In part one of our attempt to prognosticate the upcoming men’s and women’s WorldTour seasons, we looked at which riders we think will most animate the racing. Today, we zoom out a little bit to team- and sport-wide issues, plus pick five members of the men’s peloton to keep an eye on for a breakout year.
Are we wrong? (Joe’s usually wrong; that’s about the only thing we’re sure of.) Tell us how in the comments. And of course, we’ll be back next offseason to tally up the score.
Will FDJ-Suez win a Grand Tour this year?
Not just one, but two (the Vuelta a España Femenina and the Tour de France Femmes). Demi Vollering isn’t the only new face at the French team, and along with Juliette Labous and Elise Chabbey, plus the existing talent the team already had, all signs point to a great season for FDJ-Suez. Vollering will want to win the Tour, and will likely go into the Vuelta in top form post-Ardennes, and FDJ-Suez have made no secret of the fact they want to win a Grand Tour next year. If Vollering can keep her form at the same level she maintained at SD Worx-Protime with the support of FDJ-Suez and their new squad, she can win both races in 2025. –Abby Mickey
Will this be the year One Cycling finally happens?
Nope, but stay tuned. Attempts at reforming pro cycling often die noisy deaths, but One Cycling – the much-discussed, oft-rumored plan to upend the sport with a giant pile of supposedly Saudi dollars – is sort of just quietly moldering in the background. It’s been over a year since plans first surfaced, and as late as last spring, insiders were telling me that it was still active and in fact likely for the 2026 season.
Of course, since 2025 starts [checks notes] next week, they probably better get a move on. What’s the holdup? My educated guess is that it’s the sport itself, which could hardly be bothered to organize a bake sale, much less a wholesale revamp of its business model. There are too many factions, too many little power struggles and petty disagreements for the players to coalesce around one plan. If the Saudis really are serious, they may lose patience eventually and just go directly to the only real power in the sport: Tour de France organizer ASO. But wearing down the French to accept foreign influence over a national treasure is no sure thing. If it happens, it likely won’t be in time for next season. –Joe Lindsey
Whither Lidl-Trek without Elisa Longo Borghini?
It’ll be tough at first, but new signees will step up. Elisa Longo Borghini’s departure will be a blow to the American team in the early months of racing. The 2024 Tour of Flanders winner was a key component of the Lidl-Trek team at both the Classics and the Tours, and without her, they might find they are lacking a presence at the pointy end of races. They have a few new riders who will find success wearing only primary colours, but it might take some time for the team as a whole to figure out how they move forward without the Italian legend.
Who fills ELB’s shoes? Emma Norsgaard’s fun-loving attitude will fit in great with most of the Lidl-Trek team and she could be their woman for some of the Classics. Anna Henderson will also love the new environment and continue to grow as a rider under the leadership of Lizzie Deignan, and Niamh Fisher-Black will find Lidl-Trek a very welcome change from SD Worx-Protime (although her time to shine likely won’t come until the stage races in the summer months). Lidl-Trek will be in a year of rebuilding, all because of the loss of one woman. –AM
Will Visma-Lease a Bike’s men’s team rebound from its awful 2024?
Abso-freakin-lutely. Visma had an absolutely terrible, horrible, no good, very bad season in 2024. After bidding goodbye to Primož Roglič, the team saw the other heads of its Grand Tour hydra felled by poor form and illness (Sepp Kuss) and injury (Jonas Vingegaard) for large chunks of the season. And don’t even get me started on Wout van Aert’s luck. That Vingegaard managed second place at the Tour after only a little over a month of serious training following his recovery from serious injuries in that Itzulia crash is a foreshadowing of what to expect.
After a year when we all obsessed over UAE’s big leap and its supposed jump in sports science sophistication, expect Visma to absolutely smash the prep this offseason and go into the year positively snarling for big wins. Can Vingegaard get back on top in the Tour? You read it here first, but my call is yes. –JL
Can Canyon-SRAM Zondacrypto get Kasia Niewiadoma and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig to gel?
It’ll take a few races but they’ll find their footing. After their success last season, the 2025 Canyon-SRAM (with new partner Zondacrypto) budget allowed for adding two top-name riders in Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Chiara Consonni. The two will change how the team approaches the spring Classics, with Chiara Consonni targeting races like Classic Brugge-De Panne, Gent-Wevelgem, or even Trofeo Alfredo Binda.
