year-old dominating the Classics last year, winning both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, and appearing to be unbeatable in the spring. When he isn’t winning, Jasper Philipsen and Kaden Groves have proved themselves as some of the top sprinters in the world, with the former in particular unmatched when on form. They do still rely on Van der Poel, who has hinted at his dislike of the Tour de France over the winter; unfortunate, when it’s the biggest race in the sport. The team have brought in four riders from their development team, including U23 CX world champion Tibor Del Grosso.

Bahrain Victorious

2024 WorldTour wins: 3
Team leader: Pello Bilbao
Team boss: Milan Eržen
Raison d'être: A mixed bag of a team, with solid riders for the Classics and stage races, but they might be lacking in star quality

Over half of Bahrain Victorious’s riders are 25 and below, as the team looks to reboot itself after a disappointing 2024. There are some solid operators in the squad, from Pello Bilbao to Matej Mohorič, via Santiago Buitrago and Antonio Tiberi, but there is not the star power of other teams. New signing Lenny Martinez is hopefully one for now as well as one for the future, with the young Frenchman winning six times last year. Bahrain will need some of its older hands to kick into gear as well if they are to impress again. Fred Wright leads a British trio at the team, alongside young riders Oli Stockwell and Finlay Pickering, with Wright in contract year at the squad he turned pro with.

Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale

2024 WorldTour wins: 7
Team leader: Benoît Cosnefroy
Team boss: Dominic Serieys
Raison d'être: Classics with Benoît Cosnefroy and Dorian Godon, sprints with Sam Bennett

The French team had a major rebrand last year, swapping the white and brown of AG2R Citroën for the fresher look of Decathlon. It was a rebirth that coincided with a renaissance for its major GC man Ben O'Connor, who put the team in the spotlight when he led the Vuelta a España. Unfortunately the Aussie has now moved on to Jayco-AlUla, with no obvious replacement having been made. Instead they will look to rely on the puncheur-grade strength of French riders Benoît Cosnefroy and Dorian Godon, who were both successful last season in races including two stages in the Tour de Romandie.

The team also retains Irish sprinter Sam Bennett, who clocked four stages and the overall in last year's Tour de Dunkerque.

Groupama FDJ

2024 WorldTour wins: 3
Team leader: David Gaudu, Stefan Küng
Team boss: Marc Madiot
Raison d'être: Can the team step up from its occasional big race stage win plateau?

The French team enjoyed a moderate level of success in 2024, much of it thanks to young climbing talent Lenny Martinez. The 21-year-old Frenchman – son of former Olympic mountain bike champion Miguel Martinez – took a third of the team's 15 wins in 2024. Unfortunately for Madiot and co, he has now departed for Bahrain Victorious – a significant dent in their firepower.

Also departed is young British talent Sam Watson, who will ride this season for Ineos Grenadiers. Groupama do still have big engine Stefan Küng to call on, as well as David Gaudu. Both riders are in their prime and capable of winning at the highest level, with potential Grand Tour stage wins in the offing.

EF Education-EasyPost

2024 WorldTour wins: 4
Team leader: Richard Carapaz, Kasper Asgreen
Team boss: Jonathan Vaughters
Raison d'être: Grand Tours with Richard Carapaz, Classics with Kasper Asgreen

The American team had plenty to shout about last year on a variety of stages, with Richard Carapaz's stage win and King of the Mountains victory in the Tour de France being a particular high point. This year – dressed in a shade of pink that is at least a dozen degrees hotter than last year's muted hues – they will hope to emulate Carapaz's success in the Classics via new Danish signing Kasper Asgreen, who has moved in from Soudal Quick-Step. The 2021 Tour of Flanders winner will give the team a capacity in the Classics that they did not have last season. Ecuadorian Carapaz also stays on board and will seek to back up his achievements in the three-week races.

Ineos Grenadiers

2024 WorldTour wins: 6
Team boss: John Allert
Team leader: Carlos Rodríguez
Raison d’être: Getting back to consistently winning at the highest level

Ineos Grenadiers endured their worst ever season in 2024 with Tom Pidcock’s victory at the Amstel Gold Race being the main highlight of an otherwise dour campaign. The second half of the year was then tarnished with the seemingly neverending saga surrounding Pidcock’s future at the team as speculation that he was bound for the exit door consistently swirled around the Jim Ratcliffe-backed squad. Pidcock eventually moved on, joining Q36.5 Pro Cycling, a whole level below Ineos, but appeared to depart on a relatively amicable note after a drawn-out divorce.

