Team Visma | Lease a Bike

Marianne Vos

Riejanne Markus

Anna Henderson

Rosita Reijnhout

Fem van Empel

Lieke Nooijen

Linda Riedmann

Maud Oudeman

Nienke Veenhoven

Femke de Vries

Sophie von Berswordt

Carlijn Achtereekte

Eva van Agt

Margaux Vigie

Mijntje Geurts

Racing

News

Race News

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot to sign for Visma-Lease a Bike on three-year contract 

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, the only female professional cyclist signed to 

 in 2025 and make her long-awaited return to road racing, over a decade on from winning the World Championships road race. 

, Ferrand-Prévot has enjoyed successful negotiations with the Dutch Women's WorldTeam and 

 understands that the Frenchwoman will sign a three-year contract, running from 2025 to the end of 2027. 

In Ferrand-Prévot, Visma-Lease a Bike believe to have found themselves a leader for the 

, and the 32-year-old will join the team's stable of multidisciplinary talents that includes 

Two weeks ago, Ferrand-Prévot announced that she would be retiring from mountain biking at the end of 2024 and it has long been the Frenchwoman's ambition to return to road racing after this year's Olympic Games. 

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot to retire from mountain biking at the end of 2024

In Paris, Ferrand-Prévot will hope to become an Olympic medalist for the first time, with the added incentive of riding what will likely be her first and only Olympic Games in her home country. The reigning world XCO champion has been building towards this goal ever since signing for Ineos Grenadiers at the start of 2023. 

In recent months, the 32-year-old has taken a plethora of wins in mountain biking, most recently at the UCI World Cup in Nové Město. Just weeks earlier, her victory at the French Cup in Marseille 

 since their launch in 2010. These wins were taken aboard the Pinarello Dogma XC that Ferrand-Prévot 

Despite Ferrand-Prévot's success over the past two seasons, Ineos Grenadiers have ultimately opted against starting a fully-fledged women's team and 

 understands that there are no plans in place to do so in 2025. With no option to return to the highest level of road racing with Ineos Grenadiers, Ferrand-Prévot has been forced to look elsewhere.

In Visma-Lease a Bike, the Frenchwoman has found a team that has long supported the off-road ambitions of its cyclists, with bike manufacturer 

 working alongside the likes of Wout van Aert and Vos to design their most recent cyclo-cross bike. The Dutch team is also home to Ferrand-Prévot's partner, Dylan van Baarle. 

 reports that Van Baarle was instrumental in explaining the team's vision to the 32-year-old, while Ferrand-Prévot can also look forward to racing alongside an old teammate in Vos. The duo spent five years together with Rabobank at the beginning of Ferrand-Prévot's road career. 

Additionally, under the tutelage of Vos and Ferrand-Prévot, Visma-Lease a Bike will hope to see their young star Van Empel blossom further. The two-time cyclo-cross world champion has yet to take a win on the road, but at 21 years of age and with many top-10s to her name, the Dutchwoman has plenty of room to grow. 

Signing a contract for the next three years, Ferrand-Prévot will be determined to make her debut at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift next year. The 2025 edition will come seven years after Ferrand-Prévot last raced a road race away from the French national championships. 

The Frenchwoman managed top 10s in both Trofeo Alfredo Binda and Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes in 2018, but in truth, mountain biking had been her priority since 2015. Ferrand-Prévot's best years on the road were 2014 and 2015, in which she became the world road race champion and finished runner-up at the Giro d'Italia Women. 

Turning 33 before next year's Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, fans of the Women's WorldTour will be keen to see how the more experienced Ferrand-Prévot stacks up against the sport's younger Grand Tour stars in reigning champion Demi Vollering and the likes of Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek). 

For all the latest developments from the world of professional cycling, make sure to head over to our dedicated 

Tech

Features

Tech Features

Inside a pro cycling team mechanics' truck with Visma-Lease a Bike

If ever there was an unsung hero of professional cycling, that accolade would be awarded to the mechanics. They are the backbone of any cycling team, getting up earlier and going to bed later than anyone else, all in order to get the bikes of the team ready for the next day's stage. 

 got invited into the mechanics' truck of defending champions 

 to see what goes on behind the scenes of a WorldTour team. 

The first thing that grabs your attention when entering the truck is just the sheer volume of bikes and wheels that it holds. As with any Grand Tour, Giro teams are made up of eight riders each of which will have three or four bikes available throughout the race. This equates to a main bike, a spare bike on the first team car, a spare bike on the second team car and a TT bike.

A closer look at the Shimano neutral service bikes

The number of bikes is dwarfed by the number of wheels that the team carry around. As a 

-sponsored team, Visma-Lease a Bike uses Reserve wheels with three different depths on offer, so as a minimum, the team carries 24 sets of wheels. However, since spare wheels are a necessity both for the mechanics and for the team cars, the actual figure is far higher. 

On one wall inside the truck, there are more than 40 wheels with all the bikes in the truck also fitted with the wheelset best suited for the coming stage.

The theme of having vast quantities of the most desirable cycling gear continues wherever you look in the truck. An electronically-controlled shelf drops down to reveal boxes of integrated handlebars for the Cervélo S5 aero bike as well as carbon bars and stems for the R5 climbing bike.

Elsewhere, the team have a full complement of the 

 that would leave any bike shop jealous. In a toolbox at the front of the truck is a drawer dedicated to holding the team's stock of chainrings with another drawer for chains. At the time of filming, the team had 40 chains ready for use with one of the mechanics revealing that every week they get a fresh delivery of another 40 chains.

