Women's Development Roundup
Small in numbers, huge in effects
The main cycling expression for the 2020s (for the time being at least) is progress. Progress has been made in nutrition, in scouting, in equipment, in the psychological aspect - and the biggest change has been in the training of young riders. Whether this has really been a forward move will be decided definitively by the next generation, and at the moment there are arguments for and against it. According to pro-development thinkers, the lower structure of World Tour teams gives 18-21 year olds the opportunity to get into the highest class atmosphere, train with the best riders and attend 30-40 race days a year that develop their race craft and where they can excel. However, anti-developmentists (there is a big overlap here with the cycloromantic people) say that the demise of local teams that target young people precisely because of development teams could lead the sport into a spiral that could have a huge impact on the operation of all teams and organisations in the event of a global economic problem.
It is a difficult question. What is certain is that 80-85% of the teams in the men's peloton already have a development department - in the women's peloton, however, only 5 teams (AG Insurance, Canyon//SRAM, Liv AlUla Jayco, UAE, Fenix-Deceuninck) have so far decided to start a development team - and seeing their track record, I can say that they are doing it well, and other teams could follow their example. Let's see who have stood out in these teams, who have performed well and got professional contracts, and who are the ones to watch out for in these teams.
Liv AlUla Jayco Women's Continental Team
Liv AlUla Jayco's Continental Team started 2024 with 10 riders, and 23-year-old Dutch rider Noä Jansen proved to be the best of them. Jansen has spent the last three years with smaller Belgian and Dutch teams, but decided to make the switch for 2024 and I think she did the right thing. She has competed in a lot of 1.1 and 1.2 Belgian races, where she had a total of 4 top 10s and 9 top 15s, creating a very solid sprinter/cobbled rider image. Jansen would be a perfect person to move to the elite team (in fact, Jayco should have a rider like her), but no information is available at the moment.
20 year old Irish rider Emma Jeffers has 2 wins for the team, she won the last 2 days of the multi-day .2 Czech race Orlova. We are talking about an excellent sprinter prospect in her case, who I think the team may not have found the right race schedule / sprinter train for her. If the latter is the case, then she should definitely leave to a ProConti/strong Conti line where this is assured, she has a lot of potential and should exploit it as soon as possible if she wants to achieve great successes.
Kaia Schmid is an incredibly exciting project. 3 years ago we were introduced to her as one of the biggest talents in American cycling who was going to dominate everything in 5 years - now unfortunately it looks very much like that won't be the case, even though Jayco gave her an impressive lifeline after 2 less successful WWT seasons. Schmid, like the previous two riders, is approaching the sport from a more sprinty, flat side, you can see from this that they are trying to find their own Elisa Balsamo - and while there have been some faint signs of encouragement from Schmid this year, it's hard to see what the next step could be, I'd definitely give her another year here.
What’s gonna happen in 2025? So far, two riders are under contract - Leila Gschwentner, a TT specialist and a skilled sprinter who didn't show much of that in her first year, and Lucinda Stewart, who looks like a very good prospect and has shown good results in a lot of areas, she could be a force for the future Jayco, even at elite level.
AG Insurance - Soudal NXTG
We have a very strong development squad in AG Insurance, with riders who have been promoted or confirmed to the elite team during the season. For example, Lore de Schepper, who after 5 months was recognised as the brightest climber of the new Belgian generation and was immediately given a multi-year contract, and Mirre Knaven, who signed a 3.5-year contract with EF-Cannondale after mid-June. Even so, a great team was assembled for 2024, with the Czech Julia Kopecky being one of the most outstanding riders of the whole season. In Kopecky we are talking about a real puncheur who could be a very good TT rider later in her career, a combination that will make teams have to prepare for her - especially as she has signed a two-year contract with SD Worx, which is undergoing a total rebuild and needs young riders like a loaf of bread - needless to say, Julia will be a great fit there.
Estonia's Laura Lizette Sander, 20, completed her second year with the team and delivered exactly what a second year U23 rider should by default - steady progression with some outstanding days. This includes defending her title at the Estonian national elite championships (a particularly huge achievement for a 19-20 year old lady), and she also had some top 10 sprinter results to show for it. A rider with a very high ceiling - so it's strange to me that she didn't get a contract from the team for next year. I hope her career is not in danger and she finds a place in a very good continental team.
Febe Jooris has also had a great season for her - admittedly, this has mostly been in TTs for her, where she is already one of the best in the U23 age group at 20 - however, development in other areas has not come through this year, and she has had to leave the team to try and receive it - UAE Development Team has become her preferred and implemented base.
What will it be in 2025? A rejuvenated squad with the cream of the 2006 class. In comes Luca Vierstraete, who could well be a worthy successor to Febe Jooris in TTs in 2025, and who also has the potential to finish at the front in typical Belgian races. Hre also comes Messane Brautigäm, who has finished in the top 10 in almost 70% of her race days this year - we learned from Patrick Frydkjaer's example this year that this doesn't always translate well to the U23 level, but it's a more than encouraging starting point for both parties. We have Nina Lavenu, who has quite a lot of puncheur potential, Amandine Muller, who with her excellent cyclocross skills can be a big help in cobbled races, and most importantly from the AG Insurance point of view, is that these youngsters will be joined by Marith Vanhove from Volkerwessels, who will be a gigantic help for the youngsters, based on her experience and routine, and who will also be able to achieve results in her own right, which she has not been able to do in the last two years. The future is bright for AG Insurance, all in all.
