Good day and thank you for opening this week’s edition of the Wheel Talk Newsletter! I was out last week with a nasty bug, but thankfully I recovered in time to watch Tour de Romandie. Three fantastic stages, a lot to talk about, and a lot of questions left on the table regarding next season. Lotte Kopecky is even more of a GC threat after her overall win, and with Anna van der Breggen coming back, will SD Worx-Protime still be the top team in 2025? It sure looks like it. And what team is Demi Vollering riding for?? It seems like we will have to wait a bit longer to find out.
Wheel Talk
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I’ve already mentioned the four big new signings for Lidl-Trek. Emma Norsgaard, Niamh Fisher-Black, Anna Henderson and Riejanne Markus will join the American team through 2027 and will add to both the stage-racing team and Classics squad.
Other teams have slowly started to roll out their new signings, Human Powered Health have four new additions (so far) in Carlotta Cipressi, Kathrin Schweinberger, Yurani Blanco and Maggie Coles-Lyster. With their history of signing North American riders Coles-Lyster’s signing makes perfect sense. The Canadian track rider has improved her sprinting on the road with Roland the past two seasons but will find herself more at home on HPH’s team.
As for Blanco, the Spanish rider comes to HPH from Laboral Kutxa-Fundacion Euskadi. She is perhaps best known this year for her gutsy performances at the Spanish National Championship road race where she finished second and GP Ciudad de Eibar in May where she won. Schweinberger is an excellent addition to the team and will bring her attacking style and some needed results. This year she won Dwars Door de Westhoek ahead of Lauretta Hanson and two national-level Austrian one-days. Cipressi joins the team from UAE’s Development team where she spent the last two seasons after riding for Valcar Travel & Service in 2022.
Uno-X Mobility has also strengthed its roster for next season with the notable addition of Ingvild Gåskjenn – who turned heads in the spring – plus Linda Zanetti, Mia Gjertsen and Alberte Greve. Gåskjenn’s most impressive result was third in the Amstel Gold Race but she went on to perform well at the Vuelta a España Femenina on hilly terrain. She’s been around for a few years and joined the Australian team after six years with Hitec Products. Returning to a Norwegian team will be a great move not only for Gåskjenn but also for the team. Uno-X has been in the WorldTour for a few years but has yet to reach the level they originally aimed for; hopefully, these new signings will see the team continue to progress.
Liv AlUla Jayco may be losing Gåskjenn but they will gain Amber van der Hulst, who will make the step up from the team’s Continental side to the WorldTour outfit, and Josie Talbot. Talbot has spent a few years hopping around European teams, with her last two seasons at Cofidis. Like Gåskjenn, it will be a nice change for Talbot to return to an Australian team.
Two British riders were the first additions to Movistar. Carys Lloyd and Cat Ferguson come to the Spanish team from smaller outfits. For Lloyd, Movistar will be her first real team. She spent some time on Tofauti Everyone Active’s Junior team in 2023, but the 17-year-old raced mostly for the British national team at the junior level this season. Ferguson raced for Shibden Apex RT this year and had a string of impressive results in cyclocross and road. She won overall at Omloop Borsele Juniors, Tour du Gévaudan Occitaine, and Bizkaikoloreak Juniors plus stages at all three races. At Bizkaikoloreak she won both stages and both the mountains and overall classifications.
On Tuesday Movistar announced they will also pick up fan favourite Ana Vitoria Magalhães of Brazil. The Bepink-Bongioanni rider, known as Tota, was on the attack in a few of the Giro stages this year, and almost took the win on the second stage. She had over three minutes advantage going into the final 20 km of the race, and was only caught in the final 2 km. At 23 years old she has a lot of potential and will hopefully find a way to use it in her two years at Movistar.
In addition to the return of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Visma-Lease a Bike announced two youngsters would join their team next year as well: Imogen Wolff and Viktória Chaldonová. Wolff guest-rode on the Dutch team this year already at La Choralis Fourmies, a UCI 1.1-rated event over the weekend. Chaldonová has a few wins under her belt, some at the junior level and some national level races in her home country of Slovakia. She recently won the Junior World Championships XCO event in Andorra as well.
FDJ-Suez has yet to announce the one signing we have all been waiting for if rumours are true, but they have announced the additions of Juliette Labous (back before the Tour), Ally Wollaston and Célia Gery. Gery is one of the few juniors the French team have picked up. In years past they have been more focused on stacking their roster with established names, but the Frenchwoman joins the team after winning both French ITT and RR junior titles in May plus the cyclocross Junior World Championships.
There are still many moves to be announced in the coming weeks. A few riders are leaving Lidl-Trek like Elisa Longo Borghini; Marlen Reusser is rumoured to be leaving SD Worx-Protime, etc. And of course, SD Worx-Protime has yet to announce a single new signing apart from Anna van der Breggen. The math isn’t mathing over there with the number of riders leaving so they will surely be picking up some new names. So far even with some big moves announced, the transfer market has been tame … chaos is definitely on the horizon.