Brand new SRAM RED AXS claims to be the lightest electronic groupset on the market

As the team use a wax treatment to lubricate their chains, after a few days of racing they are removed from the bike and replaced with a freshly waxed chain. The used chains are sent back to the team's performance centre in the Netherlands where they are stripped and waxed again ready for use.

The professionalism of the mechanics is obvious through just how considered everything is. Every component no matter how big or small has a place where it belongs. This goes as far as headset spacers, bolts and brake pad spacers. When you are working on so many bikes, being organised saves time and helps with managing stock levels.

Something that you might not expect to see in a mechanic's truck is a form of rolling road. This is used to spin the wheels up one at a time to allow the mechanics to bed in any new brake pads that have been fitted to the bike. This shows how far teams go to ensure that every bike is in the best condition possible for each day’s racing.

Inside a pro cycling team bus with Lotto Dstny

It's not just about the bikes, though, with the mechanics' truck also home to a washing machine and tumble dryer for when laundry needs to be done, which during a three-week Grand Tour is fairly often. Keeping the mechanics fuelled is a coffee machine and to ensure they are always comfortable the truck is fitted with both airconditioning and a heater.

The changing terrain of a Grand Tour means bikes need to be configured differently depending on the profile of each stage. To make things more efficient for the mechanics, each rider has their own box inside the truck with the different cassettes or chainrings that they will swap between throughout the race.

For a full look around the Visma-Lease a Bike a truck, be sure to watch the video at the top of the page. 

For even more content from behind the scenes at the biggest races on the calendar head over to the 

racing features section of the GCN website.

Visma-Lease a Bike build towards Tour de France with Vingegaard and Van Aert in mind

 following their respective crashes and resulting injuries earlier this spring, but the team are working towards possible entries for both riders as they look to win a third straight title.

crashing at the Itzulia Basque Country in April

, where he sustained multiple fractures. 

Van Aert hit the deck in Dwars door Vlaanderen in March

 and only just returned to competition at the Tour of Norway. He was initially slated for the 

 but his crash meant he was forced to skip the race. However, a space in the Tour team is a possibility should he find form and fitness.

The same could be said for Vingegaard. However, the team have stressed that the Dane will not head to the race unless he is at 100%. Vingegaard is the defending two-time winner of the Tour de France and is looking to become the first male rider to win the race three times running since Chris Froome from 2015 to 2017.

“I think that he’s doing pretty well but he needs to be at 100 per cent to go there,” team boss Richard Plugge told 

“He’s a two-time winner of the Tour de France so we have to see how it evolves in the coming weeks. So far he’s doing well, you see the news here and there that he’s training.

“Also, Wout is coming back. We’re looking at how we can go into the Tour de France with the best team possible. Because if we go there we want to win it again so we need to be 100% with everyone going there. Hopefully, Jonas can make it but now we wait and see.”

It’s not certain where the Dane will race prior to the Tour de France. He is not on the provisional start list for the Critérium du Dauphiné, which starts in just over a week but there are a variety of possible warm-up races he could enlist in, should the team see fit.

“We can do a lot in training and that’s better so far,” Plugge said.

“The start of the Dauphiné is a deadline if we want him to be there or if we want him to train because we can get to the best level with training. And the deadline ultimately is the Tour de France.”

As for Van Aert, the situation seems a little further along the road given his return to racing has already taken place, and he could potentially ride himself into form as the Tour unfolds. The Belgian is targeting the Olympic Games in Paris right after the Tour and, unlike Vingegaard, could lose time in the first week and face no consequences in terms of the battle for the yellow jersey. 

“He starts in Norway and if that goes in the right direction then the Tour de France is obviously an option for us to bring him to the Tour again, and then we have a really strong squad again,” Plugge said.

… it’s always difficult to start mentioning names because we have many. 

 is also on the list. We have 10 riders ready to go.”

Plugge’s team have been devastated with crashes, injuries and bad luck in recent months. The team started the year with a bang, winning both races at Opening Weekend, and then following up with titles in 

 to become the first team to win both events in the same calendar year.

Since then, though, they have endured a terrible run of bad luck and have gone from last year’s Giro d’Italia winners to limping towards Rome this year with just four riders – although they do have a stage win to their name.

“It’s a big nightmare to see your riders on the ground and in hospital. It’s boys, it’s men, it’s husbands and it’s fathers of children,” Plugge said on the situation.

“We really need to do something because it was horrific what we saw, not just for our team but for other teams. It’s a big problem for cycling. For me, it was very bad to see Jonas and Wout, and how they were in those moments. I’m glad that they’re coming back now.

“We had bad luck but we have to pick up the pace again. It’s also part of the sport but we should find ways so that riders can crash safely so that instead of everytime now something happens and people are out for weeks. That’s traumatic for the sport,” he added.

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Name	Age	UCI Career Wins	UCI Points
Marianne Vos	37	257	2343
Riejanne Markus	29	10	1370
Anna Henderson	25	6	1268
Rosita Reijnhout	20	1	588
Fem van Empel	21	1	371

Team Visma | Lease a Bike

Team Visma | Lease a Bike

The Team

Top Team Visma | Lease a Bike Stories

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot to sign for Visma-Lease a Bike on three-year contract

Inside a pro cycling team mechanics' truck with Visma-Lease a Bike

Visma-Lease a Bike build towards Tour de France with Vingegaard and Van Aert in mind

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