Meanwhile, Uttrup will be eyeing most of the same races as Canyon-SRAM Zondacrypto’s longtime leader Niewiadoma. Accommodating the ambitions of both riders has the potential to either go very well (if they work together) or very poorly (if they don’t). Neither rider is used to sharing the spotlight and having each other there might take some getting used to, but by the Ardennes, they will probably know each other well enough to team up against SD Worx-Protime (at least we can hope). –AM
What new rules will the UCI come up with on rider safety?
Mostly ineffective ones. That sounds like snark, but I mean it in a sort of sadder, more hangdog way. There were some very bad crashes in 2024, including two – at Dwars door Vlaanderen and Itzulia – which completely altered the men’s WorldTour season. That’s not to mention Muriel Furrer’s tragic crash death at Road Worlds, coming on the heels of a 2023 season that saw the sport lose Gino Mäder in another high-speed fall. But somehow, although route choices played a major role in the Dwars and Itzulia crashes, and Furrer’s death was arguably avoidable with better oversight and tracking technology, race organizers led by the ASO’s Christian Prudhomme got the idea that the big problem was the riders were going too fast.
The UCI’s response? Damn right. And it started exploring all manner of equipment rule changes to lop a few tenths of a km/h off the average speeds. Shallower rims, smaller gears, and wider tires are all on the table. The 2025 road season is literally days away, but that has never stopped the sport’s governing body from laying down some inane last-minute change, and it would be zero surprise to see, say, a 62 mm cap on rim depths come down the ol’ press-release pipe in the coming days. Will it help? Not much. And what would: more oversight of race route choice, fewer caravan vehicles, and dropping the UCI’s Quixotic quest to get rid of race radios – is sadly not on the agenda. –JL
Will the 2025 Tour de France Femmes top the 2024 edition?
C’mon; this one is low-hanging fruit. With Anna van der Breggen returning, Lotte Kopecky eyeing the Tour, Pauline Ferrand-Prèvot openly saying she will target the French Grand Tour, Vollering’s ambitions with the backing of her new team, and Niewiadoma’s statements about wanting to be the first woman to win three Tours back-to-back the race for yellow in 2025 will be the most competitive Tour so far. Even better: the course isn’t challenging enough to limit the potential yellow jersey winner to a pure climber, which means even more names will pop out of the woodwork in the months leading up to the race. –AM
Will men’s racing see another headline transfer before a contract is up?
Likely. My bet? Remco Evenepoel. The double Olympic champ was the other focus of most of the big transfer rumors the last two years, which he only recently put to bed by saying he would stay with Soudal-Quick Step and that he and his teammates “will work and fight for the biggest goal, that is to one day win the Tour de France.” But he didn’t say how long.
Soudal is changing, with the departure of founder and manager Patrick Lefevere. If – that’s the trick – Evenepoel isn’t confident in new GM Patrick Foré, expect to see a revival of transfer rumors. Ineos is certainly one fit, as PetroJim is pining for a true Grand Tour contender. But my eye is on Red Bull. Ralph Denk has (finally) acknowledged that he had preliminary discussions with Evenepoel. And between Ineos and Red Bull, the latter is clearly the team on the up, with a rising budget, formidable and growing sports science department, and a solid roster. It will also have a need: Primož Roglič is out of contract after 2025 and may not stay, and Evenepoel will have just one year remaining on his deal with Soudal, lowering the cost of a buyout significantly. Absolutely everything in the WorldTour is about whether a team has the resources to support a top rider’s goals. If Remco decides Soudal isn’t that place, he’s gone, and Red Bull is his best option for a new home. –JL
Which teams are in (and out) of the WorldTour?
Women: It’s an easy call to say that EF-Oatly-Cannondale will earn WorldTour status by the end of the season. The American team finished their 2024 campaign ranked 12th, the first non-WorldTeam on the list. They had some notable successes in 2024: Kristen Faulkner’s Olympic victory and Vuelta stage win, Alison Jackson’s Vuelta stage win, Lotta Hentala’s win at Vuelta a Burgos, and Clara Emond winning a stage of the Giro d’Italia all added to the team’s tally. For the new season they’ve added more riders who can secure them points, and if they keep their family feel they will continue building upon the successes of 2024.