Racing continues…
At the European Championships!
First, there’s the World Championships, then there’s the National Championships, and then there’s Europeans: three races that have a fancy jersey on offer for an entire year. The rainbow jersey is definitely the most coveted and the nationals hold a special place for a lot of riders, in comparison the Euros are relatively new to the game, but the blue and white jersey has been passed around by some legends and the race is growing in prestige.
Last year we saw a real battle between the Dutch, with Mischa Bredewold ultimately going with her gut and against team plans to win the race over Lorena Wiebes. This year it’s a sprinter race, with all eyes on Wiebes (NED), Elisa Balsamo (ITA), Clara Copponi (FRA) and a few other lower-level sprinters. Like the Worlds, Europeans are national teams but unlike the Worlds, Europeans have larger team sizes so Italy is rocking up with eight riders, along with the Netherlands, Poland, and Belgium. Spain and Germany have seven.
It’s not just the Elite races to watch out for! The Euros is a great place for talent spotting in both the U23 and Junior categories.
Basic Information
Coverage: Races will be streamed live on Discovery+/Eurosport in the UK and EU. No coverage is available in the US, Canada, or Australia.
Time Trials:
Women’s Junior ITT: September 11 @ 9:00 CET, 13.3 km/ 43 m
U23 ITT: September 11 @ 11:45 CET, 31.2 km/ 135 m
Elite ITT: Sept 11 @ 15:00 CET, 31.2 km/ 135 m
Road Races:
Junior RR: Sept 15 @ 9:00 CET, 72.9/ 236 m
U23 RR: Sept 13 @ 9:00 CET, 101.4 m/330 m
Elite Women: Sept 14 @ 13:30 CET, 162 km/ 905 m
Courses
The time trial is technical and fast, with some twists and turns straight out of the gate. It starts on the Zolder motor racing circuit before twisting around the smaller towns north of Hasselt, Belgium where the race finishes. There are only a few stretches of calm with limited turns, the longest of which is the road from Stokrooie into Hasselt.
The road race also starts on the Zolder race track before heading to Hasselt where the finish will be, but before the final circuit in Hasselt, the women will race south to another circuit that contains two sectors of cobbles and two climbs. The first cobbled sector of the circuit is 101.9 km into the race and is pretty short, but the second sector is 1.4 km in length and soon after the first.
The two climbs come next. First the Kolmontberg, a 700-metre-long ascent of 3.5%, then the Zammelenberg at 2.5 km long, 5% maximum.
Neither of the cobbled sectors or the climbs are that hard but the women will tackle the circuit containing them twice, so the four obstacles will wear on the legs and cut down on team sizes. There is one more minor cobbled sector on the way back up to Hasselt before they finish the race with two laps of a city circuit.
Full rosters haven’t been released yet for either event but there are some riders who will definitely be in attendance.
For the time trial, all eyes will be on multiple-time European champion Ellen van Dijk. She will race against the reigning Dutch ITT champ Riejanne Markus and Belgian ITT champ Lotte Kopecky. Lisa Klein for Germany is a good bet for a result, plus Christina Schweinberger of Austria. Unfortunately, Reusser is still absent from racing and will likely not defend her jersey.
The road race will likely be a battle between the Dutch and the Italians. Wiebes will lead the Dutch team, with help from Van Dijk, Shirin van Anrooij, Markus, Thalita de Jong, Mischa Bredewold and more. It’s a stacked roster that does not include Charlotte Kool; Wiebes is a clear leader, although anything can happen.
Balsamo leads the Italian team fresh off a win at Tour de Romandie. Unlike the Dutch, the Italians have two sprinters with Chiara Consonni also listed, but they have been known to go all in for one goal more than any other nation.
Lotte Kopecky is not on the start list as of writing this, but there’s every chance that changes, especially with the race on home soil.
For a full start list check FirstCycling.com
Wheel Talk Podcast
This week Gracie and I are joined by Matilda Price to chat about Tour de Romandie, what Kopecky’s form means for the future of SD Worx-Protime and the peloton, Vollering’s public acknowledgement about leaving the team, the newest transfers and more.
Obsessions: Abby – The Woodhalls, Tilda – Maggie Rogers, Gracie – Zwift training plans (specifically the beginner build-up)
Let’s Discuss
SD Worx-Protime in 2025.
Anyone who believes 2025 would be the end of SD Worx-Protime dominance will probably be disappointed when the new season rolls around. True, the team is losing the second-highest-scoring rider in Demi Vollering, but they’ve retained three of their best in Kopecky, Lorena Wiebes and Mischa Bredewold. And if Anna van der Breggen is their only incoming rider to score points, they are still in a better place than most of the other WorldTeams.
