3 questions facing each Women's WorldTeam ahead of season restart

UCI Women's Teams racing on the 2019 Women's WorldTour

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Many of the women's teams will be back in action at the restart of the revised Women's WorldTour calendar, which is set to include 15 events between August 1 and November 8.

Only one Women's WorldTour race took place – the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in February – before the racing season was shut down in March due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

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Italian road race champion Marta Bastianelli (Alé BTC Ljubljana) – pictured at the 2020 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – is one of only very few mothers in the women’s professional peloton — Italian road race champion Marta Bastianelli (Alé BTC Ljubljana) – pictured at the 2020 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad(Image credit: Bettini Photo)

Marta Bastianelli left her long-time team Ale Cipollini for pastures new last year at Virtu Cycling. When the Danish outfit folded, however, it left her without a contract and she was welcomed back to the newly named for Alé BTC Ljubljana for 2020. The Italian road race national champion is one of the strongest one-day racers in the peloton, and got off to a good start with a victory at Vuelta CV Feminas and double second places at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Omloop van het Hageland before the season was cancelled due to COVID-19.

Alé BTC Ljubljana was one of the first teams to commit to securing a four-year WorldTeam licence, and now it's time to prove they belong in the top ranks. It's almost a brand new team as they added Slovenian company BTC as a second title sponsor. A handful of riders from the former BTC Ljubljana squad came over to join Bastianelli: Tatiana Guderzo, Eri Yonamine and Mavi Garcia. Overall, the team has some proven talent that will shine in the one-day races.

A surprise signing was Mavi Garcia from the Movistar Women's Team. The Spanish all-rounder has spent most of her career racing for Spanish outfits such as Bizkaia-Durango and Movistar. She is a powerful overall contender that has secured second places at the Tour de Yorkshire, the Tour de l’Ardeche, and third overall at the Vuelta a Burgos and fifth overall at the Emakumeen Bira. She's missing that big win, and a new team with a fresh environment might make all the difference.

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Kasia Niewiadoma(Image credit: Getty Images)

Kasia Niewiadoma has been on the podium at Strade Bianche on four consecutive occasions but has never stood on the top step. It's one of her favourite races of the year, and always a target, but she been beaten to the finish line by Lizzie Deignan (2016), Elisa Longo Borghini (2017), Anna van der Breggen (2018) and Annemiek van Vleuten (2019). The Italian Women's WorldTour race was postponed in March due to COVID-19 but was rescheduled to kick off the revised calendar on August 1. Look out for Niewiadoma to race for the win in Siena.

Canyon-SRAM have 15 returning riders from the previous year, with the only new signing being 2019 Zwift Academy winner Jessica Pratt. Team owner Ronny Lauke believes that keeping the core roster intact has built a strong foundation based on trust and growing experiences. The team was looking to secure 20 victories this year with a higher ratio of Women's WorldTour wins. The revised WWT calendar now features only 15 events, and so the team, like most teams, might be satisfied just to start a race this year.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot has been contracted to race with Canyon-SRAM since 2017 but has had a primary focus on mountain biking in the last couple of years. She is the reigning mountain bike world champion, and a former road and cyclo-cross world champion. Although she is focused on the mountain bike World Cup calendar and the Tokyo Olympic Games, with most of the top-tier off-road series cancelled and the Olympic Games postponed until next year, perhaps we will see Ferrand-Prévot start a few road races, and maybe even the first-ever women's Paris-Roubaix.

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Marianne Vos(Image credit: Getty Images)

It was one of her strongest seasons since returning from a hiatus in 2016. The revised calendar has effectively placed all of the major races of the year into three months, and so Vos, like everyone else, will have to pick and choose which events to focus on. That means she may not have an opportunity to amass as many victories this year. Cyclingnews understands that she will target races like the Giro Rosa and the inaugural Paris-Roubaix.

CCC-Liv have hired retired pro Lars Boom as the team's new performance manager. His role is specifically designed to support the team, including Marianne Vos, in its bid to win the first-ever women's Paris-Roubaix on October 25. He will lead the team at two separate recons of the unique cobblestone sectors of 'The Hell of the North', and give the riders his top tips for positioning, anticipation and equipment. Boom also hopes to sit in the team car alongside directeur sportif Jeroen Blijlevens to help with the tactics as the race plays out.

When CCC decided to end its sponsorship of the men's WorldTour team, concern also shifted to the CCC-Liv programme, with questions about whether the Polish footwear company would continue as title sponsor. The teams are two separate entities, and a spokesperson for CCC-Liv has assured media that sponsorship contracts have been paid and are fully up-to-date. That's good news for the 2020 season, but the question still remains: will CCC financially back the women's programme in 2021?

