{"id":817915,"date":"2026-10-29T20:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T20:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/817915\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T20:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T20:18:15","slug":"cyclists-2026-womens-pro-cycling-team-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/817915\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclist\u2019s 2026 women\u2019s pro cycling team of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 racing season has come to a close. And what a year it was for the women\u2019s sport, delivering three nail-biting Grand Tours, a Worlds for the ages and a set of Classics that\u2019ll live long in the memory \u2013 especially that chaotic edition of Strade Bianche.<\/p>\n

It was a year of highs for Demi Vollering, who picked up World and European titles on top of a yellow and pink jersey at the Grand Tours. And that\u2019s before we mention the two Monument victories in the spring. It\u2019s no surprise to see that she tops the UCI rankings for 2026, with Tour de France runner-up Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney<\/a> in second and Vuelta Femenina winner Paula Blasi in third.<\/p>\n

As we did with the men\u2019s peloton last week<\/a>, we\u2019ll be trying to condense the season down to an all-star team of the year. Since the women are capped at teams of seven at Grand Tours, we\u2019ve whittled the hundreds on the WorldTour down to just a seven-woman squad of 2026\u2019s brightest sparks. We\u2019ll try to balance out the GC hitters with the sprinters, domestiques and Classics riders that left a lasting impact in 2026 to make a rounded team.<\/p>\n

Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez)<\/p>\n

\"SENCUR,Szymon Gruchalski\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

We might as well get the obvious out of the way. We\u2019ve already mentioned her number one status, but Demi Vollering finishes 2026 with top marks in almost every metric.<\/p>\n

The Dutchwoman was almost undefeated all year. She won every stage race she entered and every Classic bar a close run-in at Dwars door Vlaanderen, where she was pipped to the line by former teammate Marlen Reusser. Whether it was on cobbles, Alpine roads or Ardennes hills, Vollering seemed untouchable in 2026.<\/p>\n

If any questions were asked in 2025, mainly in response to Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot\u2019s glittering return, Vollering responded this year. In that regard, it\u2019s not worth debating whether she deserves the V\u00e9lo d\u2019Or.<\/p>\n

Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime)<\/p>\n

\"05\/08\/2026A.S.O.\/Ga\u00ebtan Flamme<\/p>\n

Speaking of unbeatable riders, Lorena Wiebes finishes 2026 with a near-perfect record. That leaves her with a mammoth 24 victories in 2026, more than any other woman.<\/p>\n

Long story short, Wiebes won every sprint she contested in 2026 except for a fluff-up at the renamed Ronde van Brugge. You can’t really argue with a record like that.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse for her rivals, she’s become more comfortable on uphill finishes this year. She managed to win the Tour’s opening stage, whose false flat finish was supposed to be to her detriment. That goes to show that Wiebes has become one of the toughest sprinters to drop. That, paired with her innate speed, sees her as one of the best riders in 2026, and quite possibly the best sprinter of all time.<\/p>\n

Franziska Koch (FDJ United-Suez)<\/p>\n

\"12\/04\/2026A.S.O.\/Billy Ceusters<\/p>\n

If you had Franziska Koch down as a Paris-Roubaix champion 12 months ago, you’d be lying. The German rider wasn’t on many people’s radar coming into 2026, yet she’s become one of the most influential riders in Classics and stage races this year.<\/p>\n

It’s hard to argue against Franzi Koch being the signing of the season. Since pulling on an FDJ jersey, she went from a breakaway rider to a Monument winner, red jersey wearer and World Championship medalist. In simple terms, she rocketed from someone around 100 in the UCI rankings to someone inside the top ten.<\/p>\n

It makes you think what they were doing to her at Picnic PostNL. It’s no wonder riders keep leaving if this is the level of success they’ll achieve elsewhere. In that case, we should keep our eyes out for a Pfeiffer Georgi Paris-Roubaix win next spring.<\/p>\n

Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM)<\/p>\n

\"08\/08\/2026A.S.O.\/Ga\u00ebtan Flamme<\/p>\n

Between the Vollering success and Paula Blasi’s breakthrough, Germany’s Antonia Niedermaier has enjoyed her best season to date.<\/p>\n

At age 23, she has one of the cleanest Grand Tour records this year. Alongside her white jersey, she managed to finish in fourth place at the Tour de France despite her domestique work on behalf of leader Kasia Niewiadaoma-Phinney.<\/p>\n

That achievement is overshadowed, in my opinion, by her impressive Giro, where she finished second, within just one minute of Vollering’s pink jersey. Impressively, it also showed that she could beat the likes of Elisa Longo Borghini and Anna van der Breggen at a race that’s supposed to suit their strengths. Given Niewiadoma-Phinney will leave the team this winter, these results should fill Canyon-SRAM with some confidence coming into another season.<\/p>\n

Niedermaier has finished every stage race this year within the top five overall, so consider her our back-up leader. If Vollering has a meltdown or needs any extra support, Niedermaier is right there.<\/p>\n

Shari Bossuyt (AG Insurance-Soudal)<\/p>\n

\"08\/08\/2026A.S.O.\/Billy Ceusters<\/p>\n

Shari Bossuyt had a real breakout year in 2026, even if she’s been on the WorldTour for some years now.<\/p>\n

The Belgian’s highlights mostly came in the spring. For that, I’m referring to a consistent record of top tens in the Classics, whether that be in sprints or pure cobble attrition. <\/p>\n

That form later translated into a stage victory at the Vuelta, beating some of the world’s best sprinters on the Grand Tour level. And although she couldn’t topple Wiebes’s hegemony at the Tour, Bossuyt’s victory at the Belgian Championships sticks in my mind, where she defeated Lotte Kopecky in a sprint after some cobbles.<\/p>\n

I know she’s a sprinter by trade, but Bossuyt has the potential to be a great leadout for our designated sprinter Wiebes.<\/p>\n

Lauren Dickson (FDJ United-Suez)<\/p>\n

\"AilishAndrea Amato\/NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

If you weren’t keeping up with the British domestic scene, you might have though that Lauren Dickson appeared from nowhere. She had no WorldTour experience before 2026, and she had only been racing on the road for two years prior.<\/p>\n

That inexperience, however, didn’t show in 2026. The Scot earned a name for herself as one of the best domestiques in the pack after closely supporting Demi Vollering to a career-first pink jersey.<\/p>\n

Dickson had the chance to taste her own success too. A podium finish at Faun Tour, Itzulia, the Vuelta a Extremadura and Giro dell’Emilia light up the 26-year-old 2026 palmar\u00e8s, alongside a QoM jersey from the Tour of Britain in August. What’s more, the Tour de Suisse could have ended the same way if it weren’t for a crash that wiped her out of a provisional podium finish overall.<\/p>\n

C\u00e9lia Gery (FDJ United-Suez)<\/p>\n

\"06\/08\/2026A.S.O.\/Ga\u00ebtan Flamme<\/p>\n

I really shouldn’t put three FDJ United-Suez riders on the same list, but here we are. C\u00e9lia Gery deserves it after a big year.<\/p>\n

The cyclocrosser-turned-MTB-turned-roadie has lived it large in just her second year at the WorldTour level. Courtesy of her fiery attacks and solid sprint, Gery pulled off a big one-day win at Brabantse Pijl, shortly followed by a first Grand Tour stage win at the Giro. <\/p>\n

She was also a phenomenal domestique at both the Giro and the Tour. She managed to balance that with her own stage-hunting ambitions, leading to a few close calls at the Tour.<\/p>\n

Now she’s in the bleu, blanc et rouge as French champion, Gery will be hard to miss in 2027. I’ll say it now, she’ll win a major Classic. Don’t forget, she’s only 20, so she might end up in teams of the year for the next decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 racing season has come to a close. And what a year it was for the women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,6549,56,54,55,23725],"class_list":["post-817915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-france","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-womens-cycling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}