There is always a risk when leaving a team, especially if it’s a team that has helped a rider achieve success. Vollering was good before she joined SD Worx-Protime in 2021 from Parkhotel Valkenburg, but the team really piloted her to some of her biggest victories, especially the 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. Since she was also coached by Van der Breggen at the time, the victory might be one that is hard to repeat.
Vollering will still be strong next year wherever she ends up, but who’s to say she will continue to dominate climbing races like she has at SD Worx-Protime? There’s an argument to be made that she will be better at a new team, definitely, given the lack of support she has received almost all year long, starting in the Classics through her win at the Vuelta and on full display at the Tour, but you just never know how a change will impact a rider’s ability.
Even if Vollering remains at her current level on her new team, her absence from SD Worx-Protime will mean very little to the Dutch team, with the growing strength of Kopecky. Not since Marianne Vos was winning Giros d’Italia and sprints did we have a rider with so much versatility, and definitely not in this era of cycling. Matilda said on the podcast that normally a rider must sacrifice one facet of cycling to excel at another, but that has not been the case for Kopecky. She can’t win pure bunch sprints, but she never could before. Her first international win was a stage of the Giro with a steep uphill sprint.
Based on the way she rode both the Giro and against Vollering during Romandie’s second stage, Kopecky is SD Worx-Protime’s natural successor to Vollering in 2024, and with very little competition. That’s before even considering that Van der Breggen will return to the peloton.
We don’t know how Van der Breggen will slot into the racing, but since she coached Vollering to all three Ardennes wins plus a Tour in the same year, it’s easy to see her seamlessly finding her way back to the top step. If she does, SD Worx-Protime will be basically the same team next year as they always have been.
A lot of talk has gone around about Vollering leaving, but the real loss for the team will be Christine Majerus, Niamh Fisher-Black and Marlen Reusser (if she does indeed leave). Reusser was instrumental in many of the team’s wins in 2022 and 2023 and even took a few herself including a Tour stage both years. Fisher-Black has been the only teammate left in the group for Vollering on a few occasions, and Marjerus has been a key staple of the team since 2014. The loss of her experience and steady on-road leadership will be felt the most.
A few key domestiques like Wiebes’ leadout woman Barabara Guarischi and Elena Cecchini haven’t been announced yet if they are leaving or staying. The same goes for Chantal van den Broek-Blaak, another longtime member of the team and the current Dutch road champion.
Some younger riders like Blanka Vas, Marie Schreiber and Femke Gerritse will step into more important roles in 2025, but the team will need more horsepower than those three to win the Tour.
Overall, the top of SD Worx-Protime’s ticket will be just as formidable without Vollering with Kopecky, Van der Breggen, and Wiebes, but it’s further down the roster where they need to strengthen their chances at victory. Even if they are unsuccessful, it really looks like we will see just as many SD Worx-Protime victories in 2025.
A picture worth a couple of words
The European ITT Championships is the final big rollout for time trial specialists before the World Championships. With so few chances, it’s an opportunity to test yourself against most of your key competitors. Of course, defending world champion Chloe Dygert, and American, will not be racing, and neither will Olympic gold medalist Grace Brown, but most of the key riders to watch for the Worlds will line up this week to race against the clock.
Riejanne Markus, pictured here warming up for the third stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, is a favourite for the title. With her win at the Dutch nationals, and after losing out on an Olympic spot, the Dutchwoman will have high hopes for Wednesday.
Taylor Swift corner
With the Eras Tour on a break, Taylor Swift has been seen out and about over the last week. At the Kansas City Chiefs’ first game of the season, on her way to a wedding, out for pizza and this weekend at the US Open. She’s in her 🌟 sports 🌟 era. I’ve mentioned Swift’s style briefly before in one of these random asides, but when there’s no new music coming out and there’s no Eras Tour, her fashion choices are all the Swifties have to obsess over. Celebrities sometimes have some interesting choices when it comes to style but Swift is one who never misses. Her style often reflects her recent album or something in the works, the decisions she makes are always thought out and intentional, but she’s also really laidback and, in a way, common, with the way she dresses, at least compared to others in her profession. She has a few brands she loves and she sticks to them, and usually, the most expensive items on her are jewellery or shoes. She rarely goes over the top.
If you follow me on Instagram you may know that I am a fan of fashion and a brand I was introduced to thanks to Swift is Reformation. The LA-based brand started as a vintage clothing storefront in 2009 but has grown into a clothing company with a focus on sustainability. They make stunning yet simple pieces that range from the everyday to the not-so-everyday. Above all I love their dresses, and Swift was spotted at the US Open wearing their Sora Linen Dress in Tomato Check. The summery number screams Miss Americana and is the perfect combo of comfortable yet flashy. Very Swift.
Until next time!
Thanks so much for reading this week’s Wheel Talk Newsletter! I’ll be back next week. You can find me on Discord on the Wheel Talk channel if you have any questions or topics you’d like me to cover.
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