Canyon//SRAM Generation
Now in its third year, the Canyon//SRAM Generation team is a perfectly principled outfit that seeks to promote the integration of cycling in African countries and recruit talent that other teams would sleep on, in other words, would not necessarily sign. The 2024 Canyon squad was made up of 9 riders from 9 countries - and while the project itself is not results-oriented, there are still some positive performances in the current line-up. The team has dominated the African championships. Rwanda's Diane Ingabire, 23, has been her country's RR and ITT champion for the past 3 years, and this year she did both in particularly dominant fashion, also finishing in the top 3 at the continental championships for the first time in her career. Unfortunately, however, the European breakthrough hasn't been able to show up for her yet, with a 32nd place in 1.2 being her best this year, and apart from that she was far from the top positions. The other member of the African contingent, 25-year-old Ese Lovina Ukpeseraye, however, has taken a step forward towards the European dream this year, as her 14th place at the Veenendaal-Veenendaal classics shows. The second half of the season was unfortunately riddled with injuries for her, however the double podium from the African Games showed that she could still be an excellent project - unfortunately as there is no information about the 2025 plans (only that the team itself is alive, moving and will be), this has become very much a moot point at the moment - I'm expressing my hope that this is not the end of her European career.
Belarus' Anastasia Kolesava is a different kettle of fish. The 24-year-old rider left Arkea and a secure ProConti spot to try her hand at the development structure, and it worked out so well that she's earned herself a World Tour spot on the Canyon WWT team for the next two years. Kolesava's profile is modern, she fits in quite well with the punchy part of Canyon, but at the same time she needs to move up a level to really help the team. Nastia has the chance of a lifetime with the team, she needs to take it.
Someone I really don't want to let go from the team just yet is this year's neo-U23 Awen Roberts. Awen has an excellent punchy-climby combo with potential, and has shown it in several high-profile races this year. She could even be a World Tour target in the short term, but that's unlikely to happen at Canyon - I could definitely see a transfer for her.
What are the 2025 plans for the team? Hopefully we will know very soon, there are no riders announced for next year.
Fenix-Deceuninck Development Team
A team that isn't necessarily built for the road sector. Fenix filled their development team with very good cyclocross riders, with whom they ended up doing almost nothing - making the team's otherwise excellent season a bit bittersweet. Still, there were some positives, especially from Ukrainian Olha Kulynych. Kulynych, who has become one of the prominent figures in Ukrainian women's cycling at the end of this season, made her mark with several excellent results at both one-day and stage race level, 8th place in the Tre Valli Varesine in poor conditions being a highlight. Fenix's elite team could perhaps do with a good puncheur, one who could score points alongside Pieterse and Rooijakkers, and Olha could be a strong contender for that role from 2026.
As for the Belgians, Fien van Eynde also started to produce better results in the second half of the season in .1 and .2 Belgian one-day events, but her inclusion in this section is a bit disappointing, as she has put together a significant portion of her race days with the World Tour team. Not so with Anna Vanderaerden, who as a neo-U23, although at national level, has definitely put together a good season and she could be a priority project for Fenix-Development, she could be a very important rider for the franchise in 3-5 years for the classics. The next 2 years Anna spends with the team will tell us a lot about that, but the early signs are positive.
What will happen in 2025? Vanderaerden will be helped by the queens of cx, Bakker, Norbert Riberolle, there will be Kulynych - I expect a full roster coming soonishbut hopefully this will be a very compact lineup with multiple winning chances.
UAE Development Team
Probably the best of this batch. They stand out from this five as much as UAE does from the men's World Tour field. In both numbers and quality, the UAE Women's Development Team has made a formidable team, especially deserving of their current prime position. Who is responsible for this? Ireland's Lara Gillespie, who won Antwerp Port Epic, who won Giro Mediterraneo Rosa, and who showed at World Tour level at the end of the season that she is very deserving of World Tour promotion. Lara is a sprinter to the core, and if you look at the UAE 2025 sprinter roster... with Sofie van Rooijen, the sprints look very sassy for the team - but this will pose serious problems in terms of results and the question of cohesion in the first months, and it part will be key for the two of them.
Let's move on to Sara Fiorin, who will also continue with a World Tour team from 2025 (Ceratizit-WNT), but she has followed the opposite path to Gillespie - this year she has suddenly become a particularly good sprinter as well, especially in the Belgian and Dutch races where Ceratizit has dominated at times this year. While the team has weakened on several fronts, Fiorin's presence could give that project a new impetus, and Sara's skills this year could further strengthen her position next year, culminating in a contract with a future top 5 team and a respectable ranking.
Federica Venturelli was one of last year's standout juniors, leaving many of us curious to see how she copes with her first year as an U23. I report that she did a great job. Venturelli is ultimately a good sprinter, but Federica could be an even better puncheur/climber combo - we don't know her final specialisation yet, however, which is why he's an exciting prospect: we'll find out next year in her second U23 year, when she'll get more opportunities with the elite team. Alongside her, we can also positively point to Federica Piergiovanni, who was excellent at the start of the season but has not been under contract since, Estonian TT champion Elizabeth Ebras and Beatrice Caudera, who performed well at the Belgian Classics.
What will happen in 2025? A complete transformation. Joining the team will be the incredibly talented Spanish climber Paula Blasi, French classic-puncheur combo rider Amalia Debarges, Dutch and Belgian TT specialists Fee Knaven and Febe Jooris, and Eilidh Shaw, who will strengthen the British scene. This also shows that the team is internationalising, which may not be a problem in the long term - I think UAE women's team will start the process of becoming the best team in the world by the end of the decade next year.