Tour de France Femmes champion Kasia Niewiadoma may have been notably absent Tuesday from the 2025 route announcement of the women's Grand Tour, but she grabbed media attention away from the Paris spectacle the same day with her women's WorldTour team confirming they would soon be renamed Canyon//SRAM zondacrypto.
A new three-year deal was signed last week in Monaco for zondacrypto to become a co-title sponsor for both the Canyon-SRAM Racing top-level team and the Canyon-SRAM Generation development squad, carrying the new name from 2025 to 2027. Niewiadoma was in Monaco for that team event.
“We’re excited to welcome zondacrypto as one of our main partners starting in 2025. As we evolve as a team, it’s essential to align with partners that share our drive for innovation and ambition. The dynamic approach to digital finance that zondacrypto has, coupled with its vision for the future, makes it the perfect partner to help us push boundaries both on and off the bike," Team Manager Ronny Lauke said in a press release distributed Tuesday.
The Canyon-SRAM team was created in 2016 by Lauke and the squad moved to the WorldTour level four years ago. The team has soared from just three victories at national championships in 2020 to one of the powerhouse squads on the top level, winning stages at Giro d'Italia Women, Tour de Suisse Women and the Tour de France Femmes overall last year.
Zondacrypto was established in Poland in 2014 as a platform for bitcoin and now offers over 70 cryptocurrencies in pairs with traditional currencies such as Euro and US dollars. The multi-currency platform has become one of the largest regulated exchange marketplaces for numerous cryptocurrencies in Central and Eastern Europe, with licenses to operate in Italy, Switzerland, Cyprus, Lithuania, Slovakia, Estonia, and Canada.
"As a brand, we are very committed to supporting female sports. We are already partners of Magdalena Fręch and Giro d’Italia Women. And now it’s time to start racing together and achieve many more successes,” said Przemysław Kral, CEO of zondacrypto.
The company sponsors four Serie A football clubs in Europe and both the Giro, men's and women's races, and Tour de Pologne. The one notable individual endorsement to date is with Fręch, a Polish professional tennis player who was ranked in the WTA's top 25 this year.
While Niewiadoma was not in Paris for the Tour de France Femmes route unveil, neither was race runner-up and 2023 champion Demi Vollering. The Dutch rider was busy with her own announcement the day before, confirming a move from Team SD Worx-Protime to FDJ-SUEZ for the next two seasons. The two can continue the battle for one of them to win a second yellow jersey at the Tour, next year the race going to nine days and more climbing.
"We've added difficulty compared to previous editions, particularly with mid-mountain stages that we didn't really have in the past. The course is more difficult overall. We're here to evolve at the same pace as women's cycling. Over the last four years, the overall level has really increased so we've allowed ourselves to do more elevation changes. 2025 looks just as bright as 2024," explained Marion Rousse, the director of the Tour de France Femmes told RTBF News.
The first winner of the Tour de France Femmes was Annemiek van Vleuten, now retired, who shared the inaugural podium with both second-placed Vollering and third-placed Niewiadoma.