Team CEO John Allert recently told the press that the team was moving on from Pidcock’s departure, but for weeks it has been difficult to see how Ineos will fare in his absence. Along with Pidcock, the team lost Jhonatan Narváez during the winter as the Ecuadorian opted to move to UAE Team Emirates, while Ethan Hayter moved to Soudal Quick-Step. Several key staff members have also moved on - including Steve Cummings and Dan Bigham - after performance director Scott Drawer carried out a review of the team’s performance structure during the off-season.

After Pidcock’s departure, the team needed to make a statement signing to move the narrative on. All they could manage was the (very) late signing of Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan who could win a few small races for them. Ineos have never been known as a sprinters team, but with Ewan, and the likes of Filippo Ganna and new arrivals Sam Watson and Axel Laurance on board they could change that. Ineos do however know they need to be winning Grand Tours to justify their budget, not scrapping for stage wins. Their recent announcement of looking for a second sponsor suggests Ratcliffe’s attention is focused elsewhere.

Intermarché-Wanty

2024 WorldTour wins: 4
Team leader: Biniam Girmay
Team boss: Jean François Bourlart
Raison d'être: This Walloon team has gone from ProConti to punching above on the WorldTour in a few seasons. If Biniam Girmay fires, the team will be successful

Intermarché-Wanty created history in 2024 through Biniam Girmay, who became the first black African to win a Tour de France stage, and then the green jersey, all in the space of a dream few weeks. It was a bit of a change for a team who - while often punching above their weight - are rarely at the top of the bill. If Girmay can recreate his form from last summer, then the team can have another magical season. Beyond the 24-year-old, however, it’s a bit of a struggle to see where the wins could come from, although Georg Zimmerman and Gerben Thijssen have both shown promise. The return to full health of Taco van der Hoorn should also be welcomed.

Jayco-AlUla

2024 WorldTour wins: 4
Team leader: Ben O'Connor
Team boss: Matt White
Raison d'être: Explore a new lease of life in Grand Tours with Ben O'Connor

The Grand Tours are where the Aussie team earns its crust – in theory. But while it went hopefully to the Giro d'Italia, its once-reliable sprinter Caleb Ewan came away empty handed. This year the team has changed tack, with a rumoured but still not confirmed departure of Ewan and the welcoming on board of GC man Ben O'Connor.

The Aussie has had some promising outings in the three-week races, with last year's Vuelta a España his best yet. He led the Spanish race with Decathlon-AG2R for a total of 13 days, before a stage 20 capitulation to Primož Roglič. This year he will be fronting Jayco's GT push, and they will hope he can emulate his Vuelta performance, or get close.

Lidl-Trek

2024 WorldTour wins: 15
Team leader: Mads Pedersen
Team boss: Luca Guercilena
Raison d'être: Hard to dislike, festooned in their primary colour kits. Beneath the fun, this is a serious squad, capable of challenging with the best

2024 was the first full year of Lidl-Trek’s attempt at catching up with the super-teams, and it was largely a success, with 42 wins. They will hope for more this season however, particularly at the top level, with the aim of doing more than challenging at the Grand Tours and in the Monuments.

Mads Pedersen remains the focal point, with the former world champion a more than capable sprinter-cum-puncheur, who might be able to rival Mathieu van der Poel in the Classics. Elsewhere, Jonathan Milan, Mattias Skjelmose, Toms Skujinš and Thibau Nys will provide results again, as they did last year, while more will be hoped from Tao Geoghegan Hart and Quinn Simmons, among others. Watch out for new signings Albert Withen Philipsen and Lennard Kämna.

