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The Cyclists’ Alliance has announced the addition of six new members to the Rider Council for 2025. Serving as the voice of the peloton, the Rider Council plays a crucial role in representing the concerns of professional riders worldwide. The new members for 2025 are: Alison Jackson (CAN/EF-Oatly-Cannondale), Megan Jastrab (USA/Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), Mireia Benito (ESP/AG Insurance – Soudal Team), Hannah Ludwig (GER/Cofidis Women’s Team), Amber Pate (AUS/Liv AlUla Jayco) and Heidi Franz (USA/Lifeplus Wahoo). These six new members will join Ellen Van Dijk (NED/Lidl – Trek), Luli Roland (ARG/Cantabria Deporte – Rio Miera), Ally Wollaston (NZL/AG Insurance – Soudal Team), Agua Marina Espínola (PAR/Primeau Vélo – Groupe Abadie), Haley Smith (CAN/Trek Driftless racing), Marieke de Groot (NED/Proximus – Cyclist CT) and Ariane Luthi (SWI/MTB).
Maëva Squiban moves up to the WorldTour by joining UAE Team ADQ on a two-year contract. The French rider had a good season with Arkea B&B Hotels, winning the ITT at the Tour de l’Ardeche and taking a second place on a stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
CERATIZIT-WNT Pro Cycling and Cedrine Kerbaol have mutually agreed to part ways following the release of the UCI’s WWT license applicants list for 2025. Due to the team’s absence from the list, caused by an administrative delay, a contractual clause was activated, allowing riders to terminate their contracts early. While the team expressed sadness at Kerbaol’s departure, they also took the opportunity to celebrate the French rider’s achievements during her time with the squad. Following her departure, Kerbaol will join EF-Oatly-Cannondale. A former U23 and Elite French Time Trial National Champion, Kerbaol is known for her versatility and excels on a variety of terrains. In 2023, she earned a silver medal at the U23 Individual Time Trial World Championships and was recognised as the Best Young Rider at the Tour de France Femmes. This season, she further solidified her impressive palmarès, adding victories at the Vuelta CV Feminas, Durango-Durango, and stage six of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift to her list of wins.
Sandra Alonso, Mylène de Zoete, Marta Jaskulska, Lana Eberle and Franzi Brauße will continue to ride for CERATIZT-WNT Pro Cycling in 2025.
Two-time Canadian junior road race champion Alex Volstad will join EF-Oatly-Cannondale next season. She took ten podium places racing across Europe and North America this past season, including successfully defending her junior Canadian road title and adding the junior Canadian crit championship title to her palmarès. Growing up in Calgary, Alberta, Volstad spent her winters speed skating and track cycling in the summer before eventually switching to road cycling. She says that “descending and sprinting – anything that goes fast” is her passion.
Yanina Kuskova, who rode for Tashkent City Cycling team this year, will join Laboral Kutxa-Euskadi through 2026. The young Uzbekistan national champion will join Laboral Kutxa, which moves up from the UCI Continental level to become one of the inaugural women’s ProTeams, granting them access to some of the world’s biggest races. She will also be joined by Ukrainian individual time trial champion Yuliia Biriukova, who will also join the Spanish team in 2025.
Maaike Boogaard will be joining VolkerWessels Cycling Team for the next two seasons. The Dutch rider comes from AG Insurance-Soudal, where she won the Grand Prix International d’Isbergues – Pas de Calais Féminin. “I can’t wait to start my new adventure for the next two years at VolkerWessels Cycling Team. From my first conversation with the team, it immediately felt like coming home. The team spirit and the determination that this team has to achieve the highest results together is something that immediately appealed to me,” she commented on her new contract.
AG Insurance-Soudal has presented its U23 squad for 2025. The team includes Messane Brautigam, who is already a strong track rider and the Junior World Champion in the elimination race, as well as Jade Linthoudt, who has been with the squad for several years. Alongside her racing career, Jade is also studying medicine.
Seven-time national champion and the first female rider from her country, Safiya Alsayegh, has extended her contract with UAE Team ADQ until the end of 2026. The Emirati rider, who will fully transition to a professional cycling career in 2025 after completing her graphic design studies earlier this year, is determined to make an impact both on and off the bike. Alsayegh is not only focused on her racing achievements but also inspiring others as one of the UAE’s leading sports figures. With more women taking up cycling, whether for recreation or competition, Alsayegh believes the sport sends a positive message to encourage women to embrace cycling.
Compatriot Zahra Hussain has extended with UAE Team ADQ Development team. She is gearing up for her third season with the team. Notably, this year marked her debut on the cobbles of Belgium, racing in the Egmont Cycling Race and the Grote Prijs Yvonne Reynders.
