'If you stand still, then you are behind' - Canyon-SRAM manager on the Tour de France Femmes effect, confidence and the need to keep evolving

Just four seconds separated Kasia Niewiadoma and Canyon-SRAM from their biggest-ever victory at the Tour de France Femmes and the obscurity of finishing second last August. That winning margin, the narrowest in Tour history, men's or women's, not only cemented the Polish rider into cycling history but also exponentially expanded the German team's potential from a sporting and business perspective.

Since 2019, the women's side of the sport has seen dramatic growth in professionalism, salaries, the calendar itself, and the depth of rider quality. However, the biggest change is perhaps the addition of the Tour de France Femmes. 

By bringing the TDF name in a stage-race format back into women's cycling, unseen since 1989, it has opened up the prestige of cycling's greatest race to all. With a 111-year history for men, the Tour de France is significantly bigger than any other event, both from an international attention, reputation and marketing standpoint, and that has rung true since the inaugural Tour de France Femmes in 2022.

In winning the fabled yellow jersey, Canyon-SRAM are the latest team to experience what this brings, which, as the financial demands of women's cycling inflate in line with its overall growth, is as essential as ever.

Cyclingnews sat down with team manager Ronny Lauke back at Canyon-SRAM's December training camp in Portugal to discuss all things Tour de France Femmes, rediscovering winning confidence and the team's new title sponsor Zondacrypto.

"To keep developing is part of our world. If you stand still, then you are behind," Lauke told Cyclingnews. 

"In anything in the business world, wherever you look, the world keeps developing. This counts for us as well as a Women's WorldTour team because the product of the WWT, especially with the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwfit, has become a very visible marketing tool. 

"Tour de France itself, the name, is the strongest brand cycling can offer and to be associated with this raises a lot of interest. The companies involved in the sport say 'We have a women's team, we want to shine at the Tour, and we need the best riders.'

"This raises demand on the market, and at the moment, the top-class riders are still limited. However, we have seen tremendous growth in depth and quality in the women's field because many more women are able to focus on the sport and make it a full-time job which was not been the case even four or five years ago."

Lauke has experience spanning more than 15 years working in women's cycling, first at Team Columbia Women back in 2008 which has transitioned into the Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto team we know today. Having lived through these changes first-hand, he also believes it won't be slowing down anytime soon.

"I think it has just started. In my opinion, we will see the attractiveness of the sport growing in the coming years because of the depth and that will create more interesting and nail-biting bike races," said Lauke. 

"I'm looking forward to it, but it also requires additional funding because good riders have become more expensive and that's the reason the business part of a cycling team needs to grow further.

"What we have these days for the riders… coaches, doctors, physiotherapists, osteopaths and chefs, that's it's pretty cool and it's the same for all the big teams. But from our team's perspective, the business side needs to go further, so that we don't lose ground to our competitors."

Winning the Tour de France itself didn't specifically allow Canyon to gain another sponsor, those conversations were already ongoing, however, it certainly didn't harm negotiations with the Zondacrypto, a regulated cryptocurrency exchange marketplace from Poland. 

Lauke also confirmed that securing a three-year deal with a new sponsor wasn't a requirement for survival but part of trying to stay ahead in the sport.

"We would not have been in trouble, we were secure. All of our partners we had from the beginning were committed to the team already long before the Tour and they want to continue the journey.

"We had conversations with [Zondacrypto] already, before the Tour. 

"What it did allow us is we could add one or two more riders. We could offer a few more training camps to the riders and it allows us to work more in detail to create an even better infrastructure and better guidance for the riders throughout the season."

Heading back to the Tour de France Femmes as defending champions

Personnel-wise, Lauke's team has grown in quality for 2025, by adding the likes of all-rounder Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, sprinter Chiara Consonni and Unbound Gravel champion Rosa Klöser. Alongside their key leaders Niewiadoma and Chloé Dygert, they also have developing stars in Neve Bradbury and Antonia Niedermaier.

When they head back to the Tour in its usual July slot later this season, this depth will be vital against GC favourites Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx-Protime). But buoyed by their victory, Lauke is hopeful 2024 won't be a highlight but the start of something bigger.

"I mean depth within your team is definitely helpful because you can create a tactical approach that is unpredictable towards your opponents," said Lauke. 

"If one rider has a bad day, then another can step in, so it gives you many more opportunities, and I'm pretty confident we will have a very competitive group again at the Tour de France Femmes next year. 

"We're looking forward to it and I want to say that, we won the Tour this year. We have it in our pocket. We are happy about it, and we see it as a blessing. 

"But it doesn't create additional pressure for us. We will go to the Tour knowing that we have managed to bring the yellow Jersey home this year, and that once you manage it one time, then why not another time again?"

After all, their champion Niewiadoma only returned to winning ways on the road after a five-year drought of near-misses by winning La Flèche Wallonne in April, which she credited after her victory at the Tour, alongside her triumph at the Gravel World Championships in 2023. 

Both contributed to a freeing up of the tension of losing, finally allowing her to win again and on the biggest stage no less. Niewiadoma may not have won a stage and yes, her time gained was due to Vollering crashing on stage 5. But when the pressure came on Alpe d'Huez and she got dropped, her composure rose to the top and she got the job done.

"Winning the Tour does something to the riders. It gives them additional confidence when they're in this team, knowing, 'OK, we could manage it,'" Lauke said. 

"It gives confidence to Kasia [Niewiadoma] herself also that she already won it once. Even if there's no pressure from the team, high-performance athletes always put pressure on themselves. 

"But she knows she did it once in her life, which many high-profile riders will never achieve. She has that one thing in her pocket, and another time would be good, but if it's not to be, she still has that one and I think that also does something with your mind."

Addressing an inbuilt confidence problem

Inspiring this winning confidence is something Lauke admits is super important for Canyon-SRAM, who have long been one of the top six teams in women's cycling but have struggled for victories.

Between 2019 and 2023, their wins dried up. Dygert coming back from long spells of injury and illness to win a stage at the RideLondon Classique ended a four-year dry spell. In 2024 they only won six races but five were at WorldTour level, however, this is well away from SD Worx-Protime's 64 victories or Lidl-Trek's 17.

With a newfound depth, Lauke is hoping to win bigger and more often, and they've got off to a good start at the Tour Down Under with Dygert winning a stage. But that deficit of 58 wins to the Dutch team is something they'll want to eat into throughout the coming year.

"It is important to win more. In the end, winning bike races as a high-performance team is the essence of the professional sport," said the team boss.

"When we look at coming back to the depth of the team, in terms of rider quality, we have the possibility and ability to make changes and adjustments from two years ago when our budget grew.

"It was always a budget thing and with the growth of the budget, we could hire different riders who have more quality, without being disrespectful to any individual we had before, you could see the results were better – we had more top 10s, more podiums."

Lauke also revealed that a lack of confidence has been a team-wide issue in recent years, with inspiring belief essential to their strategy going forward. Winning the Tour should change things, however.

"In winning, you can be as strong as you want, but there are many aspects which have to come together and one of them is confidence, which we have always had a problem with our riders," he said.

"Although we try to support them, we try to tell them how good and strong they are, the majority of our riders had a confidence problem in our team. This is what we need to work hard on to change because there's no need for any of them to have a confidence problem.

"They are highly talented and have achieved a lot in their career. I think with these new additions, we have an even better team.

"At least, in every position we are backed up by another strong rider. We have world-class time triallists, we have world-class climbers, we have world-class puncheurs and we have world-class sprinters. It's at least two of them in each in each department and this gives us confidence that we will win more bike races in the future."