Picnic PostNL

2024 WorldTour wins: 3
Team leader: Romain Bardet
Team boss: Iwan Spekenbrink
Raison d'être: Developing younger riders and targeting stage wins in various stage races

Picnic PostNL come into the new season with their roster largely unchanged. There were just three low key additions over the winter - Colombian climber Juan Martinez from Q36.5 being one of them - and one outgoing rider, Latvian Emīls Liepinš who moved to join Tom Pidcock at Q36.5. Much of the year will be centred on Romain Bardet’s farewell to the peloton as he gets set to retire from the road.

Brits Oscar Onley and Max Poole will be hoping to step up to fill the great Frenchman’s shoes in Grand Tours and other week long stage races. Poole flourished at last year’s Vuelta a España and was regularly on the attack and recorded four top three finishes across several mountain stages.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe

2024 WorldTour wins: 12
Team boss: Ralph Denk
Team leader: Primož Roglič
Raison d'être: Challenging for overall victory at the Tour de France with Primož Roglič

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe has gone through significant overhaul from a rider recruitment perspective ahead of the new season getting started. This time last year lead sports director Rolf Aldag spoke of the need for the team to recalibrate its goals after the acquisition of Primož Roglič. That process continued during the off-season with the aim of boosting the team around Roglič ahead of his return to the Tour in July. Nine riders have been brought in with five heading in the other direction, including Lennard Kämna who joined Lidl-Trek.

The most significant arrivals include Kiwi duo Laurence Pithie from Groupama FDJ and Finn Fisher-Black from UAE Team Emirates. Other key signings include Oier Lazkano from Movistar, Gianni Moscon from Soudal Quick-Step and Jan Tratnik from Visma-Lease a Bike. The latter three riders have been brought in with the Grand Tour setup in mind whereas the likes of Pithie add firepower to Red Bull’s Classics arm. The highly sought after Maxim van Gils was also brought in from Lotto Dstny in another clear sign that Red Bull are now one of the biggest players on the men’s WorldTour.

The team’s two biggest goals this season will be both overall victory in the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France as Roglič looks to go for the hallowed Grand Tour double. It was announced at the team’s winter training camp in Mallorca that Dani Martínez will play the role of Roglič’s lieutenant for the team as the Slovenian returns to Italy for the first time since taking overall victory in 2023. In the same press meeting Rolf Aldag confirmed that Roglič would not end the season at the Vuelta as normal, with Jai Hindley and Aleksandr Vlasov leading the team for the final Grand Tour of the year.

Soudal Quick-Step

2024 WorldTour wins: 13
Team leader: Remco Evenepoel
Team boss: Jurgen Foré
Raison d'être: Finish on the podium at the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia through Remco Evenepoel and Mikel Landa

Soudal Quick-Step will look significantly different this year with a new man at the helm of the organisation after team CEO Patrick Lefevere stepped down from his role and was replaced by Jurgen Foré.

The team lost five riders during the winter transfer window with Julian Alaphilippe and former Tour of Flanders winner Kasper Asgreen being the two most significant outgoings. Alaphilippe has made the move to Tudor Pro Cycling and Asgreen joined EF Education-EasyPost. By its own admission the team is aiming to develop its younger riders in 2025, including new signing Ethan Hayter who arrived from Ineos Grenadiers to bolster the team’s Classics firepower.

Quick-Step will focus on the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia general classifications with Mikel Landa leading the team at the latter. Landa recorded a career-best third at the Giro back in 2015 and recently said he will be targeting both a stage win and a strong GC result in May.

“I am very happy that I will race the Giro, which holds a special place in my heart,” he said. “It’s the race that helped me make a name as a rider. Back in 2015 I won two stages there and finished third on the standings, and that stage I won over Mortirolo with the finish in Aprica is to this day one of my best memories.”

Evenepoel will lead their Tour de France team but is likely to make a cautious return to competition after being struck by a vehicle during a training ride in Belgium during the off season. The double Olympic champion required surgery after suffering an array of injuries which included several fractures. He is scheduled to return at Brabantse Pijl in April but recently confirmed that may be delayed to ensure he can recover fully for the Tour after doctors diagnosed him with nerve damage in his right shoulder as an extra problem to contend with.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG

2024 WorldTour wins: 37
Team leader: Tadej Pogačar
Team boss: Mauro Gianetti
Raison d'être: Victory and stage wins in the Grand Tours and the Classics with Tadej Pogačar, Juan Ayuso, Joāo Almeida and Adam Yates

The richest team in the WorldTour peloton, containing one of the most popular and precocious talents of recent generations, enjoyed a predictably superb year in 2024. Tadej Pogačar led the way with GC and stage wins at both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France, as well as an early-doors victory at Strade Bianche. But one of UAE's strengths is the deep fissure of talent running through it. Adam Yates and Joāo Almeida, for example, were fourth and sixth in the Tour de France, while Juan Ayuso won the Itzulia Basque Country and stages in Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour of Luxembourg.

