Women's WorldTour 2024 - Comprehensive team-by-team guide

Demi Vollering (SD Worx) in the breakaway at La Fleche Wallonne Feminine (Image credit: Getty Images)

In a reset of the Women's WorldTeams, the UCI have awarded 15 new licences for the 2024-2025 seasons, with AG Insurance-Soudal and Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling moving up to the top tier for the first time.

This season was the end of the first-ever promotion/relegation cycle for the Women's WorldTour, and there were 16 applicants for 15 Women's WorldTour licences available, with Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi missing out.

There are three new signings in 2024, with Julie Van de Velde joining the team from Fenix-Deceuninck and multi-time African Continental Champion Kimberley Le Court. A last-minute decision saw the team secure Sarah Gigante, who mutually agreed to end her contract with Movistar early. The Australian brings her powerful time trial and climbing strengths to the squad, and should shine in the mountainous stage races.

Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, who intended to retire last year, made a decision to lead the AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep. In what has been one of her best career moves, Moolman-Pasio has reignited her drive to succeed with wins at Tour de Romandie, Setmana Valenciana, Durango Emakumeen Saria, Tour Féminin International des Pyrénées, top-10s in the Ardennes Classics, third overall at Vuelta a Burgos and sixth overall at the Tour de France Femmes.

Entering a fifth season on the Women’s WorldTour, Canyon-SRAM Racing continues with a solid roster of veterans - Kasia Niewiadoma, Elise Chabbey and even Chloe Dygert. Next season, look for a surge from a flock of young talent, as nine of the 15 riders start the season at 23 years of age or younger. The German duo of Antonia Niedermeier, 20, and Ricarda Bauernfeind, 23, who graduated to the WorldTour last year from the team’s development squad, wasted no time in making impressions and are expected to do more.

Bauernfeind became the youngest stage winner of the Tour de France Femmes with a solo victory on the third day of racing last year. Niedermeier attacked late on stage 5 of the Giro d’Italia Donne and held off Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) for the victory. Furthemore, Niedermaier won two time trials in 2023, including the German U23 title, while Bauernfeind climbed her way to sixth overall at Tour de Romandie Féminin. They are a formidable duo.

The most recent call-up from the Canyon-SRAM Generation squad is another young German, Justyna Czapla. The teenager, who turns 20 in January, captured seven top 10s last year, including a bronze medal at nationals in the women’s U23 ITT. She has already embraced the longer distances of elite courses, noting that her eighth place at the 126.9km reVolta UCI 1.1 race was her biggest highlight. Expect her to shine in a support role this year.

Zoe Bäckstedt, also just 19, was one of the big signings for the German WorldTeam in advance of the 2024 season. She has already won Junior World Championship titles on the track, in cyclocross and on the road, winning both the women’s junior ITT and road race rainbow jerseys in 2022. So when EF Education-TIBCO-SVB folded in 2023, Canyon-SRAM signed her for three years, beginning in September last year and she impressed with fifth overall at Simac Ladies Tour.

French time trial champion Cédrine Kerbaol was the biggest addition to the team this past season and will continue to develop at just 22 years of age. Early in the season she won a stage and the GC title at tour de Normandie Féminin, scored top 10s in three more stage races and rode into the best young rider jersey on her first appearance at the Tour de France Femmes. At that race she proved she could climb with the best and was aggressive across all types of terrain.

Newcomer Jaskulska raced four seasons with the Liv programme. At 23, the Polish rider has three ITT bronze medals in her national championships, finishing behind teammate Lach the last two seasons. She performs well in one-day races, with top 15s at Classic Brugge-De Panne and Dwars door Vlaanderen in 2023, and adds depth to a young team of all riders in their 20s who are out to prove they belong at the top tier.

They will likely share leadership at Grand Tours and the hillier Classics in 2024, but also have Grace Brown who can feature on a range of parcours and took the most wins of her career. This included three at WorldTour level and she remains one of the best individual time trial riders in the world. Loes Adegeest also added another dimension to their attack, taking her brilliance in Esports cycling to the road at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race with victory there.

In their second season as a Women’s WorldTour team, the Human Powered Health squad improved 13 spots in the year-end UCI team rankings from the inaugural jump to the top tier. The boost was in large part due to some notable success for Polish rider Daria Pikulik, who had a stage victory at Santos Tour Down Under, a one-day win at Konvert Koerse and made her GC title at the Tour of Guangxi in October the icing on the cake for the season.