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Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig(Image credit: Getty Images)

The team launched in 2008 and has now become one of the top teams in the world thanks to committed sponsors and devotion to developing young talent. In recent years, the team has proven that it is capable of consistently finishing inside the top 10 at major events, placing them inside the top 15 teams in the world ranking. Securing a WorldTeam licence and signing a rider like Uttrup Ludwig has given the team the potential to go for those big race wins this year.

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A delighted Annemiek Van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) celebrates winning the 2020 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad — Annemiek van Vleuten(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)

Annemiek van Vleuten closed out last season with a 105km solo breakaway performance that netted her the victory in the elite women's road race at the UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire. The cycling world expected her to arrive into this season with the best possible form, especially after she had put in more hours than most on the bike during the off-season. She did not disappoint with a season-opening victory at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad – her first in the rainbow jersey. The season shut down almost immediately after that win, leaving many to wonder if she would re-do all that preparation over again to dominate the revised calendar between August 1 and November 8. Van Vleuten says she's ready to re-start with a focus on Strade Bianche, the Giro Rosa and her defence at the World Championships.

Amanda Spratt has been so close to winning a spring Classic in the last three years that she can almost taste it. She has a love of the Ardennes Classics, and has stood on the podium at the Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. This year, the Ardennes Classics will be held in the autumn with a complete turnaround: Flèche Wallonne will be held on September 30, Liège-Bastogne-Liège on October 4 and Amstel Gold will close out the series on October 10.

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Movistar Team Women(Image credit: Movistar Team)

The team initially had a focus on developing Spanish talent on home soil, and they were successful with three victories – all in Spain – last year. The revised calendar will kick off at the three one-day races – the Emakumeen Nafarroako Klasikoa, the Clasica Femenina Navarra and the Durango-Durango Emakumeen Saria – at the end of July, so expect strong performances from Movistar. However, with a new roster that includes more international talent, watch for their continued progress on the Women's WorldTour.

The team retained its core of Spanish riders but took the steps to bring in a more international roster this year. They hired a series of riders from the former Ale Cipollini and Virtu Cycling teams, including sprinter Jelena Eric, climber Katrine Aalerud and experienced road captain Barbara Guarischi. This roster raises the level of the team in a way that was necessary to be competitive on the Women's WorldTour.

For a brief moment, Movistar Team Women had closed a two-year deal with one of the brightest up-and-coming talents in pro cycling, Sofia Bertizzolo. Not only did the Italian round out a more international roster, but she also gave them a solid leader to develop and support in the finals of the Women's WorldTour events. As it turned out, legal constraints prevented Bertizzolo from going ahead with the Spanish outfit, and she ended up agreeing to a contract with CCC-Liv instead. Movistar chose not to fill that spot on the roster, but have maintained their commitment to steady progress at the highest level of the sport.

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Lorena Wiebes in her new Team Sunweb colours — Lorena Wiebes(Image credit: Team Sunweb)

She chose to sign a nearly five-year deal with Team Sunweb that will see her through to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The Dutch champion secured 16 victories last year and is one of the fastest sprinters in the world. She joins a team that includes punchy sprinters like Coryn Rivera and Leah Kirchmann. While all three are fast, they each specialise in different types of courses and sprint finals. Rivera has proven strongest on challenging and hilly terrain, such as the Tour of Flanders; Kirchmann is an all-rounder and a strong time triallist. What Wiebes brings to the table is a sprint that is almost unchallenged on flat and fast finishes. The revised calendar has plenty of racing to go around, and so the addition of Wiebes will only help to raise the level of their game this autumn.

Liane Lippert won the first race on the 2020 Women's WorldTour at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race before the cycling season was shut down due to the coronavirus. The top-tier calendar will resume at Strade Bianche on August 1 when Lippert – if selected to compete – will finally be able to wear the prestigious series leader's jersey. She leads the series with 400 points, with Astana's Arlenis Sierra in second place with 320 points and Amanda Spratt in third place with 260 points. With all the major races packed into just three months, the leader's jersey could change hands often.

Juliette Labous is one of the strongest up-and-coming climbers and overall contenders in the peloton. She's only 21 but has been quietly developing on Team Sunweb since 2017. In that time, she has finished inside the top 10 overall at the Tour of California, the Ladies Tour of Norway and the Tour de Yorkshire. The most telling result, however, is her 11th place at the 10-day Giro Rosa last year against riders of the highest calibre. The Giro Rosa, normally held in July, has been moved to September 11-19 as part of the revised calendar. The organisers haven't revealed the route yet, but if it's another mountainous affair, it could be Labous' year to crack the top 10.

