Fleur Moors looks very young and very cold as she steps into the Sporza studio in Wevelgem, flanked by Greg Van Avermaet and Marijn de Vries to dissect the biggest result of her career, and step firmly onto the radar of cycling fans in Belgium and beyond. The talented rider is no longer just rising; she has made it.
Moors is not new to the WorldTour. She may still be only 20, but she's now in her third year, signing straight out of the juniors and taking a whirlwind journey towards the top, with second at In Flanders Fields offering a breakthrough result.
If anyone didn't know her name before Sunday, they certainly do now, after she came perilously close to beating Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) on the line from an elite group that formed in the finale.
What's more, this isn't even the first time this year she's gone toe to toe with Wiebes; Moors went away with the Dutchwoman in the finale of the GP Oetingen, beaten on the line but the only rider who could follow her acceleration.
So who is the 20-year-old who will now be on absolutely everyone's radar this Monday morning?
Early promise, teething problems, and a breakthrough
From Bree, in northeast Belgium – practically the Netherlands – Moors quickly made waves as a junior, finishing 12th in her first World Championships in Australia in 2022, and third the year after. She also picked up a fourth in the junior Tour of Flanders, and impressed on the cyclo-cross field, so it was no surprise that Lidl-Trek picked her up, signing her from the start of the 2024 season when she was still 18.
Her talent was clear, and she wasn't alone in joining Lidl-Trek young in 2024 – they signed five riders straight out of juniors that year – but she wasn't a precocious neo pro.
"I didn’t know anybody, and my English was also not good, so that was really scary for me,” she told Cyclingnews at the end of her first pro season, for a feature exploring the junior to WorldTour pipeline.
"I came to the airport on my own, I never did that before, so all those things were so stressful."
Thrown straight into tough races, the Belgian, who is small but not a climber – more inclined to the mud of cyclocross than long Spanish climbs – initially felt the shock of the step up.
"It was really difficult because on this level on those climbs, I was really dropping off every time," she recounted. "But then Ina [Teutenberg, Lidl-Trek DS] said to me ‘you don’t have to be so hard on yourself’. Then after that I had some races with not so much climbing, more my kind of race, and I did some good things which gave me confidence."
An injury at the start of 2025 put the brakes on Moors' development, but coming back in June, she quickly flew to her first pro win, taking a sprint victory at Dwars door de Westhoek, ahead of riders much more experienced than her.
A tough Giro d'Italia Women debut followed, and then a big week at the Tour de l'Avenir Femmes, finishing her season in Rwanda. Those two years were a good start to her pro career, and anyone with a keen eye on women's cycling definitely took note of her rise, but she's really announced herself in 2026.
Being older and more experienced obviously helps, but Moors doesn't put her step up this year down to anything in particular, more just circumstances allowing her to show off the potential she's always had.
"I think just the rhythm, not becoming sick, no bad luck," she told Cyclingnews on Sunday. "Last year I had quite a lot of bad luck, but now I can build up and build up, and you see that it pays off.
"These are the races that fit me well. Bigger climbs are still not my thing, but I'm happy I can do my thing in these Belgian Classic races."
Praise from all angles
Though the youngest member of the Lidl-Trek team that started on Sunday, Moors is a highly respected and important part of the squad.
"She's amazing," a tired but buoyed Emma Norsgaard told Cyclingnews in Wevelgem. "For sure she's one of the biggest talents coming into women's cycling at the moment. She's super cool.
"She's for sure a Classics rider, and mentally she's just a real go-getter, so it's amazing to be teammates with her, it's really inspiring to see a young talent like her."
Moors also garnered respect and praise from the rider she nearly beat on Sunday.
"I think Fleur showed really good progression this year. She's still super young and she's doing really strong, also with these hills," Lorena Wiebes said. "In Oetingen I knew also that she was able to follow when I attacked. I think it's good to see young riders like Fleur becoming stronger and I think it was a good opportunity for her. She's also quite explosive after a race like this."
The young rider has clearly been lifting the level in the team this Spring, but it's a two-way street. On Sunday, she again thanked Teutenberg, the DS who told her stop being so hard on herself back when she started.
"Ina told me in the meeting I needed to be in the attack so I was saying to myself 'I need to do it!'", Moors said. "She’s really good on the radio and is also the reason why I made it on to the podium. It’s so nice to have her."
It's certainly nice for the German team to have her, too. Results have not come in abundance so far this season, but with Moors' second place on Sunday, they put themselves back in the headlines this Classics campaign.
The most exciting thing is seeing what the 20-year-old can do next.
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