Pogačar is set to ride the Tour again this year, and likely the Vuelta a España too. Talented as he is, it's hard to ignore the fact that his biggest Tour rival, Jonas Vingegaard, had a massively compromised build-up to last year's race thanks to a nasty crash at the Itzulia Basque Country. Likewise Pogačar's second-biggest rival, Remco Evenepoel. The latter has also already crooked himself for a little while ahead this season after a training crash, but both Vingegaard and Evenpoel will be ready to rumble at the Tour in July.

As is the trend, what was known last season as simply UAE Team Emirates will now become a little more of a mouthful, thanks to the addition of sponsor XRG, a UAE energy company.

The team will wave goodbye to outgoing riders Marc Hirschi, Diego Ulissi and Finn Fisher-Black, all of whom won races last season. The team have sought to balance the scale, of course, drafting in Jhonatan Narvaez and Florian Vermeersch to fill the space, at least in part. Ecuadorian Narvaez moves in from Ineos Grenadiers where he is well proven as a superb domestique, while young Belgian Vermeersch boasts a second place at Paris-Roubaix from 2021 (and not loads since, though he was second in the Gravel World Championship last year) and already has the Tour of Flanders on his calendar.

The team is almost certain to find things harder this season if those rivals stay on the straight and narrow. But in Pogačar they have a talisman whose worth, at least for the time being, transcends results alone.

Visma-Lease a Bike

2024 WorldTour wins: 16
Team leader: Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert
Team boss: Richard Plugge
Raison d'être: Victory and stage wins in the Grand Tours with Vingegaard and Van Aert, plus Classics for Van Aert, sprint wins with Olav Kooij

Who is the strongest team in the peloton? The answer is not as simple as comparing Visma-Lease a Bike's 16 wins last year to UAE's considerably higher 37. The Dutch team, after all, had to spend much of 2024 licking its wounds with its two best riders out of action. Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard both suffered extensive injuries in separate early-season races, with the result being a pretty much non-existent Classics season and Tour de France build-up respectively.

This year though – the constant danger of crashing notwithstanding – we will hopefully see a far more balanced battle, with Visma setting about recouping some of the hay that UAE and Tadej Pogačar made while the rain fell on their rivals.

The team retains its biggest riders, but says goodbye to a number of others, including last year's Het Nieuwsblad winner Jan Tratnik, who leaves for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.

This year Visma has gone big on imports from its development squad, with four young riders coming through including 19-year-old Brit Matthew Brennan. A stage winner at last year's U23 Giro d'Italia, he has already shown promise in his first ever WorldTour race – the Santos Tour Down Under in Australia, coming second on the first stage.

Also joining the team is Simon Yates, who has had a couple of quiet seasons at Jayco-AlUla by his standards, and 2024 Tour stage winner Victor Campanaerts – both could prove extremely useful to Vingegaard in the Tour this year.

The season ahead looks a straightforward one for the team, with Vingegaard targeting the Tour above all, but also the Vuelta a España and Paris-Nice in the early-season – a race which he says he's highly motivated to win for the first time.

For Van Aert, he will continue with what has become a long-term project to secure victory in the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix, or both. Despite establishing himself as a chronic high finisher, he has yet to win either.

XDS Astana, Movistar, Cofidis, Arkéa-B&B Hotels

In the big pond that is the men's WorldTour, these teams are the small fish – at least for the moment, who find themselves up against it. XDS Astana took one WT win last season, but it was a big one – Mark Cavendish's record 35th Tour de France stage. Cavendish is now retired, but the team has bought in a number of capable riders including climber Wout Poels and Sergio Higuita, and former yellow jersey Mike Teunissen.

