The hidden struggle at the heart of women’s cycling’s success story.
Image courtesy of Natascha Knaven-den Ouden.
Natascha Knaven-den Ouden, Cor Vos
Over the last five years, women’s cycling has grown at a rapid rate. It’s something that’s been well documented and discussed – how the formation of the Women’s WorldTour changed the calendar, how the UCI’s minimum salary for WorldTeams impacted professionalism, and how live coverage of races and the renewal of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift rocketed the sport to a new level. And while all those things are undisputedly good, there’s an argument to be made that such growth cannot be sustained, or even maintained, without first paying attention to the lower-level of women’s cycling: development teams, smaller races, clear pathways for up-and-coming talent, and so on.
One person who has been calling for change is Natascha Knaven-den Ouden, founder of NXTG Racing – one of the few U19 projects available for women. For years, Knaven-den Ouden has lived and breathed women’s cycling, as a rider, a manager, and now as an advocate for young riders trying to navigate a crushing landscape.
On her social media, Knaven-den Ouden is vocal about her misgivings when it comes to the rapid rise of women’s cycling, and in her ideas about how the sport can save itself.
“What I always say is, when you build a house, you don’t start with the roof,” Knaven-den Ouden told Escape Collective on the Wheel Talk Podcast. “You start with a solid foundation, and then you build the walls, and then you start with the roof.
“What I see now, there was a wooden house that was called women’s cycling, and the UCI was starting to build solar panels on it and heavier tiles on it, but didn’t look [into whether] the walls or the foundation could bear it. Now there are massive cracks underneath the roof.”
Where Knaven-den Ouden sees the biggest cracks is in the lower levels of the sport: Continental teams, non-WorldTour races, and even national federations. She founded her team, NXTG Racing, in 2018 as a pathway for up-and-coming riders to find their footing before moving up a level. That team would later become one of the breakthrough teams of the 2025 season – AG Insurance-Soudal – without her.
One step back to focus on stepping forward
In 2022, AG Insurance-NXTG joined with Soudal Quick-Step to create a new women’s WorldTeam. In 2023, they had hired some of the best riders available, like Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio and Mireia Benito, as well as some unknowns who would go on to do incredible things: Justine Ghekiere, Ally Wollaston, and, in 2024, Kim Le Court-Pienaar.
AG Insurance-NXTG at the Tour of Scandinavia in 2022.
During the 2023 and 2024 seasons, Knaven-den Ouden was the general manager of the team, and her passion for development continued. AG Insurance-Soudal was at the time one of the few Women’s WorldTour teams that had both U23 and U19 programs attached. But before the end of the 2024 season, Knaven-den Ouden and AG Insurance-Soudal parted ways. The U19 club team went with her, and in 2025, they raced as NXTG Racing U19 with Auke De Buysser, Roos Müller, and Jente Koops on the roster.
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