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At 27, with just one UCI road race to her name and no experience racing for a professional team, South African Lisa Bone has secured a two-year contract with EF Education-Oatly. It is an extraordinary journey, and potentially an important moment for African women’s cycling.
At this time of year, cycling transfer news comes thick and fast. Cycling sport’s media are whirring, with contract extensions and rider movement rumours.
So, when a press release landed in inboxes on October 21 announcing that “Lisa Bone signs with EF Education-Oatly”, it initially was just another transfer story.
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Except it wasn’t.
Bone hasn’t yet raced for a UCI-registered team and has contested just one UCI road race in her career outside national and continental championships. That was the now-defunct Pupkewitz Megabuild Windhoek Women Tour in Namibia in July 2025, where she finished tenth.
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Yet she has secured a two-year contract with EF Education-Oatly and is only the third African woman to sign for a Women’s WorldTour team, following Kim Le Court-Pienaar and the recently retired Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio.
(Image credit: Lincoln King)
Bone grew up in a modest family, with two working parents, and developed an early love of sport. Field hockey was her first passion, and she excelled at various levels.
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However, two ACL injuries eventually curtailed her ambitions. During rehabilitation, she turned to cycling. An indoor trainer quickly became a road bike, and a new sporting passion was born.
Her introduction to competitive cycling came in 2023, after being spotted by Lincoln King, one of the founders of the Cycle Nation team.
“He saw me at a random race four years ago where I had no idea about racing, I had no idea what bike racing really entailed. He said that I just looked super eager to race my bike and that was enough for him,” Bone said.
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“I then joined the team with three huge names in cycling – Carla Oberholzer, Joanna van de Winkel and Cherise Willeit – multi-Olympians who have all raced in Europe and around the world. I was like a little side-quest for them, they wanted to help me develop.”
Two years later, Bone has built an impressive domestic racing CV. She narrowly missed out on second place in the Women’s Elite National Championships Road Race in January, claimed silver in the National Gravel Championships, won the prestigious Cape Town Cycle Tour in March 2026 and took victory in the UCI Gravel World Series race Around the Pot in August.
Lisa Bone celebrates her UCI Gravel World Series race Around the Pot victory (Image credit: tobisa)
Her performances were beginning to attract attention overseas.
For Esra Tromp, general manager of EF Education-Oatly, Bone’s appeal goes beyond her results. Her athletic background, professional maturity, and determination to succeed have all caught the team’s attention.
“Lisa comes from a strong athletic background, having been a highly competitive field hockey player. She combined that with being a physiotherapist, then she replaced field hockey with cycling while continuing to work full time,” Tromp said.
“All of this in a country that does not necessarily have an established pipeline to the World Tour. This tells me that Lisa knows how to create opportunities while having the confidence to make bold decisions.”
Following several discussions with the team’s management, a contract was signed, and the announcement was eventually made public. For Bone, it was a surreal moment.
“It was a real ‘pinch me’ moment. I could not tell anyone for a month what was going on. You sign a little piece of paper and then go tell your boss you are quitting your job! And that is it. I was recently added to a WhatsApp group with the riders, and it is now beginning to feel a bit more real. All the ladies have messaged me and welcomed me to the team,” Bone said.
She is also relishing the tactical side of professional racing.
“I love the chess-game element of racing – reading what other teams are doing, knowing when to commit, when to wait and how several riders can work together towards one result,” she said.
Bone will join her new teammates at the November training camp, alongside some of the biggest names in women’s cycling, including 2026 top ten ranked Noemi Rüegg, 2024 Olympic Road Race champion Kristen Faulkner and 2025 World Champion Magdeleine Vallieres.
But her signing means more than another rider joining a World Tour team. Team AG Insurance-Soudal’s Le Court-Pienaar shared how important this news is.
“I am so excited and happy about this transfer news,” Le Court-Pienaar said. “My dream to see more African women on the pro scene is getting more realistic day by day. It feels even more special when you have played a small role in the journey as well.”
Kimberly Coats, CEO of the Africa Rising Cycling non-profit, has spent twenty years creating pathways for African riders into the professional peloton. She believes Bone’s journey can inspire a new generation of women across the continent:
“Lisa becoming only the third African woman in history to sign with a World Tour team is massive. For all of us who have spent years believing in and working to develop African cycling, this moment feels incredibly validating,” Coats said.
“Lisa earned this opportunity, but what excites us just as much is what it means for the girls coming behind her. Somewhere in Africa, a young girl will see Lisa and think, ‘I can do that too’. This is a milestone for her, but it’s also a milestone for African cycling.”
And perhaps that is the most important part of Bone’s story. She didn’t follow the traditional pathway into professional cycling. She discovered the sport later in life, balanced a full-time career with racing and worked her way towards an opportunity few could have imagined when she first climbed aboard an indoor trainer.
Now she is heading to the WorldTour. For Bone, the adventure is only just beginning. For aspiring female cyclists across Africa, her journey might just show them what is possible.
Lisa Bone at Africa Championhips in South Africa (Image credit: Golazo Kenya)
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