Movistar were once near the top of the WorldTour tree but their star has waned, with only eight wins last year. One of those was a Giro d'Italia stage though courtesy of young Pelayo Sanchez, who could well do the same again this year.

Last year it was May before Cofidis notched up a win – this year it has already happened, with Bryan Cocquard winning stage four at the WorldTour-ranked Tour Down Under. The shape of things to come, perhaps? For Arkéa-B&B Hotels, with young TdF stage-winning all-rounder Kevin Vauquelin and old but still occasionally gold sprinter Arnaud Démare, a moderately successful year could well be on the horizon.

Wildcard Teams

While the WorldTour teams sit at the top of the tree, there are numerous ProTeams that mix it regularly in the biggest races. Belgian team Lotto has existed in various forms since 1985. It loses Tour stage winner Victor Campanaerts for 2025 but retains young talents Arnaud De Lie and Lennert van Eetvelt. This pair took 12 of the team's 24 wins last season. Q36.5 have enjoyed plenty of column inches lately with the signing of Tom Pidcock. They will look to him to help put them in line for promotion to the WorldTour for next year. Israel-Premier Tech were very successful last year with 29 wins – many of them thanks to British trio Stevie Williams, Ethan Vernon and Joe Blackmore, all of whom are retained for this season. Norwegian team Uno-X Mobility stand out not just for their yellow jerseys but their presence at the sharp end of races too, as well as the blond moustache of Magnus Cort and the powerful sprinting legs of Alexander Kristoff.

With the 108th edition of the Giro d'Italia starting this weekend, all the WorldTour teams, plus wildcard entries, will be travelling to Albania for the start in Durres. Each squad will be armed with a truck full of bikes and kit. At the Grand Tours each of the eight riders has one, two or even three road bikes as well as a couple of time trial bikes at their disposal. Add in the numerous wheelset options and the replacement components and it adds up to a serious operation.

The race favourites, such as Primož Roglič, Juan Ayuso, Mikel Landa and Adam and Simon Yates, will likely have yet more bikes atop the team cars, guarding as best they can against mishaps in a race where every second counts. For many these will be the same bikes they’ve ridden during the early season races, from Milan-San Remo to Paris-Roubaix, but with the possibility of a featherweight climbing bike added for the mountains of the Giro.

Definitely on the start line will be Tom Pidcock. His new Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team is one of five ProTour squads invited to the race. Pidcock will look to light up the Giro aboard two Scott bikes, the Foil and the Addict RC Ultimate, which should be ideally suited to a race that will take in over 52,000 feet of climbing, including an accent of the iconic Sestriere.

Scott is one of 21 bike brands competing in the race. These range from the familiar, including Roglič’s Specialized Tarmac SL8 and Ayuso’s Colnago V5Rs, to those not currently being raced at the WorldTour level, including Team Polti and its Aurum bikes and the VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè team, an Italian outfit that ride a homegrown set up of De Rosa bikes equipped with Campagnolo groupsets.

UCI WorldTour teams

Canyon / Alpecin-Deceuninck

Frameset: Canyon Aeroad CFR / Ultimate CFR / Speedmax CFR
Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Wheels: Shimano Dura-Ace

The Belgian outfit will again be looking to both the Classics and the Grand Tours for success, with the imposing one-two punch of Mathieu van der Poel and Jasper Philipsen at their disposal on the men's side. With Van der Poel winning Paris-Roubaix for the third straight time as well as picking up his second victory at Milan - San Remo, it's a case of so far, so good.

Much of the racing is done on the Canyon Aeroad CFR, equipped like last year with Shimano’s Dura-Ace Di2 groupset and C50/60 wheels. There’s continuity in the Selle Italia saddles and Elite bottles and cages, with the only change for the new season being a switch from Vittoria to Pirelli tyres.

Bianchi / Arkéa-B&B Hotels

Frameset: Bianchi Specialissima RC / Oltre RC / Aquila (TT)
Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Wheels: Vision

While the team from Renns remains distinctly Gallic in its line-up, with some 15 French riders signed up to race in 2025, the bikes are not. Instead, they draw on several iconic Italian brands.