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Lizzie Deignan(Image credit: Getty Images)

Lizzie Deignan made her return to the peloton at the beginning of last year following the birth of her first child. Trek-Segafredo have backed her pursuit to win a second world title and a gold medal at the Olympic Games. She originally signed a two-year deal with the intent to retire after the Tokyo Olympic Games. However, with the event postponed to next summer and the UCI Road World World Championships set to take place in Belgium at the end of 2021, she'll likely be targeting those events and looking for a contract renewal that will see her racing for potentially another full season.

Trek-Segafredo were ecstatic to announced the signing of Elynor Backstedt to the team in 2020. It was her first professional contract out of the junior ranks, and she was looking forward to testing her legs in the cobbled Classics, while also learning from her more veteran teammates. Unfortunately, the 18-year-old crashed while mountain biking this spring and sustained a fractured tibia. Most of the major one-day races on the Women's WorldTour have been moved to the autumn, but it's unclear if she will be recovered enough to compete this season.

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Anna van der Breggen(Image credit: Getty Images)

The team did not secure a WorldTeam licence because, during the application process last year, they were still in search of new title sponsors after Boels Rental and Dolmans announced they would both end their contracts with the team after the 2020 season. The team found a replacement sponsor in SD Worx, and they plan on applying for a top-tier licence for 2021, but do they really need it? The team will be invited to every WorldTour race on the calendar due to their overall world ranking. Despite being a tier lower than the eight WorldTeams, they are still the strongest team in the world.

Anna van der Breggen announced in May that she will retire at the end of 2021 and move into a sports director role at SD Worx. She has won almost everything there is to win in professional bike racing: a gold medal in the road race and a bronze medal in the time trial at the 2016 Olympic Games, the road race world champion's title in 2018 and the Giro Rosa in 2015 and 2017. She's also the five-time consecutive winner of Flèche Wallonne (2015-2019), is twice the winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège (2017-18), and the winner of the Amstel Gold Race in 2017 and the Tour of Flanders in 2018.

Boels Dolmans signed Belgian sprinter Jolien D'hoore for the 2019 season to bolster the Classics squad. Her spring campaign was derailed, however, by a broken collarbone, but she came back to win a stage of the Emakumeen Bira and two stages at the OVO Energy Women's Tour. She was looking forward to showcasing her sprint at the spring Classics this year but the racing was shut down due to COVID-19. Look for D'hoore on the start line of all the major one-day Classics, including Tour of Flanders, a home race that she has always wanted to win.

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TIELTWINGE BELGIUM MARCH 01 Teniel Campbell of Trinidad and Tobago and Team Valcar Travel Service during the 16th Spar Omloop Van Het Hageland 2020 Women Elite a 130km race from Tienen to TieltWinge LottoCyclingCup BELCycling on March 01 2020 in TieltWinge Belgium Photo by Luc ClaessenGetty Images — Teniel Campbell(Image credit: Getty Images)

Valcar-Travel & Service have signed one of the biggest talents in the sport in Teniel Campbell. She has enormous ambition in pro cycling, including winning a major one-day race and a world title, breaking world records and winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games. Hailing from Trinidad and Tobago, she is currently living in Bottanuco, Italy, and preparing for her first season with the Italian team.

Valcar-Travel & Service have an average age of 21.8, which includes the youngest, Federica Damiana Piergiovanni, at 18, and the oldest, Ilaria Sanguineti, at 26. Sanguineti is certainly the most experienced rider on the team, and has been successful with two stage wins and overall victory at the Tour de Bretagne Féminin, and podium finishes at Pajot Hills and a stage at the Ladies Tour of Norway.

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The Équipe Paule Ka 2020 kit — Equipe Paule Ka’s new kit(Image credit: Équipe Paule Ka )

The newly named Equipe Paule Ka was one of the most talked about teams of the spring. Formerly called Bigla-Katusha, the team faced financial uncertainty when Bigla informed them that they wished to withdraw 100 per cent of funding, with the Katusha clothing brand also temporarily struggling to pay sponsorship money, citing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its business. The team started a crowd-funding campaign, but ultimately Paule Ka stepped in and signed a four-year deal to sponsor the team through 2024.

Clara Koppenburg spent four years with the Bigla programme before moving to WNT-Rotor last year. She won the overall title at the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana, and finished fourth overall at the Tour of California, seventh overall at the Tour de Bretagne and fifth overall at the Giro Toscana. It was a successful year, and she decided to return to the Bigla team in a leadership position for the 2020 season.

Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.

Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.

She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.