After experiencing unusual sensations in her left leg during the latter half of the road racing season, Shirin van Anrooij, was diagnosed with a narrowing of her external iliac artery. On 31 October, she successfully underwent surgery to widen the artery. Following the procedure, she will enter an extended rest period before gradually returning to training and competition. Regrettably, this means she will miss the cyclocross season and the initial months of the road season. However, she is expected to return to competition in May with Lidl-Trek.
Zoe Bäckstedt is set to carry her strong end-of-season road racing form into the new cyclocross season, with a focus on defending her U23 title at the UCI Cyclocross World Championships in Liévin, France, on 2 February. She comments: “The World Championships will definitely be one of my biggest goals, especially since it’s not too far from my home in Belgium… The end of my road season turned out better than I expected, and that has me really excited for the cyclocross season, knowing I’m in good form heading into the first races is motivating. Now, I just need to fine-tune the technical aspects of my cyclocross skills, and I’ll be ready to go.”
The U.S. based DNA Pro Cycling team completed its 12th and final year in the peloton. One of its riders, and Voxwomen Ambassador, Shayna Powless, was joined by several current and former riders and staff at the Powless Gran Fondo in Auburn, California for a farewell ride.
Former pro rider Molly Weaver is set to attempt a world-record circumnavigation of mainland U.K., following the most rideable roads closest to the coastline. The challenge, planned for June 2025, will span 21 days, averaging 370km per day, and totalling 7,730 km in length. Starting and finishing at Tower Bridge in London, Weaver is not only aiming to break the world record, but also to raise vital funds for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
Lotte Kopecky has enjoyed an exceptional year, with multiple race victories and a string of prestigious awards added to her palmarès. She was also voted Flandrienne of the Year yet again, winning the award for the best Belgian rider for the fifth time in a row. As a surprise, the trophy was presented to her by her grandfather François. Kopecky has also indicated that she hasn’t ruled out the possibility of chasing the yellow jersey at next year’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, though she plans to make a final decision after reviewing the course more carefully. Known for her expertise in one-day races, Kopecky finished as runner-up at both the Tour and the Giro, and also took the overall victory at the UAE Tour. She remarks: “My heart is, of course, with the Classics – those are the races I love the most… De Ronde and Roubaix will definitely remain on my calendar, but I’ve already won those. That’s why, at some point in my career, I definitely want to target a Grand Tour classification and see what I can achieve in a stage race.”
Laurens ten Dam, former pro rider and current national gravel coach, will become the new national coach of the Dutch Elite Women’s Road Cycling Team starting in January 2025. After a successful 16-year career as a road racer, ten Dam shifted to gravel racing in the U.S. As the national coach for gravel, he played a key role in helping Marianne Vos secure the World Championships rainbow jersey in Leuven.
High-performance coach and sports scientist Olav Aleksander Bu has been appointed head coach of the Uno-X Mobility men’s and women’s cycling teams. Bu is widely recognised for his successful coaching of elite athletes, including Olympic, WTCS, and Ironman World Champion Kristian Blummenfelt, as well as two-time Ironman 70.3 and Ironman World Champion Gustav Iden. In addition to his work in cycling, Bu also coaches the Norwegian Olympic Sailing team.
The Gravel Earth Series has unveiled its 2025 calendar, featuring 25 events across 15 countries, including eight races in North America. The series kicks off and concludes in Spain, starting with La Santa Vall on 15-16 February and finishing with the season finale at Ranxo Gravel, tentatively set for 28 September. Organisers have emphasised that the series offers a variety of ride options, catering to both elite athletes and amateur riders alike, while also showcasing stunning outdoor locations around the globe. “Scenic value is the primary criterion for selecting events, with a strong focus on environmental stewardship and promoting sustainable, responsible gravel racing,” the organisers have stated, underlining their commitment to preserving natural spaces.
Accomplished U.S. Gravel and MTB rider Lauren De Crescenzo notably took out the 2021 Unbound Gravel 200, as well as victories at The MidSouth and The Rad Dirt Fest, and podium finishes at Crusher in the Tushar and Big Sugar Gravel in 2023. Her journey to success, however, has been anything but conventional. She recently reflected on this journey in a feature article. In 2016, she endured a life-threatening traumatic brain injury in a road race. While the crash nearly took her life, she credits the bike for saving her life, serving as a critical tool in her recovery process. She also graduated with a degree in epidemiology and is not only a fierce competitor but also an advocate for TBI awareness.
A new UCI rule on leaders’ jerseys has prompted some teams to adjust their jersey designs for the 2025 season to ensure they don’t closely resemble the leader’s jersey in the Grand Tours. For other non-Grand Tour stage races, the UCI rule clarifies that race organisers are responsible for ensuring that leader’s jerseys are clearly distinguishable from team jerseys and national champion jerseys, reducing any potential for overlap or confusion.