Once again they're racing on Bianchi framesets, in the shape of the aero OItre RC, the lightweight Specialissima RC and the Aqulia for time trials, as well as Vittoria tyres, Selle Italia saddles and Elite bottles and cages. However, the ubiquitous Dura-Ace Di2 groupset, along with Vision cockpits and wheels prevent it from being an all-Italian affair.

Merida / Bahrain Victorious

Frameset: Merida Reacto Team / Scultura Team / Time Warp TT
Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Wheels: Vision

While the Baharain team did post two top-10 finishes in the Grand Tours last year - Antonio Tiberi at the Giro and Santiago Buitrago at the Tour - they’ll be hoping to improve on their 13 wins for the season.

While the team has seen some changes, most notably the departure of the veteran Wout Poels to the XDS Astana outfit, the bikes remain much the same. That means they have the full suite of Merida race bikes to choose from, including one of Race Bike of the Year award winners, the Scultura, all equipped with Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupsets. Elsewhere they’ll be using Vision wheels and cockpit, notably the Metro 5D ACR EVO, Continental tyres and Prologo saddles.

Look / Cofidis

Frameset: Look 795 Blade RS / 796 Monoblade TT
Groupset: Campagnolo Super Record EPS
Wheels: Campagnolo

Cofidis welcomes Campagnolo back to the WorldTour peloton with the Lille-based team signed up to use the Italian manufacturer's Super Record EPS wireless groupset and its wheels, which include the Bora Ultra WTO. They'll be hoping the change is reflected in their fortunes on the road; last year they managed just five victories all year. However, an early stage win for Bryan Coquard at the Tour down Under, and five more wins after that, suggest a far better 2025 is ahead.

They’ve also switched from Michelin tyres to Vittoria. The bikes however remain the same, with Look’s 795 Blade RS the weapon of choice for daily use, while its Monoblade model will be used against the clock. Elsewhere they’re using Selle Italia saddles, Look pedals and Elite bottles and cages.

Van Rysel / Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale Team

Frameset: Van Rysel RCR Pro / RCR-F / XCR TT
Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Wheels: Swiss Side

The A2GR squad raced last year on one of the peloton’s most talked about bikes, the Van Rysel RCR Pro. They ended the season with an impressive 30 victories, more than tripling the previous season’s tally. They’ll be hoping that the addition of another bike to the line-up, the aero-enhanced RCR-F, will yield similar exposure and results.

Aside from the team’s expanding quiver, the list of suppliers remains largely the same. The Van Rysel bikes are adorned with Shimano’s Dura-Ace Di2 groupset as well as wheels from aero experts, SwissSide. Bars and stems come courtesy of Deda Elementi, with Fizik providing the saddles and Continental the tyres.

Cannondale / EF Education-EasyPost

Frameset: Cannondale SuperSix Evo LAB71 / SystemSix Hi-Mod / SuperSlice TT
Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Wheels: Vision

The US-based team is always a colourful proposition, thanks in large part to the vibrant livery that adorns bike and kit, but enhanced too by the plucky nature of riders such as Richard Carapaz and Ben Healy.

They’re racing this year with a few new names thrown into the mix, including the Classics expert Kasper Asgreen, but riding the same model of bikes. Once again they have the choice of Cannondale’s racing suite, in the shape of the SuperSix Evo LAB71 all-rounder, the aero SystemSix Hi-Mod and the SuperSlice TT machine. All three are equipped with a Shimano Dura-Ace groupset, Vision wheels and cockpit, Vittoria tyres and Prologo saddles. Other suppliers include Tacx bottles and cages and Wahoo, who provide both the Speedplay pedals and the team’s bike computers.

Wilier / Groupama-FDJ

Frameset: Wilier Triestina Filante SLR / Verticale SLR / Supersonica SLR
Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Wheels: Miché

The headliner here is the introduction of Miché wheels into the WorldTour peloton, with the French team swapping Shimano hoops for the Italian brand that’s owned by its bike supplier, Wilier.