A two-time US national champion, Edwards is a wild card, having stepped away from a decorated road career in 2021 and built endurance at off-road events, including second place at Leadville MTB 100. The eight-time French champion had an unsettled start to her 2023, but settled in at HPH in April this past season. A now-stable environment, and an Olympic Games year in her home nation, gives Cordon-Ragot huge incentives to perform at her best.

Fellow US rider Krista Doebel-Hickok is one of nine new riders on the squad for 2024, and she should make an immediate impact. The California native is a pure climber who won the Tour Féminin des Pyrénées in 2022 and has ridden well on mountain stages at the Tour de France Femmes and Giro d’Italia Donne. She will pack a formidable 1-2 punch when racing with Edwards, but also with WorldTour debutante Yuliia Biriukova.

Last season’s best individual performer was Ruby Roseman-Gannon, who ignited the year in January with the GC victory at Bay Crits, fourth overall at Santos Tour Down Under, and then had five top 20s at spring Classics in Europe, including fifth at Dwars door Vlaanderen. She continued with strong stage racing performances and should prove to be a key asset for the team’s newest signing, Mavi García.

Five-time Spanish champion García provides GC strength for any stage race, having a pair of GC top 10s at the Giro d’Italia Donne in the last two seasons, including third overall in 2022. A proven climber, she will have four teammates in tow from her Liv season last year - Jeanne Korevaar, Silke Smulders, Quinty Ton, and Caroline Andersson - so she won’t really feel like she’s on a new team.

Gone to Movistar is Claire Steels, who was the top performer for the squad last year, but not far behind was Tamara Dronova-Balabolina. The 30-year-old can power across all types of hilly terrain on one-day races and never seems to falter in stage races. She finished on the podium on four of five days at Ruta del Sol late in the spring and was third on GC. Late in the season she finished sixth at Tre Valli Varesine women’s race.

It’s an Olympic year and Canadian Maggie Coles-Lyster has aspirations on the track, but she should be able to contribute with her first full season at Roland Cycling, and one without distractions from the collapse of B&B Hotels and then more turmoil with Zaaf Cycling. That is all in the past and the strong sprinter will look to continue strong results on the road, having finished fourth at Tour of Guangxi.

Notably returning to the peloton this year is former World Champion Chantal van den Broek-Blaak, who has taken time away from the sport on maternity leave. The Dutch rider is one of the most prolific winners in the Spring Classics, having secured titles at Amstel Gold Race, Strade Bianche, Gent-Wevelgem, Ronde van Drenthe, Omloop Het Niewsblad and Tour of Flanders. Watch for her to boost the team's already hugely successful Classics squad.

The team also relies heavily on their three top riders: Tour de France winner Demi Vollering, World Champion Lotte Kopecky and world's top sprinter Lorena Wiebes. It will be a top priority for the team to win a second consecutive Tour de France title but Kopecky will aim to strengthen her own wild-card role in the one-day races and stage races wearing the rainbow jersey as well as place a focus on road and track racing at the Olympic Games. Lorena Wiebes will dominate the sprints, but watch as she continues to evolve into a major player (and a winner) in the hilly one-day races and stage races alike.

Silvia Persico returns as the leader of UAE Team ADQ for a second season having posted a steady string of top results last year, including a signature win at De Brabantse Pijl in April. At the UAE Tour Women, an important home race for her team, she finished third overall. She was eighth overall at the Tour de France Femmes and fifth overall at Tour de Romandie before taking the silver medal at the UCI Gravel World Championships to showcase her talents.

There are four new riders in 2023 - Anastasia Carbonari, Tereza Neumanova, Karlijn Swinkels and Dominika Wlodarczyk, who is the youngest at 22. Watch out for the young Polish rider who compiled a staggering 25 top 10s with a Continental squad last season. Wlodarczyk won a stage and the overall at the under-23 Watersley Womens Challenge, plus she took first or second GC places in three other stage races. At the 1.1 GP du Morbihan Femmes, she finished third behind Grace Brown and Cédrine Kerboal. She has noted all-around abilities and is a rising star.

The young Finn Ahtosalo is one of the most promising riders in the women's peloton and finished in the top ten of WorldTour level sprint stages throughout last season, perhaps best showing her strength with a podium finish at Binche Chimay Binche pour Dames. She's both the national time trial and road race champion in Finland and at 20 has lots more to give with her long-term future secured at Uno-X Mobility until 2027.

James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.