Despite being founded in 2021, the Visma-Lease a Bike women’s team went through something of a rebirth in 2024 – most of the managing and directing staff changed and an emphasis was placed on bringing the women’s squad closer to the all-conquering men’s team.
There was no dramatic change in the rider line-up, but that seems to be coming for 2025 as the team’s redevelopment continues. They’re saying goodbye to stalwarts Anna Henderson and Riejanne Markus, and welcoming one of the most talked-about transfers in recent years as Pauline Ferrand-Prévot makes her return to road racing after focusing on mountain biking for the last four years.
With Ferrand-Prévot being clear that her goal is to win the Tour de France Femmes, the ambitions at Visma-Lease a Bike have ramped up dramatically. They have been Grand Tour contenders through Riejanne Markus, but never really in the Tour, where their aims have been more focused on stage success through Marianne Vos.
"It's nice, eh? It's always good,” the team’s general manager Rutger Tijssen told Cyclingnews about the added pressure on the squad’s shoulders for 2025.
"What I really like is when people dare to speak out about what their dream goal is because then at least the worst thing that can happen is that you could get really close to it. But making that journey with an athlete like Pauline is really nice. It's good that she speaks out.
"I have the same goal in mind as well, because as a coach, as a performance coach, I always strive for the highest, the highest possible achievable goal in a sport, and when the Tour de France is the biggest goal in the sport then we should go for that.
"Yes, [it’s] definitely achievable,” Tijssen continued. "Because it starts with having a dream, and then we see how we can create an environment to make that dream come true. We believe in the concept that we have with the Visma-Lease a Bike team, I believe in the athletes that I have around the team.
"Of course, there will be changes, that always happens, as we started with the staff as well, that's quite normal, but when the organisation is there and the structure is there then it's quite easy to fit new people in there.”
The concept and structure within the team are some of the things that have changed in the last year. After the departure of general manager Esra Tromp and DS Carmen Small, Visma-Lease a Bike brought in personnel from the men’s side of the organisation in DS Jos van Emden, and worked on closing the gap between the two squads.
"They started the team four years ago, and they started it more or less as a standalone unit,” Tijssen explained. "And along the way the management saw that there were some things missing in the communication towards our high-performance centre, the communication towards other coaches, and they slowly tried to change that. Now we are more in an integration phase.
"I have access to all the resources that are there, and we don't talk about the men's team or the women's team, we talk about Visma-Lease a Bike as one team. Yes, we are more cycling with women and the others are more cycling with men, but it's not that we have a women's team and a men's team, it's more that we have a big organisation and every rider in the organisation has access to the resources that we have.”
Tijssen hopes that these changes will not only help their top riders succeed but elevate the whole team and widen their chances of meeting their ambitions.
"It's not mainly about building around Pauline, but it's building around that goal,” he said of the team’s recruitment and planning for 2025. "It's creating an environment, mentally and physically, where we can really get close to achieving that goal.
"Yes, of course, Pauline will probably be our main character in that, but we never know how Fem van Empel is going to develop, maybe she's going to be alongside her, who knew that Jonas Vingegaard was going to win the Tour de France [in 2022], that was a big surprise, so it's not that we aim for it with one person, but we aim for it as a team.
"Of course, Pauline is the one who says 'I want to do that' which is normal, you should say 'I want to win this, I want to win that' but as a team, we take a broader perspective and we started building a team that can be really, really good.”
How exactly that team looks for 2025 is not yet clear – they only have 10 confirmed riders at the time of writing [The signing of Martina Fidanza was confirmed shortly after publication – Ed.] – but Tijssen confirmed that they’re looking at mixing experience and youth, after mainly picking up young talents in recent years.
Despite being the younger riders on the team, Tijssen picked out Maud Oudeman and Rosita Reijnhout as key climbing talents, and more signings and renewals are expected to be on the way after their first new additions, neo-pro Imogen Wolff and Viktória Chladoňová.
The piece of the puzzle that can’t be forgotten is that amongst all the changes, the team still have their original star rider, Marianne Vos. The Dutchwoman has had one of her best seasons in recent memory in 2024 and is showing no signs of slowing, giving the team two big-name riders for next year.
"With Marianne, is it a surprise to me that she's performing? Not really,” Tijssen said. "We made some choices, some different choices than she did in the past. We completely embedded her in the team, so everything is from inside the team – training coach, performance plan - so that's good for her, that gives a bit of a rest.
"But you never know how long she can stand in this. I think if we add another season to it like this she will be performing the same as this year because she is still eager and hungry for more results. Why should you stop? Age is a number and if you're physically good and mentally good and you're tactically as good as Marianne, then she can do what she's doing right now.”
Though Visma-Lease a Bike are in a self-described transition phase and have some gaps to fill in their roster for 2025, the team seems to be on the clearest path we have seen since its inception, with the foundations to support the talent coming their way this winter.