As for the bikes, the likes of David Gadu, Remi Cavagna. Vittoria Guazzini and Elise Chabbey will likely spend much of the year on the Filante SLR, while the Verticale is on call for the mountain stages and should get plenty of use at this year's Giro d'Italia. The Supersonica is reserved for TT duties. Elsewhere it’s the same as last year, which means Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupsets, Continental tyres and Prologo saddles.

Pinarello / Ineos Grenadiers

Frameset: Pinarello Dogma F / Bolide F (TT)
Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Wheels: Shimano / Princeton Carbonworks

While the Grenadiers may have lost Tom Pidcock and Ethan Hayter, the bikes remain the same. The British team have become synonymous with the Pinarello Dogma, and this year they’re again racing on the Dogma F, with the Bolide F used for time trials. The continuity extends to the components.

Each bike is equipped with Shimano’s Dura-Ace Di2 groupset, a choice of Shimano and Princeton CarbonWorks wheels, a MOST cockpit, Conti tyres and Prologo saddles.

Cube / Intermarché-Wanty

Frameset: Cube Litening Aero C:68X / Litening Air C:68X / Aerium
Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Wheels: Newmen

For the Belgian team, it’s largely a case of ‘as you were’, with the exception of tyres. Continental has been replaced by Hutchinson with the team likely to race on the French-made Blackbird Racing Lab model.

Elsewhere they’re again riding on the combination of Cube’s Litening Aero and Air C:68X models, with the Aerium ready for those stages raced against the clock. The bikes are equipped with Shimano’s top-tier Dura-Ace Di2 groupset, Newmen wheels and Prologo saddles.

Trek / Lidl-Trek

Frameset: Trek Madone SLR/ Trek Speed Concept (TT)
Groupset: SRAM RED AXS
Wheels: Bontrager

Another team staying true to both their equipment and colours of 2024 is the Lidl-Trek outfit. And I’m not upset about it either - Lidl-Trek has to be one of the hottest liveries in cycling right now.

The 3rd ranked men’s teams is tackling the 2025 campaign with the same setup as last year. The likes of Jasper Stuyven and Mads Pedersen are again aboard the new Madone SLR all-rounder, with the Speed Concept reserved for stages against the clock.

Keeping things American, SRAM provide the Red AXS groupsets, with the only deviation from the USA being Pirelli tyres.

Canyon / Movistar Team

Frameset: Canyon Aeroad/ Canyon Ultimate/ Canyon Speedmax (TT)
Groupset: SRAM RED AXS
Wheels: Zipp

2024 was a relatively quiet year for the men’s and women’s Movistar teams, but 2025 is already showing promise. With an early victory for Javier Romo at the Tour Down Under already this year, it could be the start of a stronger season. And they’ll be chasing those wins on the same bikes as last year.

The Spansih team is continuing to use the full range of Canyon bikes - the Aeroad, Ultimate, and Speedmax - equipped with SRAM Red groupsets for the fifth consecutive year. They’re rolling on SRAM subsidiary Zipp wheelsets fitted with Continental tyres, and Fizik saddles remain part of the setup, with Time pedals sticking around for a second year.

Specialized / Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe

Frameset: Specialized S-works Tarmac/ Specialized Shiv TT
Groupset: SRAM RED AXS
Wheels: Roval

Last year, Red Bull completed its acquisition of the Bora-Hansgrohe WorldTour team, bringing fresh funding and a stronger presence to 2024’s fifth-ranked squad. Thanks to the cash injection, the team has even launched a new U23 development program, with all outfits riding Specialized equipment.

Bora-Hansgrohe is sticking with Specialized for 2025 but simplifying things by using just two bikes. The S-Works Tarmac SL8 serves as their sole road racing machine, while the Shiv TT is tasked with handling the flat-out efforts in time trials.

Sram provide Bora-Hansgrohe with their Red AXS 12-speed wireless shifting system. Rounding out the build are Roval wheels and finishing kits from Specialized’s in-house brand.

Specialized / Soudal Quick-Step

Frameset: Specialized S-works Tarmac/ Specialized Shiv TT
Groupset: SRAM RED AXS
Wheels: Roval

Soudal Quickstep is another team that has seen some rather high profile transfers over the last few months, loosing Julian Alaphilippe, and welcoming the likes of Ethan Hayter, and Max Schachmann for the new year.

