Visma | Lease a Bike women’s team plans more than just sporting success in 2026

After a successful season in which the team won Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de France Femmes with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, the Visma | Lease a Bike women's team is once again aiming high this year. However, for the squad, 2026 is not only about winning races, says team manager Rutger Tijssen.

Visma | Lease a Bike also places great importance on developing talented riders. "With Daniek Hengeveld, Katharina Sadnik, and Sarah Van Dam, we have three new riders who all live for the sport. Additionally, each brings their own strengths, which will only help us grow stronger as a team," Tijssen explains on the team website.

Besides that, the team manager hopes to achieve something else in 2026. "Apart from hoping all the riders can make progress, we also want to raise more awareness for women's cycling as a team. By daring to win but also to accept defeat, we hope more people will cheer with us, just as we saw during the Tour de France Femmes."

Sporting ambitions
As a top team, Visma | Lease a Bike is of course focused on winning as many races as possible. "Besides developing our riders and the team, which remains an important goal, we also want to compete for victories in races. The big goal is to win in the spring classics, and additionally, we aim to win the Tour de France Femmes again," Tijssen states clearly.

"Last year, we laid the blueprint, and from there, we only want to improve. The Tour route is beautiful with some tough stages. As a team, we will do everything to get our riders to the start line at an even higher level. As defending champions, people now look at us differently, but we believe in the process we have set in motion."

"The Tour is naturally the biggest goal of the season. But in the spring, we also hope to score some great wins. We are mainly focusing on Strade Bianche, Paris-Roubaix, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where we hope to play our team strengths."