The Festival Elsy will take place in 2025 as two UCI one-day races on 3 and 4 May. The first will be held in Garnich, the birth place of Elsy Jacobs, and the next in Luxembourg. From 1955 to 1978, Jacobs officially contested 1059 races, of which she won 301, and finished second 210 times and third 129 times. As a tribute to her, the Festival Elsy Jacobs was originally organised in 2001 as a recreational event before the first GP Ely Jacobs was held in 2008.
The Hellmann Foundation has awarded a US$2.5 million grant to the USA Cycling Foundation to fund its women’s programs, marking a groundbreaking investment in the development of women’s cycling domestically. This grant will increase resources to USA Cycling programs across the Olympic cycling disciplines of Road, Mountain Bike, Track, BMX Racing, and BMX Freestyle, as well as the Paralympic cycling disciplines of Road and Track.
USA Cycling has announced that the 2025 Esports National Championships will take place on 1 February 2025. In the lead-up to the event, USA Cycling will partner with Echelon Racing Promotions to organise a five-race series to prepare riders. The total prize purse for the series will be US $10,000, equally divided between the men’s and women’s categories.
The main rosters for the invitation-only 2025 Life Time Grand Prix have been revealed. The season will kick off with a new Sea Otter Classic Gravel race on 11 April in Monterey, California. Among the international riders are reigning Australian gravel champion Courtney Sherwell and British gravel champion Annabel Fisher. Lauren de Crescenzo and Sofia Gomez Viallafane will also be at the startline. The field will feature 25 women and 25 men, plus six wild card entries, competing across the six-race off-road series. Notable absentees on the women’s side include U.S. gravel national champion Lauren Stephens, Emily Newsom, and Dani Shrosbree.
The World Anti-Doping Agency has recently released the 2025 Prohibited List, which details the substances and methods that are banned within sport. Broken down into several categories, the list identifies which substances and methods are prohibited at all times, in-competition only, and within specific sports.
Results
Pan-American Elite Cyclo-Cross Championships: Sidney McGill (CAN) ahead of Isabella Holmgren (CAN) and Katie Clouse (USA)
Voxwomen Cycling Hub
Exciting news! Voxwomen has just launched the Voxwomen Cycling Hub, a paid membership packed with exclusive content, behind-the-scenes access, discounts, and more. By joining, you’re not only unlocking premium perks, but also directly supporting the growth of women’s cycling. Don’t miss out on this chance to dive deeper into the sport you love and be part of a community that’s driving real change. Sign up today and help us elevate women’s cycling together!
Blog
Franziska Koch reviews her 2024 season, from winning the German road title, to participating in the Olympics, two Grand Tours and the European and World Championships. Check it out in her latest blog.
The Women’s Cycling Podcast
Becca Charlton is joined by Hannah Walker, pro rider turned commentator, to discuss her career progression & share some emotional stories. We also talk with ultra-endurance racer Lael Wilcox & Sara Felton about her inspirational Tour de France feat. Listen to it here on Spotify.
Voxwomen Club
Calling all cycling enthusiasts! Join the Voxwomen Club for some exciting upcoming rides. The next one is coming up soon, so find out more here
This week in cycling history
Kristina Vogel
Born on 10 November 1990, retired track rider Kristina Vogel became a dominant force in track cycling, particularly in sprint events. She won two gold medals and a bronze medal at the Olympics and is a seven-time UCI Track World Champion. Her career was cut short by a tragic accident during a training session in the velodrome in Cottbus, Germany, when she suffered a severe spinal cord injury after a crash. The injury left her paralysed from the chest down, forcing her to retire from competitive cycling at just 27 years old. Following her retirement, however, Vogel has remained extremely active in the cycling community and beyond. She has become a prominent speaker and advocate for athletes facing life-altering injuries, sharing her personal journey of recovery and adapting to life in a wheelchair. She has also returned to the police force and serves on two UCI boards, all the while commentating on track cycling for a German TV station.
Nicolle van den Broeck
Nicolle van den Broeck, born on 9 November, 1946, is widely regarded as one of the greatest Belgian female riders. Over the course of her career, she became a trailblazer in both road and track cycling. Van den Broeck won the Belgian national road title five times and became the World Road Champion in 1973 at the age of 25 in Barcelona. In addition to her success on the road, van den Broeck was a formidable force on the track, where she claimed several Belgian championship titles in the pursuit. Despite her remarkable achievements, her career was not without struggle. In an era where sponsorship for women’s cycling was scarce, she had to work at a local milk shop to support herself and trained on her bike after her shifts. Her determination and success played a key role in the creation of Belgium’s first women’s cycling team, which she later went on to ride for. Van den Broeck passed away in 2017.
WorldTour highlight videos
Catch up on the action from the Tour of Guangxi right here.