What hasn’t changed for either Soudal Quickstep is their bikes. After signing a six year deal with Specialized back in 2021, Remco Evenepoel will be challenging Tadej Pogacar aboard a Specialized S-works SL8 thoughout 2025. The furiously fast Belgian also has access to the Shiv TT on time trial days, with both road and TT setups being clad with Shimano’s Dura-Ace Di2 groupset.

Specialized once again take care of the finishing kit, with wheels, tyres, cockpits and saddles all kept in house.

Lapierre / Team Picnic PostNL

Frameset: Lapierre Xelius DRS/ Lapierre Aerostorm DRS (TT)
Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Wheels: Miche

As well as having perhaps the quirkiest name in the WorldTour, Picnic Post-NL also have some brand-new bikes for the 2025 season.

After falling out of the WorldTour in 2024, Lapierre is back in both the men’s and women’s top division thanks to the Dutch team, who are riding the all-new Aircode Xelius for the 2025 season.

Their bikes are finished with Dura-Ace Di2 groupsets, Vittoria tyres and Prologo finishing kit.

Giant / Team Jayco AlUla

Frameset: Giant TCR Advanced SL/ Giant Propel Advanced SL/ Giant Trinity Advanced SL (TT)
Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Wheels: Cadex

The Australian WorldTour team, Jayco AlUla are racing 2025 in what might just be the sharpest kit in the peloton, thanks to MAAP. The brand’s debut at WorldTour level has made waves in the cycling scene, with its striking purple design even extending to the teams’ Giant bikes.

As for bikes, the team are using the combination of the Giant TCR, Propel, and the all-new Trinity this season.

Like in 2024, all bikes are equipped with Shimano Dura-Ace shifting, Continental tyres, and wheels and finishing kits courtesy of Giant’s in-house brand, Cadex.

Cervélo / Team Visma | Lease a bike

Frameset: Cervelo S5/ Cervelo R5/ Cervelo P5 (TT)
Groupset: SRAM RED AXS
Wheels: Reserve

While headline components remain unchanged in the Visma-Lease-a-bike camp, the Dutch super team has given us a sneak peak at some new kit for the coming season.

The men’s ‘best of the rest’ ranked team are continuing to ride Cervélo bikes this year. SRAM is back on shifting duties with its RED AXS wireless groupset, while wheelsets come from Cervélo’s subsidiary, Reserve.

Vittoria tyres and Prologo saddles are staying put, but Jonas Vingegaard has teased some new Oakley sunglasses on the team’s Instagram - so keep an eye out for those throughout the year.

Colnago / UAE Team Emirates XRG

Frameset: Colnago Y1RS/ Colnago V5RS/ Colnago TT1
Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Wheels: Enve

UAE Emirates may still be riding the same brand of bikes in 2025, but that hasn’t stopped their new team bikes from causing quite the stir in the cycling world.

We are, of course, talking about the brand new Colnago Y1RS aero bike and the V5Rs, which the team will have access to as the 2025 season rolls on. The new aero bike hopes to make World Champion Tadej Pogačar even faster this year, with a futuristic-looking design that not all Colnago fans were too happy about. Meanwhile the V5Rs, which Pogi used in his recent Fleche Wallone / Liège-Bastogne-Liège double, looks to be the bike of choice for the majority of races. There's also the TT1 for time trails.

All bikes remain shod with Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 groupsets, Enve wheels, Prologo saddles and Continental tyres.

X-Lab / XDS Astana Team

Frameset: X-lab AD9/ X-Lab RT9
Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2
Wheels: Vision

And finally, is this the equivalent of the Decathlon AG2R story but for 2025?

Astana has made a bold move for the new season, parting ways with Wilier bikes and switching to a relatively unknown brand - until now. XDS Carbon Tech, headquartered in China’s carbon fibre hub of Shenzhen, invested in Astana last year, and for 2025, the team will ride their X-Lab AD9 and RT9 road bikes. While untested by mainstream cycling media, these bikes are generating buzz as an intriguing prospect, aiming to undercut rivals on price - much like Decathlon’s RCR Pro.

Prologo saddles, Vision components, Shimano groupsets, and Continental tyres all remain, so at least the contact points will feel familiar for the riders