While EF-Oatly-Cannondale thrives, Roland and Uno-X Mobility fight for space on the chopping block. Both sit just outside the top 15 UCI teams, and if they aren’t able to secure points they will see their WT license stripped for 2026. Uno-X Mobility has a greater likelihood of holding on for dear life, with the addition of Ingvild Gåskjenn. As of writing, Roland only has eight riders signed for the 2024 season. There’s also a chance both teams drop out of WorldTour status if VolkerWessels decides they would like a shot in the WorldTour. –AM
Men: That’s a trick question. First of all, no, Astana Qazaqstan cannot avoid relegation. It’s currently 21st in the rolling, multi-year team rankings that will decide relegation, dead last in the WorldTour and behind three ProTeams to boot. Mathematically, the team could win all three Grand Tours and – if no other team scored a single point in 2025 – still not accrue enough points to rise past Cofidis, the third-worst WorldTeam. They’re toast. Not that it matters; all they have to do is score enough to ensure they get one of the top ProTeam spots for 2026, which comes with guaranteed invites to all WT events.
Who else joins them? Arkéa-B&B Hotels is the obvious pick. They’re also well behind Cofidis in the standings, and had a horrible offseason in terms of talent departures versus incoming talent. Five of their six new riders for 2025 are from their Continental development team. These guys are such green shoots the team should try to pick up another agribusiness sponsor. But the key is why they didn’t make any big signings: the team is rumored to be on the skids, and may simply fold at the end of the season. If they do, it creates one WT spot without any need for relegation. The best-scoring ProTeam, Lotto-Dstny, is also in some difficult straits. If that trajectory continues for both teams, we could see Israel-Premier Tech and Uno-X Mobility score those last WT spots almost by default. But nothing saves Astana except Jesus Christ himself, and that doesn’t count except in the next life. –JL
Five male riders to watch for a breakout year
Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious): Short preface – this one pains me because I A) despise cruelty to animals and B) didn’t see evidence that Tiberi ever really properly and honestly atoned for that very act. And I’m not alone, as Lidl-Trek apparently felt the same. But Bahrain didn’t care, and were rewarded for that by picking up (likely at a discount) one of the better up-and-coming stage racers in the sport.
Tiberi has just one GC victory to his credit after four seasons in the WorldTour, but he has basically been steadily building that entire time. He was fifth overall at the Giro d’Italia and won the youth classification, and rode well in hilly stage races like Volta a Catalunya and the Tour of the Alps. He was fourth overall at the Vuelta a España before heat stroke forced him out of the race. At Bahrain, he races under the radar and without a lot of pressure, and 2025 could be the year that he notches his first WorldTour wins. Likely stages at first, but maybe more. –JL
Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe): Prior to the Vuelta, had flashed his talent on a handful of occasions. But it was the Spanish Grand Tour – his second GT ever – where he showed his remarkable consistency. Lipowitz was almost always last man for Primož Roglič’s campaign for a fourth victory, and a dependable wheel in the high mountains. As Red Bull looks for riders to develop to succeed the Slovenian, Lipowitz is a homegrown option who could be Germany’s best stage racer in a long time. –JL
Tobias Lund Andresen (Picnic-PostNL): Sprinters often pop up seemingly out of nowhere, but in retrospect the build was always there to see. Andresen could be That Guy in 2025. As a second-year pro in 2024, he was already winning bunch kicks in lower-tier races like the Tour of Turkey and Tour of Denmark. Fields there aren’t as deep, but he’s bested guys like Arnaud De Lie and Danny van Poppel for wins, and is mixing it up in WorldTour sprints with a handful of top-10s. Outside of Fabio Jakobsen, Picnic doesn’t have another sprinter on the roster with this kind of potential, and Jakobsen took just one win in 2024. On a team built for chasing stages, Andresen’s rise is a promising sign for more opportunities in 2025. –JL
Alex Zingle (Visma-Lease a Bike): Zingle is going to be the 2025 season’s answer to the question, “What could (rider X) do on a team with more resources?” And he’s following in the well-established path of Matteo Jorgenson and Christophe Laporte in going to Visma. I don’t expect Matteo/Christophe levels of performance, but Zingle has a pretty decent bunch kick, and he’s solid on punchy climbs. The struggle for Zingle will be where to find those opportunities on such a deep team, but I’m betting that with Visma’s best-in-class level of support he’s going to find a new level that simply wasn’t possible at Cofidis. –JL
Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG): The latest recipient of a massive contract at UAE, the 20-year-old Swiss rider now has to earn that extension (to 2030). I’d say he’s up for it. In 2024 he was knocking around the top five in races just under the WT level, including that solid second place at Milano-Torino (and ninth at the WT-rated San Sebastian). Of note, in both races he was alongside teammate and countryman Marc Hirschi, who is now off to Tudor. UAE is stacked with young talent and every one of them is going to have to fight to prove their worth, but Christen is ideally placed to become the team’s new Hirschi-like points-gobbler. –JL
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